Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Security Worms IT

Most Users Think They Have AntiVirus Protection, While Only Half Do 294

Posted by Zonk from the watch-yourself-in-this-neck-of-the-woods dept.
SkiifGeek writes "A survey carried out by McAfee and the NCSA found that while more than 90% of users believed that they were protected by antivirus or antimalware products that were updated at least once a week, only 51% actually were. 'Even with significantly growing awareness by everyday users of the need for efficient and effective antivirus / antimalware software, and the increasing market penetration achieved by the security industry, the nature of rapidly evolving Information Security threats means that the baseline of protection is outstripping the ability of users to keep up (without some form of extra help).' The study is available online in PDF format. What sort of an effect does this sort of thinking, and practice, have on the overall security of your systems, networks, and efforts to educate?"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Most Users Think They Have AntiVirus Protection, While Only Half Do More

Most Users Think They Have AntiVirus Protection, While Only Half Do

Comments Filter:

  • How is this new? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by quanticle ( 843097 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:36PM (#20889591) Homepage

    New computer users forget to update antivirus. In other news water is wet, and fire is hot. Film at 11...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      No, the problem is that you get a free year trial when you buy a new computer. People get annoyed when it starts asking you to update all the time, and turn off the "remember to register" reminders. Then the year passes, and they have a very out of date antivirus running that does no good, but they think they are protected because it still churns away acting like it's doing something.

    • Re:How is this new? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Billy the Impaler ( 886238 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @03:23PM (#20890011)
      The real issue is that people buy computers with software pre-loaded. Among this is an antivirus or a trial for the same. After a while this quits working but the system tray icon still sits there whining about things occasionally. Users click through whatever the annoyance is and continue on their merry ways, thinking that that "picture by the clock" is doing something to protect them. Education is the solution; users can learn about free alternatives to paid antivirus software, why Windows needs an antivirus program, and about what they need to be wary.
  • Every anti-virus program I've used in years defaults to auto-updating with zero configuration. How can that many people screw that up?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Simply Curious ( 1002051 )
      Most commercial programs only come with a subscription for one or two years. After the time is up, people might forget to resubscribe or figure that it's not worth the cost.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by jawtheshark ( 198669 ) *

        Think again! Most budget computers come with a 30 day trail. Don't pay that one, and you're screwed... If you pay, you are screwed too because those Antivirus programs (Symantec, I'm looking at you) are crappy overpriced products.

        Your only hope is knowing a Geek/Nerd that is willing too help. Contrary to popular belief on slashdot, not everybody has that luxury.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jotok ( 728554 )
          Huh. So, how would you improve an antivirus product? What do you think is a fair price point?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by jotok ( 728554 )
              I didn't say "point at a product you think is better." I said, specifically, how you would go about improving an AV product?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by plover ( 150551 ) *

            Huh. So, how would you improve an antivirus product? What do you think is a fair price point?

            About $36,000 dollars. That's roughly the cost of a Comp Sci bachelor's degree at a state university.

            Seriously, knowing what the hell you are doing is far more effective protection than relying on a $50 chunk of software. I've had three "malware" infections so far. One was an advertising distribution peer-to-peer network that was intentionally installed by a commercial CD-ROM as a part of a kid's game (Mattel

    • Re:How can that be? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:43PM (#20889683) Journal
      I, like another commenter, think it's because of OEM's so often shipping AV trials that expire and they misunderstanding and think "having antivirus included" meant having it all along. Users would probably be less confused if OEM's didn't include any antivirus at all, or offered a lifetime subscription for some extra cost.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by bombastinator ( 812664 )
        My favorite bit is having seen an out of date copy of norton on xp causes so much virus like behavior and slowdowns that it fooled a person into thinking it was a virus issue when the offender was in fact norton itself.

        I have one friend who bought it merely because it was the only way he knew to make his computer work again. Norton is so much more complicated to uninstall than other software that he couldn't figure it out.

        YAY Shovelware! :/
        • +1

          My uncle's computer was having all sorts of problems with slowness and other performance issues. I uninstalled Norton and installed AVG. It was running fine after that.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I, like another commenter, think it's because of OEM's so often shipping AV trials that expire and they misunderstanding and think "having antivirus included" meant having it all along. Users would probably be less confused if OEM's didn't include any antivirus at all, or offered a lifetime subscription for some extra cost.

