Posted on 10/26/2004 5:26:59 PM PDT by Stoat
80 per cent of home PCs infected - surveyPublished Tuesday 26th October 2004 19:59 GMT
The Internet is well on its way to becoming one vast bot net, a survey by AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance suggests.
Researchers interviewed, and examined the computers of, 329 volunteers. They found that nearly all Windows PCs are infected with some form of malware, and that a majority of users are unaware of the simplest security basics, such as the difference between anti-virus software and a firewall, for instance.
Most users had antivirus software installed, presumably because it's usually preloaded on OEM boxes, but two thirds had not bothered to update their virus siggies in the preceding week. One poor victim had 92 viruses on their PC, and another an incredible 1,059 spyware/adware progies. Two thirds of users had no firewall or packet filter, and 14 per cent of those who had them had misconfigured them. And only nine per cent had any sort of parental controls in place. Half of wireless users employed MAC filtering to prevent connection freeloading, while 60 per cent used WEP to encrypt their signals. Nevertheless, almost three quarters of those surveyed reported believing that their PC is very secure or moderately secure. Somehow, the message isn't getting through. Unless, of course, the message that is getting through is the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing message, and it's led people to overconfidence. The National Cyber Security Alliance says that users need more education, and encouragement to take more responsibility for their own cyber security, and, by extension, the collective security of the Net. But this seems to be blaming the victim. They might perhaps just deserve better software. ® Thomas C Greene is the author of Computer Security for the Home and Small Office, a comprehensive guide to system hardening, malware protection, online anonymity, encryption, and data hygiene for Windows and Linux. |
My brother and I have been in the IT business for years. We fight this stuff all the time and use many tools. Our most recent discovery is an effective bit of software named "GIANT Anitspyware", available for free trial at www.giantsoftware.com.
It has proven to be a great addition to our arsenal.
You're quite welcome :-)
If your repairman is indeed qualified and is truly stumped, it might be faster, simpler and less expensive to back up your data and reformat the hard drive. The reformatting process 'should' squish any viruses or bad stuff, but you will need to reinstall all of your software applications. The benefit of this is that with a newly-cleaned machine you can set it up better for security, such as adding a firewall and spyware blocker as well as a modern antivirus program.
Even Yahoo. There's a registry scanner called "Hijack this" that you can find at Cnet - a safe site - you can use it to deregister all of the Yahoo crap and more - but be careful that you only deregister the things you are 100% certain of. All else, no matter how suspicious, leave it alone lest you hose up your computer.
www.giantsoftware.com is a webdesign firm.
"Jokers"... you're being too kind.
My apologies. The correct URL is www.giantcompany.com
Click on GIANT Antispyware
I'm getting old. It's a great excuse for this type of error.
You are right. I'm just trying to keep with the tradition of gentleness here on FR. By the way, I'm one of those "OLD" Freepers. My name, "Committed" showed up here all the way back in the mid 90's, not long after Free Republic was invented. I don't see many of the old names anymore.
You beat me and my hubby by two years, so I guess we're old too.
Well, time for my jello.
Ping! Hopefully our friend backhoe might be willing to post his legendary list of security-related applications in this thread :-)
Bump for later Knoppix try
Mmmmm. Nice software.
Gladly- here 'tis:
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