Antivirus is 'completely wasted money': Cisco CSO

[+Warwagon MVC]

I would go as far as to say they day of the virus is dead.

First what would you consider a virus. Would you consider …..

Having a popup next to your clock saying “Your are infected”, a virus?

How about when rouge applications get installed onto your computer out of know where, is that a virus?.

When I think of a virus I think of something that spreads. Like netsky. Those types of “Viruses” are easy to clean because all the infected files share the same netsky string. Even if that string changes, the antivirus just has to be updated to detect the new string.

Now days I would say viruses are no longer an issue. They have since been replaced by adware,spyware,malware and trogins.

I would seriously say that they should no longer becalled “Antiviruses” they should be called “Antimalware / Antispyware / antiadware/”

These days instead of 1 file multiplying its self a few thousand times on your computer, is gone. You now have infections that hook in so deep into your computer you can never be safe unless you reformat.

[ViperAFK]

I would go as far as to say they day of the virus is dead.

First what would you consider a virus. Would you consider …..

Having a popup next to your clock saying “Your are infected”, a virus?

How about when rouge applications get installed onto your computer out of know where, is that a virus?.

When I think of a virus I think of something that spreads. Like netsky. Those types of “Viruses” are easy to clean because all the infected files share the same netsky string. Even if that string changes, the antivirus just has to be updated to detect the new string.

Now days I would say viruses are no longer an issue. They have since been replaced by adware,spyware,malware and trogins.

I would seriously say that they should no longer becalled “Antiviruses” they should be called “Antimalware / Antispyware / antiadware/”

These days instead of 1 file multiplying its self a few thousand times on your computer, is gone. You now have infections that hook in so deep into your computer you can never be safe unless you reformat.

Yeah the Majority of computers I have cleaned lately have Rogue applications. Fake reg cleaners and spyware apps seem the most common, and a lot of them are infected with some variation of the Vundo trojan and a lot of other random malware/trojans. You cannot use any single app to remove infections like that, the infection roots itself into the system and keeps coming back. I have also seen a couple root kit infections of late, now those are a BITCH to get rid of, my dad got one and I just ended up formatting it. I agree if you get one of these nasty deep rooted infections often the only way you can truly get rid of it is a format. That is why I advocate always backing up your data because you never know what can happen.

[JustGeorge]

Well said, Warwagon :)

I deal with spyware, malware way more than viruses. If its got a rootkit, its backup/format time as far as I'm concerned.

[Linkinfamous]

Vista is so secure you won't even need to worry about security as Vista protects you well if you LET it and not change silly system settings.

I have not even installed an AV on permanent time since I see them as waste of time and money. I know I am not infected because I install an AV from time to time to check for viruses. At the moment I am setting up a USB stick system maintenance software that will check for viruses as well as cleaning up junk.

No operating system, not even Vista, will protect you from a virus that only needs user-level access to your system.

There is absolutely no reason why a malware author would need administrative access to any machine in order to use it to DDoS a website, or send spam, etc. regardless of whether they're running Vista, OSX, or Linux. (Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn't the fact that application installs are considerably more often done without administrative privileges on OSes other than Windows actually put more executable files at risk for infection?)

Giving that running code administrative access will let it really get deeply entrenched in your system, harder to remove, and let it do more to your computer, however, which it is true that Vista does protect against.

[MulletRobZ]

Completely wasted money? I definitely would agree to that, especially since those users who exercise common sense (don't open questionable attachments) will most likely not end up being infected. However, I still find Spybot is a necessity for Windows users in order to avoid getting spyware, which can be installed without any user's knowledge.

[metallithrax]

Well, we only pay about ?70 for a 25 user license for F-Prot at work, so it isn't that big a deal.

[Linkinfamous]

Completely wasted money? I definitely would agree to that, especially since those users who exercise common sense (don't open questionable attachments) will most likely not end up being infected. However, I still find Spybot is a necessity for Windows users in order to avoid getting spyware, which can be installed without any user's knowledge.

Most existing spyware can't be installed without administrative privileges.

On that note, I haven't had the need to run Spybot or any similar tools on either my machine since I upgraded to Vista, or on my family's Vista PC.

XP, on the other hand.... *shiver*

[Evolution]

Well I paid about $50-$60 for a 3 year license.... so it's bound to help even a little since you're not always going to download 0-day viruses.

[ANova]

Guess what guys, I have no AV or firewall nor have I for the better of three years and I have never been infected with anything. How do I know? No pop ups, no odd processes running, no odd services, no weird activity either in functionality or network traffic; just a fast and clean running computer.

What's my secret? Opera, disabled IE and a hardware firewall.

