In this present world most especially when you are in Nigeria, you will agree with me that the case of internet usage have really grown rapidly. In fact we now have several cases of internet usage and I will say one of them is to perpetuate fraudulent or cyber crimes. One of the ways they carried out their cyber crime most especially in Nigeria where I came from is through software viruses
I was once a victim of a software virus many months ago and I must say that it really affect me negatively and even opened my eyes to see the need why I need to prioritise digital security. That will be around last year when I was using one of my friend laptop to carry out my final year project because I was not able to get a new laptop then. Of course at that particular time, I so much depend on my laptop the same way every other project student will definitely do. Most of the time I make use of my laptop to carry out a lot of research most especially when it comes to my data analysis and the aspect of preparing my document for my projects.
There was this particular day I received an email from one company because I actually login my Gmail account on that my friend laptop. In that email, the software company was advertising free upgrade to their antivirus premium version. I asked my friend and he told me he didn't have an updated antivirus so without not thinking twice, I quickly download it and even install the attachment they sent through that email message so that his laptop will be free from any other potential antivirus.
After installing it, I just discovered that the laptop begins to behave somehow. I was so curious and was wondering what was wrong. First it started in a way whereby some files that was saved on the laptop started disappearing and then that laptop begins to get slowed. The laptop system that was fast before. Before I can realise what was going on, even my project files and documents that I have been working on for the past 3-4 months also got corrupted.
Everything was actually like a dream for me. It was later I discovered that the upgrades attachment I thought it was antivirus, was actually a malicious Trojan virus so that personal informations on that paper can be stolen. But I was not aware about all these stuffs. Even though at the end of the day I was still able to save the laptop and not even only the laptop but also was still able to recover some files that was at first corrupted by one of my other friends that was also into tech. I still lost a lot of my work most especially in the aspect of my projects and it really affected me.
From that experience, I really learnt a lot that even till now I am still applying. Now even though I didn't have a laptop yet but I pay close attention to my devices most especially my Smartphones. I am careful of the type of links I click whether it is coming from my social media platforms or even from emails because I did not know which one will contain virus again just like the last time.
Not even only that, I also learnt the importance of getting reliable antivirus software so that those antivirus can help fight against any potential virus that might want to pop up in my devices. I also make sure that I pay close attention to my software updates most especially my phone. Whenever there is a new update from my phone, I immediately make sure I carry it out and make sure I back up my data because I did not know what might happen the next time also.