        One of my son's fellow co-workers wanted him to look at their computer to see why it wasn't connecting to the internet via the browser. When he got to checking he found a problem he has s

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by arminw ( 717974 )
          .....The Uninstalls shipped with the software should work,.....

          On Mac OSX, most programs don't come with an uninstaller, since that is unnecessary. Just drag the program to the trash ... empty trash ... there, it's uninstalled. Why can't Windows have it that easy? Also, other than a few experimental proofs of concept there STILL isn't a virus in the wild, that infects Macs. Now let the market share replies begin.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jbengt ( 874751 )
        If they offered an OEM Windows machine with no AV preinstalled, it would become hopelessly infected before any AV could be installed, and require an OS reinstall.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hazem ( 472289 )
          So, they're taking an inherently flawed product (an OS that can be compromised in minutes) and "fixing" it by puttint a bloated piece of trial-ware that will screw up your machine when the trial ends? If they did that in cars, heads would roll. "The wheels tend to fall of, so we glued this piece of plastic on that holds them. But it will only last 30 days. So you need to get a subscription to have a new plastic thing put on every month."

          And as for being immediately compromised, doesn't anyone use a rout

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by djl4570 ( 801529 )
      Lots of dial up users will disable auto update because the updates take "too long to download." Then they neglect to manually update the software. Antivirus software is becoming antisocial nagware as well which will cause many users to disable the features either incrementally with rules or just turn it off and forget to turn it back on. I've been frustrated with product quality over the years and have changed products several times since 2000. I dumped McAfee because I despised the business practices
    • One example: Microsoft stopped updating the MS anti-spyware for Windows 2000 machines at the end of 2006. On some machines, the fact that no further upgrades were coming was not obvious to the user.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      We get in machines constantly that are thoroughly infested and have 1, 2, or 3 antivirus products on their computers, all of which's updates have expired a year or more ago. Customers don't undertand that without paying for the update service, the value of the software drops very near zero a month after the subscription expires. So, we clean them up, sell them the latest AV and get their updates going, and we just KNOW we'll be seeing them again in about 14 months.

      Windows' security model doesn't help here

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:38PM (#20889609)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I downloaded this antivirus from this webpage that told me "YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED! DOWNLOAD FREE ANTIVIRUS!".
    Why do I keep getting popups? :(

  • It's the AntiVirus companies fault (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mattwolf7 ( 633112 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:40PM (#20889633)
    It's the antivirus/computer companies fault, since they switched to giving people with new computers only 30-60 days of protection when they would give you a full year or even software that never expired... People think they still get full service when they buy a computer that they did 2-3 years ago.
    • I think it's the ISP's fault, or more exactly their problem. The only way you will get Joe Sixpack to install and update an AntiVirus program is if it's free and automatic. Now most everyone accesses the internet via an ISP so they have the distribution network and the trust of the computer owners. The ISPs also have to deal with the extra bandwidth used by infected computers. The ISPs need to stop making virus protection an opt-in, download this plug-in, thing. Start making virus protection an automatic, o

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ScrewMaster ( 602015 )
        If you want to assign blame, I'd say it's a certain operating system vendor's fault. Granted, no operating system is immune to malware, but at least if the bar were raised a bit higher we might not see so much of it.
      • How many people don't use any service from their ISP except internet connectivity? I couldn't tell you what my "free" email address is, or what their USENET server name/IP is, or anything else they offer. I pay to get access to the net and won't install their "extra" software with a bunch of shit that changes my preferences, homepage, etc. I am betting I am not the only one that finds most ISP's "free" software and such to be enough of a pain in the ass to not warrant finding out anything else they offer
        • You win that bet, hands down. One of the other engineers with whom I work put it this way: "Just gimme the damn pipe." I mean, my server does poll the free address from my ISP, just to get the occasional notification, but I've never given it out to anyone and I've never used it.

