[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

I stopped using Norton a long time ago. Too much got by it. May be better today, but I'm no longer interested in it.

I use Symantec Corporate. Same parent company, but vastly different product. I wouldn't touch Norton's consumer version with a stick.

My favorite anti-virus software used to be McAfee. Until someone wrote a virus that turned it off. This was before it required a password to turn it off. That was a long time ago. Don't know if they still do that.

I haven't looked in some time. Intel bought McAfee last month for $7.68B, so I expect changes.

See http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/19/int...llion-in-cash/

"1. Don't use Internet Explorer as your web browser. Just don't. Most spyware/malware targets IE, and bounces if it you use something else."

I think that most viruses get tested on the major anti-virus and web browsers before they get released. The win because so few people update their software, whatever it may be. I had a virus onetime because I was using an old version of Java.

IE is most targeted because it supports Active X controls. The way they are supposed to work is what happens when you visit MS Windows Update site in IE. A box pops up telling you the website wants to install software, asks permissions and offers to show you a digital certificate proving that the software is what it says it is and comes from the site it says it does. When you agree, the control downloads and executes in the context of your browser. The Active-X control is what scans your PC to see what Windows Updates you need.

Bad guys found ways to exploit security holes in Windows and IE to do "drive by installs" of rogue Active-X controls, that did not show any signs it was happening. You could get infected by visiting a compromised web site, and never know what happened till your machine started showing symptoms.

Firefox got a lot of early users because it was more secure than IE. A good deal of that was simply not supporting Active-X controls as a security measure. (You can get an add-on that will let you run Active-X controls in Firefox, but it's a "not recommended, and you better know what you're doing!" exercise.)

Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari also don't support Active-X, and are safer alternatives than IE. IE7 was supposed to be the big security push, and it's safer than IE6, but I still wouldn't call it secure.

My preference is Firefox, with the NoScript add-on that blocks scripting activity unless the site is in a whitelist.

Live and learn.

I wish more people did learn.
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Dennis