_Windows
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Post by _Windows on Nov 19, 2017 15:05:01 GMT
Vast majority of malware, including ones people often call viruses are in fact not viruses. They are trojans or adware, that people are tricked into installing by malicious websites or software bundles. The key difference is that a trojan requires an end-user to allow the installation, whereas a virus does not (viruses spread on their own, which is really rare for modern malware). For the past few years, it has been malicious advertising serving these more than anything. That said, the threat landscape is a lot different than it was in past decades. Instead of worms and viruses, it is usually trojans and adware of various forms you see today. There was once a point when you really had to worry about viruses, but that time seems to have passed a number of years ago. The best way to deal with the current situation is to use software that is aware of and specializes in removal of the current threats. AdwCleaner is one tool I personally use.
CryptoLocker and related malware are a virus... it is a trojan.
WannaCry is a rare exception to this. It spread via exploits and could be considered a worm. It is related to leaks of NSA tools.
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StevenNL2000
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Post by StevenNL2000 on Nov 19, 2017 16:00:00 GMT
I don't believe that people think that viruses are the most important threat to computers. It's just that a lot of them, especially the older generation(s), have no interest in learning the definition of "malware" and will call everything up to phishing mails viruses when asked about them.
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Hockey
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Post by Hockey on Nov 19, 2017 16:14:09 GMT
This is exactly why I don't use a commercial anti-virus solution. In fact, some make you significantly less secure. I found that my Kaspersky software was MITM'ing all of my network traffic. Everything from my credit card details to my passwords could have been compromised, and there was no way to turn it off. A few years ago, Avast did the same thing, and Tavis Ormandy found a flaw in the company's implementation:
...that, coupled with the fact that Kaspersky is based in Russia (with the scandals revolving around the election) and privacy concerns.
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Post by Polaris Seltzeris on Nov 19, 2017 16:55:16 GMT
This is exactly why I don't use a commercial anti-virus solution. In fact, some make you significantly less secure. I found that my Kaspersky software was MITM'ing all of my network traffic. Everything from my credit card details to my passwords could have been compromised, and there was no way to turn it off. A few years ago, Avast did the same thing, and Tavis Ormandy found a flaw in the company's implementation: ...that, coupled with the fact that Kaspersky is based in Russia (with the scandals revolving around the election) and privacy concerns. Was a good post until you mentioned Russia, Russia isn't a boogeyman if anything you should fear your own government for implanting dangerous backdoors that can be used by hostile hackers (WannaCry anyone?) which was really the message of Vault 7, why the fuck do our steering wheels need insecure backdoors that can be manipulated by any fucking hacker again? But anyways yeah, the majority of apps and service backed by the promise of making you 'secure' are usually really insecure themselves (LifeLock CEO anyone?), including password managers and antiviruses. It's so easy to come up with better alternatives to password managers and antiviruses too, it's called an encrypted file and common sense. And to address the OP I realized a while ago that we've came past the point of viruses being designed to destroy the computer. Now the only point of malware is to get money rather than destroy the computer, adware isn't going to break down your computer but it is gonna annoy the shit out of you until you give them money or uninstall it. Things like CryptoLocker are rare but really the only damaging malware nowadays. |
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Hockey
Club 4000 Member
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Post by Hockey on Nov 19, 2017 17:01:15 GMT
This is exactly why I don't use a commercial anti-virus solution. In fact, some make you significantly less secure. I found that my Kaspersky software was MITM'ing all of my network traffic. Everything from my credit card details to my passwords could have been compromised, and there was no way to turn it off. A few years ago, Avast did the same thing, and Tavis Ormandy found a flaw in the company's implementation: ...that, coupled with the fact that Kaspersky is based in Russia (with the scandals revolving around the election) and privacy concerns. Was a good post until you mentioned Russia, Russia isn't a boogeyman if anything you should fear your own government for implanting dangerous backdoors that can be used by hostile hackers (WannaCry anyone?) which was really the message of Vault 7, why the fuck do