          Back when I was on AT&T Broadband, they insisted I run their "diagnostic" spyware package before they would do anything to fix any communications issues (God help you if admitted to using NAT or an external firewall.) I ended

          • What does bother me is how often ISPs technical support people deliberately put their customers in harm's way with instructions
            My favourite was refusing to support someone I had set up Thunderbird for unless they checked their email with Outlook express. The problem was clearly not related to their mail client choice (I was getting emails bounced back by their server), but they insisted the person check their mail with the least safe program on the net.
          • ...God help you if admitted to using NAT or an external firewall.)...

            Well, let's say you have a DSL service that comes with a "free" bridged DSL modem, most likely your ISP will refuse to troubleshoot any non-sync-related issues unless you get rid of any NAT routers, hardware firewalls, software firewalls and such since they have to assume you're a moron who just set his firewall to "Block all". You see, 99% of the users who call in about problems like this don't know enough to gain any kind of access to t

      • I think it's the ISP's fault, or more exactly their problem. The only way you will get Joe Sixpack to install and update an AntiVirus program is if it's free and automatic.
        Comcast [mcafee.com], at least, provides security software for its subscribers. They still have to take the initiative to go download it, however...
    • It's the antivirus/computer companies fault, since they switched to giving people with new computers only 30-60 days of protection when they would give you a full year or even software that never expired... People think they still get full service when they buy a computer that they did 2-3 years ago.

      OK. My computer did not come with any antivirus trial or program. At work, I use a computer and admin over 1,000 other computers, and none of them have installed or came with an antivirus thing.

      Back in 1994, I

  • PEBKAC (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:40PM (#20889639) Homepage
    I run Windows. If I don't have anti-virus or the definitions are out of date (last time this summer when I was away for a few weeks) it'll nag. Same if I disable my firewall just to see if the reason an application isn't working is because I've blocked something I shouldn't have. It really doesn't get any easier than that, if they're not running updates they must have disabled everything themselves, and there's really nothing you can do with users that insist on shooting themselves in the foot because the safety is annoying.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • If you have an anti-virus program that Windows recognizes, the Windows Security Center will nag you if it's out of date.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by LordSnooty ( 853791 )
      Just watch a novice use a computer. They don't need to be a 'novice' as such, just someone who doesn't understand how they work. They become desensitised to the popups. They'll gladly click through them without paying any attention to what they say. They accept it as part of the everyday running of the computer, what you have to do to get into your email. This is why when helpdesk operators ask what the problem is, many reply "there was an error". When you ask what the error said, they say "I don't know I j

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      and there's really nothing you can do with users that insist on shooting themselves in the foot because the safety is annoying.

      Sure is. Make protection that's not annoying. If you make a software that you know is annoying, it should not surprise you when people refuse to use it.

  • people thinking that a anti-virus program that requires people to update manually, updates automatically, and they therefore don't have to do anything.
    • Do you know of any antivirus program that requires manual updates? I'm not aware of such a beast anymore -- the ubiquity of the internet makes it really easy to do auto-updates, even for people on dialup. The program can just detect being connected to the internet and do its update then. There is _zero_ excuse from any antivirus vendor to not include auto updates as the default configuration.

      Like some other comments I've seen, it seems like most problems are probably related to "free 60 day trial" vers

  • To be fair... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Etch-A-Sketch doesn't actually need anti-virus.

  • I used to run a small computer repair business. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Silverlancer ( 786390 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:48PM (#20889719)
    In the very early 2000s, when I started my business, most of my "problems" involved dealing with Windows 98 crapping out or computers just grinding to a halt from overbloatedness and installation of a few too many Bonzi Buddies. Often I was asked to help install antivirus software. But they almost never had viruses.

    A few years later, almost all the computers I worked on had antivirus and/or antispyware software... yet almost every single one had some sort of virus, usually a botnet-style worm, or at least loads of spyware. In my opinion this is proof that viruses are something one can only avoid through overall system security and, most importantly, knowledge about computers--no antivirus will protect you if you cannot protect yourself.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Nimey ( 114278 )
      Viruses != worms != trojans. In my experience you need not only an antivirus program (I prefer AVG Free) but also a selection of anti-spyware programs, since trojans often conceal spyware, and anti-virus programs aren't focused on spyware.

