QOTD: Has a Virus Ever Infected Your PC?
Once in a while, there's always a major outbreak of computer viruses. This year, the Conficker virus is making the rounds.
Simply put, computer viruses don't play on vulnerabilities of the operating system, they play on the inexperienced. This is of course, unfortunate. Several years ago, viruses were the only hot news in terms of malicious software. Now, spy-ware, ad-ware and other forms of malware are the hottest topics.
Even if you're experienced and savvy with computers, there are always going to be friends and family members that are not so experienced with how to handle themselves around a computer. It's always easier to trust people we know, and virus writers know this. I personally hate receive emails from anyone that asks me to check out a cool or funny slide show. It doesn't even matter if it's from my family--the email goes into the trash right away.
Then there's simply normal email. Not enough people know how to use the BCC (blind carbon copy) field in their email client when sending out emails to multiple recipients. This frustrates the heck out of me.
The question of the day is: Has a virus--or other nasty adware--ever infected your computer?
Let me know what you use to protect yourself, if anything.
Personally, I haven't used an anti-virus for nearly a decade. It all boils down to knowing what to keep an eye out for. But sometimes, just sometimes...
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Posts questions in NEWS section, dosen't use antivirus....IDIOT
I would have thought that viruses explicetly play on vulnrabilaties and that spyware/malware plays on the inexperienced. At least after 6 years of IT work thats my experience of things.
Good example is AV2009.
I must remove that piece of crap from around 20 customer machines a week. And in almost every case it's because of fools that click the bigg-ass sign which say something like "your computer is infected, click here to downlaod sotware to fix it"
In response to the qustion though, No my PC has never been infected. And thats 12 years of use.
Although I do recall my Amiga 2600 getting screwed back in the day.
i don't use any anti virus or anti spy, all i use is a simple router firewall with upnp disabled. i've had no infections in a while (a few years), i've been using computers since i got my first, an intel pentium 3 machine with 64mbs of ram in 2004! so as you can imagine, that machine + windows xp = minimal resources, so i had to become very virus/ad/spy savvy very fast. luckily now i run a c2d e8400 with 8gbs of ram and a 1gb radeon 4850... but still no "internet security suite" - don't need it.
Ohhh Ohhh, lets takes bets on the next question they ask us.
Perhaps "Why is symantec a laughing stock & ruins everything it touches" ??
I started using a computer first when I was 14, and I was the sole user of it; Unmonitored.
I had hundreds of viruses by the time I first formatted to remove them.
I've not had a virus in about 2 years, and the virus I managed to get was from an untrustable torrent which I scanned on purpose because I thought it might be a virus.
I do use Avast! if only to give myself that extra bit of security. I scan every month, since it takes a full 24 hours to scan the vast volumes of data I have stored.
What free anti V and firewall do you use?
I keep getting warnings telling me they are going to start charging on the 12th april so I need to upgrade?
I had my test machine stuffed a few times. Always my own fault for trying out things to see what happens. Reimage and I'm away again - nothing like a good reinstall.
I haven't used any anti-virus software since I got broadband about 7 years ago. I check my PC with Kaspersky's free online checker about once a month, but it has never turned up anything.
* I use a simple Netgear DG834 router/firewall (with a non-default login password), and also use the Windows firewall.
* I use a password to login into Windows, and install all the updates.
* I use Mailwasher (free) to delete any spam that isn't already caught by the ISP's automatic systems.
* My PC passes all the tests available at ShieldsUp! website.
I guess if I do ever get any malware/viruses it'll be through my own stupidity, not because some evil hacker managed to "gain access" to my PC - like all the PC 'security' companies would like me to believe!).
I run AVG, Ad-Aware & Spybot once a month
keeps it all in check.
Sure, you CAN be safe without AV.
If you show file extensions, and never click on any attachment that isn't a 'safe' type.
If you are constantly patched with Windows updates - And Microsoft is fixing the bugs before you encounter the vulnerability in the wild.
If you have a firewall that is restricting anything other than the stuff you know is safe - And you are lucky and those ports aren't targetted by a vulnerability not fixed by Microsoft and patched.
If you never visit dodgy internet sites (or safe sites that have recently been hacked).
Even with AV, you're only safe against threats the AV company know about, and have pushed the fix out for, and if you've patched.
Personally I like to keep my machines patched and firewalled, avoid the dodgiest of sites, and also have a decent AV to act as backstop.
I've seen too many viruses that hit other sites, or PCs I wasn't responsible for, including ones that harvested every keystroke a user ever hit (including all their banking details). The price of a decent AV (I use Trend Internet Security - which also doublechecks I have critical Windows updates and has a more complete firewall than the built in windows one) is a second opinion on the security measures I already have in place.
Yeah, only when i go crack/serial hunting. But manage to clean all the viruses using the free avg and mcafee (older version) when i reinstall mcafee and use a different email i get another year for free! (so basically both fully up-to-date).
By the way this is my mess about system not too powerful a p3 1GHz and some old ebay motherboard. Been going for 4 years non stop, even with some 120G hdd, again from ebay (secondhand) - must have done like 3000hours or something like that.... it's yet to fail me!