Sites vunerable to virus attacks.

janesboat

Hi, i've just bought my first computer and was just wondering what sites I should avoid, I know !!!!!! sites are particularly vulnerable to viruses(I read it, honest:o)are there any other websites i should be wary of. Thanks.:)

globalds

Are you running any anti virus software?

janesboat

globalds wrote: »

Are you running any anti virus software?

Yes, i have avg free and malwarebytes free. I was advised that these were pretty good 'free' antivirus thingys.:)

somersethillbilly

Have a look here....http://nortondns.com/
Can help avoiding the nasties by blocking known unsafe or infected sites.

You could also look at MVPS Hosts http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

And Sandboxie http://www.sandboxie.com/

A "belt & braces" approach in addition to your AV. Hope that offers some help?

Neil49

It isn't just websites you need to be wary of. Emails with attachments are a common source of viruses etc so you should be on your guard with those, particularly where they come from an unknown source

Hopefully most will be trapped by your email provider and end up in spam but there can still be those that you are tempted to open. Had one today from the 'Post Office' saying a package couldn't be delivered and asked that I click on a link to get it redelivered. Thing is, how did they know my email address and why didn't they just leave a card???? I deleted it!

You need common sense along with anti virus software nowadays.

ps AVG is ok, just keep it up to date and run regular scans.

gonzo127

Neil49 wrote: »

It isn't just websites you need to be wary of. Emails with attachments are a common source of viruses etc so you should be on your guard with those, particularly where they come from an unknown source

Hopefully most will be trapped by your email provider and end up in spam but there can still be those that you are tempted to open. Had one today from the 'Post Office' saying a package couldn't be delivered and asked that I click on a link to get it redelivered. Thing is, how did they know my email address and why didn't they just leave a card???? I deleted it!

You need common sense along with anti virus software nowadays.

ps AVG is ok, just keep it up to date and run regular scans.

as above most of it is commen sense, things that look too good to be true, 'free' software sites (pireted stuff) can be somewhat dodgy - so stick to the more known sites for software such as cnet.

as to AVG - its acceptable. However there are better free anti virus software such as Avast and Avira who consistantly score very high in indepentant tests - just remember you only need one resident scanner and if you choose to remove AVG, download and run the removal tool before you install any other,

as to malwarebytes - its currently (as far as i know) the best anti malware program about so keep that

janesboat

Thanks guys, Im a bit of a novice and I want to be armed with as much info about this stuff as possible, also thanks for posting the links somersethillbilly. cheers.:T:)

FOX_HOUND

You can pick up a virus anywhere. A few weeks ago I posted on here a virus trojan warning that avast alerted me to on an estate agents site. Some of the people in the know tested it and it was the real deal.

The trick is to have your anti-virus up to date. Done all you can then.

RussJK

All sites are potentially vulnerable, if attackers find a vulnerability and hack the site to link to malware. This means a legitimate and otherwise trustworthy site can cause an infection - common sense isn't worth as much as it used to be.

Even government websites have been hit this year. The former company eBay used for ads got hacked and was putting out infected ads, which effectively meant that thousands of eBay users were infected. There are loads of legitimate local business websites that link to malware.

The steps Somersethillbilly mentioned are quite useful - particularly Sandboxie. Basically when you browse under a sandbox - any infection will also be contained to the sandbox.

I'd probably uninstall AVG (and use the remover http://www.avg.com/gb-en/utilities) and put Avast on if you're worried about web threats.

If you use Firefox, Adblock Plus is a good addition - I use the 'Easylist' and the 'Malware Domains' subscriptions (http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions).

craigster

You could also try the Firefox/Chrome plug-in No Script.
It will prevent javascript and third party plug-ins such as Flash from displaying on a webpage unless you specifically allow them. It's stuff like that, which is really code running in your browser, which can be used to exploit vulnerabilities and allow malicious stuff to be installed on your computer. Chrome is also a good choice as it is sandboxed. This is a fancy way of saying that it blocks stuff running in your browser from affecting the rest of your computer.
Having said that, nothing is full proof.

RussJK

I think Noscript will be too much for someone with their first computer