Viruses and Virus Software

[SeverusSnapeHBP]

I also use Malwarebytes and a free anti-virus software known as AVG.

Haven't had any problems at all.

[wolfbrother]

I don't use any anti-virus. They've always been more of a hindrance than help for me. Slows down my system and gives a number of false positives. They don't protect from zero day exploits anyway.

I run Chrome, which is one of the safest browsers, with most plugins (flash and java especially) requiring permission to run each time. If I am browsing a shady site, I either open it in a virtual machine or from a live USB. A virus infection in a VM will be contained in it (well, technically, it is possible for it to break out but its rare and complicated) so you can simply delete the infected instance. Live USB runs entirely from RAM so any infection is gone on shutdown as long it doesn't have write access to the USB or the HDD.

My biggest source of infection come from USB devices. Pass one around and 80% of the time, it comes back infected. Luckily, so far, they have all been aimed at windows so its fairly trivial to get rid of it by running linux.

[SeverusSnapeHBP]

Originally Posted by wolfbrother

I don't use any anti-virus. They've always been more of a hindrance than help for me. Slows down my system and gives a number of false positives. They don't protect from zero day exploits anyway.

I run Chrome, which is one of the safest browsers, with most plugins (flash and java especially) requiring permission to run each time. If I am browsing a shady site, I either open it in a virtual machine or from a live USB. A virus infection in a VM will be contained in it (well, technically, it is possible for it to break out but its rare and complicated) so you can simply delete the infected instance. Live USB runs entirely from RAM so any infection is gone on shutdown as long it doesn't have write access to the USB or the HDD.

My biggest source of infection come from USB devices. Pass one around and 80% of the time, it comes back infected. Luckily, so far, they have all been aimed at windows so its fairly trivial to get rid of it by running linux.

Navigate at your own risk then, I guess. AVG or Malwarebytes only slows down my computer during scanning, and a quick-scan from both programs combined only lasts about ten minutes tops.

I use Firefox and have never had any problems with it, because Firefox is also a safe browser. Both Firefox and my AVG software will block any unauthorized linkings to my comp while I'm online. Not only that, but AVG supplies me with the IP Address of who or what tried to link to my computer.

Also it's not only viruses you need to worry about, but spyware and stuff like that which can steal your personal information. I suppose it doesn't matter if you don't use your computer for any banking or anything else important. It's also good to clear your history everyday, because spyware can use the sites you've been to and any cookies you have to access personal information, and since Malware and AVG are both designed to catch viruses or other harmful stuff, they may catch things that Chrome or Firefox may not.

[Fawkesfan1]

Originally Posted by wolfbrother

I don't use any anti-virus. They've always been more of a hindrance than help for me. Slows down my system and gives a number of false positives. They don't protect from zero day exploits anyway.

I run Chrome, which is one of the safest browsers, with most plugins (flash and java especially) requiring permission to run each time. If I am browsing a shady site, I either open it in a virtual machine or from a live USB. A virus infection in a VM will be contained in it (well, technically, it is possible for it to break out but its rare and complicated) so you can simply delete the infected instance. Live USB runs entirely from RAM so any infection is gone on shutdown as long it doesn't have write access to the USB or the HDD.

My biggest source of infection come from USB devices. Pass one around and 80% of the time, it comes back infected. Luckily, so far, they have all been aimed at windows so its fairly trivial to get rid of it by running linux.

Wow. Never had any problems with my Flash drive so far. Only saved fan fic onto it, some stuff I wrote, along with some pics and avatars. When I look stuff up I make sure that Google is on 'Strict' mode as well, just to be on the safe side, and I generally get any avatars from LJ.

Used to run Firefox on my old computer. And thank god for it... it spotted something wrong on a site I was on, that IE didn't even notice.

Thanks to it, I was able to track it down as much as I could... take the computer in and have any said virus(es) -- total of two, removed from it before they could do any real harm.

As for antivirus software, generally used Norton. Loved it too, I checked on IP addresses every day, just to make sure nothing suspicious showed up. It did a pretty good job in terms of protecting my computer.

