They never find a single germ; or, at least none is reported....
Maybe I'm simply running competent permanent AV and firewall.
Every week I run regular scans across my workhorse PC; Defender, Spybot, Malwarebytes, adwcleaner.
They never find a single germ; or, at least none is reported.
Except that adwcleaner always reports the same pre-installed software.
It often occurs to me as wasted time, but then a little warning light at
the back of my head speaks out; "Better safe than sorry; you know how
the world works - stop the checks and some malware will suddenly appear". Maybe I'm simply running competent permanent AV and firewall.
What do others think of this?
Newyana2 wrote:
On 12/27/2024 6:04 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
Every week I run regular scans across my workhorse PC; Defender,
Spybot, Malwarebytes, adwcleaner.
They never find a single germ; or, at least none is reported.
Except that adwcleaner always reports the same pre-installed software.
It often occurs to me as wasted time, but then a little warning light
at the back of my head speaks out; "Better safe than sorry; you know
how the world works - stop the checks and some malware will suddenly
appear".
Maybe I'm simply running competent permanent AV and firewall.
What do others think of this?
I haven't used AV regularly since about 2000. I use a fiirewall,
so anything trying to get out will be picked up. Anything trying
to hack in will be blocked. I know how to recognize suspect email.
I use NoScript to block script online whenever possible.
Intrusions don't come from nowhere. They need to exploit a
vulnerability. That mostly means browser script, trick emails that
use "social engineering", or remote execution software. The latter
is the primary problem in corporate settings because they don't
use safe operating procedures. They regularly use things like Remote
Desktop, which in turn is one of the major problems.
On rare occasions I've seen something suspicious and run a
portable AV program like Clam. In general I think the whole paradigm
of AV is outdated. When it first came out, definitions needed
updating once a month. The definitions were 1 MB. Now it's more like
300 MB every few hours. And they still can't be trusted to find
0-day attacks, which are probably the biggest threat. Our tax
dollars pay the NSA to cook up 0-days, along with creepy companies
in Israel, so that cellphones and computers can be accessed by law
enforcement. That, in turn, is what allowed China to recently conduct
extensive hacks.
It's a whole different landscape from the days
of watching out for Melissa or "All you data are belong to us." Hacking
is professional now. The world is full of sneaky governments and clever,
hungry people who are just a network connection away from having
a chance to scam you or access your bank account.
The way we use computers and what we do with them
has to change in order to have reasonable security. With that in mind,
I would never do online banking, rarely use a cellphone, avoid
shopping online, use credit cards minimally, and avoid keeping
sensitive data on my computer, never use debit cards and never
use a credit card at a gas pump or other unattended locations.
Most people are not willing to live that way. Most people bank, shop,
call Ubers and DoorDash; it's all seamless and it's all online. The big
complaint is that they actually have to lift their arm to wave their
iPhone at store checkouts. That's a way of life. In that way of life
you have your credit and bank accounts monitored and you accept
occasional scams as unavoidable.
So, if you don't mind incredibly bloated AV programs dragging on
your system and occasionally reporting false positives, then you might
also get some small benefit. For people who don't understand tech
security, software updates and AV are really the only option.
I find it impossible to live a worthwhile life today without the Net.
I buy online, bank online, read news online, find friends and discussion online.
If you say "don't do it", then I can only say that my life will be
difficult and impoverished.
A couple of real extracts from my recent life will illustrate.
I called in my bank to draw cash from an ATM; it refused me; I called
for an assistant, and she said "Do you have a phone?" "Yes". And she
guided me through to their online site, and further on to where my PIN
was revealed. I'd got one digit wrong.
I got an email in my Junk folder (MS Outlook account). It said "I've
hacked your account, and I'm posting this from it. Pay up ......."
I knew instinctively that it was scam, so I just examined the webmail of
my account, and there was no sign of any infiltration.
Conclusion; some asshole had got my email address from some other
asshole, and was pulling a fast one.
This is not good, it takes a little computer-savvyness to get by, but
it's preferable to living a paranoid life where the scammers win. Do
battle, fight the good fight and feel like a man.
Ed
On 12/27/2024 3:06 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
I find it impossible to live a worthwhile life today without the Net.
I buy online, bank online, read news online, find friends and discussion online.
If you say "don't do it", then I can only say that my life will be difficult and impoverished.
A couple of real extracts from my recent life will illustrate.
I called in my bank to draw cash from an ATM; it refused me; I called for an assistant,
and she said "Do you have a phone?" "Yes". And she guided me through to their online site,
and further on to where my PIN was revealed. I'd got one digit wrong.
I got an email in my Junk folder (MS Outlook account). It said "I've hacked your account, and I'm posting this from it. Pay up ......."
I knew instinctively that it was scam, so I just examined the webmail of my account, and there was no sign of any infiltration.
Conclusion; some asshole had got my email address from some other asshole, and was pulling a fast one.
