Fake Antivirus and Spyware Doctor, Symbiotic?
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From: The Central Scrutinizer on 7 Jan 2010 00:30 "FromTheRafters" <erratic(a)nomail.afraid.org> wrote in message news:hi30f6$bir$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > Most experts currently agree that all viruses are indeed malware (and they > are wrong). The fact is that a virus need not be malicious - and in fact > can be a boon to mankind in the future. A virus is a virus because Please name one example. > of what it does, not because of how people feel about the results - not > the same for malware because malware by definition is malicious. > > [...] > >
From: Michael Cecil on 7 Jan 2010 01:39 On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 23:30:54 -0600, "The Central Scrutinizer" <gcisko(a)hotmail.com> wrote: >"FromTheRafters" <erratic(a)nomail.afraid.org> wrote in message >news:hi30f6$bir$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >> Most experts currently agree that all viruses are indeed malware (and they >> are wrong). The fact is that a virus need not be malicious - and in fact >> can be a boon to mankind in the future. A virus is a virus because > >Please name one example. KOH was one that was meant to be useful. It performed a type of whole drive encryption, but IIRC it always did ask permission when it moved to a new disk. -- Michael Cecil http://home.roadrunner.com/~macecil/ http://home.roadrunner.com/~safehex/ http://home.roadrunner.com/~macecil/hackingw7/
From: Dustin Cook on 7 Jan 2010 02:46 "Billabong" <info(a)osvrt.net> wrote in news:qMGdnTMpQ84P4djWnZ2dnVY3goWdnZ2d(a)giganews.com: > "FromTheRafters" <erratic(a)nomail.afraid.org> wrote in message > news:hhsmcv$3cm$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >> "Billabong" <info(a)osvrt.net> wrote in message >> news:VfWdnc3P4Ki-VNzWnZ2dnVY3gokAAAAA(a)giganews.com... >> >> >>> Before I had other anti-virus software and my computer was behaving >>> in a way that I was anything but glad; but I got used to all that. >>> When I installed MBAM, I thought if cannot be sinply true; if so >>> many viruses are there, how was my computer able to work? I actually >>> did not know what to do: to delete them or not? Today computer runs >>> like a rocket, but still there might be some of the malicious items >>> in the Yahoo or Gmail, and Google too. I shall try another AV to see >>> if it is a false positive. >> >> You seem to be confusing "virus" with "malware". MBAM does not >> address viruses (except peripherally) and is not a replacement for AV >> software. It is best to have *both* available. >> > > I also have SUPERAntiSpyware installed and it did find a few Trojans, > imediatelly. It is anti-spyware, but id did detect Trojan. Trojan is a > program, but is also a virus, or am I wrong? A trojan is not a virus, no. A trojan is malware; but not a virus. In order for something to legitimately be classified as a virus; it MUST replicate, intentionally. Trojans do not replicate by themselves. A virus has no trouble replicating once you execute the initial source. -- .... Those are my thoughts anyways...
From: FromTheRafters on 7 Jan 2010 07:14 "The Central Scrutinizer" <gcisko(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:hi3rig$crs$1(a)speranza.aioe.org... > "FromTheRafters" <erratic(a)nomail.afraid.org> wrote in message > news:hi30f6$bir$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >> Most experts currently agree that all viruses are indeed malware (and >> they are wrong). The fact is that a virus need not be malicious - and >> in fact can be a boon to mankind in the future. A virus is a virus >> because > > Please name one example. One example of what? The future? I will do that sometime tomorrow. :oD The "good" virus? None of the proposals have been accepted because it has been proven that the same results can be achieved by programming that does not require viral code. Cohen's "compression virus" for instance - infected and compressed files to save storage space. When the file was invoked, the virus executed and decompressed the rest of the file. My main point is that there is nothing about a virus that *requires* it to be malicious or even unwanted. The main point of detractors of this view is that a virus "modifies files" (generally without user consent) in such a way that they steal computing power - but this is not necessary for a program to be a virus.
From: FromTheRafters on 7 Jan 2010 07:37
"Billabong" <info(a)osvrt.net> wrote in message news:qMGdnTMpQ84P4djWnZ2dnVY3goWdnZ2d(a)giganews.com... > > "FromTheRafters" <erratic(a)nomail.afraid.org> wrote in message > news:hhsmcv$3cm$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >> "Billabong" <info(a)osvrt.net> wrote in message >> news:VfWdnc3P4Ki-VNzWnZ2dnVY3gokAAAAA(a)giganews.com... >> >> >>> Before I had other anti-virus software and my computer was behaving >>> in a way that I was anything but glad; but I got used to all that. >>> When I installed MBAM, I thought if cannot be sinply true; if so >>> many viruses are there, how was my computer able to work? I actually >>> did not know what to do: to delete them or not? Today computer runs >>> like a rocket, but still there might be some of the malicious items >>> in the Yahoo or Gmail, and Google too. I shall try another AV to see >>> if it is a false positive. >> >> You seem to be confusing "virus" with "malware". MBAM does not >> address viruses (except peripherally) and is not a replacement for AV >> software. It is best to have *both* available. >> > > I also have SUPERAntiSpyware installed and it did find a few Trojans, > imediatelly. It is anti-spyware, but id did detect Trojan. Trojan is a > program, but is also a virus, or am I wrong? SAS is good too, many people suggest using both (MBAM and SAS) for better coverage. Spyware works to get information from your computer. It can be malware (malicious software) or an administrative tool (to spy on your kids for instance). Adware works to get information to your computer (advertisements "in your face" for instance) and can be malware too if it is unwanted and not agreed to when you installed the responsible software (ad supported software - AntiVir free version for instance). If a malicious virus infects a program with a copy of itself (as they are known to do) the infected program is essentially now a trojan in effect. It does something other than (instead of, or in addition to) what the user assumes it will do - and since maliciousness was a given, it is an unwanted funtion that it adds. Since that function is replicative in nature, it is termed a virus rather than a trojan (probably because it is more important to note that it is viral than to note that it is *bad*). Use the term "malware" to cover all types of malicious software, and "virus" for recursively self-replicating code (whether malicious or not). Don't assume that all spyware is malware or that all adware is malware. Assuming all viruses are malware is generally a safe assumption as it stands now, but only because examples of non-malicious viruses are so rare. |