Am I naive about security?

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surfersaiyan

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I was just reading the post about "Need Help Removing CiD" and I wondered if I am naive about my security.

I use only ZoneAlarm pro firewall and run ClamWin (virus detection) VERY occasionally.

I'm generally pretty careful about sites I go to, and unfamiliar emails go straight in the bin.

Even so, I wouldnt call myself paranoid about the sites I go to, so it makes me wonder what ppl are doing wrong when they get these virii and trojans from hell!!

For the record, I ran ClamWin yesterday with nothing detected and I havent had the slightest malware, virus or trojan for at least a couple of years.
 
But are you 17, and consistantly going to gaming sites to get cheats and trainers (and more) ?

In my general feeling, I believe most asking for support here are between 14 and 21. Just a feeling I have when I see all the abreviations and acronyms (ie English is on the way out !)

This is the page I've found the hardest to learn:
http://www.gaarde.org/acronyms/
And it seems to increase in vocabulary everyday ! (if you can call it that, I call it "NewSpeak" lol :) )
 
I have all these links to pages backed up, can't remember where I found it originally
But these acronyms are difficult to understand at times (sometimes I need to look them up!)


Also I agree with the check for Hdd in bios first, I forgot to say that :eek: (related to another thread)
 
I use Eset Smart Security and Avast! Home (free) with P2P, messenger and the standard shield installed and they seem to work well together. I used to use AVG Anti-spyware as well but got bored and un-installed it. There is a balance between being naive and over doing it on the defence where it slows your computer down to such an extent and you can't know everything about infections. Wouldn't worry too much...until!

I was just reading the post about "Need Help Removing CiD" and I wondered if I am naive about my security.

I use only ZoneAlarm pro firewall and run ClamWin (virus detection) VERY occasionally.

I wonder if these acronyms are related to mobile text?
 
and I havent had the slightest malware, virus or trojan for at least a couple of years
Me either

I haven't had a Virus for at least two years as well
I have had Spyware/Malware and even got a Trojan once
But I haven't seen my Antivirus pop up Virus Found whilst on the net, maybe I should visit more p0rn sites :p Actually I think most come from the peer to peer file sharing programs that many use to get music/games and movies (pretty sure 1llegally too!)
 
OMG! how did we get onto teenage acronyms from my rather standard, normal and ENGLISH, English?

Anyhoo, good to hear other ppl are getting by on minimum defences and using the brain as an additional layer.

Only problem I ever really had was with the odd dodgy t0rrent, but if you take the time and scroll down to the user comments before you download it, other ppl will usually have saved you the trouble. 'I pity the fool!"

As for p0rn.. don't get me started!
 
First, well done surfersaiyan :wave:

Personally, I have been thinking there's a permutation of behavior and setups that
lead to all these issues.
  1. There are a ton of users that still insist on running every day usage under an admin login. This is begging for problems.
  2. Many still don't keep their systems current with security fixes
  3. Usage (ie browsers, email, IM) can easily trump AV products, meaning infections get installed and AV can only react, not prevent.
  4. Internet Explorer is still too risky with the usage of ActiveX, which my gut suspects as the major backdoor being exploited.
  5. All those Poker, social and porno sites are loaded with malware
  6. The mvps.org host file and Spywareblaster are great prevention tools that get ignored.

surfersaiyan: I don't run AV scans every day or even weekly as I'm on a laptop and
need to conserve battery power. Having a good router, firewall and a 'think before click attitude'
has kept me clean for years. I did get one virus in 2006 from an email that didn't
get scanned by the AV program. Nothing since.
 
Okay, Well I'm lost in this conversation. When I read the question, I was set to reply "Yes, you are very naive about security". Then I read the age thing, then the acronym thing and I think someone may have gotten lost here!

But to continue, my thought is definitely "yes". The idea of an antivirus program is to keep viruses, Worms and Trojans OFF in the first place- not run a program once in a while to 'find and fix'. I would say you are definitely tempting invasion, no matter how careful you are.

The user is always the first line of security and should practice safe surfing which involves a multitude of things. But no matter how careful the user is, the chance of infection is high and not being protected is just plain foolish rather than 'naive'!
 
But to continue, my thought is definitely "yes". The idea of an antivirus program is to keep viruses, Worms and Trojans OFF in the first place- not run a program once in a while to 'find and fix'. I would say you are definitely tempting invasion, no matter how careful you are.
AV products attempt to make you well AFTER you have been infected.

Firewalls, blacklists, NAT, SPI, Spywareblaster, are tools designed to help you
stay well, ie: not get infected in the first place.

Some of the newer AV products (and especially those that scan email) can delete
or quarantine infections on the fly, which is great.

see https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic24697.html#3
 
Note: You do not need all these programs if you "Safe Surf"

The support info supplied above is for the 90% of users that do not know how to do this.

You may fall into the 10% (as I do) of users that do not need multiple programs (slowing down your computer) checkiing everything you do.

In just about all cases (including the 90%)
Everyone do not have all these programs running and all this knowledge about what to do, not to be naive.
When they actually get a fault (Virus/Spyware and alike) they act on that issue then. And then continue back on doing the same as before (ie me)

So how to be secure. In reality (the real world)
Always make external backups of all data (including images of entire disks ->to external media)
Continue as per normal (ie one Antivirus software, one Firewall, and a scan of Spyware etc every so often)
When (or if) you get an infection, deal with the infection at that time.

Note: This is in no way the safest method ever. But it's what all (or generally, most) users do, and will keep your computer running fast.

By the way, just as a point of interest. An image of your entire HardDrive can be returned exactly the way it was before, in around an hour! So why all this hype I don't know.
 
thanx guys, good to hear some differing opinions on this issue, some like me (kimsland) and some totally opposed (bobbye)!

when it comes to my setup i'm a total minimalist.. even running a stripped out version of xp pro, and since i haven't had much in the way of any infection for a good time now, i'm just gonna keep it as it is.

why do ppl just not understand that the internet is not a safe place to play?

safe surfing really does come down to, a good router, a good firewall and a 'think before click attitude.'

i'm going surfing, no, really!
 
I would definitly agree with J.beard on this one, spyware blaster is excellent and uses no resources to add all those sites to the restricted zone. You can also set up custom blocks if you have a problem with a specific site not listed. You can have it protect your home page - you can have it set up a custom hosts file, it also protects some of the most common infections that we see such as Cid or LOP.

I would just like to add that though an antivirus is good, often it will overlook various spyware and adware. I am in constant contact with new infections and enjoy downloading various infections to see exactly how they are installing, hooked, ect.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, there is no good argument about not installing either MBAM or SAS.

-they are free

-the free versions use no resources when not running as they don't have real time monitoring

-the one time that it catches something it was worth the time scanning with it.

-they detect many types of spyware/adware that your Antivirus doesn't

------------------------------------------------------

Also, whats naive is the "safe surfing" comments. I completely disagree with that, and so would companies like Microsoft. Look at what their most recent update was for and the problems it caused - why? Because they had to rush it out once the DNS exploit was made public. Look up Iframe injection or DNS hijack

The most recent attacks aren't aimed at you directly, they have been aimed at infecting legit sites and ISP's.

Just to name a few who were affected this year

"The sites include high-profile sites such as the North Carolina State University library,
the U.S. Administration on Aging and the U.S. government's Medicare program,
as well as questionable sites such as BitTorrent sites hosting pirated software and other content."


Full Story - http://www.computerworld.com/action...asic&articleId=9068402&source=NLT_SEC&nlid=38


I just provide information - the choice is yours what to do with it. I know many of you will disagree, but many of you don't have the contact with the latest threats the ways that I do either.
 
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