Hi.

I would like to post this thread. Basically, to ask this questions?

How many Viruses are out there, that have not been discovered yet???

I have looked for a definitive answer. With No luck.
So I thought I'd ask it in this forum, because personally I have had good quality help and advice from a couple of the moderators:

Thank's jellyBean, Pancake, Crush and Sir Trews.

I use Norton IS 2009, and always keep it up-to date. So far it has only found One virus called SillySEH, and a couple of Tracking cookies.

I keep hearing about the threat of Zero day Malware. and this got me
wondering.
what is the real threat of these zero day viruses?

I know the more reputable company's use Heuristics. to try and identify unusual file and program activity.
But How big is the problem and how many viruses are out there that have not been identified yet?
Also, If anyone is unlucky enough to have any of these, (yet to be discovered viruses) on their PC. It is free to run riot until the security program they have, discovers it themselves, and releases an update for the little blighter...

So. let me try and break this down in-to laymens terms.

(For an example)
IF A security AV scan can find 1000 of the viruses that are out there.
How many Viruses are out there that it Has not yet found.

I also think the security company's will never bring out a version of it's Anti malware program. That will find, eliminate and stop All malware in it's tracks, because they would soon be out of business, would'nt they??

I suppose this may lead me to another thread on another time.

Are Security software company's just scare mongering.
So that the less techno savvy of us will shell out up-to £60 on a years security subscription.

It's understandable that some people simply won't know and trust that some Free AV are better than some of the more expensive ones out there. And will want shell out some of their hard earned cash. To protect all their precious files, like family photo's etc etc. And For peace of mind.

I look forward to hearing what people have to say on this subject Cheers for now Scrypt

Hello Scrypt and thankyou we all appreciate your kind words.

Gosh how many viruses are there out there?God only knows,hundreds,thousands I dont think anyone knows.

How many have not been discovered again unknown figure,new viruses,hacks etc are proberly being made on a daily basis.

I wish I knew who this was:

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft bounty for worm creator

Hacking someones computer is a billion dollar buisness,think about it.Many millions even billions of people store there personal information on there computers such as bank details.A hacker gets hold of this information and fleeces your account.Much easier than pinching your wallet as your computer holds more information than your wallet.

Are antivirus software makers scare mongering?No I realy do not think so.Well not if you go for a good well known one.

Just think now you get a virus and it completely distroys your operating system.

Now your computer is unworkable.So lets look at some one who has very little computer knowledge.They take there computer to a specialist to have the data recovered and a new OS installed.It is going to cost them a small fortune.

Why do hackers do this?God knows,fun maybe?

If it was not for free forums like ours and many more out there saving peoples computers computer repair companies would be making a very large profit.

I realy could not answer these questions to a fuller knowledge but maybe some one else can add there imput.

JB.

Ohhh boy I could go on and on about this. But, in the interest of keeping everyone awake I will just say this:

The problem is two-fold. These whackos that come up with these viruses are sometimes smart. Or others work off of what they have done, and make variants trojans. However, it's just not them. The end user has some part in this. Once disinfected they just continue to have the same browsing habits, don't have adequare virus protection, or don't update it.

A computer is like a machine. If you effectively protect yourself against adware, spyware, viruses, and malware through the use of several programs and maintain your system in a working state by actively scanning you can just about kill off any chance of picking up a nasty infection.

EDIT: Now that I have a minute to form a more complete reply, below I have outlined some measures to keep your computer completely clean.

Those programs laid out in Prework (hijackthis and malwarebytes) are VERY powerful programs when combating pesky malware however, even they have their weak points.

I have used the following lineup for well over 2 years and do not get many infections aside from the occasional cookie.

Malwarebytes:

This is pretty much a malware remover's "bread and butter". Its scanning engine is such that it targets all the types of nasties I have noted above. One drawback is it does not have a realtime protection component with the free version. But, nonetheless is a VERY powerful program. It can be found by clicking on the Prework link in my signature.

AVG 8:
Download From Here:AVG Anti-Virus - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

This is an amazing Anti Virus program. It picks up almost all infections that are out there today, provided you have updated definitions. One advantage to this program that the others do not have is a realtime firewall. It runs in the background preventing you from getting infected in the first place.

Ad-Aware:
Download from here: Ad-Aware 2008 - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

This is a must for any computer in my opinion. It targets a specific type of virus called Adware. These nasty infections can be used to steal your information, redirect your browswer, and install things on your computer, among other things. Usually, infections of this type launch ads all over making browsing extremely difficult. Like the above program it should be set to run weekly and updated often.

Spybot S&D:
Download From Here:Spybot - Search & Destroy - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

Again, another amazing program. This program targets a specific type of virus called Spyware but I've seen it pick up all sorts of nasties. Like AVG it has the added advantage of a realtime protection firewall. One disadvantage to this program i've found is it takes up a lot of system resources and can slow your computer if the realtime firewall is enabled. You can easily fix this by disabiling it however.

Online Scanners:

I have found also there are several online scanners which pick up infections none of these programs pick up on. Some of them I like besides your BitDefender one are:

Free online antivirus. Download ActiveScan 2.0 and clean your PC. Panda Security

and

VirusTotal - Free Online Virus and Malware Scan

VirusTotal allows you to upload a file you expect is infected and it will show you the results.

