Where are people getting all the viruses from?

Question

I see loads of questions here about having viruses/trojans whatever,I've not had a virus in 5 years even tho i download games and programs from usenet/torrents all the time,I use Avira and sometimes it pops up something has this or that and i delete it.Still my computers have run fine for years with no problems.

So again to all the questions saying you have/had a virus - where did you get them?

Answer 1

Here is the answer everyone already knew but was afraid to say it...Ignorance...plain and simple...most people believe they can go out ...get a computer and hook it up to the internet and be okay...little do they realize what lies in the vast world of the complicated viruses on the web...they don't take the time to get a AV product ...nor do they take the time to research how to stay safe on the internet...and what precautions they have to take........Security of one's computer is a must...a Good AV product backed up with 1 other anti-malware/adware program and 1 anti-spyware program can make the diffrence between being protected....or having to take the computer to the shop for repair...."Knowledge of Security on the computer is a must before you turn it on"...........

Answer 2

I don't know why so many people get computer problems period. We've got four computers at home running more or less continuously and rarely get a problem with any of them.



I've had only two computer viruses in over 30 years of using computers. One was Ambulance from a floppy disk - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xelN2qBzvzQ - in the late 80's / early 90's and one was because one of my nephews turned off the antivirus program then downloaded some crap from a P2P network a couple of years ago.



I'm currently just using Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Firewall on the Windows machines and SELinux on the Linux computers.

Answer 3

Most of the time you are going to need to click on on some thing as some way of accepting/letting to down load and run the virus. Also, Macs, identical to PCs don't seem to be invulnerable to whatever, however considering the fact that they're latest and beforehand were not traditional, there are a ways fewer viruses that paintings on them, however do not fear, they are going to are available in time. Also, I suggest google seek for photos, I continuously use it and certainly not acquired a plague. Never.

Answer 4

viruses can be acquired by going online and visiting sites that are not safe.

the thing is, lots of people expect that if they have anti virus they should be protected from an viral infection.

they don't realize that having such program is not enough especially if you don't have a good anti virus.

you also need to update it all the time.

also, it's not only virus that you can get online, there are trojans, malware, adware etc.. that cannot be remove or detected by an ordinary anti virus program.

you need also to have protection from all these malicious soft-wares.

you can get infection by using thumb drives or any devices that can be connected to your system, that have been used from a infected computer.

Answer 5

The Internet

Answer 6

If you notice, most of these questions are being asked by the same person with multiple accounts. It's more than a coincidence when these accounts have the same join date and 0% ratio. Just my 2 cents. Ppl don't know when to quit lol.

Answer 7

Failure to keep windows updated, especially Java, AV and Adobe apps.

Bad web sites, where the admin has failed to keep the site patched.

Just plain ignorance, where people will click on anything that says "Free", "Sex" "Too good to be true."

Answer 8

A lot of them come from those scareware popups too. It's amazing to me what some people will click on.

Answer 9

that's something I always wondered