      I use Spybot S&D (immunize and don't install teatimer, it's annoying (unless you've got an infection, then use it to help contain it and remove it after you're done) and sometimes Windows Defender on those machines which need periodic scanning w/o user intervention.
    • In my opinion this is proof that viruses are something one can only avoid through overall system security and, most importantly, knowledge about computers--no antivirus will protect you if you cannot protect yourself.

      True. Even though I run OS X most of the time, I won't open email attachments or download random software programs because I'm just used to having to have that behavior on a Windows PC back in the late 90s early 00s. Every now and then I get paranoid and look at all the open processes and look

  • ISP incomplete advertising partially to blame (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:50PM (#20889729)
    While doing tech support for some family and friends I have come across this. I would ask them what AV program they were using, and they would state, "Whatever my ISP is giving me" I ask for more info and they tell me that their ISP told them they get free antivirus with their service. I asked what program they installed, and they would respond with a blank stare.

    From what I have gathered, half believe the ISP installed and updates their AV in the same way Microsoft works. They believed that the ISP installed AV when they set up service and that the AV program gets updated the same way MS updates their system. The other half believe the ISP runs antivirus for them on the line so they do not need anything installed.

    When I inform them that they need their own, they ask how much. I inform them of AVG and ClamAv* and that those two are at no cost. They then state they cannot be any good if they are free and they go buy either Norton or McAfee.

    *I am now Linux only, so I am not familiar with current Windows AV programs. I have Clam on a few systems and AVG on a few others.

    • Re:ISP incomplete advertising partially to blame (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Telvin_3d ( 855514 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @04:10PM (#20890347)
      Here is what I tell people about AVG to get them over the 'free' thing. Just say that AVG's real business is anti-virus for big business. They give their stuff away free to normal people because it helps lower the total number of viruses on the internet. That makes their real job easier.

      People are happy with anything they can attribute SOME sort of selfish motive to.
    • They then state they cannot be any good if they are free and they go buy either Norton or McAfee.

      That makes sense, obviously since they knew all about the antivirus situation on their PCs they must know better than you about what antivirus to use. *rolls eyes* Maybe that ASUS motherboard with SplashTop will be the only desktop these people really need... they could've stumbled onto something here. Of course, livecds do the same and are more functional... attach USB storage for downloads and you'r

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tim C ( 15259 )
      They believed that the ISP installed AV when they set up service

      My ex recently moved flat, and moved broadband provider at the same time (from Orange to Sky). The installation CD she received along with her router installed McAfee.

      I don't know about wherever you live, but here in the UK some of those people who believe that their ISP installs AV software when their service is set up are correct.

  • Does anyone need anti-virus software? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ceswiedler ( 165311 ) * <chris@swiedler.org> on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:51PM (#20889737)
    I'm no anti-virus expert--but does anyone need anti-virus software anymore? Gone are the days when viruses are spread by floppy. (Mostly) gone are the days when email clients were so brain-dead that they would automatically execute attachments. But most importantly, gone are the days when the main type of infection is viruses (which spread via some sort of user action). These days, worms (which require no user action) are the dominant threat. And anti-virus software, which relies on signatures, is nearly useless against worms which (by their automatic nature) spread far too quickly for even automatic signature updates to catch. Furthermore, worms generally cause most of their havoc just by spreading (and clogging the network), and by infecting PCs to use as bot-farms.

    Perhaps I'm just isolated from the sort of users who are so stupid as to get viruses on their PCs...but are there any left? And does anti-virus software help these people?

    • Of course they do (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )
      Set up a fake video site like youtube and have a gif show up instead of a actual video player. Tell the user they must install the plugin (some exe file) to watch the video. Anyone with limited html skill should be able to pull that off.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jesser ( 77961 )
        Better yet, put a video *on* Youtube that's just a static picture telling them they have to download another plugin to see the video.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Dunbal ( 464142 )
      Perhaps I'm just isolated from the sort of users who are so stupid as to get viruses on their PCs...but are there any left?