One added advantage to ALL these programs is they're all free! In my humble opinion a subscription to anti-virus is going out the window and will soon be phased out by these freeware applications. As I said above, I have yet to get really virused in 2 years. I run a few more programs than this but this is really all you need. I'm a little paranoid

Lastly, I've found the browser which comes with Windows (Internet Explorer) is very vulnerable to being hacked and there are holes hackers can use to infect you.

If you aren't already I strongly urge you to download Firefox 3 from this link: Firefox web browser | Faster, more secure, & customizable.

In my opinoin is the safest, most secure browser out right now. It still takes you to the same internet, like I said, just with added security. It will allow you to import anything like bookmarks, passwords, saved sites, etc. when you install so you won't lose anything from Internet Explorer.

It also has a user friendly interface for clearing your Private Data (saved passwords, cookies, things you enter into search bars, websites you've visited) which can be used by hackers or viruses to redirect your browser to sites which look legitimate, however, are sites which steal personal information. Based on what you search for hackers will put something you are likely to trust.

If you would like some more in depth help customizing Firefox to be the most secure it can be let me know and I'd be glad to help.

Finally, one last piece of advice, watch where you go on the internet. It's as simple as that. Running these programs will be a great help in safeguarding you from the whackos out there who try and do this nasty stuff to us.

Also, in terms of keeping your computer in working order when it is not infected have a look at this:
http://www.pchelpforum.com/general-a...eaner-how.html

Hi, "Are Security software company's just scare mongering.
So that the less techno savvy of us will shell out up-to £60 on a years security subscription." yeah i agree with that and there is a lot of advertisement of well known anti virus vendors in places that non tech savvy users will buy their new computers. ex. pc world and norton.. I am not referring to you at all here because you have norton.

• Also the vendors say things like this "Your PC isn’t secure unless your photos, music and other irreplaceable digital files are safe. " source
• Now this isn't neccesarily a false fact but it is there I believe to make people think about the problems that could occur if they don't have the software.
• You go to symantecs homepage and are told about new threats.
• Also "NEW! Prevents bots from taking control of your PC." = scare mongering i guess? source

"But How big is the problem and how many viruses are out there that have not been identified yet?"
I have no idea, and I think it is a constant competition between the malware writers and the security vendors. The vendors are trying to make as much money here as they can by developing their software and giving out facts about the new kinds of malware that are active.

, jake

I write a little script and send as a little hack to Scrypts computer.

Yeay Scrypt installs it,ohh look I see him visiting and playing WOW online,ohh he googles online games,Ohh now he just visited two of them grownup boy sites.

Oh whats this his bank account number,name,age,adress and so on.

Oh he paid his electrical bill,water bill,I think I will have £20 of his weekly wages.

Oh that was easy I have pocket money.

Waits and watches his habits and his bank account for a few months.

Oh he just had a £5,000 loan from the bank.

Yeay £5,000 in MY pocket.

I would rather pay for a antivurus software at a yearly charge.

Question is what would you rather do?

But we also have free antivirus programs out there.

Even with antivirus installed unless we practice safer surfing protect ourselves we are ALL open to infections and hacking.

Some malware infections are due to people error and not heading warnings.

As far as PC Viruses, there are way to many to count, especially if you include trojans and the like.

The good news is that there is only one major virus for the MAC OS X and it is unknown if there are any viruses that effect the multi Linux systems. So one is left with a choice of the daily fight to rid your PC of the millions of bad things that float on the web (I built my wife a new computer two days ago and mistakenly allowed it to access the web before I had an anti-virus on it, when I noticed what I had done, I killed the connection, and about noon today I finally cleaned the **** that the machine caught in just under a minute of unprotected time!)

Or get a new or even a used Mac running OS X and use that for your main machine, or in the least for your online machine, if that is to costly, download a free copy of one of the Linux's out there my current favorite is Ubuntu but there are tons of them out there and 99% of them are free!

Other then that, load up your PC with a good anti-virus, a powerful firewall, keep others from inserting their jump drives to share any documents, install ad-aware and an anti spy application, then a good prayer on starting your machine may indeed be in order. Be sure to scan your computer at least once a week with all of the above, and for God's sake BACK UP any critical data you have on your system.

My favorite means of protection, (Maybe a bit to techie) is to install a smaller hard drive as C: say a 20 gig, and use that for your system (Windows XP or Vista)..

Then install a larger hard drive for your data, then move your "My Documents" to that drive. Also insure you scan both of these drives weekly.

Then should your system become infected, it usually only infects your C: drive so you can format that drive to kill all the bad stuff, then reinstall your system, your data is still save on your secondary hard drive, and once you tell your new Windows where My Documents are, you will be back in service!

This can be done by re partitioning your hard drive but you have a chance of losing your data if a nasty virus infects strategic parts of your drive, this is why I always insure that I use a single drive for my C: the second drive can be repartitioned into several smaller drives if you wish, my main windows machine had a total of six partitions on four hard drives, as I said, the C: is where I keep my windows and program files, my second drive is dedicated to My Documents ONLY, the rest take care of saving my media files. I have successfully reformatted my main drive six or seven times now for differing reasons, (usually testing software that others have become infected with to see how to kill the infections) and all of my data has been safe.