i installed malwarebytes today and scanned my system and it found 6 threats one off them was RiskWare.DontStealOurSoftware and the path to the file was c: \ windows \ system32 \ drivers \ etc \ HOSTS

 

Never used any realtime AV. I upload files to some meta checkers, sometimes I do a offline scan with clamAV, but that's it.
Not even some fancy firewall. All on pc and never had any troubles.
Only trouble was getting rid of defender in newer iterations of windows 10.

Fellow citizens of this board are right: If someone want's to plant ransomware or spyware somewhere they will find ways.
No matter what system by the way. It's just that programming windows ransomware has more 'customers'.
And most of the time these things get installed by fancy social engineering, no hacking involved.
Besides we need to backup anyway! SSDs die, harddisks crash, and one backup is no backup and a backup is never powered up.
It only is set to function when backup number 2 is off duty.
So nothing to fear.
I often need to work for facilities who have some IT blokes and those idiots install some norton or symantic or whatever shitty snakeoil they prefer... these machines are barely useable. I have half the processor power at home and the same projects run like a charm while there I really need to think whether I need another reverb or not.

 

Ok, keep playing ignorant.

 

ignorance? what are you talking about?
do you think I don't know the CIA is creating spyware?
or do you think other countries DO NOT do this?
you have not revealed any secret, these facts are known to everyone.
BUT! read this again:

I have heard and read similar statements many times, but I have never been provided with evidence. do you understand?
leaving the possibility of hidden connection or not adding spyware to the anti-virus databases is cooperation with the CIA. and these actions can in no way be called "writing / making viruses".

 

i think these are fake reports to make itself important
really did get that impression over the years back then.

 

Me too, more then 10 yers without antivirus and no problems. My 2009 pc run better than a 2020 pc with antivirus. The real virus is antivirus!

 

People love taking the piss.

Use or don't use what you want, that actually is a matter of freedom and choice. How is this even a conversation worth having? We might as well be talking about ice cream with sprinkles versus plain. AV is best for computers that are run by people who will follow directions like <CLICK HERE HOW> on webpages and in each and every email they receive, i.e. our parents, the kid that temps doing data entry/metadata tagging or your secretary on a computer where the data is actually worth something. Even then it's a prophylactic, no guarantees, but if it stops one idiot from crashing an important machine, network or a ransomware attack it's worth everything you spend on it and then some, including the lost productivity.

For a home computer that you can just wipe and restore it doesn't really matter. If you get hit, which you probably will not because for the most part people here are pretty tech savvy, you'll get pissed off, reformat and start all over again. Nothing lost especially if you have to reformat and reinstall every few months just because you love to tinker.

My personal computers 3 Macs don't run any AV but I have a subscription to Webroot for Dad, Mom, Spouse (2) because I got tired of long phone calls or actually fixing things from <CLICK HERE NOW> syndrome. Work PCs and Mac are different story.

This is the most clear case of do what you want, who cares.

 

No antivirus and no Windows updates on my DAW since 2015 (build 1511). Working perfectly.

 

I had some trouble that it was disabling some services i needed without asking.

 

It might be nice to know how to actually get infected.

So in order to install something you need to execute something or something gets executed automatically.
If you visit a webpage something needs to be downloaded and than executed either manuallt or automatically.

Javascript alone of the browser cant chaneg anything on you windows computer.

So what else ?

related:
https://security.stackexchange.com/...ithout-the-user-executing-or-opening-the-file

 

Last edited: Nov 8, 2020

In that case u can never accept flash USBs from anyone cause windows don't detect viruses. I still have many clients who bring their stuff (more than 10 Gigs) with USBs

 

Thank goodness all I got was a bad case of crabs.

 

And then? Unless you click to install the malicious software nothing will happen. Unless there is something like autorun enabled no ?

 

I wiped the hackintosh machine last night and installed Parrot OS with a pretty tight firewall. Installed:

• A transparent proxy
• Clam antivirus
• Squid caching proxy
• SSL certificates
• Tagged all SSL traffic with a header that havp can decrypt
• Used Parrot as the main gateway on my windows PC

So far it is all transparent with a little overhead in web traffic, but I don't have a firewall or AV on my windows machine. A test for a few suspicious downloads gets blocked. I'll have to see how this fares over the next month or so

 

Just landing on a webpage that has driveby malware is enough, actually.
Little Snitch saved me from that once.

 

a) third-party firewall is a must
b & c) If you go to porno webs or use pirate software, a good working head & good working AV is a must

 

How should (does) that work ? How should a webpage do any changes to you system? The only way I see is by somehow utalizing a security hole in the browser. Webpages alone can't do any harm to a computer.

 

This site will explain how it works: https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/javascript-malware-explained/

 

Theses JavaScript attacks highly depends on security holes in the OS.
So better use a script blocker and only browse unsafe sites using a sandboxed browser.
Would that exploits even work when you run the browser in sandboxy ?

 

Running in a sandbox environment will mitigate any risk, as long as the sandbox environment doesn't have vulnerabilities itself