Interesting observation about viruses and sytems

[Leythos]

Well, we're back at a Sorority cleaning viruses and spyware off systems
as they move in for this school season and have some interesting things
we've seen so far:

Systems returning from last season - with AVG 6 or 7 installed are clean
still (checked with NAV trial against the AVG installed package,
migrated to AVG 7 and removed NAV trial after).

Systems returning from last season that were running Computer Assoc
virus scanner - most had 2 or 3 trojans, not viruses.

Systems running McCrappy from last season - found updates not being
done, found 3~8 trojans and 0~13 viruses.

We get a batch of systems on Sat that are new residents, fresh out of
the Dorms - expect to see many hundreds of viruses (as detected by AVG
and NAV Trial).

Last year the only clean machines we tested were ones with valid/updated
NAV subscriptions and one that was just build and locked down by the IT
Guru mother of the resident.

 

[-rwxrw-r--]

Well, we're back at a Sorority cleaning viruses and spyware off systems
as they move in for this school season and have some interesting things
we've seen so far:

Systems returning from last season - with AVG 6 or 7 installed are clean
still (checked with NAV trial against the AVG installed package,
migrated to AVG 7 and removed NAV trial after).

Systems returning from last season that were running Computer Assoc
virus scanner - most had 2 or 3 trojans, not viruses.

Systems running McCrappy from last season - found updates not being
done, found 3~8 trojans and 0~13 viruses.

We get a batch of systems on Sat that are new residents, fresh out of
the Dorms - expect to see many hundreds of viruses (as detected by AVG
and NAV Trial).

Last year the only clean machines we tested were ones with valid/updated
NAV subscriptions and one that was just build and locked down by the IT
Guru mother of the resident.

Why don't you do them a favour? Oh, I guess I know. You'd be out of a
job.

 

[Larry(LJL269)]

BTW I drank only Scotch this summer & did NOT get a cold!

Larry

Well, we're back at a Sorority cleaning viruses and spyware off systems
as they move in for this school season and have some interesting things
we've seen so far:

Systems returning from last season - with AVG 6 or 7 installed are clean
still (checked with NAV trial against the AVG installed package,
migrated to AVG 7 and removed NAV trial after).

Systems returning from last season that were running Computer Assoc
virus scanner - most had 2 or 3 trojans, not viruses.

Systems running McCrappy from last season - found updates not being
done, found 3~8 trojans and 0~13 viruses.

We get a batch of systems on Sat that are new residents, fresh out of
the Dorms - expect to see many hundreds of viruses (as detected by AVG
and NAV Trial).

Last year the only clean machines we tested were ones with valid/updated
NAV subscriptions and one that was just build and locked down by the IT
Guru mother of the resident.

Any advise given is my attempt to show appreciation for all
the excellent help I've received here but I'm no MVP so it
may only apply NUGS (Normally, Usually, Generally, Sometimes

 

[Kelly]

Wow, Larry what a great tip to keep in mind (I think). However, a few
questions:

1. Are summer colds common in your parts?
2. Or did this pass over to the winter months as well?

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

In memory of those lost during Katrina &
Prayers and Hope for the remaining displaced.

 

[Leythos]

Why don't you do them a favour? Oh, I guess I know. You'd be out of a
job.

Actually, we do this at our charity rate, which is only covering our
overhead, so what favor do you suggest?

We actually look at this weekend type action as bring our team exposure
to "the wild" as these are mostly unprotected systems that we see.

 

[Larry(LJL269)]

Greetings Kelly & thank you for your response.

1. Are summer colds common in your parts?

Yes- Fl summers r sooo hot & a/c is often freezing

2. Or did this pass over to the winter months as well?

No but single malt is good anytime & is close to a
religious experience

Larry


Any advise given is my attempt to show appreciation for all
the excellent help I've received here but I'm no MVP so it
may only apply NUGS (Normally, Usually, Generally, Sometimes

 

[Leythos]

Well, we're back at a Sorority cleaning viruses and spyware off systems
as they move in for this school season and have some interesting things
we've seen so far:

Systems returning from last season - with AVG 6 or 7 installed are clean
still (checked with NAV trial against the AVG installed package,
migrated to AVG 7 and removed NAV trial after).

Systems returning from last season that were running Computer Assoc
virus scanner - most had 2 or 3 trojans, not viruses.

Systems running McCrappy from last season - found updates not being
done, found 3~8 trojans and 0~13 viruses.

We get a batch of systems on Sat that are new residents, fresh out of
the Dorms - expect to see many hundreds of viruses (as detected by AVG
and NAV Trial).

Last year the only clean machines we tested were ones with valid/updated
NAV subscriptions and one that was just build and locked down by the IT
Guru mother of the resident.

Well, we just did another 20 machines today and here is what we've seen:

1) Only 2 workstations, most residents are now arriving with laptops.

2) Most laptops have 256MB to 384MB of RAM, one had 128MB

3) Every system except 2 had AV software, the two that didn't were not
infected at all and did not have the XP SP2 Firewall enabled. We learned
that these systems had been wiped and restored and not used since
restoring them.

4) Every system with McAfee, even newer versions, was not updating - it
seems that once installed the users didn't have any idea that they had
to click on UPDATES, register, get the email, and then follow another
set of directions to get regular updates.

5) Every system with CA Virus scanner was out of date, but all of the
ones today, once updated, didn't detect any viruses, even in safe mode.

6) The systems running NAV, even as old as NAV2002, only had spyware,
but, of more importance, they were all running current definitions,
which is more impressive than any of the others.

7) The systems running NIS (which includes NAV) were problematic and
sometimes would not run a full system AV scan. Many security warnings
about apps trying to access the net. With these systems we installed AVG
(as their subscriptions were expiring in 30 days) and AdAwareSE, booted
to Safe Mode and were able to remove many Viruses (about 10 per case)
and many forms of Spyware or dialers. NIS also seems to cause about 60MB
of extra memory to be consumed - while the cleaned machine with AVG
showed that 60MB less consumed.

8) It was interesting to see that all but one machine had SP2 on it,
that all but 2 had AV software of some type, and most had AdAware Se
and/or Spybot S&D.

9) One parent, IT Manager for a large company, had even setup his
daughters account as a limited user - he had taken all the security
measures I would have - it was clean and worked quite well.

10) so far, 8 of 20+ machines have had some form of music swapping
software on then, all of them have had weather-bug installed, and all
but 2 are running YIM.

We have 15 more to do on Sunday, so it will be interesting to see what
we find then.

I like doing this once in a while as it lets us see a different side of
the "wild" than we would normally see in a corporate environment. What
amazes me most, in three years, this is the cleanest we've seen the
computers - and they only have a 20% resident return rate, so people
must be getting smarter about Viruses and Security.

 

[Kelly]

I see.............. )

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

In memory of those lost during Katrina &
Prayers and Hope for the remaining displaced.