So today was not a great day. It wasn’t the early start that did it. it wasn’t even the mysteriously crashing word processor that took a good 40 minutes’ work with it. No. Today was the day I inadvertently installed malware on my PC.

It was an innocent-looking enough pop-up that started it all. But when I tried to get rid of it, things started to get a little weird. It installed itself, ran a “spyware scan” on my PC and threw up a load of fairly realistic-looking security alerts. Which it of course then offered to remove – for a fee.

The problem is that it looks a lot like Windows software – but it’s not.  And chances are that those security alerts were fake, given that I was on an office PC which has fairly good security protection. Which brings me to another thing: considering I can’t even install iTunes or other harmless programmes without an administrator password, how did it even manage to get there?

Cue me having to trot down a floor to tech support and ask very nicely if they could please come and remove the dodgy programme I had somehow managed to install on my PC. Red-faced. Mortified.

To sum up, today was a bit like this: (courtesy of the new Jackass 3D film)

Next time I’m discussing PC security, feel free to point, laugh and even do a Nelson-tyle “Haw haw” in my direction.