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Last week my mom forwarded an email to me and I started to laugh. The email was to warn me about a virus that is spreading and destroying peoples data.

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While running Window$ I did notice one interesting thing:

I install an anti-virus it detects viruses, I remove them. I install another anti-virus, it detects viruses, I remove them. I install yet another anti-virus, it detects more viruses, I remove them ... I use an online scan, it detects viruses ... I switch to Linux.

Still, you may consider keeping around clamav for an occasional scan ... it has only found something once, an inactive Trojan, written for Window$.

I had the funny experience of a 'warning popup' displaying itself on my screen once, telling me it had found a virus and that 'my computer was being scanned for further viruses' except the obvious discrepancy was that I was running Linux and that screen 'showed my 'c' and 'd' drives' and other 'folders', lol! :rolleyes:

Except that it wouldn't even be able to execute in the first place, since Linux cannot simply just execute a windows binary (unless it is under wine).

Kinda like how the mainstream news media keeps the US in a constant state of fear and tension...

"Remember to stock up on duct tape so you can tape all the cracks and windows shut, to protect you from a bio or other type of attack" -- Yea like duct tape is going to offer such protection in the first place! :rolleyes:

-edit

I once on purpose downloaded a virus and used 7z to extract the contents of the executable, the contents inside the 'archive' were some external mirc script files, and mirc.exe along with a registry file, which I looked at under pico to view what the reg file was about.

Essentially it was setting up a zombie bot that would automatically connect to an irc server and used to spam others on irc as well as an email spammer. Pff :rolleyes:

Not to get too offtopic, but I was thinking about that too.

Take a look at any anti-virus site, then the news.

McAfee: Global Threat Condition = Elevated

Norton: ThreatCon (like DefCon I suppose) = Level 2 Elevated

CNN / BBC / other propaganda network: The current threat level from international terrorism is Severe

They want you to feel scared and helpless, they want you to come to Big Brother and give him a hug, he will comfort you ... and if you're not scared ... he will make sure to fix that.

I was using Windows Vista. Had AVG, Zone Alarm and so on for protection. I ended up going to a website, I was redirected and the next thing I know I had a lot of stuff installed on my computer, including the so-called Anti-Virus program. That was just from a redirect, I didn't click anything.

That was the very last time I used MS Windows for the internet. Its been Linux (currently Debian) since then.

The good thing is the game that I use to play on Windows, the only thing holding me to Windows, I stopped playing. So I can finally get rid of Windows and all the headaches of real threats and those imagined.

It's been a while, but somebody did exactly that. This probably needs to be done again to see if virus writers have gotten any better.

That example is what I said earlier, with wine. If one were to simply try to execute it as a 'native' binary, nothing would happen. Take any windows binary, and try to 'just execute' it in a shell and see the error message for yourself.