Infection or malware

[imported_snikt]

Just curious to see how long you or anybody you know has gone without having yours or their computers compromised by virus, worms, spyware, malware, etc.

I built the rig I have now a little over four years ago and have never been hit to the extent where I had to clean or reformat. Either things were stopped by my anti-virus or just never got through because of one security measure or another.

 

[MustISO]

I've never had one of my home computers infected, my wife got some adware a long time ago when she didn't realize what she was doing.

 

[Fardringle]

The only time I have ever had any infection on my own computer was when I did it on purpose just to see how badly I could corrupt the system before I did upgrades that required a new install of Windows.

 

[mechBgon]

About 60 employees, 8-hour workdays, 50 weeks a year, for five years. Thank you, non-Admin user accounts One of our last Win98 systems got infected once, that's the only "conventional" infection I logged. Successful ones, I mean... we had plenty of attempts. One day our own non-profit agency's website got compromised, and guess what I'd been using as our default homepage? Yeah. *facepalm*

A couple employees did get duped into trying to run scareware "scanners" in the early days of scareware. After that, I slapped on execution prevention in addition to the non-Admin user accounts. In our case, that took the form of custom behavior-blocking rulesets in VirusScan Enterprise because we still had mostly Win2000 systems, but nowdays I'd use Software Restriction Policy instead.

The I.T. department's PHB, being very anti-Microsoft, was trying to tell me how oh, the users should all be Admins and they should just be trained what not to do, as well as you MUST get rid of Internet Explorer and use teh FireFox or you'll be pwned. Etc, etc. But in the end, it wasn't my office's network that got overrun by worms :evil:

 

[Sam25]

My rigs have not been infected for over 4+ years. Now protected by Superantispyware + Nod32 AV.

 

[tzdk]

I could say never or I am infected right now. How you define malware? What you think about Digsby for example http://lifehacker.com/5336382/...-your-pc-to-make-money I use that but I use alternative download without all the crap so Im supporting/using software from a company which motives can be questioned?

Lifehacker article is pretty much BS btw. They have written about, and LOVED Digsby, many times and just now figured out what really does happen when we click install? Month ago I saw a video of whole install process by a German guy - he called it snuckware, dont think it is a positive label http://vimeo.com/2350704 They probably did a search on Vimeo for digsby found his old discovery, oh Nooo or rather hmm worhty of a screaming article!

If you use Digsby, is annoyed but also love it!, then uninstall and use link at the bottom of this page http://www.digsby.com/download.php?os=win After its done go to help, support digsby and here you can turn off "conduct research" http://i27.tinypic.com/2hf2j5h.jpg So all is good and most will be fooled , why malware is hard to define. Some will say use your brain! other than every process must be transparent. A pre-selected tickbox installing toolbars and such is not transparency. When is that the case anyway? Digsby are fairly open about this btw - see their forum or blog http://blog.digsby.com/archives/68 However they dont reveal which services they use users computers for, can be for charity, can be for money.

Another example is Sumo http://www.kcsoftwares.com/index.php?sumo a much praised update checker who also went to the "dark" side with a Relevant Knowledge offer. Malwarebytes will get that! Well, they also have a "lite" Sumo - not the one majority use. Guess RK can also be unselected but many just click.

Have been infected many times when I used not so legal software, but behind my back, without me knowingly playing a part, I dont think Ive ever been infected. Has not much to do with software running in background. Not really difficult to avoid but certainly depends on definitions. One of the most popular antispyware scanners highly suggest a simple tracking cookie is a threat so may be Im infected 24/7

 

[Blazer]

@ year 2000 with a win 98se gateway pc, was my first pc, i wore out gateway tech support as i crashed it offten, then they wore me out when they talked me in loading the mellinium cd that came with the pc.