18 days of reckless computing

[Funkstar]

i cant help wondering, but all these people that say they dont use any antivirus and havent had any viruses, how do you know?

That is indeed a very, very good point

[TiMeZeRo]

hmm ok i may have some viruses.... but none at do any noticable damage to my pc trojans are just crap and dont get past my router ..

[NightshadowUK]

Can I just ask... what's to lose from running anti-virus software? It's like saying "Oh I don't need to wear a seatbelt, I've never been in an accident".

[Clunk]

its the barebacking of the computer world

[YorkieBen]

i cant help wondering, but all these people that say they dont use any antivirus and havent had any viruses, how do you know?

i was just wondering that...

[Whiternoise]

No less than four of my friends and their respective parents downloaded SpySherrif, ErrorGuard and numerous other programs believing that they would help.. took us a week to remove the files from the HD. My mum's pc has never had a virus and she doesn't use any AV software.. somehow AVG causes BSOD errors..

[scotty6435]

i cant help wondering, but all these people that say they dont use any antivirus and havent had any viruses, how do you know?

Amen brother. It's like all the symnatec fanboys saying "why bash our products, I've scanned and I don't have any viruses!".

Here's news, symnatec antivirus is crap and left a zombie worm in my suystem for 18 months before it was picked up by immediately by another program.

EDIT: Trojans are the nasty buggers that allow backdoor entry to your system and data collection. Never just rely on a router, they're far from infallable.

[5lab]

true - i dont *know* that i've definatly not got a virus - but there are no signs that i have (everything works, nothing crashes, no misc processes etc) - if a virus doesnt do any damage, how is it a virus?


why dont i use the software? it slows a pc down, and i've seen norton kill a pc entirely before. better a bugged pc thats slow than one that doesnt work at all, imo

[scotty6435]

Because it only takes one nasty little trojan to copy all of your precious passwords and credit card info which means you'll have to deal with a lot of crapping around various companies. If you worry about it slowing your system then disable it when playing games, it's what I do.

(I use hardware firewall, zonealarm, avast!, spysweeper and 2 backup spyware systems.)

[Clunk]

true - i dont *know* that i've definatly not got a virus - but there are no signs that i have (everything works, nothing crashes, no misc processes etc) - if a virus doesnt do any damage, how is it a virus?


why dont i use the software? it slows a pc down, and i've seen norton kill a pc entirely before. better a bugged pc thats slow than one that doesnt work at all, imo

quick example would be, a would-be hacker, runs the latest exploit (for arguments sake, lets say a new sql exploit or whatever) on your pc, gets in, has a good nosey round and gets your bank details/card details, or anything really that you dont want him to. he will install some kind of back door to get back in easily next time. however, because there is no windows patch, and antivirus companies arent aware of the backdoor in question, and as it causes no detrimental effect to your system, nobody is any the wiser. the hacker, might be happy to take £1/$1 from each of his (for arguments sake) 1000 victims, giving him a nice little earner. a couple of weeks later, symantec, mcaffee and whoever else, pick up on this exploit/backdoor and update their patches/definitions, it then becomes classed as a virus/hack tool, or whatever you want to call it.

and with the speeds of todays computers, there really is no excuse not to try and protect yourself is there?

[BEANFro Elite]

All I have to say is view my post at the bottom of the first page...

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=76916

I forgot to add that I have one anti-spyware app installed and its part of my firewall package, I merely use it to see if theres spyware on my PC if I can't be bothered to check the locations spyware usually stows away in to boot up myself.

[Dav0s]

Virus: hmm i think ill infect this computer
nod32: hahah, foolish virus, be gone

[chicken]

true - i dont *know* that i've definatly not got a virus - but there are no signs that i have (everything works, nothing crashes, no misc processes etc) - if a virus doesnt do any damage, how is it a virus?


why dont i use the software? it slows a pc down, and i've seen norton kill a pc entirely before. better a bugged pc thats slow than one that doesnt work at all, imo

This pretty much sums up my reasoning too, I'd just add that occasionally I will run something like an online-scan if I notice anything suspicious.

To be honest if you set up your network right and don't go around clicking on dodgy stuff then there's an extremely small chance you will get a virus. If you assume you are protected by having AV software and don't watch what you're doing online then you're at more risk than me, it is by no means 100% effective, as shown here:

a couple of weeks later, symantec, mcaffee and whoever else, pick up on this exploit/backdoor and update their patches/definitions, it then becomes classed as a virus/hack tool, or whatever you want to call it.

In this situation how would having AV help? A couple of weeks is more than enough time for the hacker to steal the information and money he's after. This is exactly why I don't feel I need AV software, the only virus I have had is MS Blast and Norton/McAfee didn't offer any protection at the time, I had removed it myself before their fix was available.

Yes some people need AV as they don't understand how to avoid viruses, but it's not like a seatbelt, not everyone puts themselves that much at risk.

[Clunk]

This pretty much sums up my reasoning too, I'd just add that occasionally I will run something like an online-scan if I notice anything suspicious.

but if there wasnt anything suspicious to notice, you wouldnt think to run the online scan, and you would still have a virus/back door/whatever and the would-be hacker could just come and go as they pleased, maybe taking vital info such as course work, private letters etc, or even stealing bandwidth/disc space.

that aside, i would like to know what you do to run without any antivirus, just out of curiosity more than anything.

[dangel]

In this situation how would having AV help?

..heuristic scanning dear boy

Interesting reading this thread - but I can't say I (personally) follow some of the reasoning for not running AV on a PC thesedays - in fact, i'd warrant running malware detection tools on a regular basis too - there's just too many vulnerabilities in software (and the OS) right now to think that it's a safe approach to computing. Sure, i'd agree wholeheartedly that more than a few of the AV packages out there are nothing more than bloatware (they keep adding pointless features each year) but there's plenty of small, neat and effective scanners too. For a modern system, the impact of AV should be minimal (personally i can't see any difference when it's disabled tbh)..

[directhex]

these questions go out to the "common sense" crowd: 5lab, TiMeZeRo, chicken, BEANFro Elite

"do you know what a botnet is? and have you ever used a condom?"