Users are always going to be the weak link in the chain. No matter what security is in place if someone is daft or stupid enough to click on things they shouldn't then bad things will happen.

The only foolproof way is to turn your computer off, lock it in a safe and bury it in concrete.

Isn't that pretty much unique to Android, rather than Linux overall - much like Windows?

Linux it's called CHMOD, essentially the same thing. Once something gets in, it can open up a number of backdoors with relative ease.

It's harder than windows to catch something agreed, but can be much worse and not impossible as some believe. I'd still get some AV and a firewall.

Thanks - any recommendations for AV/Firewall - on Linux?

Thanks - any recommendations for AV/Firewall - on Linux?

iptables but need knowledge of the CLI. It's what I use on Debian/Ubuntu servers.

Windows Firewall only blocks stuff inbound, it wont stop or notify you of stuff outbound, which is not ideal if a virus has got onboard and trying to call out to download something else malicious by pretending to be a legitimate program. ZoneAlarm and several others are also free, and offer both way protection and an awful lot more control

iptables but need knowledge of the CLI. It's what I use on Debian/Ubuntu servers.

That's me knackered! I've used it for basic stuff but I even have to google for that!

Windows Firewall only blocks stuff inbound, it wont stop or notify you of stuff outbound, which is not ideal if a virus has got onboard and trying to call out to download something else malicious by pretending to be a legitimate program. ZoneAlarm and several others are also free, and offer both way protection and an awful lot more control

Really? I think not.... :wonder:

Really? I think not.... :wonder:

Tis true. On XP anyway, the free Windows firewall only blocks inbound.

I just use the firewall on my router, I don't have one on the PC any more. Never had an issue.

I also use FireFox with adblock and noscript, Avast, and Malwarebytes.

Plus I never use local email like Outlook, always stick to internet based mail.

Common sense will also work wonders, don't download and install cr£p or let anyone else download cr&p.

Some overly paranoid people here! :wonder:

I only use av on the work comp as theres some confidental stuff (not much mind)

At home it's only on as the kids use it from time to time and kids are click happy !!!

Only put it on last week as I blagged the spare copies from the work install.

I wouldn't bother with anything normally other than hardware firewall in the router

As long as your not a complete fool you don't really need it imo

It's like life, stay away from dodgy areas and you don't much trouble, hang around the seedier parts of town and expect to be in with the dregs.

Kaspesky btw

Tis true. On XP anyway, the free Windows firewall only blocks inbound.

I just use the firewall on my router, I don't have one on the PC any more. Never had an issue.

I also use FireFox with adblock and noscript, Avast, and Malwarebytes.

Plus I never use local email like Outlook, always stick to internet based mail.

Common sense will also work wonders, don't download and install cr£p or let anyone else download cr&p.

I was thinking Windows 7.

Yep +1 on hardware firewall, don't know any router that doesn't come with one from ISP's nowadays.

I wouldn't bother with anything normally other than hardware firewall in the router

+1.

Being behind a NAT is strong enough protection anyway as long as you aren't in a DMZ, uPnP is off and only essential ports are forwarded.

I only use av on the work comp as theres some confidental stuff (not much mind)

At home it's only on as the kids use it from time to time and kids are click happy !!!

Only put it on last week as I blagged the spare copies from the work install.

I wouldn't bother with anything normally other than hardware firewall in the router

As long as your not a complete fool you don't really need it imo

It's like life, stay away from dodgy areas and you don't much trouble, hang around the seedier parts of town and expect to be in with the dregs.

Kaspesky btw

and it is people like you that keep the world awash with viagra adverts and the botnets used for cracking servers, and running DDOS attacks.

When will people like you stop spouting this crap and realise that ANY website can be infected,

McCAFFE HAD THEIR WEBSITE HACKED TO DOWNLOAD MALWARE THREE TIMES LAST YEAR.

Even the BBC has had pages compromised; various government websites around the world have been hacked; my local County Council CHILDRENS SERVICES website was hacked and serving porn for 2 weeks before any of the staff noticed.

You are nearly as bad as the ****s who go around saying OSX or Linux is safe from viri and malware; the LINUX dev server was hacked and used to send poisoned copies months ago, they have STILL not figured out how and been able to put it back on line.

(Where is the "banging head against wall" emoticon when you need it??)

If McAfee, Governments & the BBC are being hacked which of the free programs you recommend would have protected them?

Isn't 'infection' different to 'hacked'? Not arguing a point, too far above my head, just trying to understand.

I must admit I thought I was pretty safe from hacks behind my routers default firewall.

and it is people like you that keep the world awash with viagra adverts and the botnets used for cracking servers, and running DDOS attacks.

