Tips for NOT using an antivirus?

[holo88]

Well! there are a lot of convincing arguments here. I dont see why people try to rationalize an argument. and i dont want to drag this out.... so i have come to a decision, solely based on your guys' feedback. I had weighed the pros/cons, and come up with:

While more resource friendly, not using an antivirus, is irresponsible, dangerous, and potentially a very "dumb" decision. And should only be ********d in a contained (no internet) environment, as it puts fellow interwebers at risk. So, I have reinstalled my antivirus. Also, I have submitted a detailed feed-back report to MS regarding the issues I've experienced with their product. Hopefully they'll actually read it.

I again, thank all of you for your time. HELP ME, HELP YOU!

-edit- why is e x e r c i s e d "****'d" out?

 

[Antman]

A good choice, an ******** in sound judgement.

 

[mickey megabyte]

you know it makes sense

 

[holo88]

<-- now available in logic flavored.

now all's i have to do, is scan the crap outta my computer. just in case

 

[Creer]

Standard AV softwares based-on blacklists technology which is indeed very old method of fighting with malware/trojans/viruses, etc. This technique is totally useless against 0 day threats. Almost the same blacklist technique is using in other similar products like eg. BB (behavior blockers)

The key in these days is NOT Detection but Prevention. In Prevention category we can mention HIPS/classical HIPS, sandobox softwares, based-on policy softwares, software/hardware virtualization (eg. VM/Returnil/ShadowDefender)
Also don't forget about common sense

Articles about weaknesses of antivirus softwares:
Defeating Anti-Virus with Crypters - Adventures of the White Rabbit
Eighty percent of new malware defeats antivirus: News - Security - ZDNet Australia
Five reasons you need a new approach to antivirus security
Is the end of anti-virus finally here? | Security Central - InfoWorld
BigFix SAM Tool Lets Enterprises Track Software Use
The Zero-Day Dilemma
RSA: New threats could make traditional antivirus tools ineffective
Stormy weather for malware defenses
BBC NEWS | Technology | Staying safe without anti-virus
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=9095
Welcome to TechNewsWorld
The Invisible Things Lab's blog: Tricky Tricks
ThreatFire Research Blog: How do Storm and other current threats attack security solutions and silently maintain their presence on systems?
Storm Worm Botnet Lobotomizing Anti-Virus Programs
Is security software becoming a security risk? | Security Central - InfoWorld
http://www.nruns.com/ps/The_Death_of_AV_Defense_in_Depth-Revisiting_Anti-Virus_Software.pdf

And remember - Prevention is better than the Cure!

Cheers,
Creer

 

[Airbot]

1. How's that?
2. life's more fun that way (sometimes)
3. and may i ask why?

-edit- -but seriously-
your reaction puzzles me. what does me not wearing a safety sock have to do with you? or anyone else for that matter? (pardon the pun) it's not logical that the "health" of my machine would concern, anyone beyond well .. myself. i don't spend all day downloading from nefarious sites. there's no real need for me to have the A/V running when for the past, WHO knows how long, haven't had a single detection... at least, that I can think of..

I thought it, a valid question, to ask the only brains on this world (that would be you nice folks) who's opinions are actually insightful to me. (no luck getting tech support on 4chan)

Not to drag it out, or get into any philosophical debate, but I'd like to give my view on your views here.

Jacee's reaction, and what some others have noted on too, does not puzzle me in the slightest. Your statements here -

what does me not wearing a safety sock have to do with you? or anyone else for that matter? (pardon the pun) it's not logical that the "health" of my machine would concern, anyone beyond well .. myself.

Well, let's think about it for a moment in biological terms. Regardless if you or anyone else believes it or not, everything is connected in some way, regardless of the amount.

How can any malicious biological virus/baterium strain infect one lifeform to the other? From one lifeform spreading it to another, or some other medium connected between them allowing the spread until a mass amount is infected.

Say you have just contracted some sort of flu, you keep yourself clean though, you wash your hands a lot, you practice all the common sense steps to not getting sick, but you've just been infected with a flu virus anyway.

You don't know you have it yet, maybe a few days go by until you know you have it. Meanwhile, you've coughed a few times walking by someone or in a crowded room, you've touched doorknobs in between your normal hand washings, etc.

Well guess what..you've just infected some others you don't even know with your flu virus you didn't even know you had. And they go out and infect others, and so on.

Well, it's too late now, isn't it? It might have some serious effects on others it has infected coming from you, even including yourself.


Same with computer viruses/malicious content. You're connected to the internet, which means you're connected to others, or have the ability to connect to others in one way or the other.

Now you have no AV, no malware protection at all really. You can be really smart, you can be smart in your computer management, but you've still been infected with malware and don't know it yet. By the time you realize it and be rid of it, if you even do, in your innocent internet wanderings, it may have connected and infected others and have serious effects in ways you really have no idea of, and so on and so on.

Not saying just having an AV or some sort of malware protection is going to save you from everything, not at all, and it won't completely, but you get the idea of what I'm saying.

Every bit helps to slow or stop or prevent malicious activity. It's better than not having any at all in most cases. At least it can give you somewhat of an extra layer than not at all. Not having an AV, you should either be really smart in your management, process checking and what not, essentially becoming your own self-AV, or having both an AV and yourself.

Not having anything at all, and just believing you practice safe surfing doesn't mean it's not going to affect others and not just yourself with you unknowingly becoming infected at some point in time.

The point I'm saying is your actions can affect others regardless of how preventative you are, or will at some point in time, in some way, beit minute or huge. All it takes is the one time it happens.


Just my personal views/opinions. You can believe in some of it or not at all. It's ok, I won't cry.

 

[holo88]

i'd try and quote that, Airbot, but it froze my computer (j/k lol)
i've seen the light (it burns). fear not. my A/V is back, up and running. i even added a few things to the arsenal. thats why i asked in the first place. for feed back, (back feed?) and when it accumulated, i humbly withdrew my decision to "NOT use an antivirus"..... if i knew how to mark the tread as solved (seriously how?) i would have

 

[mickey megabyte]

to mark it as solved, you need to report it with the button next to the rep.

 

[Airbot]

marked as solved for you.

 

[holo88]

thanks. i was getting around to it
(i changed the forum skin, and now i cant find anything)

 

[ultraplanet]

I made the leap about 3 years ago to uninstalling my AV software and have never looked back. The key is standard user accounts. Never logon to your system as an administrator. In XP use "run as" when needed which is nicely taken care of for you by the UAC in 7. Of course all the other best practices mentioned here apply too.

 

[tjsalis]

I went for a long time without an AV and probably still would if I didn't download stuff from people--even though it's mostly people I know, I'm still careful. I generally can't stand most AV's or Internet Security Suites. They are such hogs!

I've never even heard of these AV's you guys have mentioned on this thread, I use AVG Free simply just to scan anything I download and because I can barely tell it's running ever, no matter what machine I put it on. Are there better ones that run just as smooth, and are those free? Just curious, thanks.

 

[gamepro127]

I went for a long time without an AV and probably still would if I didn't download stuff from people--even though it's mostly people I know, I'm still careful. I generally can't stand most AV's or Internet Security Suites. They are such hogs!

I've never even heard of these AV's you guys have mentioned on this thread, I use AVG Free simply just to scan anything I download and because I can barely tell it's running ever, no matter what machine I put it on. Are there better ones that run just as smooth, and are those free? Just curious, thanks.

Avira, not avast!