Viruses are "overated" and don't even do anything

vonfeldt7 · 04-07-2008, 04:30 AM

I don't understand why people get so crazy about Viruses. In my experience, they don't even do anything. I remember back when I had my Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) and 256MB of RAM running WinXP (and for a time, Windows ME). I would scan with Norton every few months, find TONS of infections, and once it fixed everything, it wasn't any faster at all. Maybe it's because it was soo slow to start with, I dont know.

And that's IF you can get a Virus. I'm on the internet ALL THE TIME and I'll do a scan every few months...just to find nothing. (AVG). I'm downloading all kinds of stuff, and still have no Viruses. Then again, I'm halfway smart and have common sense (IE: When my friend says on msn "Lolz like omg like lolz look at this foto" and the file says "hilarious.exe" it's obviously not a "foto").

Not to say that you can't get Viruses, and that they don't do anything, that's just been my experience (thankfully). Now spyware on the other hand...that I've had my fair share of. (Although I usually find that most of it doesn't seem to do anything either).

This has just been my experience...am I the rule? Or the exception?

dznutz · 04-07-2008, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vonfeldt7

I don't understand why people get so crazy about Viruses. In my experience, they don't even do anything.

says the person using protection. ALL if not 99.999% of antivirus products protects from MAJOR viruses. it's the semi-harmless to minor viruses that seperates the brands.

my sister and friends had major viruses thanks to not not having an antivirus program installed. their conditions were either: restart computer when opening MS word, random restarts, random bsod, not being able to execute programs, and the like.

X2BreakOfFate · 04-08-2008, 07:47 PM

no porn, no illegal software, and common sense.

you have these things you don't need protection.
or just get a Mac : )

tlarkin · 04-08-2008, 07:52 PM

Just wait when you are at work and see a self propagating network active virus pop up in your email server. You'll then learn to understand the severity of the threat.

G25r8cer · 04-08-2008, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlarkin

Just wait when you are at work and see a self propagating network active virus pop up in your email server. You'll then learn to understand the severity of the threat.

I'll be laughing with you. Viruses def are real and you can get them from virtually opening a email from someone who had a virus and didnt even know it. All viruses really do is slow your system down alot and start to delete or corrupt needed windows files.

Nightrain · 04-08-2008, 11:15 PM

Lol. Get rid of the antivirus/antispyware, and install windows fresh without any security updates and such and go roaming around for a couple months. You probably wouldn't be a happy camper by the end.

Yes though, antivirus software and updated OS's really do help to battle infection. This makes viruses seem like they do nothing and seems impossible to get infected by anything major. But they are still out there and can cause some pretty bad things to happen. CIH and Magistr come to mind as pretty destructive ones that were around a few years ago.

Viruses used to be about destruction/humiliation/popularity and such but things have been going a different direction lately imo. There are still those viruses whose point is destruction, but I believe it is more about money. This is why most don't make a big scene and why spyware is so popular (using that term very loosely lol). Why destroy data, when you can sit in hiding just pilfering data that can be worth quite a bit of money.

Ehh, viruses/malware are bad. Have been and will be.

G25r8cer · 04-08-2008, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightrain

Lol. Get rid of the antivirus/antispyware, and install windows fresh without any security updates and such and go roaming around for a couple months. You probably wouldn't be a happy camper by the end.

Yes though, antivirus software and updated OS's really do help to battle infection. This makes viruses seem like they do nothing and seems impossible to get infected by anything major. But they are still out there and can cause some pretty bad things to happen. CIH and Magistr come to mind as pretty destructive ones that were around a few years ago.

Viruses used to be about destruction/humiliation/popularity and such but things have been going a different direction lately imo. There are still those viruses whose point is destruction, but I believe it is more about money. This is why most don't make a big scene and why spyware is so popular (using that term very loosely lol). Why destroy data, when you can sit in hiding just pilfering data that can be worth quite a bit of money.

Ehh, viruses/malware are bad. Have been and will be.

LOL!! Yup My moms pc running w/o antivirus and she got a virus in 3days I think. Some stupid guy that reformated her hdd didnt install antivirus and said it wasnt needed. After the 3days I reformated it again and installed Avast Pro for her. Yeah without antivirus you will have atleast 40 IE pop-ups and a couple of freezes. LOL

tlarkin · 04-09-2008, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightrain

Lol. Get rid of the antivirus/antispyware, and install windows fresh without any security updates and such and go roaming around for a couple months. You probably wouldn't be a happy camper by the end.

Yes though, antivirus software and updated OS's really do help to battle infection. This makes viruses seem like they do nothing and seems impossible to get infected by anything major. But they are still out there and can cause some pretty bad things to happen. CIH and Magistr come to mind as pretty destructive ones that were around a few years ago.

Viruses used to be about destruction/humiliation/popularity and such but things have been going a different direction lately imo. There are still those viruses whose point is destruction, but I believe it is more about money. This is why most don't make a big scene and why spyware is so popular (using that term very loosely lol). Why destroy data, when you can sit in hiding just pilfering data that can be worth quite a bit of money.

