And it was all going fine. And I’m going though my email, deleting emails from the lame “Web Grrls” list I’m on, sending the CHI-WEB emails to their proper folder (with the other 300 I haven’t read yet), and reading with little surprise but still some anxiety about another local high-tech PR firm that closed while I was out. I absolutely knew it was coming but they probably would have been our next strategic partner had they survived. Ah, well.

And then it happened.

I opened an email from Greg A. who is a brand manager at a local shoe manufacturer. I’d interviewed him for an account manager position at The Big Agency and had tried to keep in touch with him but he’d always blown me off. So, now that I’m a sales whore, I was really excited when I saw this email.

I don’t remember if I read the preview, or if I saw the attachment. I read the contents, though, and was a little puzzled at Greg’s surreptitiousness:

“Hi. I’m sending you this document and seeking your advice. Thanks.”

Or something to that affect. Sound familiar? Yeah, it rang a bell with me *after* I opened the Excel file which contained what is most certainly confidential, proprietary information detailing the budget for a national campaign for a shoe product featuring a very famous basketball star. A document which Greg A. would never in a million years send to me. Yeah. That’s when it hit me that I’d opened A FUCKING VIRUS.

Oh, sweet Jesus, fuck me.

That’s what I kept saying over and over again.

So my poor boss has spent the better part of today (and is still at it) dealing with Norton and updating the virus scan and getting rid of the little fucker which seems to have also infected other Office docs. (Update: He had to reinstall Windows. And he never once complained. What a guy.) I can’t tell yet if it pulled any docs and sent them to people in my address book, but it apparently did get to one of the other profiles on my machine and sent out a private doc via a former employee’s address book. I’m just glad I’m not using my personal laptop for work these days. I can’t imagine what kind of crap I’ve got on there and what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. Yikes.

Somehow I did get the proposal written and delivered on time. All went well. They’ll decide in a few weeks. At least they didn’t freak out when I told them they’d have to spend 3 to 5 times what they wanted to spend.

- august 7