[bats]

Dear Moderator: If anything here is in breach of Forum Rules it is unintentional and please delete as you see fit

After having conversations with two experts (one who actually teaches high level security),I'm left wondering about my own computer security.
First I am told that any kind of e-mail attachment can contain a lot of really bad Viruses, malware, Trojans, Zombie take overs. This can be done quite innocently from person you know ,who is infected. Before you say anything about,anti virus scanning I had the explanation of how this can be done. Obviously, I won't say it here. I had it demonstrated to my satisfaction. So.....

Question # 1: Should I delete all mail except those in plain text?

The next situation is very hard for me to believe. There was a 'hypothetical" discussion that the makers of Security/Anti Virus programs are encouraging people to make new Viruses and possibly even being compensated in some nefarious way, never to be traced back.
The people I spoke with have Zero anti virus programs on their computers, except for the MS Firewall.
They say by staying away from places where you can become infected, and knowing how to manually remove these problems if they occur it is safer. When I first installed Spybot there were about 8k definitions. Now I have on that one program well over 110k definitions. I have all the big programs installed, AVG, spybot, Adaware, Hijackthis,Rookit Revealer,Superantispyware,updating the Blocked Host files,MS Defender. All of which take a considerable amount of time to update and run.

Question # 2: Do you think that there is a possibility for the Majors to be supporting Malware creation in some fashion? And should I get rid of these programs?

bats
P.S. There was also some discussion that some really good programs and utilities are written and given away for free to piggyback malware onto your computer?

[DoubleHelix]

If you talked to a microbiologist with CDC you'd find out that every surface you touch contains billions of bacteria, some of which could make you very sick or kill you.

My advice is to stop talking to conspiracy theorists.

[karbo]

We could continue for days on this subject. Why not say firemen start forest fires to have more work... We could go on with a lot of examples...

[Kenny94]

Originally Posted by bats

Dear Moderator: If anything here is in breach of Forum Rules it is unintentional and please delete as you see fit

After having conversations with two experts (one who actually teaches high level security),I'm left wondering about my own computer security.
First I am told that any kind of e-mail attachment can contain a lot of really bad Viruses, malware, Trojans, Zombie take overs. This can be done quite innocently from person you know ,who is infected. Before you say anything about,anti virus scanning I had the explanation of how this can be done. Obviously, I won't say it here. I had it demonstrated to my satisfaction. So.....

Question # 1: Should I delete all mail except those in plain text?

The next situation is very hard for me to believe. There was a 'hypothetical" discussion that the makers of Security/Anti Virus programs are encouraging people to make new Viruses and possibly even being compensated in some nefarious way, never to be traced back.
The people I spoke with have Zero anti virus programs on their computers, except for the MS Firewall.
They say by staying away from places where you can become infected, and knowing how to manually remove these problems if they occur it is safer. When I first installed Spybot there were about 8k definitions. Now I have on that one program well over 110k definitions. I have all the big programs installed, AVG, spybot, Adaware, Hijackthis,Rookit Revealer,Superantispyware,updating the Blocked Host files,MS Defender. All of which take a considerable amount of time to update and run.

Question # 2: Do you think that there is a possibility for the Majors to be supporting Malware creation in some fashion? And should I get rid of these programs?

bats
P.S. There was also some discussion that some really good programs and utilities are written and given away for free to piggyback malware onto your computer?

[bats]

I agree with the amount of Time we could spend on conspiracy,however that is secondary to the post. Between the various run timesand updates my computer is spending Hours searching hundreds of thousands of Items, against an ever increasing hundred Thousand definitions. Hard on the equipment. I am guessing that your answer to Question #2 is to continue to load up on anti virus def's and keep adding programs.Yes?

What about e-mail ?
would you accept a picture i will send you? Would you trust me not to infect it first.?

Those are the salient points.

Bats
P.S. we all know that all companies are honest especially big oil would never suppress better battery Technology http://pppad.blogspot.com/2007/05/ni...on-texaco.html for example

[bats]

Let's make this easy
1. accept E-mail attachments from friends Yes / No
2. Keep anti everything programs and updates on computer Yes / No

[vicks]

Does your anti virus scan your emails when downloading? The free AVG 8.0 version will do that...
Vicks

[bats]

Yes but without permission I can''t disclose how easy it is to get around that.

[DoubleHelix]

If there were a way to completely bypass all anti-virus applications, it would be public knowledge. Your "expert" is pulling a fast one on you.

[bats]

Do not be too sure of that. His Certifications along with the common A+, Net+, cisco , novell etc. is Incident response, forensics, and CPTE.

[DoubleHelix]

I'm sure of it.

[karbo]

If indeed it was a conspiracy, don't you think someone working in one of those anti-malware companies would sooner or later leak information to the medias?

It's like the UFO conspiracies (hangar 18...). Surely somebody serious would have talked after all these years.

Are we getting more and more paranoid?

[bats]

The question I won't ask is what is your e-mail.

Dear Moderator is there any conditions under which I could Inform DoubleHelix or yourself how this is done to prove it will not only defeat his anti virus protection, but so simply only a modest understanding is necessary?

[bats]

Dear Karbo: If I ran into a bar and screamed there is a 100 foot space ship landed and aliens were coming out firing ray guns, dressed in space suits What would you think?

Now lets take that same story back 350 years ago. An indian runs to the rest of his band and screams a 100 foot canoe has landed with white aliens firing thunder spears.and they are dressed weird, What would you have believed then. Hint Plymouth Rock.

[aka Brett]

any thing is possible
we sent man to the moon right?
my rule dont click on something unless i know what it is.
second some of the spyware removers are spyware themselves.
but these are the ones that occur in a pop up and such.