Re: Is XNews a Vector for Malware?
- From: Jay Stallworth <private@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:51:17 GMT
John Gray <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:Xns9826748D84E7T.JGray@xxxxxxxxxx:
Jay Stallworth <private@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:Xns98261622D9BD1JusLilOlMe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
Does anybody know if XNews provides a portal for viruses to sneak
past NAV, under XP-Pro? I'm continually getting tiny viruses that
disable NAV's automatic LiveUpdate feature, and to clear them out I
have to update my virus signatures by hand.
XNews is the only non-OEM software on my machine, so I believe that
it's my system's weakest point. I'd like to confirm that with some
experts.
I'm running WinXP Pro, and using Xnews. I've seen no malware at all
here. I run AVG Free resident, and also manually scan the entire
system weekly with AVG, ClamWin as well as Ewido all of which are
updated to the latest version and definitions. Scanning regularly the
entire system with SpyBot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware SE has found
nothing. I do use SpywareBlaster, also. All this makes me sound
paranoid, and maybe I am.
Is WinXp Pro fully patched? I used to have Norton Internet Security
on this machine, as it came with a 3 month trial version. After about
a month, I removed it entirely. Norton products aren't what they used
to be a few years ago. I'd used NAV for many years before this last
year, but never more. At the least, it's now bloatware and also acts
very flaky.
I don't think you're being paranoid at all. With the explosion of spam,
shady people stand to make meaningful profits from zombifying your
machine. Such a hearty financial incentive, for people to hijack your
spare cycles, brings the slimeballs out of the woodwork.
My XP-Pro is fully patched, but I have no idea about all the little
tweaks you need, to set up a Firewall correctly, or especially, how to
monitor a connection for rootkit activity. The latter seems to be the
magic secret.
The gimmick that I use to monitor my system for malware is whether my
internet connection times out properly, disconnecting me automatically.
I have it set for a fairly quick time out, because when I walk away from
my PC, I want the door to slam shut and lock behind me, asap. In return
for that gimmick, I'm willing to put up with an above average frequency
of dropped connections, while I'm sitting here.
I also do full system scans twice a week, and a quick scan every day. I
just added the quick scan this month, and it seems to have improved
performance dramatically. Although I also decided to accept the system
slowdown of having the viral activity monitor (whatever the hell that
is) running continually, which is probably a more likely explanation for
the improvement.
The price is that now I regularly get what appear to be sudden and
annoying system hangs that clear themselves in maybe ten seconds or so.
I'm not familiar with AVG, ClamWin or Evido, but I was *very*
disappointed by SpyBot and AdAware. Is Adaware SE the freeware version?
I ran them both for a while, and eventually became so convinced that my
system was infected that I bought NAV. Sure enough, NAV found about six
or eight infections, although they were all pretty much strains of the
same thing.
What we need is some kind of honest benchmark for comparing the
programs, and not the sad product reviews that the PC magazines publish.
Having looked at the home page of your AVG utility, it occurs to me
that the best AV benchmark may be the regular updates to the lists of
viruses that each manufacturer claims they just installed.
The master list itself, of course, would be an ideal starting point, but
those things are gargantuan, and I'm not even sure if they're easily
available. Checking the monthly updates is a sort of differential
benchmark, and it will let you see how far AVG is behind NAV, if at all.
But I have no such clever ideas for benchmarking a Firewall.
Considering the critical nature of the problem, I'm inclined to think
that it makes more sense to suffer with Norton's bloatware for the
privilege of having such a huge number of well-funded experts behind me.
Aren't they part of Netscape/AOL/Time Warner? Shouldn't that give them
the resources of a Fortune 500 company?
.
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