When will people like you stop spouting this crap and realise that ANY website can be infected,

I only ever had one virus, and that was when a mate opened up c drive to the world, back about ten years ago when I knew no different

If I'm that bad then tell me how everytime I do install av software I never have a problem and it never finds anything ??

I can assure you theres no bot nets or DDOS running off my box

and it is people like you that keep the world awash with viagra adverts and the botnets used for cracking servers, and running DDOS attacks.

When will people like you stop spouting this crap and realise that ANY website can be infected,

McCAFFE HAD THEIR WEBSITE HACKED TO DOWNLOAD MALWARE THREE TIMES LAST YEAR.

Even the BBC has had pages compromised; various government websites around the world have been hacked; my local County Council CHILDRENS SERVICES website was hacked and serving porn for 2 weeks before any of the staff noticed.

You are nearly as bad as the ****s who go around saying OSX or Linux is safe from viri and malware; the LINUX dev server was hacked and used to send poisoned copies months ago, they have STILL not figured out how and been able to put it back on line.

(Where is the "banging head against wall" emoticon when you need it??)

Chillax man. Blended threat malware is a funny old thing, it's a relatively new concept as well. The ironic thing in this is that not many "security solutions" actually protect against it. The best thing I've come across is ESET, but it's not foolproof.

And you have some balls for talking to someone like that, especially a mod :p

I had my PC hacked 2 years ago, despite running AVG, ZoneAlarm and Spybot. I only found out 5 days after the infection when I found my IP address being blocked for sending spam from both my ISP and Gmail accounts. AVG insisted there was nothing there and Spybot wasnt finding anything until I ran it in SAFE MODE. At that point it found several infections, but could not remove them all, AVG STILL insisted there was no infection.

My wifes PC will pass every virus and malware test as "clean"; including Malwarebytes, HijackThis SDFix, and Combofix, however I know it is infected because of the behaviour. When I first ran a batch of av/am programs, they removed 4 infections and a hidden data stream, yet it made NO difference to the behaviour.

This means it is one of the newest rootkits, that have created their own hidden partition, and so cannot be seen by any OS based program, or installed themselves in the BIOS chip, and so can escape even a complete system wipe or even HDD change.

All but the most stubborn idiot will read and take note of tech news items about the reports issued by the AV/AM companies. The problem is so serious that Microsoft are in talks with motherboard makers to build systems with a "locked down" BIOS, that can only be altered by security certificate signed programs; Linux distro makers are up in arms because they have not been invited to the talks.

A HACK can be used to do several things, some only hack to post stupid messages, or make political statements, like the recent Sesame Street and Microsoft hacks, some are after sensitive information, like the Wikileak hacks, others are there to steal credit card or identity information, like the TJMax and Sony hacks.

A common hack is to inject poisoned files or adverts into a webpage. This is very popular right now, because most browsers get infected just from visiting the page, they dont have to click on anything. the McCaffee attacks were of this type.

A friend got infected after visiting a BBC gardening website, I know this because it was the only website she visited that day and because the BBC made a (quiet) announcement and apology the following day.

The last is why NoScript is one of the most popular addons for FireFox these days.

I had my PC hacked 2 years ago, despite running AVG, ZoneAlarm and Spybot. I only found out 5 days after the infection when I found my IP address being blocked for sending spam from both my ISP and Gmail accounts. AVG insisted there was nothing there and Spybot wasnt finding anything until I ran it in SAFE MODE. At that point it found several infections, but could not remove them all, AVG STILL insisted there was no infection.

My wifes PC will pass every virus and malware test as "clean"; including Malwarebytes, HijackThis SDFix, and Combofix, however I know it is infected because of the behaviour. When I first ran a batch of av/am programs, they removed 4 infections and a hidden data stream, yet it made NO difference to the behaviour.

This means it is one of the newest rootkits, that have created their own hidden partition, and so cannot be seen by any OS based program, or installed themselves in the BIOS chip, and so can escape even a complete system wipe or even HDD change.

All but the most stubborn idiot will read and take note of tech news items about the reports issued by the AV/AM companies. The problem is so serious that Microsoft are in talks with motherboard makers to build systems with a "locked down" BIOS, that can only be altered by security certificate signed programs; Linux distro makers are up in arms because they have not been invited to the talks.

A HACK can be used to do several things, some only hack to post stupid messages, or make political statements, like the recent Sesame Street and Microsoft hacks, some are after sensitive information, like the Wikileak hacks, others are there to steal credit card or identity information, like the TJMax and Sony hacks.

A common hack is to inject poisoned files or adverts into a webpage. This is very popular right now, because most browsers get infected just from visiting the page, they dont have to click on anything. the McCaffee attacks were of this type.

A friend got infected after visiting a BBC gardening website, I know this because it was the only website she visited that day and because the BBC made a (quiet) announcement and apology the following day.

