Does Anything Work?

As an experiment some time a go (a year or so), a web master placed a (benign) link button on his website that stated "click this button to download and install a virus on your computer" or such

he found that in a very short time he had over 400 visitors who clicked on that button

How can any Tech prevent users like this from becoming infected - they cannot!!!

Ok I will admit that some of the scare monger tactics of the legitimate AV industry and major retail chains, to sell their products, does not help to combat this problem

It produces a state of paranoia about the malware situation rather that the informed caution that is actually needed. Users have a state of mind where they are terrified of being infected and so when their fears are proved by the drive by malware they panic and click the button, without thinking

I can't believe it.

I learned this kind of lesson in about 1998...the hard way...crippled PC's...

I suppose there's new users every minute of every day...who don't know jack

One very good anti-malware application to have is SpywareBlaster by javacool. This app runs in the background, it's free and it is 'pro' active. SpywareBlaster® | Prevent spyware and malware. Free download.
It needs to be updated manually (free version), or with a donation, it will update itself. Once updated, click the button that says "enable all protection"

Maybe after you 'fix' a cutomer's computer, you need to attach an important instruction ... DO NOT plug this in.

As viruses and scareware evolve, it's going to be harder to keep it out of the sys.

The latest phony AV's not only tell you that there's "something" on the PC, but some of them actually scan ahead and throw up a screen that mimics your current AV. Just last week I saw this on my dentists PC.

And also on a family members PC, to which they (unfortunately) responded by clicking everything they were told to because they "panicked" and thought it was part of their AV "helping" them. I had to wipe the PC's HD & re-install everything. It was that bad.

And they do a good job of scaring the average user too, lots of flashing/blinking and bright red letters saying in essence "OMG, YOU"RE INFECTED....DO SOMETHING QUICKLY OR ALL IS LOST!!!!

As some have said, and I fully agree, education is the key. Not everyone is going to be able to learn about all the intricacies of malware/viruses, but some education can go a long way.

I was over at a friends and I saw a warning message pop up, to which he promptly clicked it off without reading it. I asked what that was & his response was "I don't know, it pops up once in a while." It turns out it was his AV warning him that a prog was trying to establish a connection. A program that turned out to be a virus. He had never bothered to actually read the message, thinking of it as nothing more then an annoyance.

I think as long as these tactics continue, we'll see our fair share of infected PC's. As to the question "Does anything work", not 100%, but vigilance, good AV software and some basic education can at least cut down on some of the infections. (Hopefully)