Antivirus
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Hi, This year I did not renewed my antivirus subscription with a well known antivirus company, 2 month later l lost all my data due to virus activity, even having a new paid antivirus. Last year, the same I did not renewed my subscription and change to a free antivirus and also after 2 moth I lost my hard drive, also a well known antivirus company. Call my attention these cases so I would like to know if some of you has experienced same lost in similar situation? I suspect that if you do not renew your subscription some hacker will take care of you. Can the antivirus Co. be involved, dont know, only if there is data of same cases can we know. The result in my case it is that I'm changing to mac due to pc is very affected by virus mafia, so I think Microsoft and other pc companies should take this situation seriously, because pc environment will be reduced and mac will grow also linux. thanks, Teo
Mac's attitude to antivirus is don't go to that site. They don't have any form of antivirus as such. On Windows, if you don't run as an admin user, it is the same as running Linux or a Mac. It is just that most people choose to run as admin users even though they don't need to. If you're not an administrator, you can't install anything: problem solved. As for hta and Office viruses, that is something else.
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Teo Gaona wrote:
Can the antivirus Co. be involved, dont know, only if there is data of same cases can we know.
I have occasionally wondered if it wouldn't be in the interest of commercial outfits like Symantec to keep us all paranoid about viruses. Regardless, there are plenty of bad guys out there who genuinely want to take over computers to do their deeds. I haven't used a commercial AV program in years (I use the free version of Avast). I've been hit with one virus, ever. Back in 1999 I unthinkingly opened an email attachment from a friend in spite of it having no extension. McAfee allowed it to run, and it took 2 days to get my machine cleaned up. She had no clue her computer had just emailed a virus to everyone in her Outlook address book.
XAlan Burkhart
It's paranoia, but i think is justified, in my entire life i have not caught any virus in any of my computers, however when i was a student, my friends and classmates have their computers filled with viruses, also the computers outside the campus (public ones), had a lot of viruses. In an envorment like that i think the need of an antivurs is justified; althought some very basic things can make it unnecessary, for example i usually disable autorun, autoplay and auto whatever function comes in Windows, also i only open removable drives in the folder view of the Windows Explorer (the folder tree on the left), as this way autorun files are not executed; and also sometimes i do the world a favor and i have Windows' hidden files visible so i can see any suspect file and delete it.
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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I personally use NOD32, which seems to have the lowest performance impact and a high capture rating in testing. I also use a program (Host Manager) that blocks most ad and malicious sites through your hosts file. Apple has recently had to up it's anti virus game since it's market share is reaching the point that the bad guys are attacking iOS systems. So a switch to a Mac is only a delaying tactic not a solution. But as pointed out above - visits to questionable web sites and falling for the fake "You have a problem click here" is by far the main source of problems.
Macs are no longer secure!?, i don't know what to believe in now… ;P
CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...
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Try Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free and it works. Job done!
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett
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Mac's attitude to antivirus is don't go to that site. They don't have any form of antivirus as such. On Windows, if you don't run as an admin user, it is the same as running Linux or a Mac. It is just that most people choose to run as admin users even though they don't need to. If you're not an administrator, you can't install anything: problem solved. As for hta and Office viruses, that is something else.
Man there are a very simple solution for your problem... 1st you have to find the root of your problem... is it the internet?! easy find your DSL/Cable modem take the cable/wire that comes form the outside and unplug it get a condom, the extra thinner ones, and wrap around the connector and plug it back in without ripping it, its very hard to do probably its going to take a few tries but then you protected of yourself, the condom if you are able to get it win and plug the cable without ripping it will isolate the physical contact between both side making sure that the connection will not reach the infected path or others... Being realistic now for me MSE has been enough for years, and only need when opening something that I doubt and I am not talking about everyday stuff... surfing the internet and malware and pretty good usually evaluation my clicks and had no troubles, but if you allow other people to use the pc that can be trouble that why I don't... a have a 2nd old pc for that where I also try the stuff that I don't trust... if I understand you are a programmer, as a programmer you should be a little more smart about this subject and the online selection you make and software you download or trust, not even my wife or in-laws get that amount of virus or malware
