Post by Newyana2| >
| and it tells me whenever
| something tries to go online (and I can choose block once, block always,
| allow once, or allow always
To my mind that's part of the problem. AV wants to be a firewall.
Firewalls want to be AV. It ends up very bloated. I've occasionally
I've never got the thing that comes with 7 - whose icon is a bit of
castle wall - to work; I get a message saying something like "see your
administrator" whenever I start. (Since that's only every 2-4 weeks or
so, I'm not bothered.) Is that a firewall? So, I'm quite happy for AVG
to do it.
Post by Newyana2downloaded a scanner for one-time use, but the whole approach
is pretty much outdated at this point. 0-days have become the
Unless the thing you want to scan is bigger than the scanner, I think
I'd probably _up_load it to one of the free online scanners, rather than
doing a one-time download.
Post by Newyana2typical method of attack. No virus signatures for those. Also, "social
engineering". When you get attacked by an ad at the NYTimes
or a convincing scam email, it's not easy to avoid being fooled.
I haven't been yet. Famous last words I know, but I _think_ I'd
recognise one - and I have two system images (more against hardware
failure). And, how many of them work on 7 anyway.
Post by Newyana2AV was a clever approach 20+ years ago. Remember that? Virus
signatures would come out once a month, typically about 1 MB.
Viruses were scripts written by wiseguys as practical jokes. For
I remember - even had a copy once (to inflict on colleagues) - from DOS
days, one which caused all the characters in your character-mode screen
to gradually fall into a heap at the bottom of the screen, in the manner
of some viruses seen in dramas at the time; restore just involved the
right key combination. (IIRR, it was one of the few things that ever
used the scroll lock key!) Yes, viruses were once mostly just jokes.
[]
Post by Newyana2Last I saw, virus definitions were more like 300MB at intervals
Yes, I remember seeing that they were multiple times a day; not sure if
free AVG is that busy. Just looking - hmm, it says "Last updated: a
minute ago", so maybe it is. I'm extremely unaware of it interfering
with my use of the computer, though.
[]
Post by Newyana2Linux software is being infected at the source.
Yes, people who believe that's immune are naïve. Even MacOS, I'm sure,
has some.
Post by Newyana2Meanwhile people are banking and shopping online, letting script run
I've never got into online banking: I started telephone banking with one
of the first companies to offer it in the UK, as it seemed a good idea,
and my banking needs have never been such that I've felt the need to go
for more. I do buy on ebay, granted; I haven't got into grocery shopping
online, though could - at present, the fortnightly shop gets me out of
the house so I'll keep at it!
Post by Newyana2in their browser. What's wrong with this picture? (Speaking of which,
yesterday I saw where Google is warning that all Chrome users
should update NOW. They wouldn't explain the problem, but said
that malware can attack via webpage popups.)
Hmm. I have the last Chrome that runs on 7-32, and haven't had any such
warnings. I'm sure I'm therefore vulnerable.
Post by Newyana2I once ran MalwareBytes and it told me that I had 10 things to
fix. Among other things it wanted to "fix" a number of my custom
Registry settings and delete my boot manager EXE. It even had
an official virus species name for the boot manager. It didn't
say something like, "We're not sure about this one. You should
scan it with real AV." No. It said "This is Black.Plague.Blah.Blah.123.1.
Make for the exits!"
Yes, AVG regularly tells me I'm being slowed down by various things, and
a few things are risks. I ignore it; since one of the things that it
tells me are slowing me down are excessive junk files, and it's been a
_long_ time since excess files on the disc had any (discernible, anyway)
effect on the speed of the computer, I'm not impressed. (Of course, it's
telling me about these "problems" to get me to buy it: there's usually a
"fix them" button, which - after a few more clicks, if I bother clicking
it - tells me how much it's going to cost me.)
Post by Newyana2In retrospect I feel lucky that I didn't screw anything up running
Norton System Works on Win98. That picture of a doctor in a white
coat, and all the fancy listings of things fixed, made me feel like I'd
sent Win98 in for a day of beauty.
Yes, I'm very wary of any automatic "fix", "tweak", "tidy", or "clean
up" type utilities, as they're very keen to change settings, some of
which I've deliberately set - not infrequently so long ago that I can't
_remember_ why I did, but nearly always for a good reason, so I don't
want them unset. Such utilities are keen to go ahead, often without
asking (or I think logging), so I treat them with great suspicion.
(Unless I know the author, but can't remember the last time I used
anything where I did. I think it might have been from Tony Helenius.)
Post by Newyana2Of course I don't think AV is useless. But I do think it's limited,
bloated, and that people trust it too much.
Agreed on all four counts. I don't trust it _too much_ - see above - but
its firewall function is useful, as is its scanner.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
you can't blame boomers for everything. - Joe Queenan, RT 2023/6/24-30
