Clicked Link Drive by Download?

Hi

I was in MS TechNet yesterday looking for a solution and clicked on a link in one of the replies (I know I can't believe it either on that site) and I got a pop up overlay to MS Edge and an audio saying that my personal details were being downloaded / encrypted. I immediately switched off the machine. Could have pulled the network cable but quicker hard switch off.

Restarted with network cable disconnected.

Ran Malware Bytes scan. MBAM was running in background in any case and did not throw an alert for this event.

Nothing found. But now worrying that I might still be at risk.

Any suggestions on what I should do now if anything?

If Malware Bytes didn't pick anything up then your machine is probably fine. Was it like a popup from MS Edge (a web page fullscreen) or an actual program window (.exe)

If it was a webpage, its an ad and it can't do anything to your computer no matter how convincing it looks. Unless you specifically give it access to your computer through a security warning it can't do anything harmful.

If it was an program/ .exe file. Run that program through an antivirus and Malware Bytes specifically.

If everything seems ok than I wouldn't think there is any risk. You can always check a brief selection of folders and files to see if they open normally .

Quite possibly a scareware site, waiting for you to "click" - anything, anywhere - to begin executing malicious code. Your response was perfect. The fact that you don't keep web site history saved you as well. :)
You might just want to run ADWCleaner to make sure nothing was dropped onto the system.

simrick said:

Quite possibly a scareware site, waiting for you to "click" - anything, anywhere - to begin executing malicious code. Your response was perfect. The fact that you don't keep web site history saved you as well. :)
You might just want to run ADWCleaner to make sure nothing was dropped onto the system.

Very nice tool to use. There are usually lots of signs in a webpage advert like that is fake. Especially with the visual windows logos, the wrong version of windows and old green loading bars. Those java script messages are a pain as well, with them asking "Are you sure you want to leave?"... YES!

As always a great learning experience to help others not to fall into the internet's "web traps".