It seems as though many people nowadays who jump on the Internet do so with the computer equivalent of logging onto a virtual ebola ward and just begging–nay! demanding!–the electronic version of a transfusion of ebola. They’re running onto the “information superhighway” without looking out for trouble, and so they are just asking for it.
No, seriously!
Consider: one’s data, identity, finances–all are just ripe for the picking by nefarious means if one just blithely wanders about the Interwebs, naively, thoughtlessly downloading and installing crap, visiting questionable sites or just blindly clicking links or executing attachments in emails. Heck, the crap one might thoughtlessly install (toolbars, webapps, browser extensions BHOs, whatever) might not itself be malicious, but many purveyors of such DGARA about your security or privacy and leave wide open holes for malware–or they have a crappy, wide open site that’s just begging for malware injections to mug their site visitors.
And many people just blindly, naively, thoughtlessly wander into these highly infectious plague wards and then wonder how they “got infected”.
They infected themselves by means of their own stupidity.
People who would NEVER think of just wandering out into a busy highway, who would stop, look BOTH WAYS and listen before crossing a residential street just wander into traffic on the Internet, cruise around looking for virtual streetwalkers to get computer “STDs” from and go hunting up electronic ebola wards to get a transfusion for their computer(s).
Just don’t be one of those guys, mmmK? 🙂
Very well put. I must admit that I just assume Norton is going to protect me as I surf but I am wary about what I install (mostly).
Relying on anti-malware alone to provide protection is like assuming the (nearly antique ;-)) Sherman Tank ya bought from a surplus military hardware dealer will allow crossing a busy highway without checking for cross traffic. Sure, it might protect one from an oncoming 18-wheeler semi truck/trailer, but maybe not. 🙂
Most of the folks (nah, ALL of them) who ask me to clean malware off their computers have a major anti-malware product that’s resident and that automatically scans downloads, etc., but through inattention, carelessness or naiveté they have circumvented the protection themselves and managed to obtain their “transfusion of ebola-infected blood”.
One I’m cleaning today had TWO–conflicting–major anti-malware products installed (one was Norton) and managed to infect themselves. Once started, the infestation snowballed and the computer ended up with over 500 trojans, worms and other malware–all while their anti-malware products (which had been “managed” by one of the early trojans) were continuing to update and “think” they were scanning. Once the user had given one trojan admin authority to install, Katy bar the door! Soon, the antimalware products were neutered, Windows Update was corrupted, their firewall was wide open and the floodgates were wide open for just about anything to come in. Repair install of Windows? No go. Restore from uncorrupted backup or Restore Point? No such critters. I would have simply nuked their installation of Windows from orbit and reinstalled, but I had to restore a backup of the corrupted installation, because their OEM license keyed version of Windows would not validate! (And nor would M$ validate it. Something else going on. . . *sigh*) So, cleaning is pretty much it.
On the plus side, it’s been fun to repair. 🙂
BHOs…
I had to mentally shift gears there. You meant “Browser Helper Objects” right? Not the “BHO” the illiterati installed in the oval office.
😉
*heh* Yeh, I thought of that when I penned that line and wondered who might comment as you did.
I should have known. 🙂