      Teenagers. My 14 year old infected her computer the other day when she received a copy of a IM worm that disguised itself as a .zip file and said "here are my new pics". Since the message was from one of her friends, obviously she opened it. Now she has learned to be careful, but there's always someone around the house who will screw up.

      • Teenagers.

        Not only. I used to get that "here are my new pics" message from a friend of mine. He's a friggin' CS student. When I told him to get rid of it he said he doesn't bother since the virus didn't have any noticeable effect on his system. I couldn't believe my ears...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      at this point I think the "virus" threat is more now the spyware you get from clicking popups.

  • I never run any anti-virus... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lost Penguin ( 636359 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @02:52PM (#20889747)
    I can't get that stuff to run under WINE.
  • What impact does this have on systems and networks we run?

    None.

    If it's desktop systems we run, I assume those systems are locked down, antivirus and firewall running, and the users don't have admin rights.

    If it's networks or servers, those systems are locked down every way possible to protect them from the compromised systems.

    What impact does it have on my interactions with families and friend looking for free tech support?

    Now there, there may be an impact.
    • I don't do free tech support for anyone outside my immediate family. The going rate for a callout is a 30-pack of beer per 2-hour period.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Ritchie70 ( 860516 )
        Nobody really asks me except my mom, and she insists on "paying" me. I took her computer away from her for a couple of weeks, uninstalled everything Norton, installed all the Windows updates, Avast! and a couple other free things, and gave it back to her in a usable state. Took probably 6 hours over those two weeks.

        (The biggest impact was scraping Norton off. Did you know Symantec actually has a tool on their web site to remove all modern Norton products from your system?)

        For this, $100 gift card showed up

  • Heh. (Score:2)

    by MsGeek ( 162936 )
    Solution #1: Linux.
    Solution #2: Mac OS X.
    Solution #3: No computer for you! Come back, one year!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dunbal ( 464142 )
      Solution #1: Linux.

          I have news [slashdot.org] for you...

    • Solution #3: No computer for you! Come back, one year!
      I think you seriously overestimate the Geek Squad's responsiveness. It'd take 2 years, at least!
    • Solution #1: Linux.
      Solution #2: Mac OS X.

      So the solution to thinking your protected on Windows but not really is to move to thinking you are magically protected because "Linux and Mac don't get viruses"?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by grcumb ( 781340 )

        Solution #1: Linux.
        Solution #2: Mac OS X.

        So the solution to thinking your protected on Windows but not really is to move to thinking you are magically protected because "Linux and Mac don't get viruses"?

        That's absolutely right. Effectively, Linux and Macs don't get viruses.

        Look, we can talk till the cows come home about technical details and 'potential' risk. But it all comes down to this: Am I willing to trade potential exposure tomorrow for the certainty of malware infection today? The answer to that is a gimme.

        I sell computer systems, and my first advice to people is, 'If you don't absolutely need Windows, buy a Mac. If you do absolutely need Windows, try a Mac with Parallels installed.' And I do

        • That's absolutely right. Effectively, Linux and Macs don't get viruses.

          Of course not. That's why we never see stories like these [slashdot.org].

          Look, we can talk till the cows come home about technical details and 'potential' risk. But it all comes down to this: Am I willing to trade potential exposure tomorrow for the certainty of malware infection today? The answer to that is a gimme.

          What's all this certainity business? I have no problems keeping crap off of my Windows boxes, and I'm not alone. All it takes is some c
  • Most PCs come with 'free' AV programs, typically limited to 30-60 days or whatnot, so most of us student types are left with a large investment or no protection.

    I am using a cracked version of McAfee Security Center, mainly because my ancient copy of Symantec Antivirus stopped being able to update its definitions.

    I STILL can't update my definitions with the cracked version, right now I'm looking into an FOSS antivirus.

    Could someone please recommend an option for the unprotected?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Urd.Yggdrasil ( 1127899 )
      I recommend AVG Free: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0 [grisoft.com]
      It isn't as good as some paid AV software, but as long as you aren't going to russian crack sites it should be all you need.

    • ClamWin (Score:3, Informative)

      by Rob Simpson ( 533360 )
      It's free and open-source, [clamwin.com] but doesn't have an on-access scanner. AVG and Avast are commercial, but have free versions.

