25% of PC Users Disable Antivirus Software

Not surprised after watching norton and its bloat a few years back I haven't ran one in years. And guess what I haven't had a virus in years. It all comes down the the user, its the same reason my parents and sister needs a virus scanner they lack the knowledge to use the internet and not catch something.

With all that being said I just actually installed Microsoft security Essentials just out of curiousity and its is very light and quick if I were to keep one installed it would be this one.
 
Cerulean said:
Please don't take this reply wrongly, as I am just naturally curious here and want to learn something, but how was that a red herring? :? Does that make the posts of those who say unprotected sex a red herring as well?
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It's an analogy that makes no sense and a statement designed to divert attention from the actual topic at hand.
 
Cerulean said:
Please don't take this reply wrongly, as I am just naturally curious here and want to learn something, but how was that a red herring? :? Does that make the posts of those who say unprotected sex a red herring as well?
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You fail to realise how many innocuous websites end up compromised and end up infecting visitors' machines. All it takes is a rogue third party advert.
 
O I also forgot one of the most important things there is no "family Pc" in my house. No one touches my machines and I make sure everyone has their own. If my friends come over and need to use a PC i either give them guest account access on my machine or a Pos loaner machine.

You can be [H] all you want but if you are sharing your machines with noobs you need a virus scanner installed.
 
Indifference said:
You fail to realise how many innocuous websites end up compromised and end up infecting visitors' machines. All it takes is a rogue third party advert.
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I went to hotmail the other day and MSE warned me a rootkit was trying to come in through a third-party ad banner on the page.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I went to hotmail the other day and MSE warned me a rootkit was trying to come in through a third-party ad banner on the page.
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I have seen a number of malicious websites blocked by an untangle filter that were serving ads to hotmail. Fuck that site.:mad:
 
I really don't see the big deal of AV software anymore personally.

Yeah, I ran it back when I used XP, as XP user permissions are a nightmare.

However, since 2006 when I installed Vista and now 7 I haven't bothered to run any AV software and haven't seen a single problem on any of my computers.

I'm a Software Developer myself and I feel that all you need today is properly configured system permissions and viruses shouldn't be a problem. Since Vista and 7, Microsoft finally gave users the proper ability to set up permissions in a system correctly so you aren't running as root all the time like you did back in XP.

I'll never understand how users just get viruses "out of the blue" Where are you going and what code are you running thats full of viruses.

If you don't trust a piece of code or something, run it in a sandbox and be done with it. Much easier than messing around with system-level AV IMHO.
 
There was just an article about two major ad distributors dishing out viruses by accident. These ads appear on major sites across the internet. Such ads could easily compromise unprotected systems.

You may run with scissors for years without incident. It only takes one time to really mess up your life, though.
 
There are indeed some AV programs that are notorious system hogs that i have seen lately.

The worst of the worst has been Ad-Aware, i think that in the end i replaced that person's AV with Avast or something else that was less of a pain in the ass... yes i replaced someones AV out of the blue, just because it pissed me off.
 
i run my antivirus program 100% of the time.
just get an ssd and you could have 10 antivirus programs running and still it would be faster than a hdd.
 
dgingeri said:
people who run Windows computers without AV should be banned from the internet. Those who have it and disable it should be shot in the kneecaps.
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i've been using computers for over 15 years now and can count on one hand how many viruses i've gotten
 
GoldenTiger said:
Yeah, right, of course, I forgot, there's NO such thing as rootkits, infected ad banners, botnets looking for zero-day exploits, compromises of trusted sites, or keyloggers. Nope, nothing except pop-up viruses that are readily visible to the naked eye without any tools needed!

LOL :rolleyes: .
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computer_bomb.jpg
 
defunctdoormat said:
There was just an article about two major ad distributors dishing out viruses by accident. These ads appear on major sites across the internet. Such ads could easily compromise unprotected systems.

You may run with scissors for years without incident. It only takes one time to really mess up your life, though.
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Mess up your life?

It would literally take me 15 minute to re-image my C: partition and remove any virus if I did somehow get one and couldn't remove it.
 
im fine with doing malware bytes scans when something different pops up. i use opera. i use a malware-blocking hosts file. i have backup system images and data backups, i can fix my own computer.

antivirus is an annoyance to me.
 
