Slashdot Mirror
Most Users Think They Have AntiVirus Protection, While Only Half Do
SkiifGeek writes "A survey carried out by McAfee and the NCSA found that while more than 90% of users believed that they were protected by antivirus or antimalware products that were updated at least once a week, only 51% actually were. 'Even with significantly growing awareness by everyday users of the need for efficient and effective antivirus / antimalware software, and the increasing market penetration achieved by the security industry, the nature of rapidly evolving Information Security threats means that the baseline of protection is outstripping the ability of users to keep up (without some form of extra help).' The study is available online in PDF format. What sort of an effect does this sort of thinking, and practice, have on the overall security of your systems, networks, and efforts to educate?"
I'm no anti-virus expert--but does anyone need anti-virus software anymore? Gone are the days when viruses are spread by floppy. (Mostly) gone are the days when email clients were so brain-dead that they would automatically execute attachments. But most importantly, gone are the days when the main type of infection is viruses (which spread via some sort of user action). These days, worms (which require no user action) are the dominant threat. And anti-virus software, which relies on signatures, is nearly useless against worms which (by their automatic nature) spread far too quickly for even automatic signature updates to catch. Furthermore, worms generally cause most of their havoc just by spreading (and clogging the network), and by infecting PCs to use as bot-farms.
Perhaps I'm just isolated from the sort of users who are so stupid as to get viruses on their PCs...but are there any left? And does anti-virus software help these people?