Antivirus - not a tough chore

[andysocial]

I've recently been getting a lot of viruses sent to me. Since I'm not an idiot, I don't open every attachment sent to me (which is a good reason to avoid Outlook Express since it does that all by itself), and I run my antivirus updater regularly so I'm relatively safe.

What is wrong with the rest of you morons? I know there are some LJ users that are infected with Klez, because you idiots have been sending it to me. What's truly insidious about some of the newer virii is that you can't tell who sent you the damned thing because they spoof the headers. All I know is what machine it came from (usually AOL - go figure).

For those of you that are unsure of your antivirus protection, go get Norton, pay the 30 bucks and run it religiously. You know what Klez will eventually do to your computer? Erase every single file. You know when Norton began protecting against it? November of 2001. Yet it's the most common virus on the net right now. How can you be online in 2002 and not have an updated antivirus program running? How dim can you be?

Comments

[talitha-oy.livejournal.com]

I recently ran a message like this on my Blog too. Since I stopped being a newbie myself, this is what I have since always said about the internet: the internet would be GREAT if it weren't for all the newbies, and all the dumbasses who remain newbie-like years after getting their first computer. Because of computer-illiterates (and people who insist on using Outlook), I have been infected with LoveLetter, Happy99, and was nearly infected with Sirhan, among others. Not to mention the TONS of virus-like spam messages spawned out by these sames losers, warning me of a thousand different "globally destructive killer viruses" or telling me the Taco Bell Chihuahua will run across my screen if I send this bilge on to fifty other people.
We the Geeks of the world, plead with the rest of you: get a clue already. The Taco Bell dog will not run across your screen. There is no Klingerman virus. And for crying out loud: NEVER, EVER open ANY attachment in ANY email, unless you SCAN it with NORTON first. McAfee sucks, don't bother. Datafellows is apparently good, but Norton is better. Get Norton, and, please, get a clue.

[andysocial]

I got the Sircam virus sent to me by just about everyone that I'd ever heard from in the previous 2 years. Thank goodness that is over. Klez has the lovely habit of grabbing the "from" address from your address book (even if you don't use Outlook - it uses Eudora and Netscape address books too), so you don't even know WHO is infected, just that it's someone that knows you and the guy who is in the "from" line. Great. Since I own my own domain, EVERYONE has my fucking address!

[talitha-oy.livejournal.com]

We almost got hit by Klez, or something like it, about three-four months back. Someone in the band's circle got infected, and their email program started spawning it out to everyone in their addy book. The best part is though, Netscape 6 seemed to have some sort of built-in defense against this particular virus, because instead of coming in as an executable, JPEG, or anything like that, it just came in as a text message. Ed looked at it, and said, what you have there is a virus in it's base code. If not, Norton would have caught it, but it's nice that Netscape has a few tricks too. :)