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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 downloaded this antivirus from this webpage that told me "YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED! DOWNLOAD FREE ANTIVIRUS!". :(
Why do I keep getting popups?
It's the antivirus/computer companies fault, since they switched to giving people with new computers only 30-60 days of protection when they would give you a full year or even software that never expired... People think they still get full service when they buy a computer that they did 2-3 years ago.
I run Windows. If I don't have anti-virus or the definitions are out of date (last time this summer when I was away for a few weeks) it'll nag. Same if I disable my firewall just to see if the reason an application isn't working is because I've blocked something I shouldn't have. It really doesn't get any easier than that, if they're not running updates they must have disabled everything themselves, and there's really nothing you can do with users that insist on shooting themselves in the foot because the safety is annoying.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I, like another commenter, think it's because of OEM's so often shipping AV trials that expire and they misunderstanding and think "having antivirus included" meant having it all along. Users would probably be less confused if OEM's didn't include any antivirus at all, or offered a lifetime subscription for some extra cost.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
In the very early 2000s, when I started my business, most of my "problems" involved dealing with Windows 98 crapping out or computers just grinding to a halt from overbloatedness and installation of a few too many Bonzi Buddies. Often I was asked to help install antivirus software. But they almost never had viruses.
A few years later, almost all the computers I worked on had antivirus and/or antispyware software... yet almost every single one had some sort of virus, usually a botnet-style worm, or at least loads of spyware. In my opinion this is proof that viruses are something one can only avoid through overall system security and, most importantly, knowledge about computers--no antivirus will protect you if you cannot protect yourself.
While doing tech support for some family and friends I have come across this. I would ask them what AV program they were using, and they would state, "Whatever my ISP is giving me" I ask for more info and they tell me that their ISP told them they get free antivirus with their service. I asked what program they installed, and they would respond with a blank stare.
From what I have gathered, half believe the ISP installed and updates their AV in the same way Microsoft works. They believed that the ISP installed AV when they set up service and that the AV program gets updated the same way MS updates their system. The other half believe the ISP runs antivirus for them on the line so they do not need anything installed.
When I inform them that they need their own, they ask how much. I inform them of AVG and ClamAv* and that those two are at no cost. They then state they cannot be any good if they are free and they go buy either Norton or McAfee.
*I am now Linux only, so I am not familiar with current Windows AV programs. I have Clam on a few systems and AVG on a few others.
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?
I can't get that stuff to run under WINE.
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
I used to believe in virus protection but with the advent of all these rootkits that are undetectable by virus scanners, whats the point of having a virus scanner installed? If someone really wants to get into your computer, they can. If I don't click on everything I get emailed and I keep my windows installation up to date with updates from microsoft, I don't see what added value a virus scanner offers besides slowing down my computer.
No, the problem is that you get a free year trial when you buy a new computer. People get annoyed when it starts asking you to update all the time, and turn off the "remember to register" reminders. Then the year passes, and they have a very out of date antivirus running that does no good, but they think they are protected because it still churns away acting like it's doing something.
On the other hand, the virus update doesn't seem to work unless the administrator is logged on.
The you have a crappy antivirus program. Even AVG Free does this in Limited User. I used Limited User everywhere on my computers, I rarely log in as Admin. Of course, I do have the knowledge to set up a machine that way. Something most -normal- people cannot...
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
My favorite bit is having seen an out of date copy of norton on xp causes so much virus like behavior and slowdowns that it fooled a person into thinking it was a virus issue when the offender was in fact norton itself.
:/
I have one friend who bought it merely because it was the only way he knew to make his computer work again. Norton is so much more complicated to uninstall than other software that he couldn't figure it out.
YAY Shovelware!
But I've never gotten a virus, not once.
Sorry but how do you know, if you haven't used anti-virus software in years? Do you expect a little flag to come up saying "help help I'm infected, get an anti-virus program!"? You could be infected and not even know it.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
The real issue is that people buy computers with software pre-loaded. Among this is an antivirus or a trial for the same. After a while this quits working but the system tray icon still sits there whining about things occasionally. Users click through whatever the annoyance is and continue on their merry ways, thinking that that "picture by the clock" is doing something to protect them. Education is the solution; users can learn about free alternatives to paid antivirus software, why Windows needs an antivirus program, and about what they need to be wary.
Etch-A-Sketch doesn't actually need anti-virus.
If your Etch-A-Sketch is shared between 2 or more kids, you can bet that viruses will be shared among them. There's nothing more infested than a toddler.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
My wife's computer at work has a secretary account and an administrator account.
So tell, me what will happen the day you catch the secretary account in bed with the administrator account??? This sounds better than a soap opera!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
This ticked him off more at Symantec then he already was, especially on seeing yet again the number the number of different special removal tools for the various versions of Norton Security software there was. The Uninstalls shipped with the software should work, but they do an extremely poor job of it and sometimes crash and lock out the systems. Norton needs to be dealt with before a system restore too, else it will cause it to fail. Not the only AV with this problem of course, but extra aggravating cause of the requirement for the seperate utility to actually clean it off the system. Not to mention that pre-Win95 most of the Norton products were fairly decent, one of my favorites was Norton Desktop which made Win 3.1 more controllable, but with the advent of Win95 on Norton products always seem to be broken. None to the extent that 95 and larger hard drives blew old Norton Utilities 8 away, wouldn't let Norton Desktop even exist for obvious reasons and Norton 95 was just a broken product from its beginning, IMO. After all this time its still a memory hog that doesn't play well with others but then Windows doesn't always play well with others either and some have credited Norton Desktop on Win3.1 as having added extra push to Microsoft radically changing the GUI.
I recently had to fix my parents' machine, because it got massively infected. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I ended up flattening it and reinstalling XP from Microsoft's disks rather than the crappy OEM version that was preinstalled on it, but that's another story.
My father had a subscription to Norton. So, why didn't Norton protect him against the virus? Well, a quick install and run of AVG later, I figured out why: Norton had been lobotomised by the virus. Half of its files were corrupted beyond repair. Most of the Javascript that its crappy UI was written in had been replaced by binaries. It was like one of those caterpillars whose brain gets eaten by wasp larvae, and the caterpillar never notices. It was horrific.
Unfortunately I still can't persuade him that AVG (which is free, which gets good reviews, which actually seems to work, and which doesn't keep popping up crap in your face) might be a better choice on the new system; but hopefully the new improved installation will protect him. We'll see.