Does anyone NOT use an anti-virus program?

KraniX said:
As has been said, how some can say they don't use any protection and then claim never to have had a problem is just insane frankly. You could have some dodgy virus or malware sitting quietly in the background right now just waiting for a particular day before formatting your hard drive, or worse.
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Most of the more advanced users will know what each and every process running on their system is and does, they'd get suspicious if a new one appeared. I know I would.

KraniX said:
And we've not even mentioned email issues, I receive junk email in my blueyonder account pretty much daily and it was Kaspersky AV that found a trojan virus in a fake Halifax Bank message (those ones where they ask people to login and steal the idiots money) just a week or so ago.
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Who uses email seriously in this day and age? If I didn't have to use it for work I'd certainly not use it at all. And even then, attachments and html emails don't make it through filtering.

I wish I could remember the name of the conference now, but one of the presenters was from a security outfit similar to GRC etc. and part of his companies research was into the effectiveness of anti-virus software. Between the top 10 current anti-virus providers, the software collectively picked up less than 50% of viruses tested, with each one averaging about 10-15% each. Anti-virus software is a false sense of security, nothing more, it certainly doesn't make up for common sense or a modicum of computer knowledge.
 
I've been using PC's since 89 and I honestly can't remember when Anti viruses came out but as soon as they did I had one. I haven't had one virus in all that time but I haven't caught AIDs either. However I do find that shouting 'PC don't get a virus' also works.

Moredhel said:
Who uses email seriously in this day and age?
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Are you serious?
 
Ill put a little analogy here that imho fits well:

A PC is like a car / house. you have a alarm on it ( AV), window updates adds bars to your windows / rolls the passanger window up if left open.

The thing is nothing can stop the people getting past your alarm system if they really want too, they can brake the door down, or you could leave the window open. If they realy want to get in they will take a chainsaw and go throught the walls :). or dig up from under the ground.

Thats all AV is, a alarm system ( that goes a little bit further) to put all your hopes in it and beleave it will stop anything getting in is wrong imho.

What stops things getting into your PC is you. even then it can happen. but for me i know every item running on my system,I dont instail that great !!program the paper tells me will let me know the weather in all time zones :),
I dont look at attchemnts, I dont accept activeX until i know what its doing, I read a lot of security sites about zero day, I dont watch dodgy media, or DL dodgy software or media.
I do know what files are ment to be there and running, ZA pro alerts me everytime something changes or is about to so I can check it arfter ive said no.

As ive said before I never leave a clients PC like this.
 
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Gaverick said:
Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte from security now don't use AV, they say they know what they are doing, I'll go along with that.
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Think this sums it up to be honest. I'm not saying AV is useless, but I think its very much dependant on the users knowlege of the system.

P.S. - 'Security Now' is deffo worth a listen, Steve and Leo explain the items in an easy to follow context.
 
As a lot of users on here, I too don't use AV on my machine. I know how viruses and malware infect computers, they are just processes running on your system. I received a virus a couple of years ago, yes it was from a dodgy site but I knew as soon as it happened. My hard drive activity increased and then an icon appeared on the task bar. I closed all open windows, opened Task Manager and found the running process. Quickly disabled it, went into the registry and found the startup entry, noted the location and name of the file and deleted it. This is all that the AV program would do for me. Why shoud I pay or have a program taking resources when I am very capable of doing it myself? I bought and installed Norton 2007 AV a month ago, installed it and ran a full system scan. Nothing found so I uninstalled it.

Every day I check the task manager to see if anything is out of place. If something looks strange or new, a quick Google search will tell me if it is legit.

I am quite happy running a Router/Firewall and keeping Windows up to date regularly, seems to work OK for me..... but for the majority of PC users, I wouldn't recommend running a system without AV.

We all have our own reasons, it's good to hear what others feel about it.
 
I don't.

I stopped using them about 4 years ago,
unless you are a particularly clueless user, they are a waste of time I think.

likewise at work, I could remove them from all the machines and not notice any change.
I don't for obvious reasons. ;)

a virus is just another process, if you can control that over a network,
there is nothing to worry about.
I've found that protecting the registry is more important than file scanning in stopping unwanted activity.
All the virus scanners in the world don't stop a 0-day exploit,
so you are kidding yourself if you think you are safe with a turd like Norton installed.


It helps that all the clever virus writers are now doing other things,
we are simply left with clueless numpties who still think that .exe/.scr/.pif
is going to get past a mail filter.... yawn.

Another factor is that all the web mail services scan mail for you,
or block attachments entirely.


Oh, and just cos your AV says you are clean, doesn't mean you are ;)

.
 
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sirlemonhead said:
No software firewall, no anti-spyware and no anti-virus :)
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But you do have lots of viruses! :D

Cleaned up a pc for a mate at work had dozens of trojans etc and yet the system ran pretty much ok. I was surprised at how much was on there and no not everything will show up in task manager. Even had infections where system32 folder is hidden, firewall settings locked out and service pack2 blocked from install. Not on any of my pc's though.
 
I do use Avast and run adaware/spybot every now and again, no software firewalls. The only virus it has picked up was on a MP3 player I bought on ebay. It went mental.
 
i still use virus software. it might be fine when you know what your doing, but mistakes happen and you can pick up a virus for a seemingly secure site. they take next to no resources so its no big deal at the end of the day:)
 
Shoseki said:
I have never used a Virus checker or firewall on my computer, and I have never had a virus since 2001 when I bought my first computer.

And I download a *TON* of crap, of every file type you can imagine, executables, media, you name it.

I have used windows and linux, and the worst I have ever had is crappy spyware/malware which I tend to clean off with adaware.

No other software has been required in over 6 years.
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Er how do you know you have not had a virus if you don't use anything to detect one?
 
No.

Im not retarded and go "O0o0o0 ill click picture.exe from this email from my bestest nigerian friend showing me viagra pills!"

I also only download what I KNOW will be safe.


/edit I'll run avg every so often, but usually uninstall it/anything else. Never comes up with anything though. Adaware only does the usually "5" infected, which is a random cookie or something.
 
A decent AV setup as 'Modified, Scan on Create' will use VERY little clock cycles/system resources. Using a PC without one is pretty stupid tbh unless you backup your DATA every night, otherwise you cannot value the DATA on your computer much?!?!
 
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