In the mean time, though, we'll be safe if we just keep renewing our AV subscriptions every other month.
Where do people get this stuff from?
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In the mean time, though, we'll be safe if we just keep renewing our AV subscriptions every other month.
Where do people get this stuff from?
I just take Cold-FX. I ain't fraid of no virus.Originally Posted by deepsand
In the mean time, though, we'll be safe if we just keep renewing our AV subscriptions every other month.
Where do people get this stuff from?
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Paid or free. As deepsand already said, lot of free antivirus programs are malware camouflaged as antivirus. How you can tell? Good question. I can't, unless you pick a well known brand and make sure the link is correct. Free is free, so don't expect all the goodies. It will be always a striped down version of the paid one. Most reputable and good security companies have a trial version or paid one. Nothing free. Developing software cost lot of money and everyone likes to be paid for work. I do. If I want to do charity, I choose. So in short don't expect miracles from free anything.
In my experience, paid is far better than free.
It's fairly clear from simply testing to see which offers more prottection.
I have used ESET for a few years and test it regularly with some custom virii and RCEs created by myself.
They may not be complex or dangerous but I know they should be picked up easily so if simple obfuscation can bypass the protection software, I get rid of it.
Norton failed almost every test I set it. It has also become bloatware as they try to keep up with competitors by cramming anything they can think of into the suite resulting in a resource intensive mess.
I think the conspiracy about anti virus companies creating virii is complete garbage.
There are enough hackers, skiddies, and idiots on the internet without people making them up.
The TCP/IP stack is fundamentally flawed and was never built with security in mind... The best we can hope for, without completely rewriting it and breaking most of the internet, is patch and work round issues.
I have also tested this theory by using an isolated Windows XP machine with no protection and just let it connect to the net. I didn't actually do anything or visit any websites, yet after about 4 hours it had been "rooted" and several backdoors installed for all kinds of uses such from spam email to an "FTP distro".
If you just disassemble the standard "zoo testing" exploits you can often see the lack of skill and awful code contained therein.
Last edited by Elev8uk; 02-23-2012 at 04:14 AM.
Absolutely, infection occurs within minutes if the machine is unprotected. We have found this when we sold new systems and the client insisted to install Windows at home. They were back within days to re-install after formats.
There are port scanners out there 24/7 and the moment they see one unprotected, bingo.
Nonsense. Independent testing by numerous parties over many years have put the lie to that claim.
The fact is that, for those vendors offering both free and paid product, both use the same engine, with the latter adding only non-vital functions, generally those relating to administration. In many instances, the extras included in the paid version are inferior to standalone applications available elsewhere.
The only arena in which paid product is a clear winner is for institutional users, where the administration of numerous platforms is a must. For individual users, there are an ample number of free products that can be assembled into a best-of-breed combination that is the equal or better of any suite.
That's a problem that is the more prevalent on cable connected machines, where all on the local loop are in the same IP block and physically configured as a large LAN, so that a single zombie on the loop can easily find likely targets.
DSL connected machines are not so vulnerable to being located; and, are easily protected from port scanners by a decent firewall, which is included in many/most DSL "modems."
That's nice.
I'd rather trust my own, unbiased and non-commercial interest focused study though.
The aforementioned studies also assume that the user is not atypical and doesn't require anything out of the ordinary.
Last edited by Elev8uk; 02-23-2012 at 05:41 AM.
*sigh*
Please don't tell me your an Apple owner with no security software installed!
And what about router vulnerabilities such as the recent WPS fiasco? Or man-in-the-middle attacks, NAT traversal, rm'd-ing, and a host of other hacks which care little about what ports are blocked?
I don't know of any free anti-virus which will block them all. If they did, I am fairly confident that the 27,000 zombies which Ddosed the DOJ and FBI wouldn't have been so willing to do so.
Last edited by Elev8uk; 02-23-2012 at 05:48 AM.
Only 50+ years of experience, beginning with octal machine coding of PENNSTAC.
Weren't expecting that, were you?
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