Anti-Virus Software is like Adult Diapers

D

darwinist

Very few people need it. For most of us there are much cleaner, cheaper
solutions. Namely: You need to control what comes in and what goes out.

Stop wasting your time, money and dignity. Learn to control your
computer.
 
A

Adam Piggott

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Very few people need it. For most of us there are much cleaner, cheaper
solutions. Namely: You need to control what comes in and what goes out.

Stop wasting your time, money and dignity. Learn to control your
computer.

Then when you log on to one of your favourite forums that has been owned
and had malicious code uploaded, you're screwed.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFEmR+47uRVdtPsXDkRAgAdAJ9Ulmca0872ylSar8NHTLuwSItuPwCfd1WK
esCRv/Wz6rU3DOtXEqGWJ+s=
=7KH7
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
 
J

joboils

Very few people need it. For most of us there are much cleaner, cheaper
solutions. Namely: You need to control what comes in and what goes out.

Stop wasting your time, money and dignity. Learn to control your
computer.

troll
 
C

* * Chas

darwinist said:
Very few people need it. For most of us there are much cleaner, cheaper
solutions. Namely: You need to control what comes in and what goes out.

Stop wasting your time, money and dignity. Learn to control your
computer.

Back in 2000, I tried to read a message in the alt.comp.virus newsgroup
using OE at the time.

I got hit with a "DOS Device in Pathname Vulnerability" attack. NAV was
useless in stopping the attack. I installed the MS Windows 98 Security
Patch which was just released that day. It took several hours to get my
PC back and running properly.

Perhaps one of the current AV programs may have prevented the attack.

I do a lot of online research in materials technology and I frequently
get redirected to a malware site by a bad link. About once every 2-3
weeks, NOD32 warns me that a site is trying to DL some kind of malware,
either a virus or a trojan.

An hour checking the OP troll's PC with AdAware, SpyBot, a good anti
trojan program and a good AV program would probably reveal some
interesting results.

The only way to keep your PC completely safe is to keep it turned off!
Anyone who connects to the internet in any way is susceptible to
malware. Anyone who receives a file from another PC is susceptible. Over
the past 11 years I encountered viruses in commercial software
installation disks twice - once on a floppy and once on a CD.

Time is money - a fool and his money are soon parted!

Chas.
 
B

badgolferman

* * Chas, 6/21/2006, 1:19:01 PM,
The only way to keep your PC completely safe is to keep it turned off!

Unless you have "Boot from Network" or "Wake on LAN" enabled.
 
D

David H. Lipman

From: "darwinist" <[email protected]>

| Very few people need it. For most of us there are much cleaner, cheaper
| solutions. Namely: You need to control what comes in and what goes out.
|
| Stop wasting your time, money and dignity. Learn to control your
| computer.

I suggest you also don't wear automobile seatbelts, don't lock your house doors, don't wear
saftey goggles when using power equipemnt, yada, yada.
 
D

darwinist

Adam said:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


Then when you log on to one of your favourite forums that has been owned
and had malicious code uploaded, you're screwed.

How about you don't download it. What kind of a browser allows
malicious code into your computer?
 
D

darwinist

* * Chas said:
Back in 2000, I tried to read a message in the alt.comp.virus newsgroup
using OE at the time.

I got hit with a "DOS Device in Pathname Vulnerability" attack. NAV was
useless in stopping the attack. I installed the MS Windows 98 Security
Patch which was just released that day. It took several hours to get my
PC back and running properly.

Perhaps one of the current AV programs may have prevented the attack.

I'll tell you another current program that would have prevented the
attack: Thunderbird.
I do a lot of online research in materials technology and I frequently
get redirected to a malware site by a bad link. About once every 2-3
weeks, NOD32 warns me that a site is trying to DL some kind of malware,
either a virus or a trojan.

An hour checking the OP troll's PC with AdAware, SpyBot, a good anti
trojan program and a good AV program would probably reveal some
interesting results.

