I have always had a very cavalier attitude towards my computer, one that has annoyed my best friend – a computer whiz – for several reasons. My refusal to get an Internet virus scan, of course, bugs him because it strikes him as reckless, but it is more than that. I think he has secretly always been irritated because of the fact that nothing has ever happened to my computer. While he has had to deal with crashes, hard drive failures, power supplies catching on fire, and a variety of other improbable computer snafus, the worst thing that has ever happened to me until recently was a mouse breaking. So when a virus devastated my computer, I think he had some pretty mixed feelings about the whole thing.

For several months, he had been trying to convince me to download the McAfee Internet security suite. He himself swore by the McAfee security center, and had even worked for them at one point. Despite all of his nagging, however, I stubbornly refused to download a virus scan. I had Lavasoft Ad-aware software installed, and that seemed like enough. After all, I never caught viruses. The ad aware took care of all of the problems that I did face. It would remove tracking cookies, Web diverters, and all of that other meddlesome nonsense. Why invest in McAfee Internet security when no one was trying to hack into my computer? It seemed paranoid and silly.

Of course, many things seem paranoid and silly when you are being left alone, but suddenly seem rational in retrospect. The McAfee VirusScan was just one of them. I had always trusted those Windows security updates to my computer, but apparently they weren't enough. If I had decided to be off-line on that particular day, nothing would have happened to me at all. The very next day, you see, Windows released a patch. Unfortunately, that one day was when McAfee Internet security really could have come in handy. The virus was devastating.

Although I am not very good about protecting my computer from viruses, I am reasonably good about backing up files. Unfortunately, I was a week behind on my backups. Everything from that week was permanently destroyed. Not only did this cause many headaches at work, but it also was difficult for me emotionally. Many of my personal writings were no more. Next time, I'll be running McAfee Internet security before it is too late.