We just recently saw Tim write up a piece on a Trojan designed to force your computer to mine for Bitcoins and deliver the results to an attacker or someone the attacker wishes to receive the currency. The virus currently affects versions of Windows from 98 straight up through Windows 7 and shows just another way that viruses are being used to make money. That was not always the case — at one point viruses were almost always about making you aggravated in some way shape or form, at least until people figured out how to make money from someone else’s computer.

Mined the intrusion? Just a bits.

So back in 2000, back before the forums could remember your username, what antivirus software should you use? Personally I didn’t use any as I figured the occasional reinstall of Windows was enough if I got nailed by a virus. For the others who used Antivirus software, which did they choose? PC-Cillin 98 was the choice of a K7M motherboard owner because the K7M motherboard chose it. Norton and McAfee were still around back then though Grisoft, later AVG, made its niche as the free antivirus back then as well. F-Secure got a nod for picking up something that both McAfee and Norton couldn’t. Eventually the thread slipped on some Black Ice and started talking about Firewalls which are now mostly irrelevant due to routers.

BUMP!