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Hi, This year I did not renewed my antivirus subscription with a well known antivirus company, 2 month later l lost all my data due to virus activity, even having a new paid antivirus. Last year, the same I did not renewed my subscription and change to a free antivirus and also after 2 moth I lost my hard drive, also a well known antivirus company. Call my attention these cases so I would like to know if some of you has experienced same lost in similar situation? I suspect that if you do not renew your subscription some hacker will take care of you. Can the antivirus Co. be involved, dont know, only if there is data of same cases can we know. The result in my case it is that I'm changing to mac due to pc is very affected by virus mafia, so I think Microsoft and other pc companies should take this situation seriously, because pc environment will be reduced and mac will grow also linux. thanks, Teo
I've never been hit by a virus. I attribute that to clean living :laugh: I've never been a fan of any antivirus simply because they can give you a false sense of security. The first thing a virus writer DOES NOT DO...is contact the antivirus companies. You are only protected from known virii. My spousal-unit's computer picked up a virus that I had to remove and as I picked it apart I was amused by how the first thing it did was run through a list of steps that disabled the AV software she had installed. Her only clue that she was infected came from her not being able to get updates and then attempts to go to an antivirus vendor's site would GPF the browser. At one time a relative brought me their computer because it was running so slow and I found over 45 active viruses on it. :wtf: I told them it was easier to reformat the drive than it was to attempt eradication. Back to my clean living... o I have Windows set to display all files AND extensions. o I hover my cursor over links and compare the labels to the links. o I READ the links to look for smelly ones, like www.microsoft.special.deal.com and that they don't have miss spellings in the URLs. o I've also been known to view the source to make sure there is not an event that will trigger that will change the address of the URL. o Need I mention never to run a program you do not know where it came from? Especially those that show up in your mailbox from relatives? If it does come from a friend I feel is technically good, but does contain anything in the accompanying message that convinces me that it could only come from them, I send a message or better yet, call them to confirm it did come from them. Yes, I've heard there are sites I can go to that will bypass all those checks, but I either type the URLs myself or if I have the least suspicion, I have a computer that does not share anything that I do have an AV running on (makes it terribly slow) and visit the site from there. Listing these steps makes me sound more paranoid than I really am. I have no illusions that I am exempt, but I've caught several attempts to infect my machine following these steps. I'll take that back, I was infected once, but it was when I was using a Mac, back when floppy use on them tended to be almost incestuous from all the inserting, ejecting, re-insertion, before there were hard drives. :sigh:
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do
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Years ago (10 or so, not exactly sure), McAfee was a corporate standard where I worked. Piece of crap, slow, and buggy. And it even caused problems with Visual Studio ... a really weird bug that prevented a drop down list box from showing up on a project. Needless to say, McAfee didn't last long on my team's PCs.
I'm talking about the Monkey B virus... This is early 90s, before the Internet was popular... So we're talking 20 years ago, not 10... Back then, McAfee was much better than Norton, at least in my experience.
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels) -
Hi, This year I did not renewed my antivirus subscription with a well known antivirus company, 2 month later l lost all my data due to virus activity, even having a new paid antivirus. Last year, the same I did not renewed my subscription and change to a free antivirus and also after 2 moth I lost my hard drive, also a well known antivirus company. Call my attention these cases so I would like to know if some of you has experienced same lost in similar situation? I suspect that if you do not renew your subscription some hacker will take care of you. Can the antivirus Co. be involved, dont know, only if there is data of same cases can we know. The result in my case it is that I'm changing to mac due to pc is very affected by virus mafia, so I think Microsoft and other pc companies should take this situation seriously, because pc environment will be reduced and mac will grow also linux. thanks, Teo
I do the following and have caught all viruses for the past 5 years Nothing has totally trashed me. Some have had to be removed by MalwareBytes after the fact. It has removed all of them so far. 1. Run AVG as the Active Monitor. 2. Run SuperAntiSpyware weekly - finds some Spyware, Adware, Malware that AVG may not. 3. Run MalwareBytes weekly - finds some Trojans others do not. 4. Run Glary Utilities weekly - finds some IE Activex Malware that others may not with its IE Assistant. Occasionally ( a couple of times a month) I also do extra scans with PC Tools Spyware Doctor - very thorough but a bit slow. The only one that is not Free is AVG, since I use its Active Monitor. Most free versions do not allow active monitoring in the shareware version. I try to keep my browser temporary files, other temporaries, and browser history cleaned off to minimize the potential of hidden payloads. One, that I consider a Malware 'Open Candy', slipped through all of these when I installed WinSCP. It was easily removed manually. Open Candy published removal instructions - they say they are not a Malware product. A lot of Viruses come from overseas. It is important to pick software that considers this. That is why I prefer some overseas AV software over domestic products. Their engines and definitions address this sooner. For example, AVG rather than Norton. This may seem like a lot of scans, but on my system they usually take 4 - 8 minutes each. Not a lot of overhead since they are used periodically. AVG is fast and very low overhead as an Active Scanner.