This is not good, it takes a little computer-savvyness to get by, but it's preferable
to living a paranoid life where the scammers win. Do battle, fight the good fight
and feel like a man.
Ed
If it works for you... Probably the more risks you take online,
the more relevant AV is as an extra protection. My impression
is that the Windows anti-malware is pretty good these days,
but I'm not expert on that.
When I tried to install FRAPS frame rate measurement software,
Kaspersky and FRAPS got into a knife fight, and the activity
of the two was so furious, the machine locked up :-) Thinking
about it later, the response was actually perfect. That's
because FRAPS was carrying out an un-allowed behavior, on
every Program Files folder, and Kav would have none of it.
Not many of the programs, have that protection type.
On 12/28/2024 2:08 AM, Paul wrote:
When I tried to install FRAPS frame rate measurement software,
Kaspersky and FRAPS got into a knife fight, and the activity
of the two was so furious, the machine locked up :-) Thinking
about it later, the response was actually perfect. That's
because FRAPS was carrying out an un-allowed behavior, on
every Program Files folder, and Kav would have none of it.
Not many of the programs, have that protection type.
That's an interesting point. Doing things I didn't ask it to
do is, for me, a sign of overproduced ninny software. Like
MalwareBytes, which scans the Registry for all non-ninny
settings and then lists them as potential problems, without
explaining the reasoning.
Why would I want a program that doesn't allow access to
program folders? I'm asking it to look for malware, not to
tell me how to manage my business. Over time, a lot of
products have gradually bloated into firewall/AV/ninny programs
for people who don't have an inkling about security and just
want a big dog guarding the door. There's a big cost to that,
in terms of resource hogging and restrictions, as the programs
monitor every file touched and every action taken.
On Sat, 12/28/2024 7:34 AM, Newyana2 wrote:
On 12/28/2024 2:08 AM, Paul wrote:
When I tried to install FRAPS frame rate measurement software,
Kaspersky and FRAPS got into a knife fight, and the activity
of the two was so furious, the machine locked up :-) Thinking
about it later, the response was actually perfect. That's
because FRAPS was carrying out an un-allowed behavior, on
every Program Files folder, and Kav would have none of it.
Not many of the programs, have that protection type.
That's an interesting point. Doing things I didn't ask it to
do is, for me, a sign of overproduced ninny software. Like
MalwareBytes, which scans the Registry for all non-ninny
settings and then lists them as potential problems, without
explaining the reasoning.
Why would I want a program that doesn't allow access to
program folders? I'm asking it to look for malware, not to
tell me how to manage my business. Over time, a lot of
products have gradually bloated into firewall/AV/ninny programs
for people who don't have an inkling about security and just
want a big dog guarding the door. There's a big cost to that,
in terms of resource hogging and restrictions, as the programs
monitor every file touched and every action taken.
If Firefox reached into your Chrome folder and modified it,
how would you feel about that ?
Say, for example, two products were competing on speed,
and the competing product suddenly slowed down, after the other
product got installed.
Ed Cryer wrote:
Every week I run regular scans across my workhorse PC; Defender,
Spybot, Malwarebytes, adwcleaner.
They never find a single germ; or, at least none is reported.
Except that adwcleaner always reports the same pre-installed software.
It often occurs to me as wasted time, but then a little warning light
at the back of my head speaks out; "Better safe than sorry; you know
how the world works - stop the checks and some malware will suddenly
appear".
Maybe I'm simply running competent permanent AV and firewall.
What do others think of this?
Ed
I have never used active AV. My machines are behind the incoming ATT
cable modem firewall. From there the signal is Etherneted and natted to
my own router. It has another firewall.
That router assigns the local addresses.
Each computer has an old,old Zone Alarm software firewall.
All the firewalls are set to stop data flow if things get strange.
Twice a year I run a scan from a live Linux usb dongle.
The comp's O/S's are OFF for those scans.
My local router has an on/off button, the computers are set for instant
off via button, and zone alarm can instantly shut off internet access.
For me, nothing else is needed. My machines are cloned every two weeks
and the clone drives are then unplugged.
The last virus I found was in 1996 when my son deliberately put one on
my gamer to see what would happen. It was a benign virus, fortunately.
I never click on any green buttons, especially the ones that say, "Click
here for a good time".
Every week I run regular scans across my workhorse PC; Defender, Spybot, Malwarebytes, adwcleaner.
They never find a single germ; or, at least none is reported.
Except that adwcleaner always reports the same pre-installed software.
It often occurs to me as wasted time, but then a little warning light at
the back of my head speaks out; "Better safe than sorry; you know how
the world works - stop the checks and some malware will suddenly appear". Maybe I'm simply running competent permanent AV and firewall.
What do others think of this?
Ed
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 508 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 233:10:22 |
| Calls: | 9,984 |
| Calls today: | 2 |
| Files: | 13,833 |
| Messages: | 6,359,841 |
