"Seriously virus protection is biggest snake oil scam ever...."

Someone posted this on another message board and I wanted to see what people on this board might have to say

"I don't use any protection myself....

Seriously virus protection is biggest snake oil scam ever... unless you're downloading torrents and warez or opening executables you get in email forwards (which is just idiotic) - there is no need for virus protection. But if you feel you need just get AVG's free one.

A personal FW is not a bad idea just to know if any software is opening a network connection outbound that you didn't intend to initiate. The one built into Windows is fine for that and won't cripple your performance like the third party ones - I think the Windows one alerts you when software opens a connection, I can't remember. I use Little Snitch on OSX for that purpose...."

 

I think he's got it backwards. Unless you're not behind a router, a personal firewall is useless.
On the other hand, Anti-Virus will protect you from network aware viruses and security vulnerabilities, like embedded viruses in JPEGs, power points, etc.
Even so, Viruses make up such a small portion of infections these days, 99% of the time it's Spyware.

 

You don't need to dowload files illegally to download a virus.
You don't have to visit inappropriate sites either.

Personally I have not et had a virus, and I don't want any, but in todays time it is better to have some anti virus protection.
It also does more than just fend of viruses - if you use Kasprsky - it get's suspicious of software asking for additional rights, i.e. Security Suites can stop programmes from collecting data like usage statistics.

But back to viruses - they can be embedded in many different file types, amongst some Office documents.
And with a recent report about the inadequacy of security of government sites in the UK, who is to keep hackers from placing a little bit of malicious code on a trustworthy site?
Then USB drives - you could get malicious software from another computer vis a USB drive, even if you move files like pictures.

Another point of interest is nternet banking - I believe the exact phrasings have been reworked, but for a short while a couple of UK banks said that you will be liable to damages caused if your PC was inadquately protected.
At the same time Barclays offers Kaspersky for free to its online banking customers.

Which software you chose is in the end up to the user.
But itsalways better to be safe rather than sorry.
Not using any anti virus protection isn't necessarily the best idea.

 

Yeah actual viral infections aren't what they used to be, but they're still there. My friend makes computer viruses and he tells me sometimes how easily he can bypass certain things to get into a system.

I remember I used to crash my computer 5 years ago on a Trojan every 6 months or so and it was an annoying buggard too lol

Nowsadays, viral infections aren't as common. Haven't had one in a long time and I probably do more things to put myself at risk now than I did back then lol

Antiviruses are a state of mind. You want to know it's there just in case I guess. That's like saying you don't need a lock on your door because your neighborhood is safe and nobody ever steals. most people would still want a lock on their door just in case >.>

 

maybe nowadays.. i remember like 8-10 years ago, i'd go without antivirus, after 2 years of using my desktop, it was running sluggish, so my uncle decided to clean up everything for me, disk defrag(that bar on defrag on the 98's i think, were almost all red with a hint of blue and green here and there)

and installed antivirus/did a virus scan..... i had hundreds of stuff that were detected (i think it ended up being 800 something), granted not alll of these were viruses,(or at least i hope they weren't), i'm sure some were....

so now i have anti virus all the time , wish i had a better spy/adaware blocker though...

 

Hardware firewalls are definitely a hundred times better than any personal software you can get, but it won't save you from someone on your network watching what you're doing...

Then again, a personal firewall won't either . But he is right when he says that the least it will do is let you know if a program is trying to make outbound connections without permission, which could prevent data loss, identity theft, spyware or viruses from being downloaded, etc.

 

Anti virus is snake oil and its official holiday is April 1st, can anyone guess how many people bought Norton this year (Conficker scare '09)? Most of us can avoid viruses by sheer common sense, but there are people who don't have common sense, at the same time, they also don't have common sense enough to get one of the many free anti virus programs out there (Avast! and AVG). I consider, and I know many will argue that it no longer is, Norton to be a bigger threat to a system then most viruses (same with Real and Apple software, they do the same friggen thing as most Trojans). Where is the old conspiracy theory that Anti virus manufactures are producing all the viruses?

As for firewalls, we have the Windows firewall and we have a the router firewall, more firewalls will not do a better job. Most personal firewalls are not designed to compliment the Windows firewall and will even conflict with it, they are designed to replace it. A router will not protect you from threats that are on your network behind your routers firewall. Personally speaking, I'm happy with my Windows firewall.