Antivirus software completely pointless?

tomsolomon

It has just dawned on me. 15 years..........
15 years and I have never had a virus...
I've had spyware/malware ie: trojans, droppers, worms and even keyloggers....
But I have never had any malware that could not be successfully removed by anti-spyware....
What's the crack??????
15 years of having anti virus software and not had to use it...

enigma52

I thought that was the point for having antivirus software, not to get a virus. Or am I missing something

Blackpool_Saver

Is this a joke post.....

Browntoa

I'm with Tom , its a waste of resource

most people need it though as they will click on anything and download anything that pops up on their screen , more of a stupidity shield as opposed to a virus shield

-TangleFoot-

In the words of Luis Villazon:

Computer viruses are not a lethal plague sweeping the world. It’s more like hay fever. It’s a mild itch is all, and not very contagious. I have fourteen computers running a slew of operating system versions, all continuously connected to the net. They have been infected by two viruses since 1990. One came on an infected floppy disk, neither resulted in a loss of data. My brother-in-law sits at the other end of the spectrum and he once presented me with a PC that had 119 different malware infections on it. But even he had lost no data to them, experienced only minor slowdown and was completely cured in an hour using only a free scanner downloaded from the web after he had already been infected. Prophylactic use of anti-virus software is both unnecessary and a very common source of software conflicts.

And some more, just for giggles:

Virus infection is overwhelmingly the least likely thing to go wrong with your PC and infection by an obscure virus that is only caught by the gold-standard scanners is so unlikely that you can discount it. Sure, it could happen. But your PC could be trampled by escaped cows – do you have specific measures in place to deal with that contingency as well?

mr_fishbulb

Good AV software would have stopped you needing to remove the malware after infection. By preventing it from being installed in the first place, you don't have the period of infection before removal by anti-spyware software.

With your certs, you look like you are pretty switched on to running regular scans. But all it takes is you to log into internet banking one time whilst infected, and it's game over.

What cert you looking to do next?

Blackpool_Saver

having just looked up the TRUE definitions of the words, I can now see that this is correct.

tomsolomon

yea....
TBPH I have had more optical drives self destruct, than I have had serious virus infections......;)

closed

A worm is a virus, and you can get infected without clicking on anything, stupidity doesn't enter into it. A good antivirus package should pick trojans, droppers, worms, keyloggers up.

dogmaryxx

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

In the words of Luis Villazon

Believe that and you will believe anything.


nd some more, just for giggles:

I live 25 yards from a farmer , so yes .

Nilrem

tomsolomon wrote: »

yea....
TBPH I have had more optical drives self destruct, than I have had serious virus infections......;)

Same here (what are they making them of these days, paper mache?*), although I still wouldn't be without an AV scanner given the number of infected emails I tend to get (I'm not silly enough to click on attatchments etc but I don't take chances).



*I've gone through about a DVDRW drive a year, just doing monthly backups and relatively low gaming use (thanks to Steam not needing optical drives;)).