I Was Attacked By EzuLa

Just when I thought I can rest early last Friday evening and sacrifice my class on Saturday to catch up with studies, then disaster strikes.

My computer was hijacked by Adware EzuLa. According to Symantec, 'Ezula alters Web pages viewed in Internet Explorer and can add extra links to certain keywords that advertisers target. This adware runs under the name TopText.'

That was exactly what happened. I started seeing links at my own web sites that I have not placed, and this is activated by some malicious program which has hijacked my IE browser. What I did next was to get an anti-adware program to clean up my PC which detected over 300 parameters in my Windows registry containing ad codes. As if this nuisance is not enough, my operating system suddenly crashed while I was attempting to prevent further damage.

Restoring my PC took two days. On Friday, I have to worked through re-setting up my Windows Me operating system while eliminating the adware, taking up till 3am the next day. On Saturday, I have to reinstall all my software applications, and redo many things, only to discover that my OS update has somewhat been partially damaged, and hence failed to process essential updates of Windows subset of patches and service packs. Coupled with new discovery that my notebook hard disk needed thorough ScanDisk because of bad sectors with data within, I am left with working overdrive again through Saturday night till Sunday morning 3am.

That was a real pain, and I was left with few hours of sleep before I attend the early morning church service. Now, I am back to square one with my studies running out of time, couple of study assignments awaiting to be done, many chapters of text books yet to be read, and an early morning awaiting on Monday at 8am in the office to settle some IS issues. I am really burnt out.

If you ask what has the IS duties to do with me, well, I am not merely employed to be a Technical Writer. I am also a backup for the company's IS. This is how it is these days. Many things come bundled in a package when you apply for any new job. No one is assign to just doing their main work, and many has added duties to cover staffing cost. If you don't take the additionals, or what is termed as 'add value', you don't get the job. That is the reality of life.

For now, I am just a Spidey, heavily laden with many challenges of life without much leisure nor any time for an ordinary life. It's all work and studies - no play.