The last is why NoScript is one of the most popular addons for FireFox these days.

Perhaps if you paid for a premium product it would actually protect you, AVG is utter crap the clue is in the price, Avast is better but still not good, as for rootkits, how many have you ever actually seen or removed ?? They don't seem to have taken off like they were predicted

Was your pc hacked or infected ??

I do the tech for work, family and friends, and I have come across several rootkits per year over the last 4 years.

AVG is not better of worse than any other av program, sometimes it scores higher in independent tests, sometimes lower (although never as low as McCaffe or Norton!!); it doesnt really matter, as I said before, modern malware is programmed to try and disable whatever av program is running when it is installed on a target machine; unless you have written your own, the chances are the virus writer has had access to a copy and included the code for yours; hence the use of several programs, some memory resident and some on-demand.

A hack is a deliberate, targeted attack, not usually made against an individual, although i did get caught up on the edge of an attack a many years ago, when the ip given to me was mixed up in an attack on some government servers on the same ip range. I was getting 5,000 probes per second which would probably have defeated my hardware and software firewalls if I hadnt been on such a slow dial-up connection at the time, and able to pull the plug until the attack was finished.

You aren't doing a very good job then if you have come across several infected PC's per year. I can safely say i have never come across one and support around 20 'home users' and at work 20000 users and have never come across this....

Having 2 AV's installed probably doesn't help

Are you some kind of idiot, you dont understand the difference between an "on demand" and memory resident av program??

I am NOT their BOFH, just the guy they call for help when they bugger up their PCs (or their children do); the PC's I maintain for work have NEVER had a rootkit, and the only virus was because my stupid sister WILL click on every round robin email she gets sent; her personal PC is the bane of my life, as she gets it infected every other month.

BTW Fatty5000, did you not read the part where I pointed out that AVG and EST NOD32 use the same basic AV engine??

As for upsetting a mod, I always do my nut when I see someone repeating bad advice or urban fairy tales, be it computers, science, or health advice; i have already been banned from one tech site for doing it, and I will do it again if needed.

The latest "not too techy" report on Micro$ofts "secure boot" idea is here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/25/secure_boot_criticism_reloaded/

Clearly i am some kind of idiot as the last 'AV' Thread i didn't recommend having 2 AV's installed along with everyone else besides you.

I think the fact that you are always having infections is testimony to the efficiency of your protection.

BTW i am just the guy people call when they bugger up their PC's.....but never from a virus i hasten to add.....and 3 of the laptops are used by under 15 year old kids.

The only bad advice i see is from you.

ignored

you can get your point across without name calling and abuse.

Regarding Norton and McAfee always scoring lower than AVG, based on which accredited testers? These have been in the top 3 for many years, usually in the top 2 spots, with AVG usually missing several infections and being well down the list of test results I've read on the net. I think it was CNET or a Windows magazine annual suite test.

I'm sure you can find your own tests showing this from several well respected websites, magazines and security experts.

You aren't doing a very good job then if you have come across several infected PC's per year. I can safely say i have never come across one and support around 20 'home users' and at work 20000 users and have never come across this....

Having 2 AV's installed probably doesn't help

^^This

I maintain a 'few' pc's here and there, and if I'm honest viri ain't that much of problem these days(teenage boy's pc's not included in this statement), either there arn't as many doing the rounds or I have done something right.

Most people these days are well aware of whats what out there on the web, which does help.

I can't think for the life of me why you got banned from the tech site .......

you can get your point across without name calling and abuse.

Regarding Norton and McAfee always scoring lower than AVG, based on which accredited testers? These have been in the top 3 for many years, usually in the top 2 spots, with AVG usually missing several infections and being well down the list of test results I've read on the net. I think it was CNET or a Windows magazine annual suite test.

I'm sure you can find your own tests showing this from several well respected websites, magazines and security experts.

Try looking at tests where "the top two" arent also major advertisers.

Back to the 2 AV programs argument, I THINK you will find they are talking about having two av programs memory resident AT THE SAME TIME, this can often cause conflicts between the two programs, although it does not mean you are more vulnerable to viri.

As for names, I say what I see; I also see a very interesting report today by the RSA about what companies were attacked last year after an SSL certificate breach, and the fact that 99% of these companies have never told their customers they may have had malicious code downloaded onto their computers, or personal information stolen.

Out of interest, MOST of the rootkits I have seen were on friends PCs running Norton, as installed by the PC manufacturer, I have yet to find a rootkit installed on one of these machines AFTER I have removed Norton and installed my usual av/am suite and told them how to update and use them. (Except my sister, who never updates and wonders why the new viri are never detected).

The rootkit on mine occurred after trying to access my favourite radio stream failed with FireFox, so I tried with IE......... I know, STUPID, I have deleted IE from my machine to avoid the temptation