The only way to keep your PC completely safe is to keep it turned off!
Anyone who connects to the internet in any way is susceptible to
malware. Anyone who receives a file from another PC is susceptible. Over
the past 11 years I encountered viruses in commercial software
installation disks twice - once on a floppy and once on a CD.

So don't buy closed-source software when you can possibly avoid it.
When you can't, well, I guess you or your clients need a pack of
diapers with that.
 
D

darwinist

David said:
From: "darwinist" <[email protected]>

| Very few people need it. For most of us there are much cleaner, cheaper
| solutions. Namely: You need to control what comes in and what goes out.
|
| Stop wasting your time, money and dignity. Learn to control your
| computer.

I suggest you also don't wear automobile seatbelts, don't lock your house doors, don't wear
saftey goggles when using power equipemnt, yada, yada.

I don't think you thought those analogies through. Let's look at each
of them.

Seatbelts:
- Required by law in many places (is it illegal not to have anti-virus
at home?)
- They can stop you dying
- No quality of driving can save you if someone else crashes into you

Locks:
- Are exactly what I'm advocating: Secure programs, firewalls, keeping
things out, not leaving your doors and windows unlocked and then
chasing burglars around once they're in the house.

Safety Goggles:
- Prevent access to your eyes, again they're what i'm advocating;
rather than, say, some kind of "eye cleaning and healing fluid" to be
applied after all the damage is done.
 
D

David H. Lipman

From: "darwinist" <[email protected]>

|
| How about you don't download it. What kind of a browser allows
| malicious code into your computer?

A vulbnerable one !

All software will have a vulnerability once every so often. Multiply that by the number of
applications on the PC and you have a vector of infection.
 
D

David H. Lipman

From: "darwinist" <[email protected]>

|
| I'll tell you another current program that would have prevented the
| attack: Thunderbird.
||
| So don't buy closed-source software when you can possibly avoid it.
| When you can't, well, I guess you or your clients need a pack of
| diapers with that.
|
Thunderbird has been updated due to vulnerabilities.
 
D

darwinist

Art said:
IE, especially if you don't have it set to the highest possible
security.

Exactly, microsoft have this great idea that security is someone to
build *on top of* functionality, rather than into it.

I guess that allows them to make more individual products.

It's a good thing Bill Gates is retiring and giving all his money to
charity. It turns him away from robbing and into Robin Hood. Smart guy,
that one.
 
D

David H. Lipman

From: "darwinist" <[email protected]>

|>> Very few people need it. For most of us there are much cleaner, cheaper
|>> solutions. Namely: You need to control what comes in and what goes out.
|>>
|>> Stop wasting your time, money and dignity. Learn to control your
|>> computer.|
| I don't think you thought those analogies through. Let's look at each
| of them.
|
| Seatbelts:
| - Required by law in many places (is it illegal not to have anti-virus
| at home?)
| - They can stop you dying
| - No quality of driving can save you if someone else crashes into you
|
| Locks:
| - Are exactly what I'm advocating: Secure programs, firewalls, keeping
| things out, not leaving your doors and windows unlocked and then
| chasing burglars around once they're in the house.
|
| Safety Goggles:
| - Prevent access to your eyes, again they're what i'm advocating;
| rather than, say, some kind of "eye cleaning and healing fluid" to be
| applied after all the damage is done.

Boy you have this all wrong.

You wear eye protrection to prevent eye damage.

You use anti virus to prevent infections.

Now if schrapnel comes though the sides of the glasses you may still have injury.

Now if a new virus that goes undetected may get past your AV you might get infected.

Why use a condom ? To prevent a STD or preganacy.

Why use AV software, to prebent infection.


I haandle hundres of viral and non-viral malware per month. I visit porn web sites yet I
haven't been infected once.

I can say that I have visited some malicious web sites where I was saved by my Mcafee
Enterprise VirusScan v7.1. I will also add I went to those web sites KNOWING they were
malicious !
 