    • Could someone please recommend an option for the unprotected?
      Ubuntu.
  • Almost every morning after I switch on my computer at work it's unusable for about half an hour because it has to check for viruses. Why does it have to be like that? Why can't that #&%#&@ program just be niced so I can do my work?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dunbal ( 464142 )
      Almost every morning after I switch on my computer at work it's unusable for about half an hour because it has to check for viruses. Why does it have to be like that?

            Because either you have a crappy anti-virus program (I'm looking at you, Norton) that needlessly hogs system resources, or perhaps it's time to upgrade your computer...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tsa ( 15680 )
        I believe we have Symantec. One thing is certain: it sure is crappy. The computer is a 1800 MHz PIV with 512 MB, which is fast enough after it has checked the viruses. :) Yep, they're all there! :)

  • Whats the point? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by adamchou ( 993073 ) on Sunday October 07, 2007 @03:06PM (#20889871)
    I used to believe in virus protection but with the advent of all these rootkits that are undetectable by virus scanners, whats the point of having a virus scanner installed? If someone really wants to get into your computer, they can. If I don't click on everything I get emailed and I keep my windows installation up to date with updates from microsoft, I don't see what added value a virus scanner offers besides slowing down my computer.
  • The survey results are probably bogus. A lot of people who don't have antivirus software will lie and say "of course i do", either out of embarrassment or avoid a sales pitch.
  • People think that a Firewall is going to protect them and because Windows ships with a (low security) firewall they think they are protected. Also, it seems that the people who are unprotected aren't those that have low risk systems,I have had people on Dial-up pay for an anti-virus for checking their e-mails. And people who go online a ton seem to be unprotected. Ill admit, when I was on Windows all I had was ad-aware (free) to check for spyware every now and then. It only got really infected once. Then I

  • I recently had to fix my parents' machine, because it got massively infected. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I ended up flattening it and reinstalling XP from Microsoft's disks rather than the crappy OEM version that was preinstalled on it, but that's another story.

    My father had a subscription to Norton. So, why didn't Norton protect him against the virus? Well, a quick install and run of AVG later, I figured out why: Norton had been lobotomised by the virus. Half of its files were corrupted beyond repair. Most of the Javascript that its crappy UI was written in had been replaced by binaries. It was like one of those caterpillars whose brain gets eaten by wasp larvae, and the caterpillar never notices. It was horrific.

    Unfortunately I still can't persuade him that AVG (which is free, which gets good reviews, which actually seems to work, and which doesn't keep popping up crap in your face) might be a better choice on the new system; but hopefully the new improved installation will protect him. We'll see.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      well of course. There's a reason armies don't just hand over their plans to the enemy. If you are fighting an opponent and you have perfect knowledge of them, you win. every single time. Norton is such a ridiculously well known target that any virus or worm updated in the last two years has SOME active defense against it.
    • It's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission. Go over sometime, and when they're not paying attention nuke NAV and install AVG. Install Spybot S&D and immunize while you're there, since it's a passive defense and is probably harder to dislodge.

  • The Horrible Graph (Score:2, Insightful)

    by malvidin ( 951569 )
    I know I shouldn't have, but I read it. Did anyone else notice the huge difference between 87% and 88% in the graph?

    Also, who here would allow a "survey group" have access to conduct a remote scan on their computer? Methinks this survey is skewed, even if (especially because) they used quotas.
  • that pretty much every study about viruses or computer security are paid for by the virus and computer security companies, and their conclusion is always more people need to buy their software?

    I'm tired of those companies and their products. They overcharge for their products, force you to upgrade when the upgrade barely offers any additional coverage, and their products slow down computers (my biggest pet peeve).

    A few preventive measures can make virus checking useless. Use firefox, not IE. Don't use outlo
  • Here, here. Confirmation of what I've been saying for a couple of years now. Windows forces you to know a whole lot more about computers than you should have to. Viruses? Updating your virus definitions? Why should you have to know about these things, hmm? And then people claim they use Windows 'cause it's easier. Yeah, right.

Slashdot Top Deals

I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

Close