Virus's Getting worse?

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Rastien

Pro Misinformationalist
Jun 22, 2011
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I don't run any anti-virus removed all firewalls on my pc.

Had it running like this for 3 years no issues, i'm just careful, generally my friends seem to fuck their computers trying to watch films online or downloading shit or clicking on links or adverts.
 

Headdrivehardscrew

New member
Aug 22, 2011
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Nope, not a single proper virus or even any lousy malware popping up in the last year or so. It has to be noted, though, that the attack vectors seem to have changed a bit.

AV software keeps picking up (sometimes nasty) stuff on private and business removal storage devices, most probably because people have no clue and no shame, sticking them into any computer available. It's like running around naked having intercourse with random people - not the smartest idea.

All machines have AV software installed, at home we run pretty much all of them. They all work, to some extent, some behave a bit like malware themselves, though. My least favourite has been named and shamed already in this thread.

Being 'careful' does not protect you from the more devious forms of internet threats, though. They rely mainly on exploits that require little to no user interaction.

Maybe your - always up-to-date and current - browser is keeping you protected or you don't run any extensions (flash/java/...), but it's pretty silly to run an internet-connected computer without antivirus software and/or a firewall. Generally speaking, people should be fined for doing so, as in most cases, they end up spreading nasties 24/7. And, no, it doesn't matter much if it's Windows or OSX these days, sorry. Haven't seen any bad stuff on Linux, though, but Linux is still more of a pastime of mine and doesn't get the bills paid.

One of the very low level fun bits of a firewall is checking on what program generates traffic. I was amazed to see Apple software wanting to call home every two seconds or so, easily for weeks and months without pausing once. So we run Apple's services but manually these days, life's just too short to put up with such nonsense.
 

DudeistBelieve

TellEmSteveDave.com
Sep 9, 2010
4,771
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excalipoor said:
Legion said:
I know of several people with a Trojan claiming that their PC has been blocked by the police and requests a £100 fine to "unlock" it.
I had one of those some months back. Told me my PC was locked for child pornography and terrorism related activities. Now, living in Finland, child porn is a bad, bad word...but terrorism? That's what you're trying to scare me with? It would've been funny if it hadn't been so inconvenient.

I can't help but wonder who would actually cave in and pay the fine. Someone who's guilty? The police doesn't operate like that for fuck's sake! Child porn and terrorism allegations don't go away by paying a small fee. If you're computer illiterate and haven't done anything wrong, why not just call them and ask?

I don't remember exactly how I did it, but I roundhouse kicked the snot out of that horse. Other than that I haven't had anything for years. Really, porn is pretty safe nowadays. That said, back when I was 8 and on dial-up, I managed to get my mother a ~100$ bill for surfing porn. She wasn't terribly happy about it.
I had the one that mascarades as an Anti-Virus software.

I particularly hate those, who ever designed them NEEDS to get curb stomped. And they're children need to get curb stomped too.
 

Gardenia

New member
Oct 30, 2008
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I have not caught a computer virus since 2001, and I browse all the shady parts of the web.
Dags90 said:
Marter said:
Stay off those sites.
Religious sites?[footnote]http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/05/malware_and_computer_viruses_they_ve_left_porn_sites_for_religious_sites_.html[/footnote]

Have you started frequently visiting a new blog or personal website recently?
ESPECIALLY religious sites! :D
 

Bara_no_Hime

New member
Sep 15, 2010
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Oh. I thought this was going to be about Super Viruses or something. I was expecting medical scares. Instead... this.

OT: Nope. It is likely just your machine - you may already have an infection (that your anti-virus software hasn't caught) that is making other infections easier, or you might just be on a bad website lately.
 

RicoGrey

New member
Oct 27, 2009
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I have had less than 5 viruses my whole life, and I have been downloading risky software since the 90s. Your situation was probably just a run of bad luck.
 

aceman67

New member
Jan 14, 2010
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craftomega said:
Has anyone noticed a increase on the amount of virus's being cuaght by your Anti-Virus? In the past 6 months I have delt with 5 annoying ones, and before that it was more like 1 every 6 months... Just wondering if its just me.
Dude, if you're getting bombarded by virus warnings, I have only one thing to say to you: Its your own fault.

And here's why: You're going to sites that have an increased risk virus'. If you get a virus warning from a site, STOP GOING TO THAT SITE!

Also, keep in mind that most virus' and malware come from advertising on sites, so use an Ad-blocker, cuts down on a lot of it.

That being said: No, I don't notice any increase in virus warnings, because I don't go to sites that have an increased risk of them.

TLDR;

P.E.B.K.A.C. [http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pebkac&l=1]
 

Zipa

batlh bIHeghjaj.
Dec 19, 2010
1,489
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SaneAmongInsane said:
excalipoor said:
Legion said:
I know of several people with a Trojan claiming that their PC has been blocked by the police and requests a £100 fine to "unlock" it.
I had one of those some months back. Told me my PC was locked for child pornography and terrorism related activities. Now, living in Finland, child porn is a bad, bad word...but terrorism? That's what you're trying to scare me with? It would've been funny if it hadn't been so inconvenient.

I can't help but wonder who would actually cave in and pay the fine. Someone who's guilty? The police doesn't operate like that for fuck's sake! Child porn and terrorism allegations don't go away by paying a small fee. If you're computer illiterate and haven't done anything wrong, why not just call them and ask?

