So I was hanging around /r/meth/ and they have a pinned post about something called Discord Server (yeah I know I am showing my age here). So I load it up in-browser and start looking around.

It was basically completely overwhelming. Eventually I figured out there were text, audio and video channels. The thing that put me off the most was the bizarre assortment of fonts and atypical emojis in people’s usernames.

I got myself “verified” which involved let’s just say performing a ritualistic act very central to the them of the sub and the server on vc (video chat) with one of the mods. The whole time I’m thinking someone is surely recording this using OBS Studio. Oh well.

I get transferred from there to a vc channel where myself and a few other dudes chat about Meth and perform above mentioned ritual at what seem like set intervals. I meet a couple of cool guys and add them as friends. Hey look at me acting like a Discord pro!

Over the coming weeks I make a few more friends and sometimes text chat, sometimes audio chat and sometimes vc. Sometimes I get sent images or videos which I open and watch.

Then one day I’m routinely examining the processes in ProcExp64 that comes with Windows SysInternals and I notice some odd processes. I’ve also noticed the browser I was using to run Discord behaving a little off. I tried running the native Discord client for Windows but immediately removed it when it added itself to the list of programs that run automatically at boot without even telling me.

I run:

• DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
• sfc /scannow

Sure enough it says it replaced corrupt operating system files. To be extra sure I use Clonezilla to go back to an earlier image of my OS that I know to be secure.

I am an extremely careful and conscientious PC user. I don’t visit porn sites or other dodgy sites (on my Windows partition at least) and I don’t install unsigned executables. It turns out, if you Google it there’s a lot of Discord malware including RATs and I’m really hoping I didn’t have one of those.

In hindsight I was way out of my depth with Discord and should never have been there in the first place especially on a server where potentially suspect activity is taking place. No more Discord for me thank you.