Anyone else think "virus protection" is a load of BS?

youtube! · 28-01-2013 05:43PM #1

Over the years I have come to this conclusion, the more protection you have installed on your PC the more viruses you attract, why pay good money for something that annoys the hell out of me by constantly updating and asking me to restart just about every day,when infact they are utterly pointless.

I can honestly say that I have absolutely zero nada nothing in the way of virus protection on my PC for over 6 months now and it is by far the fastest most responsive and best performing computer I have ever used, I know there is free software but even that gives me a royal pain in the ass, I am wondering should I move this thread into the conspiracy forum because quite honestly I think the whole thing is a massive con! I have no fear of yer viruses ,I am strong and clean,bring em on....

Yellowblackbird · 28-01-2013 05:48PM

You'll get a perfectly good firewall and anti virus sw for free.
What's the problem.

Tails142 · 28-01-2013 05:49PM

Depends really on what you are doing with the PC - if you are downloading any pirated software, movies etc you would be risking it without proper virus protection, a lot of stuff has hidden payloads. Many modern computer virusses are designed so you never realise you have them and are used to control your computer for use in botnets for distributed denial of service attacks, email spamming etc. Or have trojans that sit undetected waiting to steal your credit card details, online game account info, paypal/ebay details etc.

The days of a virus flashing a skull and crossbones across your screen are long gone.

AnonoBoy · 28-01-2013 05:51PM

No wonder STIs are on the rise with attitudes like yours rising amongst the young.

Procasinator · 28-01-2013 05:51PM

Assuming Windows, I personally recommend people just install Security Essentials. It's free.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/security-essentials-download

I doubt much malware targets particular anti-virus packages directly, unless exploiting a flaw that the package itself introduces.

Scareware exists, however, which imitates anti-virus software. If you see a package talking about you have X number of viruses, but need to pay to upgrade the software and remove them, then you have Scareware on your computer. That is most definitely a con.

uch · 28-01-2013 05:52PM

No

cgarrad · 28-01-2013 05:54PM

W8 has Security Essentials built in.

Norton/McAfee are an unbelievable scam that operate on fear and ignorance.

CardBordWindow · 28-01-2013 05:54PM

OP, send me on your email address and I'll send you a cool file!

smash · 28-01-2013 05:55PM

youtube! wrote: »

I can honestly say that I have absolutely zero nada nothing in the way of virus protection on my PC for over 6 months now and it is by far the fastest most responsive and best performing computer I have ever used

You obviously never look at porn.

admiralofthefleet · 28-01-2013 05:57PM

cgarrad wrote: »

W8 has Security Essentials built in.

Norton/McAfee are an unbelievable scam that operate on fear and ignorance.

got a new laptop last week with windows 8, its the dogs

all i use is avira anti-vir, malwarebytes and spyware blaster

Dravokivich · 28-01-2013 05:58PM

Barely even bother with anti virus software on PCs/Laptops I own. It's all down to how you use'em.

ejmaztec · 28-01-2013 06:01PM

smash wrote: »

You obviously never look at porn.

He's probably had some illegal porn downloaded without his knowledge by some joker, who will no doubt have tipped off the Guards. The knock on the door will come soon, just after his online bank accounts have been emptied.

CreepingDeath · 28-01-2013 06:03PM

Dravokivich wrote: »

Barely even bother with anti virus software on PCs/Laptops I own. It's all down to how you use'em.

That depends, do you have any Adobe products installed, or the Java plugin enabled in your browser ?

There's a current Java exploit out there, meaning that a Java applet can break out of it's security sandbox and perform a lot of stuff you really don't want a random website on the net to do.
If someone where to hack into the boards servers and inject that into every page served, then a lot of people who thought they were being clever and safe on the net, would be infected.

I use the FireFox "NoScript" plugin, which disabled JavaScript and Java by default, and you have to enable it per site, on the websites you trust.
It really stops a lot of stuff.

Plus I dumped Microsoft Security Essentials for AVG Free version recently.

Logical_Bear · 28-01-2013 06:05PM

most virus/malware is installed due to user ignorance.Only had 2 virus's in years and it was due to me using hacked software i'd downloaded of the interwebz,neither of which i'd scanned before I installed

Windows OS encourages open source software which can be malicious.You'll always here apple fan bois saying they dont need anti virus and this is pretty much true.1)because apple gets the say so on what software gets released and secondly it has a tiny tiny share of the market so isnt targeted by virus malware

EDIT: and dont ever pay for the software either plenty of free ones out their that dont hog resources!

ringadingding · 28-01-2013 06:05PM

Kaspersky pure for me

Mcafee and norton seemed to spam the shïte out of my laptop

ConfusedLepton · 28-01-2013 06:06PM

Yellowblackbird wrote: »

You'll get a perfectly good firewall and anti virus sw for free.
What's the problem.

I'll give you a rock that you can tie around your waist and drag around with you all day. Don't worry, I won't charge you for it!