Ehh, viruses/malware are bad. Have been and will be.

Actually I do not run any Anti-Virus software on my windows XP machine at all. I have a router running NAT + SPI firewall, and that is it. I am virus free. I don't use any P2P software (like limewire, that is a quick way to get a virus) with the exception of torrents, but even then I don't download anything that is not legal and I view the contents before I agree to download it.

I don't go to malicious sites, warez or hacker sites, and I don't do anything stupid like download and run email attachments.

I have been running my windows boxes like this since about 2001ish and have been virus free since then.

The problem is, your average user can't follow these steps so they do in fact need virus protection.

**apj101** · 04-08-2008, 07:55 PM

well the point is you catch, them. what if you hadn't? virus' can be used to keylog steal details etc. Or more commonly they can be used for ddos or to send spam emails (which you probably wouldnt even realise was happening...so i guess for the most part you personally dont know anything is wrong, but that doesnt mean its not doing anything.

you could just be another drone pc

_

tlarkin · 04-08-2008, 08:01 PM

yeah its totally not serious

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04...botnet_menace/

04-07-2008, 04:30 AM	#1 (permalink)
vonfeldt7 Platinum Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Middle of nowhere, Kansas Age: 18 Posts: 999	Viruses are "overated" and don't even do anything I don't understand why people get so crazy about Viruses. In my experience, they don't even do anything. I remember back when I had my Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) and 256MB of RAM running WinXP (and for a time, Windows ME). I would scan with Norton every few months, find TONS of infections, and once it fixed everything, it wasn't any faster at all. Maybe it's because it was soo slow to start with, I dont know. And that's IF you can get a Virus. I'm on the internet ALL THE TIME and I'll do a scan every few months...just to find nothing. (AVG). I'm downloading all kinds of stuff, and still have no Viruses. Then again, I'm halfway smart and have common sense (IE: When my friend says on msn "Lolz like omg like lolz look at this foto" and the file says "hilarious.exe" it's obviously not a "foto"). Not to say that you can't get Viruses, and that they don't do anything, that's just been my experience (thankfully). Now spyware on the other hand...that I've had my fair share of. (Although I usually find that most of it doesn't seem to do anything either). This has just been my experience...am I the rule? Or the exception? __________________ CPU [Intel Q9450] CPU GFX [Evga 8800GT] GFX RAM [G.Skill 4GB @ 1000MHz] RAM MOBO [Asus Maximus Formula] MOBO

04-08-2008, 07:47 PM	#3 (permalink)
X2BreakOfFate Silver Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 121	no porn, no illegal software, and common sense. you have these things you don't need protection. or just get a Mac : ) __________________ Mobile AMD Sempron 3500+ (1.8GHZ/512KB) Windows Vista Ultimate 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display 1Gb DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2Dimm 60GB Hard Drive 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory (Inter.)

04-08-2008, 11:15 PM	#6 (permalink)
Nightrain Gold Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: In my PC...it's warm in here Age: 22 Posts: 335	Lol. Get rid of the antivirus/antispyware, and install windows fresh without any security updates and such and go roaming around for a couple months. You probably wouldn't be a happy camper by the end. Yes though, antivirus software and updated OS's really do help to battle infection. This makes viruses seem like they do nothing and seems impossible to get infected by anything major. But they are still out there and can cause some pretty bad things to happen. CIH and Magistr come to mind as pretty destructive ones that were around a few years ago. Viruses used to be about destruction/humiliation/popularity and such but things have been going a different direction lately imo. There are still those viruses whose point is destruction, but I believe it is more about money. This is why most don't make a big scene and why spyware is so popular (using that term very loosely lol). Why destroy data, when you can sit in hiding just pilfering data that can be worth quite a bit of money. Ehh, viruses/malware are bad. Have been and will be. __________________ Q6600 \| E6300 Gigabyte P35-DS3R \| Asus P5NSLI 4Gb DDR2 800 \| 2Gb DDR2 667 EVGA GTX280 SC \| EVGA 8800GTS 320Mb SC Corsair TX750W \| BFG 650W

04-08-2008, 07:55 PM	#9 (permalink)
apj101 Administrator Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: London Age: 27 Posts: 10,119	well the point is you catch, them. what if you hadn't? virus' can be used to keylog steal details etc. Or more commonly they can be used for ddos or to send spam emails (which you probably wouldnt even realise was happening...so i guess for the most part you personally dont know anything is wrong, but that doesnt mean its not doing anything. you could just be another drone pc _ __________________ TechZine What did one snow man say to the other? can you smell carrot? The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. How you do anything, is how you do everything! Nauru our homeland, the land we dearly love

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04-08-2008, 07:52 PM	#4 (permalink)
tlarkin VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 9,931	Just wait when you are at work and see a self propagating network active virus pop up in your email server. You'll then learn to understand the severity of the threat.

04-08-2008, 08:01 PM	#10 (permalink)
tlarkin VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 9,931	yeah its totally not serious http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04...botnet_menace/