Frustrating Friday

I had one of those days, today. You know…when you just should have stayed in bed.

 

It started off with getting a chain email that annoyed the heck out of me and which I ranted about for about ten minutes. I mean, this thing hit me before I’d even finished my coffee!

 

Anyone who knows me, knows that you don’t annoy the dragon before she’s had her morning coffee, or if you do, it’s at your own peril! So anyway, once I got that out of my system, I settled down to pay some bills. For some reason, I hesitated before logging into my internet banking account, and decided to run anti-spyware software first.

 

Thank you, Universe for making me think of that. The result was that I had a Banker Trojan on my system. As trojans go, this is one of the worst you want to find. It’s a key stroke monitor which is cleverly designed to mine–you guessed it, internet banking details!

 

My partner, who is self-admittedly anal, never logs on to her banking website, without running anti-spyware…me? Notsomuch. *wince* It’s just lucky that some instinct warned me to do so this morning. Still, the result sent me into a bit of a tail spin and since we were going to town to do our grocery shopping anyway, I decided to go to my bank and change my log in details, just to be on the safe-side.

 

This resulted in something nifty. When I told the girl that I’d had a trojan on my computer and wanted to change my internet log in info, she asked if I had a "token".

 

…

 

Seems a token is a little electronic gizmo that the bank provides (free of charge) which you can use to generate a random code anytime you make an online transfer or payment. Neat! No one can move funds from my account online without that code.

 

Makes me feel a little bit more secure.

 

So after doing the shopping we came home and I googled for how to get rid of this thing. The results of that search gave me a headache and I decided to go take a nap…yes, I know, avoidance is not the greatest way to deal with things, but that’s what I did.

 

When I got up, I was cranky, because I knew I still had that damn thing to deal with. I also needed to cook dinner. So I got a bit…loud and got into a short, but heated discussion with Sandra. *frown*

 

Anyway, it ended up my eldest daughter’s partner offered to step me through the removal process for the trojan–only to discover that it had obviously already been killed by my anti-spyware program as not a trace of it could be found!

 

So, now the computer is cleaned up, immunized, and has had a virus scan run for good measure and all is right with the world once more, thanks to a lovely (and undeserved) coffee made for me by Sandra, and a Petit Ecolier Biscuit.

 

These are wonderful! I hadn’t seen them since I was a kid, when our English Nanny…yes, we had a Mrs. Gardiner for a little while, used to have them and offer one occasionally as a reward for being exceptionally good! They’re imports–French–and I think Mrs. G. probably had them sent to her from England at great expense back in the 60’s so it was generous of her to share them sometimes.

 

Apparently, according to this blog, they’re also good for making S’mores with. I might have to try that sometime, although it would be an expensive exercise!

 

So that’s my Friday. How’s yours?