This must make me a rebel, I don't even use antivirus programs.
What's even better is the fact that I don't get virus's.
 
Elledan said:
The possibility of contracting a virus via a browser are virtually zero if you have any clue about what you're doing.
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That's the problem though - you may know what you're doing, but the average computer user does not understand how things work. To them the computer is a tool. A rather mysterious, high-tech tool, and they don't know a thing about how it does what it does. There are also people that think they know more than they do, or know better and take risks anyway. Those are the people that will have trouble.

Common sense is a powerful tool :)
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Actually, it an oxymoron, but I understand what you're getting at there. :)

Cerulean said:
What are your chances of contracting a sexual virus/AIDS/HIV?
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Zero, if you're asking about me personally. Chaste virginity is pretty much my permanent state. As for why... well, you'd not believe me if I told you, and it's nobody's business anyway. Besides that, this is not a correct analogy for computer communication. Dealing with websites like banks, shopping, or other websites that require specific and highly sought after personal information is more like going to an ATM and not knowing that someone's put a well-disguised skimmer on it. You're in the right place and doing nothing wrong, neither is the machine, but it's the parasite attached to the machine that's causing the trouble.
 
Is the hassle of blocking scripts and ads, starting task manager to end proccess, port forwarding, etc. really worth not having a simple av on your oc'd i7 box? Can you honestly notice it's even running these days?
 
Phoenix333 said:
That's the problem though - you may know what you're doing, but the average computer user does not understand how things work. To them the computer is a tool. A rather mysterious, high-tech tool, and they don't know a thing about how it does what it does. There are also people that think they know more than they do, or know better and take risks anyway. Those are the people that will have trouble.
Oh, I definitely advocate AV for 'regular' users :) I just don't like the attitude that 'everyone should run it or they're going to die', which seems to be quite prevalent. I happen to be a software engineer by trade, I write all kinds of software most of which is exposed to malicious users and software all the time, and I worry about security a lot. The trick is knowing what is fact and what is just paranoia :)
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SirMaster said:
Mess up your life?

It would literally take me 15 minute to re-image my C: partition and remove any virus if I did somehow get one and couldn't remove it.
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Have fun once their keylogger has used your online banking account and wired your savings away... or people are signing up for things in your name, or using your credit cards. Not a fifteen minute thing.
 
My Firefox plug-ins take over 15 times the memory that AVAST antivirus does on my computer. AVAST takes 1,584K memory. Firefox plug-ins take 17,660K memory. Firefox takes 97,720 memory. It's a lame argument that antivirus programs take to many resources.

It just makes me wonder how many people that don't use an antivirus program also don't use a firewall? Yeah I know Windows has it's own firewall, but it only takes 1 spam virus to turn the unprotected computer into a zombie spam machine, and Windows firewall doesn't protect stuff out going.
 
i cant believe how ignorant and pompous some of you are about AV and how only idiots get viruses and so on i really cant wait to the day you get infected from a legit source, but of course it is not like you would actually come to this site and admit you got infect cause then it was a "told you so" moment.

It is like it somehow makes you feel superior to claim that running no AV is cool! Your are so 1337 cause you don't run AV!
 
MrGuvernment said:
i cant believe how ignorant and pompous some of you are about AV and how only idiots get viruses and so on i really cant wait to the day you get infected from a legit source, but of course it is not like you would actually come to this site and admit you got infect cause then it was a "told you so" moment.

It is like it somehow makes you feel superior to claim that running no AV is cool! Your are so 1337 cause you don't run AV!
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No really, tell us how you truly feel! :D

Who ruined your cheerios this morning?
 
lol

just gets old people claiming common sense will save the day or safe browsing habits work for not getting viruses when as already mentioned more and more legit sites get infected or become the source for infection, the creators of this evil crap are always one step ahead of the AV world so it is only a matter of time that things hit the fan for those with no AV.
 
nailzer said:
My Firefox plug-ins take over 15 times the memory that AVAST antivirus does on my computer. It's a lame argument that antivirus programs take to many resources.
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Ever hear of disk I/O or CPU time? Are these not resources?
 