"Courtesy is the product of a mature, disciplined mind ... ridicule is lack of the same - DPM"
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Hi, This year I did not renewed my antivirus subscription with a well known antivirus company, 2 month later l lost all my data due to virus activity, even having a new paid antivirus. Last year, the same I did not renewed my subscription and change to a free antivirus and also after 2 moth I lost my hard drive, also a well known antivirus company. Call my attention these cases so I would like to know if some of you has experienced same lost in similar situation? I suspect that if you do not renew your subscription some hacker will take care of you. Can the antivirus Co. be involved, dont know, only if there is data of same cases can we know. The result in my case it is that I'm changing to mac due to pc is very affected by virus mafia, so I think Microsoft and other pc companies should take this situation seriously, because pc environment will be reduced and mac will grow also linux. thanks, Teo
I think Teo Gaona is asking whether (certain) paid antivirus companies will give you a virus out of revenge if you fail to renew the subscription. Well, not revenge, but to show you what happens if you don't use their product. He knows about free antivirus solutions, but feels he is being targeted by the paid companies he has already been in contact with. Thanks everybody though for confirming that the big names mess with the system too much. I have never had any active viruses or problems with Avira, except that they have started to show an ad screen. I guess I can live with that.
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Hi, This year I did not renewed my antivirus subscription with a well known antivirus company, 2 month later l lost all my data due to virus activity, even having a new paid antivirus. Last year, the same I did not renewed my subscription and change to a free antivirus and also after 2 moth I lost my hard drive, also a well known antivirus company. Call my attention these cases so I would like to know if some of you has experienced same lost in similar situation? I suspect that if you do not renew your subscription some hacker will take care of you. Can the antivirus Co. be involved, dont know, only if there is data of same cases can we know. The result in my case it is that I'm changing to mac due to pc is very affected by virus mafia, so I think Microsoft and other pc companies should take this situation seriously, because pc environment will be reduced and mac will grow also linux. thanks, Teo
Used to have Antivirus... in my early days of computing... Inspite of the antivirus.. has to format pc several times, due to virus. issues... Stopped using antivirus... and now im happy like i was never before
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Hi, This year I did not renewed my antivirus subscription with a well known antivirus company, 2 month later l lost all my data due to virus activity, even having a new paid antivirus. Last year, the same I did not renewed my subscription and change to a free antivirus and also after 2 moth I lost my hard drive, also a well known antivirus company. Call my attention these cases so I would like to know if some of you has experienced same lost in similar situation? I suspect that if you do not renew your subscription some hacker will take care of you. Can the antivirus Co. be involved, dont know, only if there is data of same cases can we know. The result in my case it is that I'm changing to mac due to pc is very affected by virus mafia, so I think Microsoft and other pc companies should take this situation seriously, because pc environment will be reduced and mac will grow also linux. thanks, Teo
Don't use any, except on my android devices. My desktops and laptops alike only have Linux on them. At work, I have Windows VMs set up for development only, the host OS being Linux too. OTOH, I used Windows for years without an AV. Never had a paid one, if at all, some free one. And never had a virus, in spite of occasionally using programs from less reliable sources. An AV doesn't guarantee security. Responsibly dealing with downloads and emails and web surfing is what you need to do if you want to be secure. If you loose your HDD once a year due to viruses, you definitely have a problem - one that AVs won't solve. You should change your habits of running stuff coming from unreliable sources, instead of hunting for a better AV.
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Yeah, I used it 3 months and switched back to ESET. I had 3 malware entities on the computer. Microsoft isn't paying much attention to this product. It is free but at what costs. ESET isn't the best but it is better than MSSE.
I submitted a Virus detected by a different AV to them (More since it was 2am and I was bored, than the fact I actually cared...), and it was added to an update definition within 24 hours :wtf: So I've generally had good experiences with MSE (Except attempting to open a folder containing +- 1TB worth of files in +- 100 folders - MSE decides to scan everything before it lets you open anything, resulting in about a 10s freeze every time I open my "Series" folder on a new boot :~)
-= Reelix =-
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Fully 99% of virus protection is refusing to open/download/visit every website/attachment/link that features omg, this is so cute you must see this! I actually changed my email address and only passed it out to people who didn't have a history of sending me attachments or links to every bit of garbage they find on the webnets. Nobody needs free e-cards or a link to musical farting bunny rabbits. If you spend your time with those things you will get a virus. Period.
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I would go further and change Mac to a microwave, since MW has no viruses at all. From my 22 years experiense I was infected may be 2-3 times, NEVER EVER having any antivirus software. Why? Just same principle like you wash hands every time before eating: 1. NEVER run any exe/com/bat coming from email. Even if it comes from your mom. ESPECIALLY if it come from your mom. 2. Switch off any web-sh*t like a flash, music, video. Disallow JS to change windows shape (Opera can do it best way). 3. Always check any DVD you've bought, esp. pirate. 4. Never click any banner, "earn here" and so on shitylinks. 5. Put some firewall to control every cr@p accessing IN. I use BWMeter, it's enough. 6. Keep archives of everything priceless like your photo with american flag - on a separate HDD or flash. Never ever use for backup cr@p like CD/DVD - it's unreliable and it's dead. Like this!