T

Tom Horsley

The only way to keep your PC completely safe is to keep it turned off!

Actually, I find reading news in a text-only news reader
and not responding to phishing attempts works perfectly
well to keep my computer safe.

I've run for years and years with no AV software, then some new
bout of dire warnings will come up and I'll try some for a while.

1. They never find any viruses on my computer (which ran
unprotected for years without them).

2. It is almost impossible to distinguish between the behavior
of a virus and the behavior of anti-virus software.

You pay for the AV software rather than having it sneak
onto your machine, and it is easier to un-install (thank God!),
but other than that, it is a lot like having a virus. Your
machine is horribly bogged down, ordinary tasks like installing
new software are often blocked by it, it is constantly popping
up annoying windows. In fact, there are a lot of viruses
that aren't as destructive as the anti-virus software :).
 
D

darwinist

David H. Lipman wrote:
[...]
| Safety Goggles:
| - Prevent access to your eyes, again they're what i'm advocating;
| rather than, say, some kind of "eye cleaning and healing fluid" to be
| applied after all the damage is done.

Boy you have this all wrong.

You wear eye protrection to prevent eye damage.

You use anti virus to prevent infections.

No that's a firewall, or a secure client. Anti-virus tries to clean up
the infection.
Now if schrapnel comes though the sides of the glasses you may still have injury.

Now if a new virus that goes undetected may get past your AV you might get infected.

Why use a condom ? To prevent a STD or preganacy.

Why use AV software, to prebent infection.


I haandle hundres of viral and non-viral malware per month. I visit porn web sites yet I
haven't been infected once.

I can say that I have visited some malicious web sites where I was saved by my Mcafee
Enterprise VirusScan v7.1. I will also add I went to those web sites KNOWING they were
malicious !

What kind of a browser do you use where a *website* can give you
malware? The worst I've had from a website was a bunch of pop-ups
jumping around my screen, so I went to tools->options and disabled the
ability of javscript to move and resize windows. Problem solved.

Give me any website and I will go there without anti-virus.
 
D

darwinist

David said:
From: "darwinist" <[email protected]>


|
| I'll tell you another current program that would have prevented the
| attack: Thunderbird.
|
|
| So don't buy closed-source software when you can possibly avoid it.
| When you can't, well, I guess you or your clients need a pack of
| diapers with that.
|

Thunderbird has been updated due to vulnerabilities.

Yeah exactly. Isn't that a better approach than waiting for the
vulnerabilities to be exploited, before acting to catch the intruders?
If you're in your own house, isn't locking the door better than sitting
with a shotgun pointed at it?
 
D

darwinist

David H. Lipman wrote:
[...]
|
| How about you don't download it. What kind of a browser allows
| malicious code into your computer?

A vulbnerable one !

All software will have a vulnerability once every so often. Multiply that by the number of
applications on the PC and you have a vector of infection.

Sure if all programs of the same purpose are equally secure, and if
none of them have security settings. But all programs of the same
purpose are not equal, and many of them have security settings, so your
maths is way off. So far off in fact, as to be useless.
 
L

Laura Fredericks

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

...I visit porn web sites yet I haven't been infected once.

(Who'da thunk?! Our boy, Davy!)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8.1

iQA/AwUBRJnqoKRseRzHUwOaEQLsZACgjxPYLV9irJa1klhlKLBnjVQx8wkAoICX
NeW1X46m0fzDj4TBo11N8MWq
=2/5j
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
Laura Fredericks
4Q's "wicked evil bitch of satire, parody, humor and trollism"

PGP key ID - DH/DSS 2048/1024: 0xC753039A

alt.comp.virus photo gallery:
http://www.queenofcyberspace.com/acvgallery/

usenet flamewars:
http://www.queenofcyberspace.com/usenet/

Remove CLOTHES to reply.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top