Most peoples pc's infected.....

[tony b]

Hi fellow avast users,
I came across an interesting conversation on Flightsim.com forum about how to achieve better frame rates for Microsoft FS 2004, written by a pc tech. It was the last paragraph that some of you might find interesting,

"The one thing most folks do not realize is that their machine is prolly infected.
There is a new wave of viruses out there which takes advantage of your admin rights to get through your existing antivirus. they trick you into thinking your machine is infected, then they (seem to) give you a choice to heal, or exit. The problem is there is no way out once you touch that screen anywhere you are infected even if you close it from the X up on the corner. In other words the whole screen is one big YES button. They are programmed to instantly download themselves and get through your antivirus because they where just given permission by you, once in your system your antivirus can no longer see them for the same reason. once a breach has been made this way other viruses find it and get in your system. That is why your antivirus cannot "see" these viruses, it has already "accepted" them (with your permission). the only way to eradicate them is, by uninstalling your antivirus and reinstalling a fresh copy and do an immediate full scan or remove the hard drive and scan it from another machine. I disinfect and tune an average of 8-10 machines a day"

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=217958&page=2

edit - link invalid, thread not there, deleted?

any thoughts

[bob3160]

That is why your antivirus cannot "see" these viruses, it has already "accepted" them

Not if your using avast! 5.  You can't accept a virus by overriding a virus and allow it to be accepted.
If it's detected, it's rejected.

[DavidR]

I rather doubt this Title is anywhere close to being correct, when you say "Most peoples pcs infected" that has to mean greater than 50% of the whole worlds PCs.

It is almost impossible to get accurate stats on the number of peoples pcs that are infected in the first place. There are many such reports, but they are generally all looking at of pcs that were scanned by such and such, X % were infected, some of those state 80% one even reports 98%. But that is only of a sample visiting a particular site, etc. and they probably went there because they had a suspicion they were infected, not many people visit these sites for a scan if they think they are clean, so any stats would be skewed.

So it is very hard to quantify just hoe many pcs are infected.

One close to your Most statement, is 48% and that is nowhere near correct as the sample size is only 22,754,847, when you consider avast has well over 100 million users and I think represents about 20% of the AV market share, then you get an idea on the numbers.

The recently released APWG Phishing Activity Trends Report for Q3 of 2009, details record highs in multiple phishing vectors, but also offers an interesting observation on desktop crimeware infections.

According to the report, the overall number of infected computers (page 10) used in the sample decreased compared to previous quarters, however, 48.35% of the 22,754,847 scanned computers remain infected with malware.

So you have to be a) careful where you get your stats and b) realise that they may be very skewed.

[Hermite15]

read that quite a few times, even Microsoft acknowledges that. But this has nothing to do with what the OP described here, as he decribed a technical situation that doesn't exist. A majority of systems is infected, if not with with viruses, at least with spyware, bad spyware, not just cookies And yes it's more than 50 %. same statistic has been obtained here in France. I'd have to do a search to find articles about the results and the method used. But that's serious. A majority is getting infected because they acquire OEM PCs/laptops with a trial version of Norton or else they're not even aware of. And when the trial expires, they just let go. They wouldn't even realize it if it was not the reminders that they ignore anyway. They keep surfing on places that spread malware etc...when an infection arises they let go, still not aware of anything until the day the system doesn't run anymore and they think the PC is broken They send it back to the manufacturer who will do a fresh Windows install, they'll get the machine back and just repeat the procedure, indefinitely.
 Since personal computers are being sold like TVs or fridges, this was just bound to happen

[Pondus]

A majority is getting infected because they acquire OEM PCs/laptops with a trial version of Norton or else they're not even aware of. And when the trial expires, they just let go. They wouldn't even realize it if it was not the reminders that they ignore anyway. They keep surfing on places that spread malware etc...when an infection arises they let go, still not aware of anything until the day the system doesn't run anymore and they think the PC is broken  They send it back to the manufacturer who will do a fresh Windows install, they'll get the machine back and just repeat the procedure, indefinitely.
 Since personal computers are being sold like TVs or fridges, this was just bound to happen

+1   

[jadinolf]

That is why your antivirus cannot "see" these viruses, it has already "accepted" them

Not if your using avast! 5.  You can't accept a virus by overriding a virus and allow it to be accepted.
If it's detected, it's rejected.

Yep, avast! rules

[Dch48]

A majority is getting infected because they acquire OEM PCs/laptops with a trial version of Norton or else they're not even aware of. And when the trial expires, they just let go. They wouldn't even realize it if it was not the reminders that they ignore anyway. They keep surfing on places that spread malware etc...when an infection arises they let go, still not aware of anything until the day the system doesn't run anymore and they think the PC is broken They send it back to the manufacturer who will do a fresh Windows install, they'll get the machine back and just repeat the procedure, indefinitely.
 Since personal computers are being sold like TVs or fridges, this was just bound to happen

I'm sure that plays a part for some but not the majority. In fact Norton no longer continues working while not updating, it shuts down entirely when the subscription runs out and you know when it happens.

The OP seems to be talking about Rogue AV's and not everybody or even "most" people have been infected by them. If you have one , there is usually no doubt that you do.