Viruses - Do you get them and why?

robt_2

Before I start, I just want to say this post is not an attack or judgement of anysort - just mere curiosity.

Personally, I have not had a virus for as long as I can remember (at least 5 years). During this time I have been behind a router firewall and Windows firewall, and running an antivirus, AVG for the most part.

If you have had a virus recently, how do you think you got it? Downloading a dodgy file, emails, an infected floppy disc etc?

It seems that on a couple of forums I use, people are saying they have antivirus installed, but they still end up getting viruses - I was wondering if this is actually the case?

Like I said, it is just to satisfy my curiosity

grannybroon

Hi robt

We never knowingly have had a virus. We use AVG. If anything pops into our In-box from anyone we don't know it gets deleted unopened. However, we usually only get e-mails (with or without attachments) from folk we know and are in our address book. We do not download games, films etc. We do however buy stuff on line but that it always from big, recognised, secure sites!

The other thing we have is a Yahoo e-mail other than our main one just for on-line ordering. Any other e-mails other than from recognised companies get deleted without opening.

GB

Reluctant_spender

You probably realise that no anti virus is 100% therefore dependant on your surfing style you may be more susceptable.

It could be the rise in use of Peer to Peer software and e-mails attachments increases the risk - who knows for sure, only the surfer

D.K.

If you can find my old thread and the current one re MSN you'll see.

Right now, and be warned, it sends you a message and uses one of your sender's names.(In my case it looks like the sender's computer has it). The message, and it can vary says something like they have sent a photo, have a look... you click on it and Bingo, only it appears that after much scanning and analysing AVG may have caught it and I'm in the clear. The sender in this case was on holiday and sending me photos, which was very bad luck!!
Sorry I can't remember the name of the person whose getting help to get rid of it just now but if you find it you'll see just how scary it is.

D.

superscaper

Well I managed to get one not so long ago (maybe a year or so), I was reinstalling windows from scratch and couldn't get my slipstreamed cd working so I'd only installed XP sp1. I thought I'd be safe downloading the latest security software freeware and windows patched etc without a software firewall (had a hardware firewall in router enabled) etc until I'd got them installed. No more than half an hour for the entire process and I never visited any other sites than the security downloads. I ended up getting a virus within that short period of time being online. It was some nasty lsass.exe type that completely ate up all the bandwidth of the entire LAN preventing all the other pcs from connecting online.

weegie.geek

The only time I can remember getting a virus is when I intentionally left a pre-sp1 winxp open on the net to see how long it took.

Minutes was the answer.

I've never had a problem with spyware or viruses.

I put this down to being sensible rather than lucky. I use firefox and thunderbird for starters.

I don't use P2P - no need for it other than to grab the newest consolevania or whatever - even then, it's an avi i'm downloading, not some dodgy .exe. I don't get sent any dodgy email attachments TO open, because I don't really correspond by email with anyone who isn't security aware.

I'm positive that 99% of virus problems are people opening dodgy attachments and people using trojaned pirate software.

fermi

On Windows I can only only remember one instance of a virus and that was picked up and quarantined immediately.

The rest have been "false alarms" from less than perfect AV software/definitions.

This box is running Linux, so not so much of a concern.

superscaper

weegie.geek wrote: »

The only time I can remember getting a virus is when I intentionally left a pre-sp1 winxp open on the net to see how long it took.

Minutes was the answer.

Pretty much my exact circumstance. And I was already behind a working hardware firewall.

This is why it annoys me when people say that you can only get viruses by putting them on your pc yourself. Of course there's a lot of common sense about dodgy files etc but that doesn't mean you can live without the security software and patches just because of sensible browsing and email habits.

robt_2

My word, I think I'm going to faint, I'm going to agree with a whole post of yours

weegie.geek wrote: »

The only time I can remember getting a virus is when I intentionally left a pre-sp1 winxp open on the net to see how long it took.

Minutes was the answer.

I've never had a problem with spyware or viruses.

Me neither, only things antispyware ever turns up is tracking cookies which I'm not worried about.

I put this down to being sensible rather than lucky. I use firefox and thunderbird for starters.

I put it down to being sensible too, but I have almost always used IE as my main browser rather than FF.

I don't use P2P - no need for it other than to grab the newest consolevania or whatever - even then, it's an avi i'm downloading, not some dodgy .exe. I don't get sent any dodgy email attachments TO open, because I don't really correspond by email with anyone who isn't security aware.

I forgot to add in my original post, I have always used webmail, which helps.

I'm positive that 99% of virus problems are people opening dodgy attachments and people using trojaned pirate software.

Maybe not quite 99% (as you said yourself about pre SP1 getting a virus), but I would certainly say above 90%.

robt_2

D.K. wrote: »

If you can find my old thread and the current one re MSN you'll see.

Right now, and be warned, it sends you a message and uses one of your sender's names.(In my case it looks like the sender's computer has it). The message, and it can vary says something like they have sent a photo, have a look... you click on it and Bingo, only it appears that after much scanning and analysing AVG may have caught it and I'm in the clear. The sender in this case was on holiday and sending me photos, which was very bad luck!!
Sorry I can't remember the name of the person whose getting help to get rid of it just now but if you find it you'll see just how scary it is.

D.

Would seeing that on MSN not make you suspicious? I would certainly not click the link until I had confirmed the contact intentionally sent it to me.

superscaper

robt wrote: »

My word, I think I'm going to faint, I'm going to agree with a whole post of yours





Me neither, only things antispyware ever turns up is tracking cookies which I'm not worried about.



I put it down to being sensible too, but I have almost always used IE as my main browser rather than FF.



I forgot to add in my original post, I have always used webmail, which helps.



Maybe not quite 99% (as you said yourself about pre SP1 getting a virus), but I would certainly say above 90%.

Strangely I think the only times I've had problems personally with viruses is when I was using FF and Thunderbird. (Most times it was also before SP2 came out). Since I've used IE7 and Outlook as my default browser and email client I've not had any virus or spyware problems at all so I don't really see those apps as being particularly vulnerable. (Although I don't really get any spam anyway so chances of getting virus through undetected is pretty slim).