As long as you know the difference between mypicture.jpg.exe and mypicture.jpg and you keep up to date with browser versions, your chances of getting anything is very low. And as for people that aren't very computer literate, they'll probably just end up clicking 'yes' to all warnings anyway. If you're not computer savvy enough to know if you're about to run something malicious, then you're probably not computer savvy enough to determine whether the warning is legitimate or not.

youtube! · 28-01-2013 06:07PM

I guess I just use this PC for surfing basic stuff youtube .boards, free sport streams , no porn and no downloading movies yes you are correct!

But I deliberately removed any virus protection, (norton specifically) over 6 months ago now and everything is really fast and responsive.

My missus has every type of program known to man on her PC and it takes ages to do the simplest tasks on it but she will not remove them and pays over 100 euro a yr for the pleasure, I think she is mad,she thinks I am:D

CreepingDeath · 28-01-2013 06:08PM

Logical_Bear wrote: »

Only had 2 virus's in years and it was due to me using hacked software i'd downloaded of the interwebz,neither of which i'd scanned before I installed

If in doubt, I use VirusTotal to scan a file before running it.
It's a website which runs a file you upload through a LOAD of different virus scanners and gives you a nice report at the end of it.

Recommended.

Indubitable · 28-01-2013 06:10PM

MSE and Malware bytes would suit most people's needs when used together. They run fairly efficiently as well. Use Eset NOD32 myself and rarely have any problems. The likes of Norton and McAfee are crap and slow down your machine.

andrewdeerpark · 28-01-2013 06:11PM

Keep all MS patches up to date (OS hardening), update JAVA (or better still do not use it at all), keep flash player and reader current and MS security essentials is perfect.

You want to buy an anti virus then Kaspersky ANTI-VIRUS (not pure or Internet Security) or Norton ANTI-VIRUS is also fine, keep away from internet security and 360 (slow).

AVG is gone to the dogs, Avast free is ok.

I have seen them all beaten in different users PC's / laptops.

sock puppet · 28-01-2013 06:17PM

ringadingding wrote: »

Kaspersky pure for me

Mcafee and norton seemed to spam the shïte out of my laptop

Plus McAfee charge murderously high prices.

giant_midget · 28-01-2013 06:18PM

I use Avast. I also run Malwarebytes now and again and i also use C-Cleaner. Never have any issues, only an idiot would pay for "virus protection" i.e Norton

General Zod · 28-01-2013 06:19PM

ConfusedLepton wrote: »

I'll give you a rock that you can tie around your waist and drag around with you all day. Don't worry, I won't charge you for it!

As long as you know the difference between mypicture.jpg.exe and mypicture.jpg and you keep up to date with browser versions, your chances of getting anything is very low. And as for people that aren't very computer literate, they'll probably just end up clicking 'yes' to all warnings anyway. If you're not computer savvy enough to know if you're about to run something malicious, then you're probably not computer savvy enough to determine whether the warning is legitimate or not.

Yes, because this will protect you from Zero Day exploits.

MSE is getting a rough time of it at the moment but it's only one update from being back to it's previous effectiveness. AVG Free or Kaspersy pro (if you insist on paying for AV) will keep you covered in the mean time.

Use some Virus protection, because you're only one adware exploit on your favourite website away from being riddled.

0ph0rce0 · 28-01-2013 06:19PM

load of ****e

had it once and all it did was slow the **** out of my computer, tried another same thing.

Got rid and never had a virus.

SCAM

Yellowblackbird · 28-01-2013 06:21PM

ConfusedLepton wrote: »

As long as you know the difference between mypicture.jpg.exe and mypicture.jpg and you keep up to date with browser versions, your chances of getting anything is very low. And as for people that aren't very computer literate, they'll probably just end up clicking 'yes' to all warnings anyway. If you're not computer savvy enough to know if you're about to run something malicious, then you're probably not computer savvy enough to determine whether the warning is legitimate or not.

I wish I was as clever as you. I'd love to be a tech expert. Luckily I seem to always guess right what stuff to let through.

seven_eleven · 28-01-2013 06:22PM

People are stupid...I'm not even going to give my advice if this is the kind of ignorance going around.

syklops · 28-01-2013 06:22PM

CreepingDeath wrote: »

If in doubt, I use VirusTotal to scan a file before running it.
It's a website which runs a file you upload through a LOAD of different virus scanners and gives you a nice report at the end of it.

Recommended.

Would you be interested in buying a cloud-based, community driven malware analysis system?

Edit: God bless Linux.

ringadingding · 28-01-2013 06:23PM

seven_eleven wrote: »

People are stupid...I'm not even going to give my advice if this is the kind of ignorance going around.

Oh please rescue us neo

0ph0rce0 · 28-01-2013 06:25PM

seven_eleven wrote: »

People are stupid...I'm not even going to give my advice if this is the kind of ignorance going around.

NEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDD

ScumLord · 28-01-2013 06:32PM

You can never be too careful, I have 6 anti viruses and the bastards keep getting in, the PCs as slow as ****. I started wearing a condom every time I go on the internet just to be on the safe side.

CreepingDeath · 28-01-2013 06:34PM

ScumLord wrote: »

I started wearing a condom every time I go on the internet just to be on the safe side.

A washable/wipe-down keyboard would probably be cheaper for you.

Anyone else think "virus protection" is a load of BS?

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