our steering wheels need insecure backdoors that can be manipulated by any fucking hacker again? But anyways yeah, the majority of apps and service backed by the promise of making you 'secure' are usually really insecure themselves (LifeLock CEO anyone?), including password managers and antiviruses. It's so easy to come up with better alternatives to password managers and antiviruses too, it's called an encrypted file and common sense. And to address the OP I realized a while ago that we've came past the point of viruses being designed to destroy the computer. Now the only point of malware is to get money rather than destroy the computer, adware isn't going to break down your computer but it is gonna annoy the shit out of you until you give them money or uninstall it. Things like CryptoLocker are rare but really the only damaging malware nowadays. I use KeePass to store my passwords, because it's open source and has support for mobile. What do you use? |
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Post by Polaris Seltzeris on Nov 19, 2017 17:04:07 GMT
Was a good post until you mentioned Russia, Russia isn't a boogeyman if anything you should fear your own government for implanting dangerous backdoors that can be used by hostile hackers (WannaCry anyone?) which was really the message of Vault 7, why the fuck do our steering wheels need insecure backdoors that can be manipulated by any fucking hacker again? But anyways yeah, the majority of apps and service backed by the promise of making you 'secure' are usually really insecure themselves (LifeLock CEO anyone?), including password managers and antiviruses. It's so easy to come up with better alternatives to password managers and antiviruses too, it's called an encrypted file and common sense. And to address the OP I realized a while ago that we've came past the point of viruses being designed to destroy the computer. Now the only point of malware is to get money rather than destroy the computer, adware isn't going to break down your computer but it is gonna annoy the shit out of you until you give them money or uninstall it. Things like CryptoLocker are rare but really the only damaging malware nowadays. I use KeePass to store my passwords, because it's open source and has support for mobile. What do you use? I'm not implying that KeePass does this, but whether something is open source or not doesn't matter when you don't know what's inside of the actual deployed software. Unless you reverse engineer the software, you have no idea that it's the same thing as what is open source. But anyways I just have a file with my passwords and encrypt them, it's really easy. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2017 17:45:45 GMT
There's not a lot of easy money to be made off anything other than adware these days.
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Post by BabySharkDoo on Nov 20, 2017 11:37:23 GMT
I still don't understand why the term "Computer Virus" is often being used.
From my perspective there's not alot to do if you attack someone with a virus. You don't get any informations like when you RAT someone. It's pretty useless tbh.
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Caufas4096
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Post by Caufas4096 on Nov 22, 2017 8:54:48 GMT
Damn, i thought the virus you mean is the one that kills people :/
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_Windows
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Post by _Windows on Nov 22, 2017 13:38:27 GMT
I still don't understand why the term "Computer Virus" is often being used. From my perspective there's not alot to do if you attack someone with a virus. You don't get any informations like when you RAT someone. It's pretty useless tbh. It actually has less to do with that than the fact that creating a virus is extremely difficult compared to creating malware simply designed to trick users into installing it. In the days of Windows 95, and 98 viruses were more common because said OS's had more vulnerability than security (yes, even worse than current MS Windows versions... a lot worse actually especially after ActiveX was introduced). The Windows XP era was also still a time you'd want anti-virus. (the original XP did not even come with a firewall until SP2). Stuff like NX-bit also did not exist on mainstream CPUs back then which made it even easier for creating viruses using buffer overflow attacks. On top of all that is the fact that in the 90s and early 2000s, floppies were commonly used still so viruses could often infect the floppy and spread that way. It started happening with flash drives too. In response, Microsoft made the autorun feature not automatically execute any file without user permission which effectively stopped this method of virus spread. |
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tylerhyperhd
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Post by tylerhyperhd on Nov 22, 2017 20:56:25 GMT
I believe that ransomware and adware and PUP's are more common nowadays. Yet viruses are still here if you don't have any virus protection software.
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