Threat dangers and risks of running disabled real-time scan

Hi, I like to keep my antivirus in a disabled state and have scheduled scans set up I was wondering if someone could please enlighten me to the risks I am prone to by doing this in my environment. If you could please elaborately explain in simple as well as complex terms I would greatly appreciate your response. Thank you so much!!!

 

Found this on wikipedia:

Real-time protection, on-access scanning, background guard, resident shield, autoprotect, and other synonyms refer to the automatic protection provided by most antivirus, antispyware, and other antimalware programs, which is arguably their most important feature. This monitors computer systems for suspicious activity such as computer viruses, spyware, adware, and other malicious objects in 'real-time', in other words while data is coming into the computer (for example when inserting a CD, opening an email, or browsing the web) or when a file already on the computer is opened or executed, in other words loaded into the computer's active memory.[1] This means all data in files already on the computer is analysed each time that the user attempts to access the files. This can prevent infection by not yet activated malware that entered the computer unrecognised before the antivirus received an update. Real-time protection and its synonyms are used in contrast to the expression "on-demand scan" or similar expressions that mean a user-activated scan of part or all of a computer.


But I still don't know what vulnerabilities I am prone to by disabling it!

 

If you have disabled your antivirus, Realtime protection is OFF
Realtime protection is your GUARD.
Each time you want to click on a file or click to browse the Internet, is a danger , and you could infect you at any time because your antivirus is off

 

what is ur security setup??

 

Mcafee on-access disabled, scheduled full system scans on the weekends

 

nothing else like HIPS or sandbox or like that??

 

What are you trying to achieve? What is the issue with having realtime protection on?

 

Do you mean completely disabled or just the realtime file system protection and not web/mail/etc protection.
If you leave it all disabled and have no other security or hardening of your system then it is easy. Every infection you download, open via thumbdrives, email attachments etc can infect your system. The scheduled scans will only inform you when you're already infected. What can happen when you are infected varies greatly and depends on the infection. It can just show some weird behaviour and redirect your browser all the time, it can steal your login details from banking sites, email etc, give an attacker full control over your computer, lock your computer and files until you make a payment etc. possibilities are endless. If you find that your antivirus slows your computer down too much you might search for a lighter one or use some alternative security like virtualization, sandboxing, software restriction policies etc. There's enough information on this forum to help you get started.

 

If all you have is AV and you have disabled it you really are asking for it especially if you do a lot on the Internet. I could see it if you had Sandboxie or something similar. Since it doesn't sound like you do then it is like toxinon12345 said. The AV is your guard.