[Raa]

Yep, I totally agree. A/V's are a waste of time and money

They won't pick up everything, and spyware's more of a problem nowadays. I've never run one on my main pc, and havent had any viruses. Maxthon, hardware firewall, knowledge and my eyes - thats what keeps me safe.

I keep an A/V on my business laptop (NOD32 ftw), just to "be sure".

[primexx]

I agree with that first part of your post, but that second part is flatout absurd!

Sould be (1)Kaspersky, (2)NOD32, (3) Avast

avast isn't anywhere near the top, which is populated by all paid solutions. and we really don't know whether kaspersky or eset is better, they're both excellent products.

[bjoswald]

I think the best approach is a proactive one. I think security companies should invest more research into preventing infections in addition to removing them.

[Denis W. Veteran]

I'm wondering if the latest 'security suites' sold by antivirus, antimalware and antispam companies do it by fear mongering users into thinking without their protection, hackers will flick this magic switch to turn on their computers while they sleep and steal all their data. :rolleyes:

Free antivirus tools are okay for the occasional time you visit a trusted site and it gets exploited by a new virus. Happened before on Neowin. But then there's the email checker (can't it be accomplished through regular on-the-fly file checkers in free AVs?), network checker, web checker, P2P app checker, system immunizer, application hash verifier, spyware checker - in another word, pay up an annual fee of $50+ to make up for the laziness of users. Oh and add a constant 10-30% use of CPU and system resources.

Protection like that is useful for commonly hit targets: popular sites and servers come to mind. For regular users*, why bother? Quit being so damn paranoid.

The day when antivirus vendors quit hiring people to write viruses, people actually do research and be educated (not buy into every advice from every 'you MUST install our solution to stay safe!') or when Windows falls into a minority marketshare is when this money grabbing madness will stop.

*except if you use cracks and download illegal software. =)

[goatsniffer]

The real security hole is the user.

Bottom line.

[toadeater]

One word: Linux

Linux + virtualization.

[MulletRobZ]

One word: Linux

Too many companies use Windows for no good reason and it's sad that they don't have better advisers.

Or Mac OS X or any other non-Microsoft system out there, right? :p

[.Kompressor]

the problem is...that viruses/worms/trojans like their biological counterparts are evolving too fast.....worse when they use stealthy tech like Root kits to hide themselves...

It's a Cat and Mouse game... We all hope the mouse is chasing the Cat in this scenario. ;) we always want to be ahead of the viruses with definitions/signatures before they come knocking at your door (browser etc).

[anonymous_user]

Just too bad so many people tend to use these free alternatives which usually doesn't even find half of what a quality brand would

I dont know you got that info from but freeware security programs can be very effective.

Avira and avast are very capable antivirus for example. Theres also programs like Threatfire.

avast isn't anywhere near the top

Have you seen the latest av-comparatives.org?

which is populated by all paid solutions.

Avira has a free version and its on top.

[iconoclast]

While I agree that antivirus programs aren't the catch-all solution, I don't see how they are a waste of money. They are behind the times maybe, but they at least can prevent against known threats. Saying they are a waste is tantamount to saying that doctors are a waste because bacteria and viruses are evolving and we will just get sick again, so why bother getting well now? Just doesn't make sense to me.

[Lynxx Lancer]

No, Antivirus is not a waste of money (Unless your paying for one)...

Stupid employees is a waste money.. They download stuff and don't even checked if their USB thumbdrives have viruses before plugging it in on a corporate computer..

I never had virus problems.. AVG kills them all...

[spartan948265]

ZDNet Australia

"It's completely wasted money," Stewart told delegates.

Epic lulz. Thats like saying paying the electricity bill is a waste of money, or like buying food is a waste of money.

[_dandy_]

Guess what guys, I have no AV or firewall nor have I for the better of three years and I have never been infected with anything. How do I know? No pop ups, no odd processes running, no odd services, no weird activity either in functionality or network traffic; just a fast and clean running computer.

What's my secret? Opera, disabled IE and a hardware firewall.

Awesome...if you're the only one who ever gets to use that particular PC.

...or the sites you trust don't get hacked so they're running something that exploits, say, a buffer overrun in your browser that pushes some code on your machine.

I mean, yeah, maybe it won't run for long before you notice it, but a virus doesn't need to run for long to do some damage. And once a box is compromised...

Edited May 25, 2008 by _dandy_

[Shadow Dragon]

Linux + virtualization.

Yes, thanks for correcting :D.

Or Mac OS X or any other non-Microsoft system out there, right? :p

While OS X doesn't suffer from the obvious malware problems that Windows does (not saying that Microsoft is sloppy) it isn't really cheap compared to Linux, if you know what I mean ;).

[ThePitt]

somehow I agree with the Cisco CSO

[LTD]

Let's slowly move to Linux and OS X and see what happens.

I'm not saying I know, but just curious . . .