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I've never been hit by a virus. I attribute that to clean living :laugh: I've never been a fan of any antivirus simply because they can give you a false sense of security. The first thing a virus writer DOES NOT DO...is contact the antivirus companies. You are only protected from known virii. My spousal-unit's computer picked up a virus that I had to remove and as I picked it apart I was amused by how the first thing it did was run through a list of steps that disabled the AV software she had installed. Her only clue that she was infected came from her not being able to get updates and then attempts to go to an antivirus vendor's site would GPF the browser. At one time a relative brought me their computer because it was running so slow and I found over 45 active viruses on it. :wtf: I told them it was easier to reformat the drive than it was to attempt eradication. Back to my clean living... o I have Windows set to display all files AND extensions. o I hover my cursor over links and compare the labels to the links. o I READ the links to look for smelly ones, like www.microsoft.special.deal.com and that they don't have miss spellings in the URLs. o I've also been known to view the source to make sure there is not an event that will trigger that will change the address of the URL. o Need I mention never to run a program you do not know where it came from? Especially those that show up in your mailbox from relatives? If it does come from a friend I feel is technically good, but does contain anything in the accompanying message that convinces me that it could only come from them, I send a message or better yet, call them to confirm it did come from them. Yes, I've heard there are sites I can go to that will bypass all those checks, but I either type the URLs myself or if I have the least suspicion, I have a computer that does not share anything that I do have an AV running on (makes it terribly slow) and visit the site from there. Listing these steps makes me sound more paranoid than I really am. I have no illusions that I am exempt, but I've caught several attempts to infect my machine following these steps. I'll take that back, I was infected once, but it was when I was using a Mac, back when floppy use on them tended to be almost incestuous from all the inserting, ejecting, re-insertion, before there were hard drives. :sigh:
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do
BrainiacV wrote:
o I hover my cursor over links and compare the labels to the links.
That can be faked (The URL displayed at the bottom left of the browser window is not necessarily the URL it's actually going to) For a simple example, create an "a href' with an onclick event that does a redirect to an unrelated link - See which takes priority, and see which appears to the user ;) -= Reelix =-
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I do the following and have caught all viruses for the past 5 years Nothing has totally trashed me. Some have had to be removed by MalwareBytes after the fact. It has removed all of them so far. 1. Run AVG as the Active Monitor. 2. Run SuperAntiSpyware weekly - finds some Spyware, Adware, Malware that AVG may not. 3. Run MalwareBytes weekly - finds some Trojans others do not. 4. Run Glary Utilities weekly - finds some IE Activex Malware that others may not with its IE Assistant. Occasionally ( a couple of times a month) I also do extra scans with PC Tools Spyware Doctor - very thorough but a bit slow. The only one that is not Free is AVG, since I use its Active Monitor. Most free versions do not allow active monitoring in the shareware version. I try to keep my browser temporary files, other temporaries, and browser history cleaned off to minimize the potential of hidden payloads. One, that I consider a Malware 'Open Candy', slipped through all of these when I installed WinSCP. It was easily removed manually. Open Candy published removal instructions - they say they are not a Malware product. A lot of Viruses come from overseas. It is important to pick software that considers this. That is why I prefer some overseas AV software over domestic products. Their engines and definitions address this sooner. For example, AVG rather than Norton. This may seem like a lot of scans, but on my system they usually take 4 - 8 minutes each. Not a lot of overhead since they are used periodically. AVG is fast and very low overhead as an Active Scanner.
"Courtesy is the product of a mature, disciplined mind ... ridicule is lack of the same - DPM"
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Thornik wrote:
2. Switch off any web-sh*t like a flash, music, video.
YouTube must be annoyed with you right now ;p
-= Reelix =-
Install "Download Master" and forget about "youtube.com" :) - it can download video directly.
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Install "Download Master" and forget about "youtube.com" :) - it can download video directly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blabla123 - Insert sing just after the www (Remove the s on https if there) --> http://www.singyoutube.com/watch?v=blabla123 Enjoy your ripped audio / video :p
-= Reelix =-
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dpminusa wrote:
2. Run SuperAntiSpyware weekly - finds some Spyware, Adware, Malware that AVG may not.
I've heard fake AV's with more realistic sounding names ;/
-= Reelix =-
I see your point. These are all products I have used successfully for several years. I guess the funky names are attempts to having marketing impact. They all have strengths and weaknesses for scanning. MalwareBytes Strength: Finding and Removing Trojans. SuperAntiSpyware Strength: Finding and Removing Adware and Spyware. etc.
"Courtesy is the product of a mature, disciplined mind ... ridicule is lack of the same - DPM"
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blabla123 - Insert sing just after the www (Remove the s on https if there) --> http://www.singyoutube.com/watch?v=blabla123 Enjoy your ripped audio / video :p
-= Reelix =-