virus warning

[gelf]

just went on to the "house of flying spanners" website from a link off here........... and got a warning from norton say that id just got a virus... bloodhound.exploit.196

not sure how or why........ be warned.

[FridgeFreezer]

Hmm, there was a google analytics link on the HOFS homepage that had mysteriously appeared, now deleted. I've had a bit of bother with the hosting co lately so it could be a hangover from that.

Top tip #1 is use FireFox, IE is just an easy target.

[Cat_J]

Also get a real anti virus like AVG rather than the con that is Norton.

[JimAttrill]

I agree. Norton is expensive, slows your machine down something awful and basically doesn't work. AVG is the way to go, it's free and it does work. I suppose they must get enough corporate clients to pay their way.

[Se7enUp]

Just my 2p worth!

I love Norton Anti-Virus!

I actualy make quite a reasonable living removing it from peoples PC's and correcting the damage it's done.

As already stated, Norton (Symantec) is fine for a corporate network but a bad idea for the home user!

My personal PC - it runs AVG

[Cat_J]

Most businesses don't use Norton because it rubbish, they use Sophos as its easy to update hundreds of cimputers off one server and actually works.

U had a two year license of AVG pro. It cost me around £20 for 2 years. Norton was £40 for one last time I checked and did pretty much nothing to protect you even though it used all of your system resources doing nothing. AVG free is great but I thought it felt right to pay for the best product out there and you get support when you need it (you do with free anyway, they're quite helpful)

I don't use any now though as I ditched windows and got a Mac. Never had a single system or other error since I bought it. (and the reason Macs don't get virus' isn't like some say people don't write virus' for them, its becuase it actually secure)

Sorry for the OTness but I hate the thought of people wasting their money on things like Norton when they give nothing back to their customers.

[JST]

AVG?

[Retroanaconda]

I've been using computers my whole life and have never had any anti-virus or firewall software....and haven't had any problems yet!

Viruses can't download themselves to your computer, despite what some companies/people would have you believe, so be sensible in what you open and you'll be fine.

[TomG]

AVG?

http://free.avg.com/

[BogMonster]

Well my 2p is that in about 10 years Norton is the only one that hasn't let me down and consistently picks up viruses, though I agree it uses far too much PC resources.

I had AVG free installed on a computer at work for a few months, always kept up to date, and when the company IT people came round to check it over they said it had 3 different worm viruses on it which AVG had not even noticed so they put Norton back on! I can only hope the paid version of AVG is better than the free one... the increase in cost of Norton plus the fact that it is a resource hog means that when my laptop's copy of Norton 2006 (the last version that didn't use TOO much of your computer) expires in a couple of weeks, I am going to have to do something else because it will no longer let me renew the subscription - don't know why but it says I need a new "system key" or something, and I don't have anything apart from the key that it came with. Installing Norton 360 would make the laptop too slow so I can't use that.

[lansalot]

I've been using computers my whole life and have never had any anti-virus or firewall software....and haven't had any problems yet!

Viruses can't download themselves to your computer, despite what some companies/people would have you believe, so be sensible in what you open and you'll be fine.

I take it you have on occasion used your computer to browse the internet, or perhaps use - for example - an email client to read your emails ?

Sample scenario

• internet explorer, or firefox, or outlook, or windows aren't patched up to date
  
• flaw found and exploit created for one of these programs
  
• you visit infected website that exploits that, err, exploit, or are sent a spam email containing malformed content that goes for the jugular
  
• you downloaded nothing in either case (though in saying "download", you are more likely referring to insecure executables etc, rather than the temporary nature of www page content for example), and through no action of your own you are now infected
  

and haven't had any problems yet

Keyword: "yet"

Further research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-by_download

[Retroanaconda]

Oh I understand the risks of websites making use of exploits in browser software, but I simply keep the apps up to date and run the risk.

Simply can't be bothered with the software. Although Windows Defender does it's thing in the background, and as that's part of Vista I let it be. Dunno how effective it is, but it seems to get updated reguarly...and doesn't seem to do any harm

[lansalot]

If you understand the risks and acknowledge that you are running them, then fair enough

Just wanted to point the above out for the benefit of any users who aren't perhaps as IT savvy - in my years I've heard a lot of "well I've never done that and I've always been fine".

Usually the person saying that is standing next to his ashen-faced friend as he listens to the hard disk heads ploughing their way through his family photos and other un-backed-up collectibles while I explain just what the impact of such a situation is... That it never happened to their friend never tends to be of much consolation...

edit: fwiw, Windows Defender is very limited in its scope. I think it's a bit of a waste of time to be honest... Most users are running as local admins on their PC, and a vulnerabillity ran as admin will shut off things like that pretty quick.

[Retroanaconda]

This is very true.

I used to not bother with back-ups of important data, and then one of my HDDs died on me and I lost a load of stuff. In the end I got it back by soldering on a controller board from another HDD, but that's not the point.

