Is AntiVirus Software Really Necessary?

hey FallenZer0 wat i mean by concepts i am refering to wat they do, wat soughtof worms do they cure, wat virus definitions. example- from my personal experience

AVG - cures mostly backdoor agents and normal viruses
AD-AWARE (LAVA SOFT) - CURES SPYWARE
NORTON - TEMP VIRUSES,

AND HOST OF OTHERS.. MCAFEE MAN CURES AND CAUSES...

Its also worth noting that Micrsosoft are working hard in this area. If you look at the Microsoft "OneCare" (be careful how you say it, not too fast, lol) it looks like it could be a good purchase for the AV, Spyware, Fishing and 2-Way firewall.

Click here for more info

... Microsoft "OneCare" (be careful how you say it, not too fast, lol) it looks like it could be a good purchase for the AV, Spyware, Fishing and 2-Way firewall.

Heheh Took a few seconds Smurf but I got it.

My biggest problem with these things is the way people just trust them automatically without ever questioning their legitimacy or ability to do what they say they can do on the tin. (I am not putting OneCare in this catagory btw. MS are making a big play to be the dominent player in the maware prevention market but then again.. we all know what MS products are actually like)

What gets me is the number of people I talk to at work that say their home PCs are infested with all sorts of virii and popups asking me for advice. When I ask if they have antivirus/spyware removers and they yes they have those... they downloaded some free stuff off the internet. They just did a google, found something free and completely trusted it and let it onto their system.

Most of the time these things are useless at best (I put AVG very firmly in this catagory - you get what you pay for) right down to being deliberately malicious. Either conning the the gullable user into actually downloading more virii / spyware instead of fixing anything or maybe a spyware/botnet writer getting onto your PC and getting rid of their competitors malware whilst installing their own at the same time. Gullable user has only replaced one lot of malware for someone elses malware and are duped into thinking they are perfectly safe as the problems they had before "seem" to be gone. It just amazes me how quite inteligent people just blindly believe what they read on the screen especially when it comes to the internet.

I say the same thing everytime to these people and they are usually non too happy with my response. How do you know this other software is ok and not more malware you are adding to your system. Just because it says it will help you does not necessarily mean it will. Trying to get that concept across is incredibly difficult and they never want to think they have done something wrong and only seem to be wanting praise for some new never before heard of software product they got for nothing. /boggle

The single golden rule is you get what you pay for. Reputable household names like Microsoft (better the devil you know), Computer Associates, FSecure, etc, etc are household names as their software is tried and tested and have sold thousands upon thousands of copies because they work. (within their scope and should never be expected to be a "cure all ills" solution)

For antispyware there is a comparison website (that doesn't sell anything or download anything) that just lists all different products and compares them for legitimacy, usefulnes, types of malware they deal with, etc that are out there on the internet. Just for the life of me cannot find the link to it or I would post it here. If anyone has come across this site, could they post it up.

Best thing to think of when about to install something from the internet is to think it's someone standing at your front door you have never seen before and wanting to come into your house to do something/sell you something. What do you know about them? Do they look reputable? Have friends got any info about them? Does it look suspect ? What other information can you find out about the product/company? Can you find a contact address/phone number or is it a PO box somewhere? Does the site have popups? What is the quality of the writing on their website?

Never just blindly trust anything from the internet... not ever!

Starfire i respect ur intelligent reasoning and em ur concepts i never knew someone still exist that thinks like u. i never knew i will see someone that has the same reasoning as me....

people should get the concepts like wat u have stated clearly in ur last post b4 they get to install anti virus stuff... all i have to say that its well with I.T guys.......

man u the man u got brains Starfire 66.999999 kudos for u....
(reading @ a high frequency modulation)

cheers..

Never just blindly trust anything from the internet... not ever!

Oh no, this means i cannot trust your post now, lol

Fair comments, that said there are some free tools out their that are legit, Spybot to name one. The only other thing to say is not to just depend on the single product, some products do detect some things better then others.

Oh, watch out for Microsoft. Since their "trustworthy computing" initiative, their products are becoming a lot more secure and stable. In a few months i think they will be a very good contender for the AV/Spyware market place. They did buy out 14 companies last year after all.

Had a client that using a computer with ant-virus nor spyware removal program for 5 years. He had 2200 virus and alot more spyware, plus root kit virus types. I ended re-imaging the machine.