I don't remember exactly how I did it, but I roundhouse kicked the snot out of that horse. Other than that I haven't had anything for years. Really, porn is pretty safe nowadays. That said, back when I was 8 and on dial-up, I managed to get my mother a ~100$ bill for surfing porn. She wasn't terribly happy about it.
I had the one that mascarades as an Anti-Virus software.

I particularly hate those, who ever designed them NEEDS to get curb stomped. And they're children need to get curb stomped too.
My personal favourite is the one that pretends to be windows update telling you that you have a virus, it uses the windows XP UI layout so its so easy to spot on a vista/7/8 PC its hilarious. My boss had that one on his laptop awhile ago and I had to get rid of it.
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
8,665
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Penguinis Weirdus said:
DoPo said:
DoS attack would mean he wouldn't be able to get any pages at all, or cause his computer to lockup, connecting to the local network only will you with DHCP (to get an IP address, then all the services on his computer that require info from the web and connect automatically will send requests, Hardly DoSing.
...way to miss the joke, man.

Well, duh - the network does attack you with thousands and thousands of bytes per second.
The Internet is, essentially, just causing traffic to flow through the network. Let's assume the bytes are to open a website, that's still thousands and thousands of bytes, only to open the small-ish webpages and those go through in a very short amount of time. In other words, the speed is a few KB/s.

It's called a Denial of Service attack - when you get on the Net, the rush of incoming information suddenly makes you less capable of doing stuff other than processing it.
DoS would be any attack that attempts to cripple a system through consuming its resources (most commonly, at least). The usual way to do that is by sending it lots of information. That either slows it down to a crawl or to a complete stop.

It makes you waste your time, instead of being productive.
So after getting the data that constitutes a website, you spend time browsing it. I'm willing to bet it's not actually productive. Case in point - you're on the Escapist. So you're just wasting time on the Internet.

Notron is just protecting you.
Norton is stopping you from accessing the Web for enjoyment.

I thought that anybody who knows what DoS is, would be able to get what I wrote. I get sarcastic tone doesn't carry over the text but still, I didn't think I wrote it that serious. I still had to ruin explain it, in hopes I don't get more "corrections".
 

DoPo

"You're not cleared for that."
Jan 30, 2012
8,665
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SmashLovesTitanQuest said:
Mr F. said:
Man, I don't actually know how many computers I fried or how many hundreds of pounds was spent on repairs/high end virus guards.
Happens to the best of us, the 14 year old acne ridden version of me accidently installed adware while searching for gay porn.
WHAT?! Now, I'm disappointed. Really, really disappointed. I lost a lot of respect of you now.- you were acne-ridden. No, I don't want to see you any more. Get out of here, freak!
 

Angry Camel

New member
Mar 21, 2011
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Had to deal with a few viruses that played sound effects from ads a short time back. I use Microsoft Security essentials and common sense, and haven't had any problems since. Laptop ran cooler with MSE as well.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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May 22, 2010
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Nope. Methinks the OP is browsing the wrong porn and/or warez sites. Either that, or he's using Avira and getting even more false positives than usual. For example, I've got a permanent false positive on a couple of mods that keeps popping up no matter how many times I tell it they're okay.
 

saphiren

Full diving
Jul 8, 2009
68
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Owyn_Merrilin said:
Nope. Methinks the OP is browsing the wrong porn and/or warez sites. Either that, or he's using Avira and getting even more false positives than usual. For example, I've got a permanent false positive on a couple of mods that keeps popping up no matter how many times I tell it they're okay.
Oh god, my roommate uses Avira. He just got his computer replaced for the third time this month. On the other hand, he's not very computer-literate and he asks me to help him find games, so while I install them I clean up his viruses. The campus computer club is also very nice to him.

OT: I haven't gotten viruses that weren't false positives in a while. I did have an adware problem a few months ago but it turned out to be a rogue Firefox extension. NOD32 kicks ass. ^_^
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
Legacy
Oct 29, 2010
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UK
Well I got one a few months ago but that was my fault (I will never update that flv player ever again).
Other than that no, everything has been fine for the most part except for my current problem with the new AVG 2013.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

New member
May 22, 2010
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Saphiren said:
Owyn_Merrilin said:
Nope. Methinks the OP is browsing the wrong porn and/or warez sites. Either that, or he's using Avira and getting even more false positives than usual. For example, I've got a permanent false positive on a couple of mods that keeps popping up no matter how many times I tell it they're okay.
Oh god, my roommate uses Avira. He just got his computer replaced for the third time this month. On the other hand, he's not very computer-literate and he asks me to help him find games, so while I install them I clean up his viruses. The campus computer club is also very nice to him.

OT: I haven't gotten viruses that weren't false positives in a while. I did have an adware problem a few months ago but it turned out to be a rogue Firefox extension. NOD32 kicks ass. ^_^
I think that falls under the old joke about 90% of computer problems being between the chair and the keyboard. I've never had a problem with Avira aside from the occasional false positive -- in fact, it's the aggressive heuristics that make me like it. That, and the lower system requirements compared to Avast and AVG.
 

L0dest0ne

New member
Sep 24, 2012
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Linux+firefox+noscript+common sense= no viruses
Only get porn or similar material from sites you know and trust.