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Most People Wrong About Computer Security

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HardOCP News

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According to a new poll, most people have anti-virus software installed on their PC. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it is usually out of date or not activated.

While 94 percent of those polled had anti-virus software, just half had updated it in the past month, the survey showed. Eighty one percent had a firewall protecting private information, but just 64 percent had enabled it. And 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software, but only 55 percent had enabled it.
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I guess that means 19% were still using Win98. That's more than I would have thought.
 
Hmmm... ain't it the truth. Used to get those types of PC in repair all the time. Then they wonder why their pc was infested with virus and spywares. Yet when I'd ask if they have an antivirus they said they do.... just not up to date.
 
Pfft, I haven't run any anti virus in years. Yes, I run Windows.

For me it's just not worth the hassle of crappy performance sucking software anymore.
 
i work for an AV software company, we run our updates automatically and have the firewall on be default. it's a shame more companies don't do this automatically.

also, with these data, it's relying on people telling them if they updated it recently, maybe the person didn't manually update it, but behind the scenes the av was updating on it's own.

just goes to show that poll numbers can be skewed in any direction that you want them to be.
 
sithspit said:
Pfft, I haven't run any anti virus in years. Yes, I run Windows.

For me it's just not worth the hassle of crappy performance sucking software anymore.
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Couldn't agree more. 99% of the problem is the user, so some people should run the software. The problem is people get to make the decision for themselves, and some people trust themselves more than they ought to. For me I feel like running AV software on my computer is like killing flies with shotguns. Not even a 1% of a virus (hasn't happened in years... I use AV software.. just not realtime) and you run software that murders performance.
 
bigted said:
i work for an AV software company, we run our updates automatically and have the firewall on be default. it's a shame more companies don't do this automatically.

also, with these data, it's relying on people telling them if they updated it recently, maybe the person didn't manually update it, but behind the scenes the av was updating on it's own.

just goes to show that poll numbers can be skewed in any direction that you want them to be.
Click to expand...

Well it also depends on what AV they are using. Some require users to install new versions of the software but can update the virus definitions on their own.. others can update the program itself automatically as well.
 
I haven't used AV software on any of my personal PC's since Windows 2000. Didn't see the need for it in all honesty as I never had any problems with infections nor anything flagged up that I would have opened as attachments. I agree that most home and business users should use AV products if they are not savvy enough to know what is OK and what is not OK to open or execute.
I just wish the Media would stop making out that without AV software everyone is going to be infected. I know damn well that I could run ANY AV or anti-malware product on any of my systems here and that they would be 100% clean (barring maybe a few tracking cookies but they cannot be avoided without turning cookies off totally anyway in general browsing activity & present no risk).
 
I'm torn on this, because my girlfriend uses my same computer as I, granted different profiles. I ran AVG anti-spyware program and 123 "tracking cookies" came up (all under her profile) now this isn't really that bad is it? I say no, but it is annoying never the less.

At one time I had installed Zonealarm because of all the praises it had, whole christ talk about making my system move to a crawl! And it wasn't like it was running a scan either!

Other AV programs? Yeah they need to have a big fat sticker on them in the store "YOU MIGHT BE BUYING THE SOFTWARE BUT YOU'RE ONLY RENTING THE ABILITY TO BE PROTECTED"... I understand the business model, av companies really wouldn't have any need to update virus definitions if the copy of norton you bought in 1998 still worked the same today. But geeze people! I'm seriously waiting for MS to go that route and charge a yearly fee to upgrade.

Now I use AVG which a free AV program, but christ all mighty can't it auto-update being the scenes without popping something up when it does it everytime? Yeah I know I can find a way to bitch about anything. But seriously it's crap like this where some people say "hey WTF I just want to use my computer without any issues"
 
Tbh... Vmware is about all of the "anti-virus/anti-spyware" that ive ever had. If your wondering "WTF?":

If Im going to run some software, visit a website, or do something that I normally would never do for fear of having to spend a whole weekend removing viruses... I just start up the win2k VM in Vmplayer, and do whatever I need in there. If the VM is boned over, its as simple as deleting the VM, and unzipping it again.

Though, this anti-virus stuff is mostly common sense. All of the anti-virus and firewalls in the world are completely useless if the first step in security is skipped : The user.
Just as in cars with "preventative maintenance", it is no different with computers. Though, I think the problem with normal people who arnt familiar with computers... They may not understand why Firefox/opera would be safer than IE. They may not understand why it would be better to use a router with a decent built-in firewall, rather than Zone Alarm basic. And, worst of all, they might not understand why its bad to use your cats name "fluffy" (or something similar) as your administrator password in windows.


RoBo said:
What do YOU use the internet for?
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Obviously, he isnt using IE, and/or isnt using the internet for the following:
Porn
Warez
no-cd Cracks
Myspace
 
i don't use virus protection either, i have it if i want it (AVG) but i choose not to because of performance, i haven't had a virus on this system in years

i have looked at porn - no virus
i've grabbed a few no-cds - no virus

though its true i dont use IE, some careful common sense will keep your system clean.

i will run spybot, adaware and ccleaner on a regular basis though.
 
bob said:
Obviously, he isnt using IE, and/or isnt using the internet for the following:
Porn
Warez
no-cd Cracks
Myspace
Click to expand...

Ah, but I am using IE, and with the exception of teh pr0n, and Myspace, I do all kinds of stuff on the internet.
 
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