Cleaning vs. Protection – Why you shouldn’t rely on malware cleaning

[Chromatinfish 123]

I've never been seriously infected like this is directed to. (crosses my fingers)

However, I've been targeted with those browser screens that say "OH no you have 215 errors fix it now with Antivirus 2016!"

When I see that I immediately Alt+ F4 and relaunch the browser (which is set to not open the original pages btw).
Since I barely download software anyways I block all .exe files via Adguard Parental Control. And I have downloads set to not automatically open (which was a stupid Idea from the start, you save only a click )

As for email... the phishing ones stand out like a sore thumb. No I didn't win the England Giveaway for $100,000,000,000 because I didn't enter. No I don't have my PayPal account compromised because I don't use PayPal. If my bank sends me an email, I just call the bank and see if they need anything.

So this takes care of Trojans, which are the kind of malware you usually see. Honestly worms are now almost useless because of the firewall that everybody has (of course some doofus is going to turn it off/reconfigure the settings (for it to be useless that is) which is why worms still exist...).

See, the problem with most security software is that it requires user interaction for it to be used (like installing software or going to a webpage). There is not a virus that can launch itself around the globe without any user interaction. Yes, I know about zombies but they still need one user to actually get the virus.

 

[jamescv7]

Actually these days infections through keywords on search engine are actually became minimal compare before but for as assurance, protection is much better at all as usually cleaning may become problematic within high chance which why most prefer to reformat.

 

[StriderHunterX]

I haven't been seriously infected in quite a while.(My main laptop has been running the same since 2010 perfectly)

And with each setup I come across, I make sure they don't have to worry for quite a while,if not evere(Fully updated AV-IS,Browser Anti Exploit,Security Extensions for each browser,USB Anti Malware Software)

I also have the ZAM and USB kit for cleaning or data extraction(before I blow it to bits.....)

 

[LabZero]

Depends on the type of infection and the impairment of the operating system.

If malware is detected on real-time protection, before it start, there are usually no problems.

If the infection is detected accidentally during an on demand scan, then it means that the malware could have damaged the OS and modified/deleted system files.

In these cases the AV can remove the infection but not always can fix the problems that resulted.
If I have time then analyze the problem,otherwise : image backup and go....

 

[Moose]

Salutations, Friends!

A great quote by Umbra,
"Nuke'em all !

Then you have a brand new system , clean and fast."

And a great backup 2048 bits externally and/or the cloud!

 

[done]

Cleaning up something more serious than adware is a joke, there is no certainty that this OS hasn't been compromised more than just the visible infections.
So no cleaning for me, every PC I get for cleanup is getting a data backup and gets nuked.

how do you know the data is not infected?

 

[Enju]

how do you know the data is not infected?

I don't keep any executable files and for word/excel and so on I take random samples and take a peek at them.

 

[done]

I don't keep any executable files and for word/excel and so on I take random samples and take a peek at them.

this one like to establish in my photos, it did teach a lesson back in 2007
once you backup my picture it will run itself and infect any computer you backup the data
Brontok - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Enju]

this one like to establish in my photos, it did teach a lesson back in 2007
once you backup my picture it will run itself and infect any computer you backup the data
Brontok - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good luck with that! For backup tasks I always use my lovely Arch Linux thumb drive since it's often quite a lot faster in copying a lot of small files to an external HDD than the standard Windows Explorer. It's easy to spot any executable files on it but it's nice to know that malware authors still rely on the stupidity of most people.

 

[Malware Man]

Well back years go I got infected so much and had no idea why or how to clean it. It'd get so bad I'd it would say no operating system found. At that time I thought my drive was formatted. Now with my knowledge today I know it was just a virus that had overwritten my MBR. I used to download so many cracks, keygens, etc.

Now today I have stopped all that. All my software is legit or free. Priacy is dangerous and makes companies lose money. Even if I got s virus now I'm not scared of them cause I could probably easily remove it.

Depending on how serious the infection is I'd just install Windows all over again.

I'm just sticking to Windiws inbuilt security (Windiws Defender, Firewall & Applocker) cause it just works with each other perfectly with hitmanpro and malwarebytes on the side to run scans to see if I got anything. Since Applocker is amazing I am still unable to get malware to run and get past it.