Don't download shit, unless it's an official demo or a like WinRAR or games on Steam or MS updates and we only visit like 6 sites in my household so I don't even bother with it. I have MSE 2.0 but I just run a few scan every few weeks or something.

Most people should be running it though, Whenever someone tells me their computers isn't working right it's either a virus or overheating.
 
MrGuvernment said:
lol

just gets old people claiming common sense will save the day or safe browsing habits work for not getting viruses when as already mentioned more and more legit sites get infected or become the source for infection, the creators of this evil crap are always one step ahead of the AV world so it is only a matter of time that things hit the fan for those with no AV.
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Yup, and automated worms just attacking through windows exploits, too... it's moronic. I hope none of you guys saying you don't use antivirus work anywhere... you're like a doctor who thinks he cannot get sick because he works in the medical field :rolleyes:.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Have fun once their keylogger has used your online banking account and wired your savings away... or people are signing up for things in your name, or using your credit cards. Not a fifteen minute thing.
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I don't do online banking for this exact reason. I do purchase things via credit card but I have full protection on that card.

Someone got hold of my number once and I got the charge taken off my statement after one call within 24 hours.

So while I had to wait a day for the charge to come off, the call was still pretty quick and easy.

I don't keep sensitive information on my PC that I can't afford to lose or can't afford to get compromised. Simple as that.
 
IMO everyone should run an AV, but should also recognize their weaknesses.

According to a friend who is a developer on the Windows 8 security team at Microsoft, MS is developing MSE purely as a stop gap to the release of true preventive techniques
 
SirMaster said:
I don't do online banking for this exact reason. I do purchase things via credit card but I have full protection on that card.

Someone got hold of my number once and I got the charge taken off my statement after one call within 24 hours.

So while I had to wait a day for the charge to come off, the call was still pretty quick and easy.

I don't keep sensitive information on my PC that I can't afford to lose or can't afford to get compromised. Simple as that.
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Actually its not that simple.

I use TD canada online banking, if I ever try to login from an ip address they don't have logged for me say outside of my home. It will ask me the secret question to access my account and doesn't matter if I have the actually login password because if I get that wrong it goes no where!

So whoever is trying to access your account would need both.
 
SirMaster said:
I don't do online banking for this exact reason. I do purchase things via credit card but I have full protection on that card.

Someone got hold of my number once and I got the charge taken off my statement after one call within 24 hours.

So while I had to wait a day for the charge to come off, the call was still pretty quick and easy.

I don't keep sensitive information on my PC that I can't afford to lose or can't afford to get compromised. Simple as that.
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all credit cards have full protection in the united states
 
Indifference said:
You fail to realise how many innocuous websites end up compromised and end up infecting visitors' machines. All it takes is a rogue third party advert.
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As I said previously, there are ads on the internet? One of the most basic protections someone can do for their computer is use something like adblock plus. One of the major infection vectors for malware and viruses is via ad services. It is very easy to place a malicious ad with any of the services and have that ad spread rapidly through the net before someone finds it and reports it.

And it isn't just me. One of the first things anyone talking about security on the internet tells people is to install adblocking software. It isn't a slight against this site or any other, it is just the reality that sites by and large do not control their ads and farm it out to third parties that handle more ads than they can possibly reasonably check. Pretty much all the major ad companies have been used at one time or another to serve malicious ads including the big boys like doubleclick, etc. Here is an example from just over a week ago: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/doubleclick/

Also notice that AV software was basically useless with only 2 out of 42 AV programs even detecting it. Which is part of the problem with AV software in the first place in that it is primarily a reactive system and not a proactive system. This doesn't even get into the issues of false positives, whitelisting, whitelist masquerading, etc.

The best strategy is to be proactive in protecting your system from coming into contact with a virus/malware in the first place by closing off the infection vectors.
 
MrGuvernment said:
lol

just gets old people claiming common sense will save the day or safe browsing habits work for not getting viruses when as already mentioned more and more legit sites get infected or become the source for infection, the creators of this evil crap are always one step ahead of the AV world so it is only a matter of time that things hit the fan for those with no AV.
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If as you say, the creators are always one step ahead of the AV world, what is the point in running AV continuously as it won't prevent anything? Eliminate the infection vectors.
 
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