I didn't say it wasn't. And given the malicious activity (most scripted attacks, especially today, prefer to make productive use of your system) that's a likely explanation.

But scripted or not, someone did you a favor.

For a reference point, a (very technical) friend at a large tech company had to fire up a fresh Windows VM in order to complete some Windows/IE-only internal web app form.

He was p0wned within 5 minutes. On the corporate LAN. Stats I've seen are that an unpatched WinXP box (pre-SP2) was getting p0wned within 15 seconds, on average by the mid/late oughts. Scripted attacks are that fast and easy.

Scanning an IP range for open telnet ports (n00b move #1) and attempting root logins on same (n00b move #2) with weak passwords (third strike) is pretty trivial. Could have been another AOL user, could have been someone's IRC bot / autoattack.

While not blaming the victim, you discovered (on a freshly installed, no-real-data-present-yet box, hence, very inexpensively) that You Don't Do That[tm].

So: stop crying over this and put on your Big Boy pants. That asshole did you a favor. Really.