Spyware cures may cause more harm than good

C/Net News.com ^ | 2/4/2004 | John Borland

[discostu]

Ohh I hurt your feelings. I said I was glad Linux was getting better. I believe you. I just don't see proving somebody else right to be a worthy investment of my precious recreational time.

[Cicero]

It doesn't take a rocket scientist. This has been going on for several years now.

[Hunble]

I hope that you know that I have been teasing you....

Seriously, I have suspected anti-viral and anti-spy software companies as the source of these attacks.

Yes, there are documented cases of young teens creating software, but those cases are rather rare.

Like I said before, I have been working with computers for well over 30 years now. My second micro-computer was Altair 8800.

Byte magazine once had a competition to write as self-replicating program. The winner was the following BASIC source code:

1) LIST

A few months later, a new company formed and was selling anti-viral software. Suddenly, withing six months, everyone was being infected with viral software.

Are you catching the drift yet?

My wife uses anti-viral software. Every person I work with uses anti-viral software on their computers.

They have all been infected and have experienced some major computer problems. Often, they have been forced to re-format their hard drives and install all of their software from scratch.

For 30 years now, I have refused to ever use anti-viral software. Amazingly, my computer never seems to suffer these problems. Not once in over 30 years!

Think about it.....

Actually, just last week, every computer at my company was no longer able to access the internet. They could access a website, but withing 30 seconds, Microsoft Internet Explorer would crash.

My computer never had this problem, so I had to help everyone else recover.

Think about it....

For 30 years now, I have refused to use any anti-viral software and have never experienced an attack.

[discostu]

Oh and there's two reasons I don't do the game system thing:
1 - I'm a PC style gamer, many of the games I play come out on PC first and some even come out on PC only
2 - I like to watch TV while I'm playing, I'd need two TVs if I wanted to use a game system, and I'd still need a computer for e-mail webbing and resumes

[Hunble]

Oh my, has my computer just been infected?

All usage of the word "within" was replaced by "withing" in my last posting.

It would be impossible for me, a superior human, to make a spelling error. My computer MUST be infected!

[Howlin]

Absolutely!

[freedomlover]

bump for later

[N3WBI3]

My feelings are not hurt at all just do not want you to look like a fool again when you talk about an OS you dont use..

[discostu]

I caught the humor. Most of what you've said is true to various degrees though. The best humor is built on a nugget of truth.

I'm not sure they're responsible for the attacks, but they certainly are responsible for the paranoia.

Your own brain is still and always will be the best viral protection. I remember when the "I love you" virus rampaged through a company I worked at, the first person infected was our HR person, I got an e-mail from her with the subject "I love you" and decided this must be a virus, she and I had never been close and she knew better than to use company resources for sexual harassment. 5 minutes later the e-mail went around telling everyone that was a virus... duh. By that point I'd already gone to McAffee and gotten the spot protection for that one (closing the loophole).

[Rebelbase]

I've had some spyware that Spybot didn't catch and Adaware did, so I use both now.

[discostu]

You told me Linux has fixed that and I believe you. I won't say Linux needs to improve their hardware support again. I appreciate folks that correct my mistakes, because I'm not a tweaker and not into the bleeding edge I rely on friendly people like you to let me know when stuff has progressed to the point I might actually need to consider a switch. Linux is taking steps, they might even do it. I'm ready when they are, but I'm not an early adopter and will not be riding it out waiting for them to be ready, that's what folks like you are for ;)

[arasina]

I'm so glad I switched to the Mozilla browser. I think I took the leap at a recommendation of yours from a FR thread a couple months ago. Love it and their mail program as well.

[newgeezer]

Yes but it [Spybot] should be used with Ad Aware

How does Ad-Aware compliment Spybot? I've been led to believe that'd be like saying although you have a Corvette, you really need to keep a Camaro close at hand to make sure you get around the racetrack.

[FreedomPoster]

Cheap at the price, and I don't see much hassle from here.

[CFC__VRWC]

bflr

[martin_fierro]

Thanks for remembering the link!

Mozilla is nice, but I prefer Opera.

[dts32041]

There are certain spyware that each miss, so you run both, like wearing suspenders and belts on the pants.

[FreedomPoster]

Spybot and Ad-Aware are complementary. One often catches items the other misses, especially on machines that have a lot of spyware loaded on them. Think about it as putting out rat traps and rat poison. Either way, the rats end up dead, but some won't eat the poison, some won't approach the trap, but most will do one or the other.

[newgeezer]

Do you run multiple anti-virus programs, too? That would seem to follow the same reasoning. :-)

[Publius6961]

BUMP