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February 11, 2008
Nasty Realities
It seems to me people seem rather surprised at their experiences with virus' and spyware lately, their presence, their persistence, and what about the protection I have, why hasn't it stopped them? This suggests that it is time to state and/or repeat some unfortunate realities of this modern PC world...
Nasty Reality #1: Today's Virus' and spyware are a for profit business:
Years ago guys used to hack people system for fun. The Stoned virus announced that your system was stoned (slowed it down something nasty). Guys would re-program your screen so you would come back from lunch with your image upside down. Those days are gone.Today Virus' and spyware are a multi-million dollar industry who's goal is to separate you from your money and or mine marketable information for sale to others. That system infection you have is making a buck for somebody somewhere and that leads to rule 2...
Nasty Reality #2: These people will fight to keep your money.
Every time you succeed in removing a virus or blocking some spyware used by these folks you are taking money out of their pockets (granted it is your money but they don't look at it like that). It is my experience that thieves resent losing money even more that the people they steal from. They generally don't take this lying down so they will constantly seek new ways to get in your system, new variants and new tweaks to get around the various protections that are out there. This results in the next nasty reality...
Nasty Reality #3: Anti-Virus' and anti-spyware makers are constantly on the defensive
Basically it is reacting to type of attacks, styles of attacks and particular programs. The problem is that many of these styles can be used by legitimate programs such as games or peer to peer networks. In addition some of these programs arise due to operating system holes that need to be patched by the makers (read Microsoft). As far as your protection is concerned this is just another computer program and the system has to decide if this program vs the other program is something good or something bad. That is why your firewall may ask you questions about this program or that program. If you automate that decision it will sooner or later either block something you want passed or pass something that you want blocked. That leads to another nasty reality...
Nasty Reality #4 Having anti-virus and anti-spyware doesn't guarantee you will never get infected.
The various anti-virus makes and anti-spyware makers will do their best to keep you protected, as soon as they are aware of threats and have solutions to them they will make updates but remember each fix and change takes time and during that time you will be open to attack. Of course minor variants are going to be picked up and fixed pretty quick but major stuff will usually take at least a few days to digest an solve. That is bad enough but it is my experience that most of the actual virus' and spyware that hit a system are entirely preventable. This is do to the truest (and least popular) nasty reality...
Nasty Reality #5 Users tend to trigger most of the virus that hit them by sins of commission or omission
Sometimes it is due to being tricked, a "windows" warning that really isn't but many times it is that decision to use that P2P software, to accept that file from that stranger in chat, to open that e-mail that looks odd, to go to that racy site. Sometimes it just not bothering to do something; it's just too annoying to block out your teenagers from those web sites, or to monitor where they go or to set connection rules for going to the net, or to set that exception to play the game or to have to deal with that annoying warning message, and besides I'm just an avg guy what good is hacking me? This type of thinking keeps a lot of these guys in business and will continue to do so. It is like having a great alarm system on your house and leaving the doors and windows open because of it. Authors of this stuff bet on human nature and they win over and over again.
These realities are things that have to be faced. When they are faced and acted upon your chances of having a problem drop like a rock. We at HiWired can and will help all we can to protect you, but in the end a cautious and vigilant user is the best protection against today's internet thieves.
Posted by Peter at February 11, 2008 11:24 AM