What are the problems with virus protection ?

7 thoughts on “What are the problems with virus protection ?”

1. Jessica Queller says:

   December 14, 2009 at 10:27 am

   Antivirus applications are basically useless and don’t offer protection, because they operate retroactively instead of proactively.

   Think about it. If you were a virus writer, wouldn’t the first thing you do be to test it against all the major antivirus applications to make sure it can get by those? And when you release your virus at 1:35 PM, how would the antivirus definitions have a definition for your virus at 1:35 PM exactly? Or even at 2:00 PM? There’s no way.

   Apart from having outdated virus definitions, antivirus applications also try to guess what are viruses based on file attributes, and that just leads to a lot of false positives that get people into a panic over nothing ("I have tracking cookies? Oh no!") while also not getting all viruses either.

   Bottom line, antivirus is a waste of resources and even money if you spent money on it.

   If you want to protect your computer, here’s what you should do, in this order:

   1. Back up your personal files.

   2. Reinstall Windows. It’s the only way to know the malware is completely gone.

   3. Set up and use almost exclusively a limited user account. Very few viruses target a limited user account, since they want to get their hooks into Windows’ system files and registry, but even if they did somehow manage to compromise the limited user account, you could simply delete that account and start a new account instead of having to reinstall Windows to get rid of the infection.

   4. Google the term "social engineering" and read the first five results. Almost all malware infections rely on tricking the user, as opposed to exploiting security holes in the operating system.

   5. Do not download pirated software, music, or movies.

   6. Install Windows updates automatically.

   7. Use Firefox with the NoScript extension installed.

   8. Use strong passwords (no dictionary words, no numbers associated with you).

2. QuizMaster says:

   December 14, 2009 at 10:27 am

   The most common would be false positives. This happens when the software marks something as bad when it really isn’t. AVG had a false positive last year that made the system unbootable. There is a fix though.

3. Resi F says:

   December 14, 2009 at 10:27 am

   norton360 for example attracts the bloody things doesnt protect you from them

4. Steven says:

   December 14, 2009 at 10:27 am

   A lot of people think Antivirus software = security
   It doesn’t, there is no way the definitions are going to be updated fast enough to protect you from new viruses.

   Antivirus software (IMO) is a waste of resources

   Some tips:
   -Avoiding going on untrusted sites/clicking random ads and e-mail attachments
   -Browse the web on a user account with limited privileges to prevent malware from automatically installing itself
   – Install all security updates
   -Use Firefox with noscript addon instead of IE
   -Thunderbird instead of Windows Mail
   -Make sure software is safe before installing it. (Search it on Google)
   -Don’t install pirated software

5. geniepiper says:

   December 14, 2009 at 10:27 am

   Sometimes they can give false positives and flag things that are not really viruses. Some, especially those that come with computers, can be heavy on system resources and use up a lot of valuable memory. I would go with one of the free ones like AVG.

6. Memarh P says:

   December 14, 2009 at 10:27 am

   I use AVG for virus’ (it’s free)
   http://free-virus-removal-tools.blogspot.com/

7. Manuel ♥ Pantera Jana εïз says:

   December 14, 2009 at 10:27 am

   No problems and if you want full protectioAvast 4.8
   avira
   AVG8. but install and use only one anti virus
   comodo firewall pro
   malwarebytes anti-malware
   SUPERAntispyware
   ccleaner and mvregclean to clean your computer.
   m
   n do this,

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