Notice to all authors of Malware, Spyware and Viruses

[KSATRoadWarrior 91]

I too use the Avast Internet Security, which is the paid version. I have it running on 3 computers and it has done a great job for me and my brother. I have used it for over 7 years. The free version is good but has limited protection. I would recommend the paid version. Avast is definitely worth a look......

[Lawyer+Pilot 126]

And above all we should feel sorry for the authors of these malicious codes. By and large, they're male, despondent, live at home loners, who have no friends and were laughed at the last time they tried to talk to a female. They're picked on to no end because of their social ineptness and generally unlikability. At any given moment, they are just as likely to propel themselves off a bridge as they are to crawl out of bed in the morning. What we call "spyware", "viruses" and "malware" are, to them, a last ditch effort at being relevant again. They truly are the bastions of the unwanted.

[Helge Rasmussen 7]

I am using Avast as well, great product imo.

 

Another group of software that should be on the "list" it certainly is on mine, is the software which has an installer that tries to trick you to install some unusable product such as a toolbar for searching that certainly is not better than Google to put it very nicely

 

 

Even well known "big" companies do this. When I see a product that does this, then I put it on MY list, and try to find another product to use instead. I am not going to reward such companies for trying to infect my PC if I can avoid it. 

 

Helge

[mgh 89]

 

 

...I trusted her with her laptop...

 

I trust myself but I still have anti-virus software.

[Bjoern 1,156]

...and that's why I happily use Linux.

 

 

Now if Direct3D support was better....*

 

 

 

 

*(Never going to happen - at least not on a level comparable to Windows.)

[Boomer 1,619]

 

 

And above all we should feel sorry for the authors of these malicious codes.

 

Disagree with that notion 1000%.  These malcontents should all be locked up somewhere for life.

[Lawyer+Pilot 126]

Disagree with that notion 1000%. These malcontents should all be locked up somewhere for life.

Agreed. You'll have to admit these are pretty pathetic people. That's all I was getting at. Feel sorry for them, then destroy them.

[mgh 89]

May all the pervayers and creators of this UTTER GARBAGE be smited from Above. There is no lower form of life on this planet.

 

 

Not even child abusers?

[Boomer 1,619]

Not even child abusers?

 

They can sort that out amongst themselves in prison.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Disagree with that notion 1000%.  These malcontents should all be locked up somewhere for life.

 

Don't go too far.  What they do is bad, but many large companies (although they hate to admit it) like to know when they have holes in their system security.  To be quite honest, and as mgh pointed out, I've had days to think about it and realized I had holes in security where I wasn't taking the time to look.  Lesson learned, and I patched them, and I moved on.  Now I don't like the malicious intent of this stuff, but I do like learning a useful lesson every now and then.

 

John

[John_Cillis 2,406]

A follow-up to this post.  I used to advise simmers not to run anti-virus software while using FS9 or FSX for fear it would cause stutters or slow the sim.  After the incident with my daughter's laptop, I decided to install Avast on my desktop.  Even with all its monitoring functions enabled, there's no impact on my sims.  So a typical PC of today, or even one a few years old like mine, seems able to run AV software with no visible effects on MSFS.  Based on that, I am keeping my AV software running at all times now. 

 

Regards,

 

John

[japascoe 98]

Don't go too far.  What they do is bad, but many large companies (although they hate to admit it) like to know when they have holes in their system security.  To be quite honest, and as mgh pointed out, I've had days to think about it and realized I had holes in security where I wasn't taking the time to look.  Lesson learned, and I patched them, and I moved on.  Now I don't like the malicious intent of this stuff, but I do like learning a useful lesson every now and then.

 

John

 

In which case you can hire someone to find the holes in your security and tell you about it without actually wrecking your stuff, which is the way legitimate hackers make money.

[mebull 27]

The lady that rents a apartment from us came to our door in a panic, I mean freaking out. She was so upset she could barely speak coherently, ahem, okay she was more incoherent than usual. She had just gotten a pop up notice on her laptop from the French Police that they 'knew' she had child pornography on her PC so they had taken control of it until she paid a rather hefty fine and if she failed to pay they would turn her over to the local police. Through the tears she asked if she should go to the police herself and just get it over with! First I said _______ I trust you don't have any such stuff your computer - of course she did not.

 

I grinned a bit then told her relax you have got a virus. She asked, "what's a virus?", I knew right then it was going to get interesting. I gave her the simple definition of what a virus is, what they can do and why. I explained that what she had was called ransom or extortion ware and what kind of scum those people are that do this. I asked her what anti virus software she used and she replied, "what's a anti virus?". After I got my eyes rolled back into place and my mouth pulled back shut I asked her if she had the disks and stuff that came with the computer when she bought it. She did. Next I determined that she did not have any files on the computer that needed to be saved. I had her bring the laptop and the disks and told her I'd have it for her the next day.

 

I have to say I have never seen a computer that was so messed up in my life. It took fifteen minutes for XP to boot up and that thing had more adware, spyware, and viruses than I thought even existed. If it was nasty and unwanted she had it. I know my way around XP and she had more crap files than OS files! Without further ado I shut down, inserted the OS install disk, formatted the HD and rebooted checked the BIOS for corruption / settings and installed XP. I reinstalled her other software and set XP to auto updated. I took the computer to her place, connected back up to th Internet and let it update Windows - told her to call me when it was done. I suggested strongly she should get a good AV. I recommended ESET NOD32 (that is what I use) and installed that for her.

 

The next day she spotted me out in the yard and came over to thank me and tell me how cute it was that the only thing that popped up on the screen was the AV telling her it was updated and that the computer was so fast she couldn't believe it. Yippee! The day after that her son showed up at the door with his computer - I'm sure i will see the daughters soon!

 

Can you imagine this, "Hi dear, did you have a nice day at work today?", "Yes honey, I had a really nice day. Me and Zit face just finished a new virus that is going to make lots of people really suffer. I love my job and the attention it gets me - I love being important, I am somebody!". Yep right you are.

 

Regards to all,

Mel