Possible computer virus crisis

[Twinrehz]

I was just now exposed to a malicious website that was linked to me through a friends skype account (it was hacked, now he's working on getting it back). I wasn't notified by Chrome that anything was downloaded, I wasn't informed by Windows that a program tried to run, Malwarebytes didn't find anything, and lastly Avira didn't find anything.

My main reason for asking is I'm a fairly competent computer user, and I haven't bothered with getting anti-virus (yes I probably lost points for not doing that, but for the most part it's seemed unecessary). I used Avira before tho, before I formatted this computer.

Anyway, to get to my main point: how does viruses nowadays work? Do they secretly download, find whatever they want, send that info and then self-destruct to not arise suspicion? Or is it a program that keeps running? Or is it not a program at all?

Like I said, I can't find anything. With Chrome, I use "that extension which must not be named on this website", and not very much else. It's up to date, but the computer isn't. Nothing unusual has popped up either, no changing of start page or anything.

 

[SnowyGamester]

A virus can be all of those things however those that download and run themselves are uncommon or at least you're unlikely to be effected unless it uses a newly discovered exploit in your browser or you're running an old version. Malwarebytes is a good companion to dedicated security software but it's more of a gap filler and shouldn't be solely relied on. It doesn't sound like you're infected but if you're still suspicious download a trial of Kaspersky or something and do a scan with that. If you still don't find anything you're probably safe though the fact that you didn't mention your Skype account being hacked I'm fairly sure you're fine since your friend likely had his account compromised by a similar link from one of his contacts.

And yeah, you should always have some sort of security software. No matter how competent you are there is always the possibility of usually safe websites being hijacked or embedded with malware. From first hand experience I can tell you there have been malicious ads on this very website in the past and it did try to download and execute itself but my antivirus caught it.

 

[Twinrehz]

All right, thanks. Like I said, I tried an AV called Avira Anti-virus, and it also returned no results, so maybe I was lucky this one time, but definitely keeping the AV.

I do honestly believe that "the extension that ostensibly must not be named on this website" plays a big part in preventing malicious ads, so it works as an extra measure in protecting yourself. Probably not enough on its own though. If ads didn't start playing music/sound on their own or when you hover over them, and if they weren't animated, I wouldn't mind them so much.

My skype account seems perfectly fine, I haven't linked anything to anyone, and I still have normal access to it.