Two Years Without Antivirus: The Results

[Technician1]

I wonder how many viruses are actually on that machine. He said no viruses that he noticed or that were found with one scanner but that really means nothing. A good virus or Trojan or worm won't show up on every scan every time. Most won't.

 

[~mr mixx~]

A Trojan virus can be very sneaky and you can be infected and not even know it. Over time the computer will slow to a crawl and eventually BSOD.

 

[Celegorm]

I always use an anti-virus. Why? Because of things like this:
Huffington Post, Yahoo News, AOL and TMZ hit by malware ads – over 1.5bn visitors at risk
and this:
Malware-Infected Ads Hit New York Times, BBC, NFL » Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!
and this:
Did you visit HuffPo last week? You might have a virus - Jan. 8, 2015

None of those sites mentioned would normally be considered "high risk" either, now would they?

Not to mention the drive-by downloads and infections that are out there. It's simply not worth the risk and Eset doesn't bog me down.

 

[Technician1]

Actually if it is on the Internet it is high risk. It doesn't matter who runs it.

 

[Celegorm]

I agree with that 100% but many people's attitude is "all I do is check the news/weather/facebook you can't get a virus from that. There's no risk."

 

[Jeromesmith]

One of the latest and most damaging ones in use now is ransomeware.
However the idea that good judgement is a good defense is True. Stay off the internet to stay safe. That's good common sense.

Exactly....Ransomware is a very dangerous virus. It has damaged all the files in my computer. I had to format it to get rid of it.

 

[pete.i]

The problem is that most anti virus programs do not detect ransom ware so you have to have, yet another, intrusive program on your computer. Multi layered security was mentioned but most of us are just casual domestic users not only can we not afford tip top multi layered security we, to be honest, cannot be a***d. I only have Defender on my computer and the free Malwarebytes. I also have Cryptoprevent to protect against ransom ware. I do not do any banking on my computer although I do use Ebay and Amazon and Pay Pal. I do not go to any dodgy sites that I am aware of and if I get an email from an unknown source I delete it immediately, if they want me that badly they can ring my phone and talk to my robot. So far, 15 years and counting, apart from some Pups I have been okay. My other self protect measure is that I back up EVERYTHING twice to external hard drives that are not connected permanently to my computers.

 

[iPwn]

No matter how many protection layers your "onion" has, if you are irresponsible you´ll get infected. It´s pretty simple really. Persistence with persistence. If you have a persistent hacker, hire a persistent programmer, or whatever you need to keep the hacker out. At the end of the day it´s your own fault.

That is absolutely correct. Unfortunately for us humans, we are the weakest part of the onion. That is not to say however, that we are the only layer the onion needs.... just the most important.

I agree with you completely that prudence on the internet is of paramount importance, but you have to understand that even the most prudent of people still get infected. More is needed than just good judgement on today's interwebz.