Antivirus Talk: Is It Necessary?

[racerx]

I gave up on antivirus s/w many years ago. I prefer instead to create and restore clean images. Much faster and more effective than any anti-virus s/w. But if you want to do it with AV, go for it..... 

Edited November 16, 2015 by david.atwell
Hid potentially dangerous advice for most users.

[david.atwell]

I gave up on antivirus s/w many years ago. I prefer instead to create and restore clean images. Much faster and more effective than any anti-virus s/w. But if you want to do it with AV, go for it.....

racerx, that is very bad and dangerous advice for most users.  Please remember not everyone is as technically skilled as you, and almost everyone should use some form of antivirus.

 

Also, it's very possible for a virus to infect your BIOS, rendering a "clean" image just as virus-laden as the previous.

[racerx]

OK, I won't give any computer advice, I wouldn't want to confuse anyone. BTW, you probably meant to say a virus in the MBR (master boot record). Modifying the BIOS would require flashing it, don't know if viruses are capable of that.

 

Carry on and please disregard my advice. You may also delete my posts. 

[david.atwell]

OK, I won't give any computer advice, I wouldn't want to confuse anyone. BTW, you probably meant to say a virus in the MBR (master boot record). Modifying the BIOS would require flashing it, don't know if viruses are capable of that.

 

Rare but not impossible. MBR viruses are more likely, yes.  Either way, bad news.

 

Carry on and please disregard my advice. You may also delete my posts.

I will if you want, but we'd prefer not to delete posts around here. I will split our little side-topic into a new discussion, though.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Viruses and malware are every present threats. Take sensible precautions and you should be fine. Things like...

 

1. Use a firewall.

2. Use anti-virus software to scan your system regularly. Don't use Norton. Get something better.

3. Make backups.

4. Treat downloaded files as potential threats. Scan them before doing anything else.

5. Be VERY WARY of any email attachment.

6. Be CAUTIOUS of any unsolicited email link.

[racerx]

For 99% of the people, following EER's advice in post #5 is a very good Idea. The only thing I would add to that is be very careful where you go and what you click on. I won't bother telling what I do because most people wouldn't understand or it would be beyond their reach anyway. People may think I'm careless, but quite the contrary.

 

One more point I'd like to bring up, is never use your phone/tablet for internet financial transactions. Despite what many believe, security on a phone or tablet is a joke.  

[Ishi]

Racerx, if you are on Windows 8 or above, it has built-in security in the form of Windows Defender but regardless if you have system images or not, you should always have something to shield yourself from attack.

 

My take on this is to not let just anybody plug their thumbdrives into the computer. Some of them could leave something nasty behind just like the last laptop I fixed. You could use the command prompt to open files from a removable drive so you won't get to open it via Windows Explorer and let the Autorun file inside the drive to execute.

 

And be cautious at downloading things from torrent sites too.

 

I personally have Hiren's Boot, some bootable antivirus CD and Linux to delete malware from Windows that are stubborn to delete.