Where has the pc virus gone?

[katz]

Now users are being led outside away from the computers to search for Pokemon's

LOL - Yes. I live near a small town (5K pop) and when I travel through there at night for the past week, I am seeing teens/young adults out in droves, all staring into their phones, walking through town. I wondered what it was at first, then I figured it out, since my son is participating in this game.

 

[GTP]

Your what!
Looking for Poky Monz?
Never heard of the bi**h!
Now, get out of my bathroom!

 

[GTP]

Maybe I should rephrase the original question to "where has all the malware/virus gone...".

In other words, I see a steep decline in both, even though the "drive by media" likes to sensationalize how bad it all is. Even the India/MSoft scam calls don't seem to be all that prevalent these days, at least among my customers. This stuff was my "bread & butter." Not saying I like to see folks data put at risk, but I do need to make a living.

It's even a hard sell to push paid AV, when the ISP's offer the email filtering for free.

I often wonder if I'm doing the "right thing?" Recommending/installing a good Antimalware product and educating customers in safe computing practises etc, surely - over time - must have a detrimental effect!
It is also my "bread & butter" with large part of my turnover being viral/malware removals.
I have noticed a decline in the amount of infected machines coming into my shop.
My busiest time for viral/malware removals is now, during the winter months, when people spend more time indoors on their PC's.
It's been fairly quiet lately!

 

[stro]

For me it is all PUPs now. It is rare to see viruses these days. Even the ransomware thing has not been wide spread, maybe one or two a month. I believe it to be mobile devices largely driving it. Not because they are selling better but because of a shift in usage patterns. People are shifting their entertainment to tablets/mobile and the PC is being kept for business/work. It is the entertainment usage that leads to malware.

Also I think virus writers are seeing the PC platform less profitable. A lot of communication has shifted from email to social media. People spend less time with email, at least recreationally. Spam filters are better as well. Viruses for identity theft aren’t as effective as they used to be with newer safeguards in place. Right now the good old fashion scam seems to be the most profitable. And they can run these without viruses, just using popup ads and cold calling people.

I don’t think I will ever see the day like when blaster hit and 50 computers came in, in one day. These days it is mostly tech support scammers, and windows 10 problems.

 

[tnewton1]

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but as tech has evolved, so have the viruses. It went from trying to destroy your machine or be disruptive to just demanding money and attempting to circumvent backup methods. Even then, our OS cores have become more secure and AV vendors seem, IMO, to have stepped up their game.

 

[Mike McCall]

Saw this today:

http://www.myce.com/news/security-experts-antivirus-products-become-increasingly-useless-79931/
http://www.myce.com/news/security-experts-antivirus-products-become-increasingly-useless-79931/

 

[carrcomp]

Saw this today:

http://www.myce.com/news/security-experts-antivirus-products-become-increasingly-useless-79931/

I am appalled by this article.

First off, grammar.

Second, a good anti-virus with good web filtering is still just as important as user education. Further, I've seen scan logs and realtime logs of websites being blocked, along with file downloads blocked, which have prevented the ransomeware infections from getting onto the systems in the first place.

They shouldn't put a focus on how "useless" the anti-virus is, but put a focus on how we shouldn't rely just on the software.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

"Mannan therefore recommends to turn of any functionality in antivirus software that checks whether a site is safe or not."

Well that part is at least true I mean lets be serious here that style of feature has been nearly useless since it was first introduced in.... ... .... hmm I actually can't remember when it was first introduced or which AV introduced it but since it was nearly useless my guess is it was norton ^_^

 

[Mike McCall]

I am appalled by this article.

And well you should be. It's also why I didn't comment. It is, however, an example of bad advice/information end users have to contend with. Because the EU doesn't really know any better (or won't listen), they may think that an AV isn't really necessary anymore, or that any free AV is all they need. Of course, they're mistaken.

 

[GTP]

I am appalled by this article.

First off, grammar.

Second, a good anti-virus with good web filtering is still just as important as user education. Further, I've seen scan logs and realtime logs of websites being blocked, along with file downloads blocked, which have prevented the ransomeware infections from getting onto the systems in the first place.

They shouldn't put a focus on how "useless" the anti-virus is, but put a focus on how we shouldn't rely just on the software.

I remember an interview with Peter Norton and Brian Dye from Symantec (in 2014?) saying that Antivirus was "dead" even though it accounted for 40% of their revenue.
They both agreed that Antivirus was only part of the solution but NOT having a good Av would be a big mistake, as did ESET's guy as well.

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...urity/symantec-svp-dye--av-is-dead-to-me.html

 

[frase]

I remember an interview with Peter Norton and Brian Dye from Symantec (in 2014?) saying that Antivirus was "dead" even though it accounted for 40% of their revenue.
They both agreed that Antivirus was only part of the solution but NOT having a good Av would be a big mistake, as did ESET's guy as well.

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...urity/symantec-svp-dye--av-is-dead-to-me.html

norton is the source of most malware

 

[GTP]

Pokemon GO: giving hackers direct access to your phone

http://blog.emsisoft.com/2016/07/12...direct-access-to-your-phone/?ref=ticker160715

 

[GTP]

norton is the source of most malware

Seriuosly?

 

[mikeroq]

To me it seems like they have moved on to generating revenue. Either with ransomware, or using ads to scare users into calling their 800# to get them to pay to "clean up" their PC and sell them A/V, etc.