Originally Posted by SeverusSnapeHBP

Navigate at your own risk then, I guess. AVG or Malwarebytes only slows down my computer during scanning, and a quick-scan from both programs combined only lasts about ten minutes tops.

I use Firefox and have never had any problems with it, because Firefox is also a safe browser. Both Firefox and my AVG software will block any unauthorized linkings to my comp while I'm online. Not only that, but AVG supplies me with the IP Address of who or what tried to link to my computer.

Also it's not only viruses you need to worry about, but spyware and stuff like that which can steal your personal information. I suppose it doesn't matter if you don't use your computer for any banking or anything else important. It's also good to clear your history everyday, because spyware can use the sites you've been to and any cookies you have to access personal information, and since Malware and AVG are both designed to catch viruses or other harmful stuff, they may catch things that Chrome or Firefox may not.

Yea I didn't have any problems with it either.

I did that often on my old computer. Didn't want to take any chances with it.

[wolfbrother]

Originally Posted by SeverusSnapeHBP

Navigate at your own risk then, I guess. AVG or Malwarebytes only slows down my computer during scanning, and a quick-scan from both programs combined only lasts about ten minutes tops.

I use Firefox and have never had any problems with it, because Firefox is also a safe browser. Both Firefox and my AVG software will block any unauthorized linkings to my comp while I'm online. Not only that, but AVG supplies me with the IP Address of who or what tried to link to my computer.

Also it's not only viruses you need to worry about, but spyware and stuff like that which can steal your personal information. I suppose it doesn't matter if you don't use your computer for any banking or anything else important. It's also good to clear your history everyday, because spyware can use the sites you've been to and any cookies you have to access personal information, and since Malware and AVG are both designed to catch viruses or other harmful stuff, they may catch things that Chrome or Firefox may not.

I haven't used AVG but the ones I used would scan programs right before execution which would cause a delay. I use Chrome because every site you open in it runs in a sandbox. It makes it hard for a virus to install itself on your computer because it would have to break out of the sandbox first.

My setup is not something I would recommend others unless they know their way around the net. I'm aware of the risks (I used to be involved in assessing website vulnerabilities and demoing exploits) and am extremely wary when I need to be. Some of the code I wrote also used to trigger warnings so I decided it wasn't really worth the hassle.

Originally Posted by Fawkesfan1

Wow. Never had any problems with my Flash drive so far. Only saved fan fic onto it, some stuff I wrote, along with some pics and avatars. When I look stuff up I make sure that Google is on 'Strict' mode as well, just to be on the safe side, and I generally get any avatars from LJ.

Used to run Firefox on my old computer. And thank god for it... it spotted something wrong on a site I was on, that IE didn't even notice.

Thanks to it, I was able to track it down as much as I could... take the computer in and have any said virus(es) -- total of two, removed from it before they could do any real harm.

As for antivirus software, generally used Norton. Loved it too, I checked on IP addresses every day, just to make sure nothing suspicious showed up. It did a pretty good job in terms of protecting my computer.

My flash drives eventually end up on public computers which always seem to have something unwanted installed.

IE is not very secure browser. Just about 4-5 days back, they found a 0-day exploit that affected several versions of it on multiple versions of windows. IE is also a pain to develop for. Firefox and Chrome are much more secure.

[Fawkesfan1]

I heard about the IE issue on the news recently... really stinks for anyone who doesn't have Firefox installed yet. Is there any way to install it via flash drive? As in having a friend downloading the browser and then transferring them to the flash drive.

I'd hate to see that the only way I could do it would be via IE.

[wolfbrother]

That should work. You can transfer the installation exe from the flash drive to your machine and install.

[Fawkesfan1]

Great . How do I go about it? Is it just transferring all of the files from the flash drive onto my computer and going from there?

[wolfbrother]

The Firefox installation file should be a single executable (.exe) file. You can copy the file from your flash drive to your target machine and install.

[Fawkesfan1]

Originally Posted by wolfbrother

The Firefox installation file should be a single executable (.exe) file. You can copy the file from your flash drive to your target machine and install.

That's good . Thanks again, wolfbrother.