Can We Do Something To Stop Viruses?

Hmmm...Viruses are spreading at lightening speed. No technology in computer industry is developing at that pace.
Even the security technologies itself. Hard to believe..but its a fact. Really a miracle... And none of the antivirus
softwares are perfect.....If one could detect a virus, another couldn't, and vice-versa. And different companies gives
different names to the same virus. What the hell is this?

Antivirus companies are now focusing more on making profits than eliminating viruses. Even they may be happy with
the spreading of thees viruses, without whom they don't exist People like us, who have some computer knowledge are staying away from some viruses(at least). But what about other people? They don't know what happened to their system,
if some virus attacked. They don't know how to get rid of that. And finally they have to spend some money to solve their problem. They are paying for someone else's evil happiness. Why should they?

But the term virus is very popular today. Even people who don't know anything about virus, thinking that their system had
infected by virus.
The funny thing is, even if some hardware problem arises in their system, they think that its due to some virus. How sad?

Can we do something? How do we educate these innocent people? Give your opinions......

Yeah I agree with you, sometimes I think some companies make virussen to sell theire product bether.

Some ideas on how to educate people:
- Make a simple leaflet/poster wich gives info about virussen and what to do with them.
- Workshops on college/school where a teacher tells about virusses and anti-virus software.
- Make a digital leaflet and mail it among friends, like a chain mail.
(make shure it doesn't look like a spam mail or advertising mail).

These are some simple ideas but may effective.
But I think a long there will be computers in any form there will be virusses, because when a file
of a piece of software becomes damaged due some reason there is a chance it behaves like a virus.
(make your computer slow or somethin like that).

I try to protect myself by not downloading illegal files and the sort, only downloading files from secure and safe websites.

It also helps for browsers to have a little message that comes up reminding people about them and how to avoid them etc.

Its tough to stop viruses. Because some are made and some come by mistake. So... its not easy to stop them.
But its possible to be safe from them.

Install a very good antivirus software and update it as frequently as possible with the the new virus definition database and keep your system secure.

I teached myself to see what's a virus and what not, I have to admit I download lots of illegal stuff, and I don't even run a Virus scanner because I know I'm not downloading any viruses. And like once in a month I run it, only to see that I still don't have any viruses.

My advice is: Cut those people of the internet lol.

Or have advertisements for them. Though most people won't read those. It's not like everyone wants to learn about viruses..

Nice ideas friend. Already I'm using chain mail. I like your workshop idea.


No. I don't want to stop viruses. Its impossible, I know. I just want to educate people about viruses.
Its difficult to differentiate very good antivirus and bad antivirus. Everyone has its advantages and disadvantages. And
most of the antiviruses are paid. Very few are free(with free daily updates). We have to choose from these free antiviruses.
But they are not giving optimal protection.


Me too. There is no course available to teach about these viruses. Everybody is learning on their own. My humble request is,
share your experiences and your tips on how to find viruses etc...And of course, we are not here to teach everyone. Just for
those who are interested. I just want to make people aware of these viruses.

This post has been edited by xpress: Oct 7 2008, 07:33 AM

I think you don't need to teach people what are viruses...because guys who need to know about it are regular PC users, who of course know .....

yes,of course you can tell people the difference between virus, Trojan, spyware, malware etc...because that is something
even regular PC users don't know ....but that's not important....

we need to tell people how to fight against it...what to do if their PC is infected...many people leave it on a stupid antivirus...
and if it fails to remove the virus.. they just opt to reinstall the OS....which is not a good idea...

You can of course remove the virus from your system someway or the other if you know that its present....
people just think it can't be removed...

No, Most regular PC users doesn't know about viruses. Its my experience. Most of the people I know and my friends doesn't know anything about viruses. I had to assist them everytime they were infected. This is because, Viruses are just not spreading from internet. Now a days these are spreading from USB Pen drives, Memory cards, mobiles and CD's or DVD's. Most of them don't have access to internet. So they don't have any up-to-date antiviruses. And they don't know about viruses either. Only some people technical like us can see viruses because we know how a virus looks like(or a trojan) for example with fake extensions etc...Most people don't know this.

For example, almost all my friend circle infected by a virus with fake extension with .avi. But actually its an executable. They didn't know this, and clicked to open video and their systems infected. It was infected through memory cards of their mobile. They had antiviruses, but not up-to-date. The virus is very powerful that, even though I cleaned it with up-to-date antvirus, their traces were still left with meaning less symbols in right click. Tried different antiviruses but none of them worked. Even after formatting and reinstalling Windows, their traces left again in other partitions. Finally we had to format the entire hard disk.....Thats why I want to educate people on how a virus looks like etc...

I think telling people who don't have technical skill, about these trojans, dialers etc.. will confuse them.



And finally you got my idea. What I wanted is that you said above. We have to tell them how to fight against viruses.
And thanks for your interest.

How about we develop our own virus-scanners? I know it will be tough work, but we will need excellent coders. Or, Microsoft/Apple/Linux should make a brand new OS which won't allow you to download these virus-makers. xD

I wonder who actually made the first virus in the world of computers...

We need some powerful Open Source antivirus for Windows. If there is some project, I will definitely volunteer to make it best and more powerful.

I read somewhere that, two Pakistani guys made (or invented) the first virus in the world.