Published at LXer:

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!

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!

-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

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.