[psyteam]

WARNING!!!! MULTIPLE PARAGRAPH ALERT. ACTUAL READING IS REQUIRRED TO ACCESS THE INFORMATION BELOW.


I know many of you by nature seek refuge in simplicity – as in, "Oh, I'll just purchase an anti-viral software application. That will protect me." Frankly, however, that is an extremely naïve position.

Just think about it for a moment: If live updates and so-called anti-viral software were so effective, how do you explain the sheer persistence -- and even proliferation -- of sophisticated attacks on our personal computers?

You folks need to grasp the problem: A number of Trojans attain memory-resident status by generating random file names and dropping them in the System32 directory. These are especially problematic because they are invisible to Windows. Furthermore, by then modifying the Registry, they are able to start with each reboot. Short of accessing your computer remotely, you may have extreme difficulty removing the offending software.

And forget about most of the standard anti-viral programs. In addition to slowing down performance, they only identify a fraction of the malicious applications – and often cannot remove files referred to above. For example, of the 5 so-called anti-infection applications I recently tested, none were capable of removing a simple .dll file from the System32 -- a file placed there and hidden by a well-known trojan.

Best advice to date: Dump Internet Explorer if you can - it is notoriously vulnerable despite updates. Otherwise, I will be forced to provide a tedious technical explanation about ports and browser objects which will explain I.E.'s weaknesses -- but which will surely threaten those of you who require simplistic solutions.

psyvant

PS -- How many of you actually believe that Norton, McAfee, Sophos, et.al. actually exist for the altruistic purpose of helping us computer users rid our systems of viruses? If anything, they welcome the constant infusion of new and more malicious software because it means more business for them.