# are the nerd kids bored? Virus alerts left and right



## granfire (Apr 11, 2011)

Man I surfed my usual forums this morning, no problems. Now my Avast won't let me on half of them....Malware alert...tried to reach one via FB...Trojan Horse blocked...WTF?!

Is today a special day or something? or is my scanner broken?


----------



## Sukerkin (Apr 11, 2011)

These things come in waves, Gran.  The time to worry is when something gets through ... .


----------



## granfire (Apr 11, 2011)

oh, don't I know it. Those tings usually coincide with breaks in school...

and yes, I have suffered the 'something got through' as well...was not fun.


----------



## Mark Jordan (Apr 11, 2011)

Yup and they want some excitement.  The "authors" of these viruses compete in creating the toughest polymorphic viruses and this has become a trade.  In most cases, these viruses encrypt themselves and in order to decrypt themselves (sooner or later) they use complex commands and they require special methods of detection.  
So, just arm yourself with the best anti-virus, anti-spyware software and make sure it's updated.


----------



## granfire (Apr 11, 2011)

My Brother-in-law is a programmer. Writing viruses was homework...you gotta know how to make one to defend against it. Sadly the scanners are always playing catch up...

For a couple of hours my junk lit up at certain websites I wanted to visit, MT wasn't one of them, but a similar big one...and FB...freaky...


----------



## Bob Hubbard (Apr 12, 2011)

This is why I recommend Vipre for PC users, and Sophos for Macs.
Plus, I regularly have MT, KT and many of my other sites checked specifically for security issues.  Increases the costs of running the site but I take security seriously.


----------



## MA-Caver (Apr 12, 2011)

granfire said:


> My Brother-in-law is a programmer. Writing viruses was homework...you gotta know how to make one to defend against it. Sadly the scanners are always playing catch up...


Sounds like to me the Scanners need to get radical... I was thinking that there needs to be a anti-virus-virus worm... basically when a computer is attacked the worm gets sent out and it seeks the HOST server and basically eradicates it... melts it right down. 
One would think it's trace-able ... whomever wrote the virus and sends it out... they could be found and their computers are destroyed far worse than by any thing they created.


----------



## Bob Hubbard (Apr 12, 2011)

Considering that there are upwards of a million + infected systems out there, automatically spreading this stuff...you'd fry a lot of innocent but naive and ignorant folks pcs. Also, at least 1 US Carrier.

I prefer making examples of virus writers, bot net operators and those who fund and hire them.


----------



## granfire (Apr 13, 2011)

LOL, but those who innocently spread the cooties need a wakeup call!


----------



## MA-Caver (Apr 13, 2011)

Bob Hubbard said:


> Considering that there are upwards of a million + infected systems out there, automatically spreading this stuff...you'd fry a lot of innocent but naive and ignorant folks pcs. Also, at least 1 US Carrier.


Well that's what I meant... was to write the worm so that it would only infect the host system... yes viruses are transmitted from computer to computer and so forth... but certainly we are smart enough to write the program to where the worm won't activate until it finds the host... Am thinking that a trace imprint of the host computer shows where it came from? Kinda like taking a picture outdoors... and then looking deep in the file and it shows the GPS coordinates of that photo... 
Voila. 



Bob Hubbard said:


> I prefer making examples of virus writers, bot net operators and those who fund and hire them.


 Well those guys too... track 'em down and shut 'em down... oh and the Nigerians too... actually just set off an EMP bomb ... at least we'll get a respite from their scammers.


----------

