Never had a Virus.

Surely, passive defense is often overlooked, but it can help in some cases.

 

You never know for sure if you are infected. I mean even if you rollback every single time to what you think is safe, you still don't know if your rollback point is safe. Maybe you got tricked into using a rollback point that is infected. Everything will SEEM fine, but he just THINKS he is safe every time he rollbacks.

Of course if he knows that he got tricked he will go to his of- site backup, but I use that too even though I don't do nightly rollbacks.

 

You can know for sure if you are or not infected.
Mrk

 

My rollback is based on an OFF-LINE installation with legitimate softwares and that's the only thing I trust or have to trust, which is better than believing the message "You are clean" from a scanner.
So I keep my rollback solution, which is much better than any scanner(s) can promise and it solves alot more than keeping my system malware-free.

I'm sure that legitimate software also spy on me, but hopefully they spy in the same way as a supermarket does. A supermarket knows also what I buy especially when I pay with my bankcard.
The difference is that they don't use that info against me, while malicious spyware will use it against me. Everybody spies on everybody nowadays and can't be avoided anymore.
Knowing much is not a problem, it depends on how you use that knowledge.

 

I've been on the 'net since 1998, and have yet to be infected by a virus. Hopefully, it never happens.

 

You can be fooled into thinking something is legitimate when it's not.

 

You can also be fooled into thinking that security measures are necessary when they are not.

I enjoy playing with the softwares covered on this forum - but are they really necessary for me ? I don't think so.

Whilst I accept your point that I could be contaminated and not even know it I have to argue that it is unlikely.

My family runs at work and at home 7 different machines on a daily basis. For fun I do try out programs and test to see if anything nasty has arrived. A few days ago I decided to give Nod 32 a test and it found nothing. The fact that it found nothing did not surprise me. Nothing has ever found anything of any importance -- EVER.

So yes all my machines could be contaminated -- but as nothing crashes, nothing runs slow, no one has bought a Ferrari in my name ( well my wife did but that's another story).... so until and unless proved otherwise I am going to continue to assume that I am clean.

The question I would like to ask is -- why do some stay clean and others get infected within seconds of logging on ? The answer seems to be unrelated to the amount of security used. There are those with little security and no nasties and those with every program known to man and yet they still get infected.

 

Back in the days when I didn´t know anything about computer security, I don´t believe that my machine was ever infected, but that was probably just pure luck, or perhaps it wasn´t that hostile back then. But nowadays you do need to be more cautious, so that´s why I believe using HIPS is a good idea. At the moment I´m missing a lot of patches (Windows, IE and Office) but still no infection. It might be because I´m not a high risk surfer (although I do visit adult sites once in a while ) but I wouldn´t be surprised if my HIPS did silenty protect me a couple of times.

Exactly my point, if my machine is currently infected by some rootkit, it´s doing a hell of a job, because my machine is running smooth as butter.

 

I have been on the net since 1980 and have never had a PC virus!

I had to have the Atari 400, and the Atari 800, and the Atari 130XE with a 6502C CPU chip @ 1.79Mhz

Mike

 

hm i never had a virus on my Ohio Superboard II (6502) either,

But it seems logical for me that Old Timers like us get less infected.

 

I could probably say something real funny, but I am sure the MODS would probably ban me for life.

Mike

 

In the traditional spirit if "mine's bigger than yours" I can claim to have never had a virus since starting with an Olivetti 101 in 1968. Although I guess that not
having an internet connection for many of those years may have helped a little

 

I can think of something amusing as well.

 

Well I've had hundreds of inet borne virii and all types of malware on this pc but haven't been infected as yet.

Thank you Sandboxie and PowerShadow.

 

My Nod32's threat log.

 

How did all of that malware get onto your computer?

regards,

-rich

________________________________________________________________
"Talking About Security Can Lead To Anxiety, Panic, And Dread...
Or Cool Assessments, Common Sense And Practical Planning..."

--Bruce Schneier​

 

I don't think that anyone would or could deny that the internet is infested with
malware but I think the question "how did you get all that malware onto your computer" also asks why did you let it on ? If you allow others free access to your machine then fair enough but I still think it takes some real effort to get infected

 

To followup on Long View's post: If you could back track, I would be very interested to know how you think the malware transferred from the USB stick to your HD.

Files don't run or get copied just sitting on a drive. In testing, I've hooked up a USB drive with malware installed, to see how certain things followed later. It doesn't do anything until told to do something.

The only way it could auto-execute would be by means of a autorun.inf file. Rather involved to set up for the normal student, I would think. Unless the student's infection in place had that already set up.

The other way is that the person intentionally or accidently copied them from the USB stick to your HD.

regards,

-rich

________________________________________________________________
"Talking About Security Can Lead To Anxiety, Panic, And Dread...
Or Cool Assessments, Common Sense And Practical Planning..."

--Bruce Schneier​

 

It's my job to discuss presentations, and students come along with their USB memory sticks plug them in, and as soon they click 'Open folder to view files' Nod32 would flash a red window (if infected of course) asking me what to do.

Delete, is my answer, and that seems to sanitize everything (if you unplug the device and plug it in again, Nod doesn't detect anything). I don't rely completely on Nod though, my system is in virtual mode (shadowuser) and ProcessGuard is run with all its sensors on.

I was shocked at the number of computers that are run happily infected, which means that the malware doesn't always disrupt the normal functions of the machine, and people go about their business unaware they've been violated.

 

OK, that's clear now.

Looking again at your log - E:\ must be your USB drive

and C:\ is where NOD quarantines?

So, nothing really got onto your HD.

Sorry - misunderstanding

What do the students say when you show them their infections?

regards,

-rich

 

Some of them react in disbelief as if dealing with a FP, others feel sorry as if they were directly responsible, but most of them take it very lightly as if it were such a normal situation, you know a little virus here and there can't be that bad as long as your computer works.

Most of the infected systems had Ahnlab V3 and Norton. I don't know whether they were updated and what version they had.

I agree with the general view in this thread that any reasonable AV (updated) coupled with a reasonable firewall would probably keep you clean for years.