Flawed McAfee update paralyses corporate PCs

Not to mention the majority of pc users are still using windows based systems. There may be more who are turning to Linux/mac than in the past but pc is still the prime market. Mac is no longer as secure as it was a few years ago, and the price of apple products keeps average end users from affording/wanting them.

Now since your average users are still windows based, it makes since from the company perspective to used windows based systems for 2 reasons. (1) Windows and windows compatible programming often offer huge discounts to businesses who use them, and (2) You have to spend little to no time/company resources to train new employees a new system.

 

Discounts, how do you beat free? The differences between MS Office and Open Office are subtle. A web browser runs exactly like a web browser. In fact, I can theme the Gnome interface in about 15 minutes time and make it look so much like just about any version of Windows you ask me for, and the average user wouldn't be able to tell the difference, if it weren't for the names of the programs changed slightly. Name me a piece of Windows software used in an office environment, and I'll show you a Linux equivalent that does the same thing.

I don't have to spend time or money worrying about viruses, adware, or spyware. Defrag? What is that? I don't have to reinstall my OS every 6 months to keep it running at peak performance. A 5 year old Linux install is just as fast as the day it was installed fresh.

I have a big family at home. I'm the go to computer guy. When something breaks, they hand it to me to fix it. We got 4 computers in my household, 2 of them are running XP, the other 2 Ubuntu Linux. When I come home after my 14 days on the road, it's the XP computers they want me to work on. I have a daughter living 1500 miles away from me. Her XP computer got bit with a bug, McAfee "fixed"it, and it would no longer boot. She had no XP restore disks. I mailed her a Linux Mint disk. She had no idea what it was. I told her to just boot off of it, tell it you want to install and keep clicking the forward button. Ten minutes after she stick it in she had a fully functioning computer. I gave her a brief explanation on how to use Pidgin instead of Yahoo messenger, and told her how to install programs with Mint's Mintinstall. That was 6 months ago. When I ask her how it's working, she always says "great!" The learning curve is minimal. If you can click a mouse, you can do just about anything the average Windows user can do.

 

Well, have fun with your nod32 protecting your bloated 17 gigabyte operating system. To each his own.

 

Point blank.

I don't care to learn linux, and most companies won't care to either. If the learning curve is "minimal" that is still taking time to train employees to a new system, then there is also the problem of making sure your formatting is the same as clients so that they don't have to deal with your adjustment. Linux/Mac users will always claim that they are better/faster/safer than windows. However, until the system is a duplicated windows it will not be widely used.

 

LOL
Why would anyone want to duplicate Windows?





By the way if you are so inclined to "duplicate" Windows...here ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4StlvX-kOg

 

And now back to your regularly-scheduled security thread...

Apologies. Let me rephrase then. (In addition to infections) I have also recovered dozens of computers over the years from poorly tested and/or pushed out updates by both of those companies. Recoveries have included everything from simple driver-reloading all the way up to complete hard drive reformat and OS reloads. In fairness I will say that the 2010 version of the Norton (Symantec) products appear to have improved over, say, 2002 - 2009 versions of them. They appear to be finally putting some efforts into regaining some of their decreased market share in recent years, but regardless are predicted to continue this downward trend as leaner, yet effective alternatives abound. McAfee continues to stink up the place in terms of non-growth in the market and effectiveness in general.

This is an excellent point. I have to admit that I was skeptical at Microsoft's recent quiet entrance into the free anti-virus segment, but having been playing with it on a Vista machine here and on several driver's computers, I have found no reasons yet to disprove the SE product as an effective, non-bloated solution.

Well... kinda. Like you say, your surfing and program installation behavior are basically the top factors that someone has to protect themselves. But your level of security should also be relative to the current threat environment and to what you have on, and use your computer for. The current "threat environment" right now is insanely high with levels and sophistication of attacks at an all-time high. Even Mac's are no longer safe as many attacks are now web-based application and browser exploits. If a driver has a lot of financial information and person identity data, or if it is a business that has lots of customer info and financial doorways then they would be well-advised to use a higher level then a driver who doesn't.

Recently I've had an alarming number of drivers get infected machines linking to three scenarios that appear to be on the rise (I mean above the old "I was at a site I shouldn't have been" that you mentioned.)

1. Clicking on a banner or popup that says you have an infection and they will "clean your system for free." SO many telling me lately that they thought they were doing the right thing. (Solution: don't trust these. The majority are really ugly exploit programs. STOP and close the browser immediately. If it won't close, then use CTRL/ALT/DELETE to get to your task manager and kill the browser app from there.)

2. Connecting to "unsecured networks." We want SO BADLY to obtain an internet connection (especially if it's free) that we'll connect to unsecured WiFi at a truck stop, rest area, whatever. These are prime "doorways" into your system. It's a catch-22 because you want "free" but free means "open to all." If you want a WiFi subscription which requires a logon, then it typically isn't free, but is somewhat more secure. (By the way, never try to connect to a "peer-to-peer" network out there. This is a very common trick. A hacker will sit in a truck stop or other well-known WiFi area and create his own little network - often named "free public WiFi" on your list of available networks. You connect and this is actually a direct hook-in to his computer somewhere near you. You can tell by the way that your Network Properties screen will show that as a "peer-to-peer" connection in its description.)

3. Having no protection, out-of-date protection, or ineffective brands of protection. CNET IS YOUR FRIEND. There are several free, and several "paid" solutions that are very effective.

Free recommendations: AVG, Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast, IOBit.

Paid: We are using and very much liking Vipre Premium. We have been using the Vipre product (from SunBelt Software) for about 2 years now and it has been awesome. If you have more than one computer, then their prices are REALLY good too with multi and site license options. With the data stored on our computers here, we do not use any of the free products, but then again our security requirement is higher than the typical user.

Honorable mentions (other paid solutions that we have tested and like)
- Kapersky
- Bit Defender

Just make sure that EVERYTHING you download and install is from a "trusted" source. If you are in doubt, then don't do it. CNET (and their download site called "download.com") are examples of trusted places to get software for example. Here is a link directly to the security section of their site. Happy reading: http://www.cnet.com/internet-security/


- Don

 

Well, since we are digressing,

DieselBoss, I agree with your list, but you left out the number one cause of infection, which is not keeping up with Microsoft's patches and updates. I had one relative bring me a laptop riddled with malware, and I found out that she had the thing set up to hibernate instead of a shutdown when she pressed the power button. As far as she knew, this was how the computer turned on and off. As a result, a patch sat there waiting to get applied for over a year and a half, and no other patches were downloaded, because the OS was never restarted. There is no antivirus program that can protect a Windows machine that hasn't been properly updated.