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Windows Viruses up Sharply in 2004
Brad1138 writes "MSNBC has an article regarding the proliferation of Windows Viruses and collaboration among virus writers and spammers. Also mentions the likelihood that viruses for Linux and handhelds will see a sharp rise."
Related article on NewScientist says "[t]housands of zombie PCs created daily" Also if you want this story de-uglied click here
Trolling is a art,
Most viruses install themselves in a way that would be more difficult to achieve on Linux than Windows since most Linux users do not run as root. I'm not suggesting that a Linux virus/trojan horse couldn't do any damage - but it should be a lot less than a Windows environment.
Yes.
That's just the first of 3237 search results for "Linux" at SARC.
Too dumb even to notice that the MSNBC article is a Reuters piece.
I believe he was refering to Symantec as the original source of the news, not who was reporting it.
I, and perhaps many others, would be very happy if everyone would just do the following:
:)
1) DON'T BUY SPAMVERTISED PRODUCTS.
2) STOP USING IE. There are lots of great alternatives.
3) Use a decent ingress/egress firewall.
4) Keep AV software updated. And, keep it running!
5) Don't run with admin priviledges. I know this is impossible for most Windows users.
6) Don't call me when you screw up your computer and expect me to fix it as a favor!
P.S. I shouldn't bitch so much. I've made a decent amount of money removing malware during the last six months.
norton is one of the ABSOLUTE WORST virus scanners on the planet. it misses lots of stuff.
install antivir and this will solve your problem..
that nastie can be easily killed by runing an updated antivir on a machine in safe mode.
note, norton AV is absolute crap. Scary that a bunch of germans giving away their stuff for free are doing a better job than all other antivirus companies out there.
If you check www.norton.com, there hasn't been in a virus or worm in 2003 and 2004. If you want to check the high impact advisories in 2004: A almost all of them belong to Windows and one belongs to Linux (January 5, 2004). If you look at the current activity of CERT http://www.us-cert.gov/current/current_activity.ht ml
All of them belong to Windows. Go back to the archives for 2004, almost all of them belong to Windows except for May 5, 2004 (Cisco security problem)
Actually I ran clam on it also and it did not find anything since it was not really a virus just a bunch of executables that look fully legit to the system.
Got Code?
Does code access security give you what you want for sandboxes? Go ahead, take 13 minutes, watch the video, read the transcript, get a feel for what's going on.
It's not like the sandbox isn't there, folks.
"Consider yourself a member of a virtual corporation with Mr. Torvalds as your Chief Executive Officer." - Linux Advocac
Redhat - RHN / Up2Date
SuSE - susewatcher
Debian - apt-watch
yes i'm aware of this, having been a happy linux user of many years. however this is not a pre-emptive measure against future viruses, so much as a means of dealing with them should they arise.
the emphasis is important; consider the rigorous security testing policies undertaken by kernel developers before a new release for instance. that said, this doesn't apply to agents like viruses that are designed to persistently seek and exploit a variety of vulnerabilities on a system-wide level. it would be interesting to create a proving ground for evaluating the risk of viruses on an off-the-shelf Linux system. even invite Norton's whitehat virus writers to have a crack at it. once done, publish the results (granted existing anti-virus companies will not want to encourage awareness of the relative security of a 'Linux System' as they are reliant on vulnerable systems for their bread and butter - maybe we should do that for them).
certainly what consitutes a 'Linux system' as a singularity becomes difficult given the inherent modular structure, as security is addressed on case by case application and kernel levels. however, part of the problem of promoting the security and benefits of this excellent OS is the general reluctance to make public statements about Linux as a singular entity in comparison to Wintel (which markets it's product very much in this fashion). i am often asked by those considering migration, will there be viruses for Linux when it becomes as popular as Windows? Sure we linux users already know the answer, but who else does?
There are a few Linux viruses out there...
a few worms
So, why don't you stop spreading FUD?
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.