Where Have All the Viruses Gone?

[Gnosis]

It seems to me that viruses are scarce these days. It seems that mostly rootkits, trojans, ransomware, and rogues are the threat of the day. Where are the viruses hiding?

 

[Deleted member 178]

in your beeeeeep

dont take it bad, in France it is an old teasing joke to answer by this bad word to a "where" question

 

[iPanik]

I read a story about this in a newspaper recently.
Basically regular viruses aren't lucrative anymore. Malware is no longer made by bored teenagers in basements but is made by organised gangs, and they have found that regular viruses doesn't bring in enough money anymore so they use phishing, scareware stuff like that. They wan't your data not your computer, and they get that from the various services you use online.

so basically if you browse the interwebs with a good amount of common sense and a cynical state of mind, you don't really need any antivirus.

 

[Gnosis]

@umbrapolaris

If you were Irish, you could simply say, "In your arse." lol France, go figure. haha


@IPanik

Makes sense.

 

[Tobi]

Malware is no longer made by bored teenagers in basements...

Funny. :lol:

 

[jamescv7]

I agree to iPanik. Probably before teenagers are making trial and error on making a viruses then after generations professional cybercriminals made successful viruses at all.

 

[Deleted member 178]

@umbrapolaris
If you were Irish, you could simply say, "In your arse." lol France, go figure. haha

hahaha, i was not sure about the rules of the forum

 

[Hungry Man]

There's more malware than ever. You just don't see it because you know how to browse safely.

 

[Deleted member 178]

Good point, Hungry.

 

[Littlebits]

Believe me viruses are still going strong, I remove them from my customers systems all the time. But what is the most common now days is rogue security software, rootkits and scareware. That's why MBAM has got so popular. Viruses are more commonly found on systems used by novice users about 95% of my customers or corporate environments.

Advanced users don't commonly get virus like they did in the past.
They are many reasons for this some have already been said on previous posts.

1. Some other reasons include virus prevention, detection and removal has got much better for security vendors even most of the free AV's. I wished that I could say the same for rogueware and other malware.

2. Virus now are mostly planed attacks against corporate environments. There really isn't much benefit for virus writers to make viruses planned to attack home users. Unless they use a home users system for the planned attacked to keep from being traced (not as common as in the past).

3. Malware changes over the years, right now the big tickets are mostly rogueware which also includes scareware and ransomware. Before I can remember when spyware was the worse and hardest to detect and remove, before that it was viruses and then trojans, etc. Every so many years there will be a different type of malware in the starlight.

Thanks.

 

[Jack]

A virus is a program that replicates,it spreads from file to file on your system and from PC to PC. In addition, it may be programmed to erase or damage data.
Cyber criminals don't use virus programs anymore and are now using trojans and rootkits?Why ?
A virus can be detected in advance by heuristics (or behavior blocker) due to its behavior while trojans can easily pass through since it does not exhibit any suspicious behavior.
Also coding a virus is much harder since you would need to program the mechanisms for the virus to attach itself to another file without rendering it unusable.
Unlike the viruses from 10-15 years ago which had as a main purpose damaging your system ,today malware has only one purpose : Stealing Your Identity!
Stealth and deception are common techniques used by todays cyber criminals , a virus can't be up to the task.....

 

[Deleted member 178]

i agree, simple extrapolation:

Do you prefer enter a place with sensitive precious informations and destroy all datas or enter the same place, install hidden microphone, cameras, and copy continuously all datas stored there ?

i choose the second.

 

[illumination]

A virus is a program that replicates,it spreads from file to file on your system and from PC to PC. In addition, it may be programmed to erase or damage data.
Cyber criminals don't use virus programs anymore and are now using trojans and rootkits?Why ?
A virus can be detected in advance by heuristics (or behavior blocker) due to its behavior while trojans can easily pass through since it does not exhibit any suspicious behavior.
Also coding a virus is much harder since you would need to program the mechanisms for the virus to attach itself to another file without rendering it unusable.
Unlike the viruses from 10-15 years ago which had as a main purpose damaging your system ,today malware has only one purpose stealing your identity.
Stealth and deception are common techniques used by todays cyber criminals , a virus can't be up to the task.....

This is a great explanation of why! Most of the computers I disinfect for others, are full of adware, trojans, and the occasional Packer...

 

[Gnosis]

"Virus now are mostly planed attacks against corporate environments. There really isn't much benefit for virus writers to make viruses planned to attack home users. Unless they use a home users system for the planned attacked to keep from being traced (not as common as in the past"


@Littlebits

That is an excellent point. Corporate offices have the huge computer networks and (or) intranets, where a virus could prove to be more efficient.

@Jack

Great explanation.