Solve : Is antivirus software that important??

1.	Solve : Is antivirus software that important??
Answer» Well, Our computers are exposed to an increased amount of viruses, which subsequently make our systems corrupt as well as unfortunately, there is little we can do to protect our computers in such a case, except for installing the BEST antivirus software possible and also this software is extremely important, as without it, our computers will become broken and eventually stop working all together.Quote from: Thomee on October 19, 2010, 01:15:07 AM Well, Our computers are exposed to an increased amount of viruses, which subsequently make our systems corrupt as well as unfortunately, there is little we can do to protect our computers in such a case, except for installing the best antivirus software possible and also this software is extremely important, as without it, our computers will become broken and eventually stop working all together. Well done, here's a star In my opinion, antivirus software can and should be completely disregarded if people would take a little TIME to learn how to USE sysinternals tools. I haven't installed any antivirus software in about 4 years now.Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 11:52:50 AM In my opinion, antivirus software can and should be completely disregarded if people would take a little time to learn how to use sysinternals tools. I haven't installed any antivirus software in about 4 years now. Well, that's you and you're entitled to your opinion. But I urge anyone and EVERYONE else reading this to ignore his advice. AV software should be installed and run resident by EVERYONE.I figured most people wouldn't AGREE. Have you ever tried sysinternals and/or nirsoft tools?Yes. What do they have to do with protection ? ?Quote What do they have to do with protection ? ? Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses. As for the protection, firewalls and not randomly running unknown exe files.Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 12:41:48 PM Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses. haha they can be used to remove viruses but... A:) you need to know what you are doing, and B:) it takes a large investment of time and effort to use it for that, as well as knowing what you are doing. You can't just "learn how to use Sysinternals tools" (I better point out that I doubt you are going to be using contig or handle to remove viruses, it's mostly procexp's ability to suspend processes that comes in handy here) you are going to need to learn how to use them to remove viruses; the general method would be to first identify all the "bad" processes, suspend them ALL, then kill them all. After that, you delete their files. So we need several steps- First, you need to know how to identify unwelcome processes. Do you truly think anybody can do this? Some people get shaky knees when people mention exe files. Most don't know the first thing about them, nor which ones are included with windows and which ones are part of drivers and software packages, it's silly to expect them to know how to identify malware processes, especially since they could easily piggyback on other processes like winlogon anyway, in which case they would also need to know how to use the DLL view and be able to know which processes have loaded "bad" dlls so that they can be forced to unload said Dlls, and then you'll need to suspend that thread because chances are the virus simply inject a piece of code into the host process to reload the dll when it recieves it's DLL_DETACH message from windows via dllmain(). Meanwhile, you can avoid almost all of this hassle by simply running malwarebytes, or even better, use a background AV. Additionally, you assume that a PC's owner is the only person to use a machine. This is often not the case. Do you truly expect that people should learn how to use procexp and simply let their children/grandchildren roam free on the internet? using process explorer to remove a nasty infection can often take hours. Should they teach their kids/grandkids/grandparents how to use process explorer? Seems like a huge waste of everybody's time, all the grandparent wants to do is play some bejeweled and they're being lectured on how to identify malicious processes. I thought that was the freaking job of a AV program? It is. Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 12:41:48 PM Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses. As for the protection, firewalls and not randomly running unknown exe files. Do me a favor, go spout your nonsense regarding anti virus software somewhere else. Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 12:41:48 PM Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses. As for the protection, firewalls and not randomly running unknown exe files. I keep getting smacked in the face, i don't why, but i know how to use a band-aidI think he's talking about prevention and sandboxing. Of course, the only way you can ensure your computer is 100% secure would be to disconnect it from any outside (the internet / network) or new sources (transfering data between). The firewall is your best defensive against getting anything on the system, you can do some extra things like sandboxing applications so they don't affect another, disabling auto-run, etc, but the virus scanner is still an important tool required for today's computering. Estimates suggest that up to 40% of personal computers are infected with some form of malware program (lots of people don't know or even ignore it, learning to live with the issue). 90% will have had contact with adware or spyware in it's lifetime. Still no security is still better than installing a fake antivirus program, over 30 million are infected by trojan injected 'security' software. I recommend getting a trusted Virus scanner / Firewall, even if your just playing one solitaire game all day long and not going to risky sites. It's a pretty good investment for your computer's health. Source - infection rate: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/report-48-of-22-million-scanned-computers-infected-with-malware/5365 Source - fake software: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/media/press-releases/viewnews?noticia=9394This thread is very old. Let me hijack it now. Quote Terrorism and cyber attacks main threats to Britain* David Cameron, who co-wrote the foreword to the report with Nick Clegg Photo: AP The new National Security Strategy identifies four ''tier one'' risks which, it says, must be the Government's highest priority. The other major threats are a large scale accident or natural hazard such as pandemic flu and an international military crisis which could draw in the UK and its allies. ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8071198/Terrorism-and-cyber-attacks-main-threats-to-Britain.html So he equates Cyber Attacks to major disasters or military conflicts. Is that of any concern? What if your computer shot bullets at you? Or gave you Malaria?Quote from: Geek-9pm on October 20, 2010, 12:34:06 AM What if your computer shot bullets at you? I'd shoot back.The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back.Symantec came with the laptop I got from HP which also uses Vista, ugh. The Symantec has worked well, I think. It updates itself and so far no problems for almost 2 years. I have recently for some reason gotten a Macafee Virus Scan that has started up on its own. Not sure why. I hope it plays well with Symantec. Any thoughts? Harold

Answer»

Well,
Our computers are exposed to an increased amount of viruses, which subsequently make our systems corrupt as well as unfortunately, there is little we can do to protect our computers in such a case, except for installing the BEST antivirus software possible and also this software is extremely important, as without it, our computers will become broken and eventually stop working all together.Quote from: Thomee on October 19, 2010, 01:15:07 AM

Well,
Our computers are exposed to an increased amount of viruses, which subsequently make our systems corrupt as well as unfortunately, there is little we can do to protect our computers in such a case, except for installing the best antivirus software possible and also this software is extremely important, as without it, our computers will become broken and eventually stop working all together.

