Conflicker created by Norton

[Bibbalo]

Not really, but anyone else consider this tactic. "In these hard economic times..." anti-virus creators could have found a excellent way to prey upon those who own computers but don't know how to take care of them themselves.

Myself I have no anti-virus protection, turn off all of vistas annoying safety features, and just take care of stuff myself. I save my documents onto DVDs about once every two months or so and reformat about that often to keep my pc running optimum and clean up all the garbage (installed games I don't play, and ect).

Knowing that everyone else here on the Escapist are much like myself when it comes to knowledge and superiority over the rest of the human race, what do you do to look after your PC and protect it from threats?

 

[chipmunk2510]

Common Sense and whatever free anti virus scanner I can be bothered to download.

 

[boardman1000]

pour goats blood over the keyboard chanting norton sucks backwards. skcus notron! it seems to work pretty good. then every third wednesday that is a full moon i burn a sacrificial squirrel to appease the internet. die nature die

 

[vfaulkon]

Um...slight problem with your theory - that kind of business plan by Norton would not only probably be illegal, but it'd be very short-sighted. If word got out that Norton did create that virus to literally scare up customers, they'd lose so much business so quickly I wouldn't be surprised if their main servers imploded. Assuming the people running Norton aren't as dumb as rocks, it's more likely some jackass with coding skills thought they'd play the Joker and create a destructive virus that unleashed on April Fools' Day.

 

[boardman1000]

pour goats blood over the keyboard chanting norton sucks backwards. skcus notron! it seems to work pretty good. then every third wednesday that is a full moon i burn a sacrificial squirrel to appease the internet. die nature die

it works, haha i quoted myself. narcissism

 

[Bibbalo]

pour goats blood over the keyboard chanting norton sucks backwards. skcus notron! it seems to work pretty good. then every third wednesday that is a full moon i burn a sacrificial squirrel to appease the internet. die nature die

Hmm, I think I might have to adopt your strategy, though there are not many goats around here so I shall have to capture pigeons and use their blood instead. Hope that doesn't anger the gods!

Only time I ever got a virus was when I lived in university residence and the floor jerk would go around to all the rooms with doors unlocked, when people were in class, and play gay porn on their computer, open the windows and turn the speakers all the way up. But he got what was coming to him...

 

[Alex_P]

Anti-virus software companies don't write viruses.

There is, however, a lot of cross-over between the anti-virus developers and malware developers. Both jobs do involve similar skills and domain knowledge, after all -- it's all about finding weird ways to dig yourself into Windows and hold on for dear life while another application tries to get rid of you.

-- Alex

 

[Minimike3636]

If you're willing to sacrifice your computer's safety just to save some cash, go right ahead. I, on the other hand, have anti-virus software which allows me to initalize Virus and Spyware scans whenever I please, and they run once automatically everyday. It's Computer Associates' Software, and it's a helluva lot better than any other computer protection software I've tried, including Norton.

And yes, we Escapists are superior

( \ / )
( ^_^)
c(")(")

And so is this bunny.

 

[Bluntknife]

Anti-virus software companies don't write viruses.

There is, however, a lot of cross-over between the anti-virus developers and malware developers. Both jobs do involve similar skills and domain knowledge, after all -- it's all about finding weird ways to dig yourself into Windows and hold on for dear life while another application tries to get rid of you.

-- Alex

Norton in my books counts as a virus. Have you ever tryed to get that damned thing off.
It's a huge pain in the ass. Also I've seen it cause some insane issues with Pc's and networks.
That being said, I don't think Norton is in crap cause of the economy. It comes with a trial on almost all OEM pc's and most people tend to do what the computer tell them without thinking.

 

[Odude]

I think Norton had to cool it after people found out that they had the fix for the blaster worm before it was actually released, and didn't release it for quite some time after mass infection. I'm not saying they made it, but someone within their ranks did, and I really don't think Symantec put them up to it.

As another poster said, there's a lot of overlap between anti-virus, and malware. I know people that work for anti-virus companies, yet write malware for kicks. Sadly, these types of people tend to write the best malware because they know exactly what virus and spyware scanners look for.

Oh, and removal tools for conflicker have been out for quite some time now, so no big deal.