Antivirus Software Isn't Very Secure, Researchers Find

Finally somebody who knows what they are talking about! Your best antivirus is your own self I have been saying that to people since I joined these forums. Don't look for trouble and you won't get any trouble.

autos.yahoo.com is infected with malware serving ads today. It's not just the "bad websites that users can get into trouble from visiting....

azasadny said:

autos.yahoo.com is infected with malware serving ads today. It's not just the "bad websites that users can get into trouble from visiting....

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It doesn't mean that a site anywhere can get you malware, especially if it contains advertisements and the company isn't aware of it ( even though normally you can report the ad and they will get it removed asap ) But, from my experience at least the majorly malicious/irritating to correct malware/trojans/etc come from doing something you shouldn't in the first place, or from people not paying attention to what they are downloading/installing/allowing programs to install with it.

It's like anything else. An anti virus is just an extra layer of security no matter how thin or thick it may be. When you buy car insurance, and actually claim on the insurance what happens? You have a high change of being took off the policy or the rates going up. What happens when you have a professional ADT security system installed? You get a pretty sign in your door window/and on your lawn perhaps but it doesn't change the factor that a thief may still break into your house. The internet is the same way you can never be 100% safe so there is no point in trying to make yourself go from 95% to 99%. That's just my two cents though.

We aren't going to abandon our antivirus programs.
We like the illusion of being safe, even if we're not.

Infections are everywhere, I have had family member get infected from Facebook, youtube and google images. Yes it is true that some websites are prone to providing infection and we shouldn't be their but infections are everywhere so I would not give up Avast Internet Security and Malwarebytes Pro for lets just watch what sites we go to.

God knows how many people will read this and stop using AV, poor souls.

Even a small help is help, would be a fool to refuse it. AVs and other antimalware stop something at least, sometimes even a bulletproof west is better than nothing. You know what Keith Elmer said when they asked him which gun is best for self defense ?
"The one you have on you when you need it".

I use a virtual machine with Linux for all my internet browsing and email stuff and I feel pretty save. This way I do not have to worry about infected websites. I have not had one single malware/ adware whatever on my pc since I have decided to do this.

I am also 100% confident, that I can not get infected, because I know, how infections work. I use credit card online often, I use internet banking and I have some sensitive stuff and I am only worried of being hacked.

DMGrier said:

Infections are everywhere...

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Not really, it is pretty hard to get infected these days, even without AV and firewall. Windows has come a long way since XP and with sandboxed browsers only a user infects a computer by running, what he should not. I honestly wonder, how can people get infected, I have have never succeed doing it intentionally.

I got infected few times when I was using Windows 95, 98 that too by clicking those ads & external USBs, HDD,
After that no more trojans or virus...
Windows 8/8.1 is far better in terms of protection,, if at all you need one, It has Windows Defender.
For detecting newer malware and adware MBAM is quite good..

The best AV in the world can't help you if you don't exercise a bit of caution (common sense). Keeping a watchful eye on your PC & thinking twice before clicking on something can go a long way.

As azasadny mentioned above, even sites considered safe have been infiltrated in the past by malicious banners. The list of some compromised sites thus far includes Fox News, The New York Times & ZDNet.

It's a full time battle nowadays to fight off the traps & pitfalls of the Net. Constant vigilance is a pretty much needed item nowadays.

I see tons of malware, browser hijacks, "search" tools, fake AV, etc... on almost every PC I work on and most of them have old, expired, non-updated AV software. If you keep everything updated and patched, you're pretty safe. Almost all downloads from CNet, Majorgeeks, etc... are infected with malware.

azasadny said:

Almost all downloads from CNet, Majorgeeks, etc... are infected with malware.

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I don't know if I fully agree with that...sure the extras it may try to download if a person doesn't pay attention may have malware of some kind but many of the programs such as on cnet is legit.

But again, that falls back on logic/common sense

I think that Majorgeeks is one of safest sites for downloading. Even if there is an occasional PUP there is a warning in the item's description. They also clearly mark as Addware something that is of that nature.

Dark patterns...

The downloadable app is generally fine, it's the crapware that is installed along with it that I have the issue with They make it extremely difficult to avoid downloading malware and they use a methodology called "dark patterns" to trick people into downloading things they shouldn't.

Dark Patterns - User Interfaces Designed to Trick People

azasadny said:

The downloadable app is generally fine, it's the crapware that is installed along with it that I have the issue with They make it extremely difficult to avoid downloading malware and they use a methodology called "dark patterns" to trick people into downloading things they shouldn't.

Dark Patterns - User Interfaces Designed to Trick People

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Those PUPs became really pandemic, didn't they ? Everybody and his brother are pushing crap.