Well done, here's a star *In my opinion, antivirus software can and should be completely disregarded if people would take a little TIME to learn how to USE sysinternals tools. I haven't installed any antivirus software in about 4 years now.Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 11:52:50 AM

In my opinion, antivirus software can and should be completely disregarded if people would take a little time to learn how to use sysinternals tools. I haven't installed any antivirus software in about 4 years now.

Well, that's you and you're entitled to your opinion. But I urge anyone and EVERYONE else reading this to ignore his advice. AV software should be installed and run resident by EVERYONE.I figured most people wouldn't AGREE. Have you ever tried sysinternals and/or nirsoft tools?Yes.

What do they have to do with protection ? ?Quote

What do they have to do with protection ? ?

Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses.

As for the protection, firewalls and not randomly running unknown exe files.Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 12:41:48 PM

Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses.

haha

they can be used to remove viruses but...

A:) you need to know what you are doing, and
B:) it takes a large investment of time and effort to use it for that, as well as knowing what you are doing.

You can't just "learn how to use Sysinternals tools" (I better point out that I doubt you are going to be using contig or handle to remove viruses, it's mostly procexp's ability to suspend processes that comes in handy here) you are going to need to learn how to use them to remove viruses; the general method would be to first identify all the "bad" processes, suspend them ALL, then kill them all. After that, you delete their files. So we need several steps-

First, you need to know how to identify unwelcome processes. Do you truly think anybody can do this? Some people get shaky knees when people mention exe files. Most don't know the first thing about them, nor which ones are included with windows and which ones are part of drivers and software packages, it's silly to expect them to know how to identify malware processes, especially since they could easily piggyback on other processes like winlogon anyway, in which case they would also need to know how to use the DLL view and be able to know which processes have loaded "bad" dlls so that they can be forced to unload said Dlls, and then you'll need to suspend that thread because chances are the virus simply inject a piece of code into the host process to reload the dll when it recieves it's DLL_DETACH message from windows via dllmain().

Meanwhile, you can avoid almost all of this hassle by simply running malwarebytes, or even better, use a background AV. Additionally, you assume that a PC's owner is the only person to use a machine. This is often not the case. Do you truly expect that people should learn how to use procexp and simply let their children/grandchildren roam free on the internet? using process explorer to remove a nasty infection can often take hours. Should they teach their kids/grandkids/grandparents how to use process explorer? Seems like a huge waste of everybody's time, all the grandparent wants to do is play some bejeweled and they're being lectured on how to identify malicious processes. I thought that was the freaking job of a AV program? It is. Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 12:41:48 PM

Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses.

As for the protection, firewalls and not randomly running unknown exe files.

Do me a favor, go spout your nonsense regarding anti virus software somewhere else.
Quote from: Linux711 on October 19, 2010, 12:41:48 PM

Nothing, but they are the best at removing viruses.

As for the protection, firewalls and not randomly running unknown exe files.

I keep getting smacked in the face, i don't why, but i know how to use a band-aidI think he's talking about prevention and sandboxing. Of course, the only way you can ensure your computer is 100% secure would be to disconnect it from any outside (the internet / network) or new sources (transfering data between). The firewall is your best defensive against getting anything on the system, you can do some extra things like sandboxing applications so they don't affect another, disabling auto-run, etc, but the virus scanner is still an important tool required for today's computering.

Estimates suggest that up to 40% of personal computers are infected with some form of malware program (lots of people don't know or even ignore it, learning to live with the issue). 90% will have had contact with adware or spyware in it's lifetime. Still no security is still better than installing a fake antivirus program, over 30 million are infected by trojan injected 'security' software.

I recommend getting a trusted Virus scanner / Firewall, even if your just playing one solitaire game all day long and not going to risky sites. It's a pretty good investment for your computer's health.

Source - infection rate: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/report-48-of-22-million-scanned-computers-infected-with-malware/5365
Source - fake software: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/media/press-releases/viewnews?noticia=9394This thread is very old. Let me hijack it now.
Quote

Terrorism and cyber attacks main threats to Britain
David Cameron, who co-wrote the foreword to the report with Nick Clegg Photo: AP

The new National Security Strategy identifies four ''tier one'' risks which, it says, must be the Government's highest priority.
The other major threats are a large scale accident or natural hazard such as pandemic flu and an international military crisis which could draw in the UK and its allies. ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/8071198/Terrorism-and-cyber-attacks-main-threats-to-Britain.html

So he equates Cyber Attacks to major disasters or military conflicts.
Is that of any concern?
What if your computer shot bullets at you?
Or gave you Malaria?Quote from: Geek-9pm on October 20, 2010, 12:34:06 AM

What if your computer shot bullets at you?

I'd shoot back.The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back.Symantec came with the laptop I got from HP which also uses Vista, ugh. The Symantec has worked well, I think. It updates itself and so far no problems for almost 2 years. I have recently for some reason gotten a Macafee Virus Scan that has started up on its own. Not sure why. I hope it plays well with Symantec.

Any thoughts?

Harold

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