how often do you get your system infected ?

[Marc57]

I think it was 1999....

[Tarq57]

About the same ('99), it was a zlob variant.
Security combo was AVG, AdAware demand scanner, and no common sense. (Like thousands of other computer users. Maybe millions.)
Made a decision to learn more about security from that day on. A bit like Polonus (on page 1). I don't think I've learned as much as him, but I've learned enough about securing a Windows OS that I haven't been infected since. And enough to help folk here with basic problems, and that's rewarding.
A lot of the learning has been on this forum, and also Wilders, and Castlecops when they were around. Good times.

[Sesame]

The first anti-virus I used was Dr. Solomon and then, I shifted to Norton.  Since I hadn't seen none of them catch malware and that I began to wonder why I should pay for these watchdogs, I ended up with some free anti-virus products, one of which is Avast!.  Even till now, Avira has only warned me about some false positives and Avast! has caught nothing but eicar test files.  I do Kaspersky online scan at times but it has caught nothing on our computers, either.

For the last 10 months, Ive been infected a couple of times but luckily avast sprang into action so was windows defender^^

The infections were zlob, trojans, worms, and etc..^^

Yet im still living a life free of those unstable concoctions^^

-AnimeLover^^

You may find these pieces of advice here useful.

Made a decision to learn more about security from that day on. A bit like Polonus (on page 1). I don't think I've learned as much as him, but I've learned enough about securing a Windows OS that I haven't been infected since. And enough to help folk here with basic problems, and that's rewarding.
A lot of the learning has been on this forum, and also Wilders, and Castlecops when they were around. Good times.

Castlecops... :'(
I totally agree that learning about recent security issues are good help, too.

[Dch48]

In my 11 years on line using exclusively Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, I have never been infected or hacked. For the first 4 years I was on dialup and never had a firewall, just McAfee AV at first, and then Norton. The last 5 years I used Norton Internet Security until June of this year when I switched to Comodo because it was free. The 2 years in between I was using the XP firewall and Norton AV. I did get the old Navidad virus with it's delayed payload back in 2000 or so, but a scheduled scan with Norton caught it the day before it would have triggered and removed it.

I am not paranoid about security and still only use a Firewall and AV. The other machine here uses the XP Firewall and Avast! Home AV.

[Sesame]

In my 11 years on line using exclusively Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, I have never been infected or hacked. For the first 4 years I was on dialup and never had a firewall, just McAfee AV at first, and then Norton. The last 5 years I used Norton Internet Security until June of this year when I switched to Comodo because it was free. The 2 years in between I was using the XP firewall and Norton AV. I did get the old Navidad virus with it's delayed payload back in 2000 or so, but a scheduled scan with Norton caught it the day before it would have triggered and removed it.

I am not paranoid about security and still only use a Firewall and AV. The other machine here uses the XP Firewall and Avast! Home AV.

My family members and quite many of my acquaintances are, like that, although my family members are in the same network as mine and their machines receive regular "maintenance" from me.

[Dch48]

I would not consider an infection that was caught and prevented by your security solutions to count in this. Only actual infections that got past your defenses and became resident in your system should be counted. I have had a number of infection attempts that were prevented by my AV (mostly Norton) but I have never actually become infected. I do regular scans with Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware which confirm this. They have never found anything.

[roro]

In my 13 years on the internet, I only had a trojan virus once and that was many years ago before Avast.  Avast hasn't caught any viruses in the last 4 years, and I haven't been infected.  I used Norton before that but got very tired of paying their fees, especially when they decided you could only use their AV on one machine for the price.  I guess I just don't go to those sites that are iffy.

RoRo

[CharleyO]

***

No infections since I started using avast many years ago. Some have tried to get in but avast caught them in time.


***

[polonus]

Hi Tarq57,

Agree with you that many good anti-malware places have gone/shut down, CastleCops just one of them. Some because they were constantly under malicious attack, some because they were discontinued, and some sources and good programs because they were bought up/out to leave them unattended so they slowly would go down the drain, and other good initiatives that never materialized, but the info was stored to be used later to outwit the baddies, and some of that info is certainly stored here in our forums,

polonus

[Shubham]

Very often. In 2 months surely.

Everyday, my Avast detects at least 2 malwares from my hard disk or USB or from a website(Most problably)

[Hermite15]

yeah Castlecops was really the place to learn so much about security software...I found a HIPS there, can't remember its name...I was using it before Comodo introduced Defense+ ...oh yes, System safety Monitor, can't even tell if it still exists, will Google that...looks like the site is down   hxxp://www.syssafety.com/

[nmb]

some of that info is certainly stored here in our forums,

well I would say not "some" but more than that. the info in the forums are just the contribution of all the members who have been here helping from many years. also those valuable tutorials I could extract from the posts in the topics. and the links. thanks to all of you guys. I learn many things daily. keep the way it is.

nmb

[MikeBCda]

Those were the good old days:
http://www.research.ibm.com/antivirus/timeline.htm#Where

I was working at IBM in technical support for the new IBM PC and we were alerted to this new malicious thing and IBM brought out its short lived anti virus application.

Interesting read, thanks Kenny.

Michelangelo was an interesting experience ... much like the Y2K thing, there was lots of media noise but very few of us experienced any problems.  If I remember the timing correctly, my company (small manufacturer) had recently "gone computer", primarily at first for inventory control, starting with an Osborne and then we were on an XT at the time of the Michelangelo scare.  Our parent company acquired copies of software from IBM that was specifically designed to ferret out the M. thing.

Generally we didn't run into problems -- although there were maybe 20 sister companies in our group, the CEO was paranoid enough that he insisted on no networking in any way, shape or form, even between computers in the same office.

[YoKenny]

Interesting read, thanks Kenny.

Michelangelo was an interesting experience ... much like the Y2K thing, there was lots of media noise but very few of us experienced any problems.  If I remember the timing correctly, my company (small manufacturer) had recently "gone computer", primarily at first for inventory control, starting with an Osborne and then we were on an XT at the time of the Michelangelo scare.  Our parent company acquired copies of software from IBM that was specifically designed to ferret out the M. thing.

Generally we didn't run into problems -- although there were maybe 20 sister companies in our group, the CEO was paranoid enough that he insisted on no networking in any way, shape or form, even between computers in the same office.

The good old days of SneakerNet.

[Photon]

It's been quite a few years. Avast has nailed some webpages upon their load (I have Avast set to drop that connection) other than a few minor spy crap, nothing major.