Is your computer a criminal?

If this is their advice, I read that advice since I joined SWI and Wilders. Not very renovating.
I will take care of this my way and certainly not with MORE scanners. Pffft.

 

What an appealing title for the thread.

LOL. I smell paranoia in the air - Joe is terrified by reading this article. He immediately runs to AV-comparatives site and then to softpedia to download a couple of trials (top, of course). He is now scanning for hours and hours... No really, if this analysys is no-nonsense, doesn't this only mean that the security software will get better? Yeah, the bad guy will always be a step ahead of the good guy, that is unlikely to change soon if ever. There are several reasons for that. But the good guy is not that far behind, it's only one step...

EDIT: Ron, I noticed you have a serious talent for finding very interesting articles. Please, keep up the good work, buddy

 

One thing is sure, if the good guys keep on fighting against the bad guys with scanners, they will never be ahead or win the war.
On the other hand, I don't think the good guys want to win the war, they make a good profit of it, this is a neverending story and you don't kill the goose with the golden eggs.

 

Hi Erik

Yes, this is called conspiracy theory. I don't believe in this things, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
BTW, who is Eugene Kaspersky?

 

Conspiracy theory is a bit strong, it just grows that way and when people start earning money, they don't like to stop.
They fight against the bad guys for the show, but not to hard to keep their income.

 

The Conspiracy Theory: Let's say I'm the bad guy, I make the virus and release it. Of course, I have also the signature for it. I also make an AV application for that signature. You buy application, but I don't immediately release the signature. I let a few people infect as an example in few hours. Then I release the signature, but as I am the maker of the virus, my AV is the first with signature and thus best in comparatives. This is a scary scenario, and as I said, I really don't believe in it.

 

In theory it's possible, but it didn't work that way. Malware and Anti-Malware don't need to work together, Malware was created by the bad guys and the good guys simply replied with Anti-Malware and both are now a billion dollar industry. The first malware was probably created by bored students, just like grafiti on walls.

 

Who knows how this really works Erik, but if I am the good and the bad guy, I don't have to share my billions with anyone. I am the one who harvest all the crop.

I also like to think in the same direction, if I want to think about this relations at all...

 

Inanimate object can be criminals? How would one punish an electronic criminal? Electric shock therapy?

I don't believe that particular conspiracy theory. Until recently, AV and vendors of similar types of software were engaging in one almost as bad. That's the promoting and prolonging the usage of obsolete signature based security apps and charging for "subscriptions" to an obsolete and increasingly ineffective service. Their product (AVs) were designed to generate continous income as they would quickly become useless without continous updating. While more AV and security suite vendors are adding whitelisting components to their products such as HIPS, this was in response to other vendors developing and releasing a superior technology, one that has the potential to make their conventional AVs worthless. I seriously doubt the AV vendors would have ever developed such software on their own accord.
Rick

 

Don't get me wrong here guys, this was just a random thought. The article was provoking. I have never been a supporter of conspiracy theories, and I only believe in firm evidences.
So, we are advised to scan with multiple scanners for hours. No, thank you, that's not for me.

 

That was my point too. Only a main scanner with a realtime protection is usefull. All other scanners on demand can be replaced with refreshing your snapshot with a clean one.

Using on demand scanners means that you have a vulnerable period between TWO SCANS and you have the same vulnerable period between TWO REBOOTS, using FDISR. So both are equal at this point.

The difference is that scanners only remove what is on their blacklist (+ heuristics), while FDISR removes ALL bad changes.
Another and more important difference is the time it takes. FDISR cleans your computer during reboot (frozen snapshot), while running all your scanners can take hours.

If you don't like a frozen snapshot, you can replace it by refreshing your snapshot with a clean (archived) snapshot, that doesn't really matter.