Suffice to say I now have a second HDD and run a complete back-up every 3 days

[Cat_J]

This is why I wont use Windows anymore. Theres no real security layers. In Mac OSX, and Linux the Unix kernal will not allow anything to run without proper permissions and the administrator does not have permission to kill critical processes, you have to be a super user. This is the opposite in Windows where you as an administrator can run anything and therefore anything that gets on your account can do anything, without you knowing.

AVG Pro is much better at picking stuff up than the free version and is a fraction of the cost of everything else. Norton will often find stuff thats not really there or mistake something for something else. Thats why many people think is so great because its finding all these virus' even though most are nothing. The database update is half-arsed too, you'll get your daily update but most of it is empty promises.

AVG isn't the best and AVG Pro is far better but they beat most others on the market by a long shot.

I think its important that people understand that with windows alone you are completely unprotected, all those 'security' features are just shiny buttons that do nothing. As a Unix user I understand security very well because you have to, and windows have non of it.

[Godlykepower]

Ok, for what its worth, I have been using Norton for several years & never had a problem.

My current laptop has Dual Core processing & 2 gig of RAM, so I dont even notice if it slows me down somewhat........either I dont notice, or my computer is REALLY quick if I didnt have Norton.

[pugwash]

ESET NOD32- find all sorts of things that both AVG and AVAST have missed!

[lansalot]

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Bottom line: none of them are perfect (as if we didn't already know that )

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2008_08.php

That's just the August report, remember AV hunting is always a moving game and the league may change on a daily basis (well, almost - you get the idea I hope)

ps. got an executable you'd like to run through a load of AV before you run it ? Upload it to http://www.virustotal.com (and remember a clean bill of health there does not guarantee 100% safety - but it's a good starting point).

Also, for the more technical user, upload the executable here: http://cwsandbox.org/ and see what happens when it is ran (processes spawned, network connections made, registry entries created, files downloaded etc).

[therealboss]

On Windows computers we have Zone Alarm with AV installed, but my main computers all run Linux so 95% of the problems windows users face I will never see on a Linux computer. I still run an AV program on my Linux PC's but never had a virus on them.

I would suggest that if you run Windows that you run a software firewall and a good AV Program (Zone Alarm or Norton) but like some have you have pointed out Norton can come with its own problems.

[task]

I run McAfee on my Vista Gaming laptop, AVG on my Vista Media centre. Everything else runs some form of unix

[sotal]

Viruses can't download themselves to your computer, despite what some companies/people would have you believe, so be sensible in what you open and you'll be fine.

Unfortunately they can.

Some of the viruses, when they infect one computer they then run continuously probing IP addresses to find computers running with security vulnerabilities, when they find one they exploit it and infect your machine.

Most of these style attacks are patched now, but the point is you could get infected by just having your windows PC connected to the internet, you didn't even have to load a browser or email client.

Also on the point of Mac Security I was reading an interesting article on the subject a couple of months back. A security firm did a number of set tests on a variety of operating systems, the one that won by providing the best level of security was a linux OS, but the interesting thing was that Windows Vista SP1 actually came out better than OS X Leopard. I'll try and dig out the link. To be fair most of the successful attacks on a Mac where DoS attacks so no actual data was obtained etc but they're not as secure as you would be led to think.

There was also an example virus written a year ago or so for OS X so it can be done, and wasn't there a virus on the Iphone recently?

[Orgasmic Farmer]

[Retroanaconda]

Unfortunately they can.

Some of the viruses, when they infect one computer they then run continuously probing IP addresses to find computers running with security vulnerabilities, when they find one they exploit it and infect your machine.

Most of these style attacks are patched now, but the point is you could get infected by just having your windows PC connected to the internet, you didn't even have to load a browser or email client.

Also on the point of Mac Security I was reading an interesting article on the subject a couple of months back. A security firm did a number of set tests on a variety of operating systems, the one that won by providing the best level of security was a linux OS, but the interesting thing was that Windows Vista SP1 actually came out better than OS X Leopard. I'll try and dig out the link. To be fair most of the successful attacks on a Mac where DoS attacks so no actual data was obtained etc but they're not as secure as you would be led to think.

There was also an example virus written a year ago or so for OS X so it can be done, and wasn't there a virus on the Iphone recently?

That's why I have a hardware firewall in my router, stops simple attacks anyway.

Hell, it may be possible for my PC to be compromised, but it's been okay so far and I'll cross that bridge when I get to it...at which point it'll probably fall down

Still, I back up all my data anyway...so I'd just re-format. Gives the PC a good clean up and refresh

[Cat_J]

First thing I do when I get a router is turn the hardware firewall off. They've only caused problems for me not understanding what particular connection are being used for unlike a software firewall which is more programmable.

[Max Series-3]

School give me Sophos for free!!! But when i had it on my old HP laptop it was slow and rubbish!! Get OSX or a Mac only one virus for the whole thing that uses iChat (which BTW never gets used unless you have a mobile me account!!) Or one of those USB computers on the gadget show a Pico mini comp Mini Computer It runs virus software of your PC so that it doesnt slow it down and makes your computer invisible to the outside world!

Max