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General discussion (archive)GOG is a malware site!(38 posts)(38 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 10, 2011
I just keep my machine fully up-to-date and behind a decent firewall, only download files from trusted sources, never open e-mail attachments unless I am expecting them and If I need it, I have a manual virus scanner that I can run on individual files or my whole system as required.
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LLJKTechnogeek: That's not quite enough anymore.

The most common methods of infection involve malicious banner ads, usually Flash-based (since Adobe has a history of being very slow at fixing security vulnerabilities). Get a few going in the ad networks, let them percolate through some 50 billion websites, and you'll have people getting infected just by visiting MSN. Not even Google is immune.

That said, keeping things fully up to date is a good idea, so long as you're doing it properly. Mind you, keeping up on OS, browser, and plugin updates isn't an easy thing to do on your own. I like to use Secunia PSI for that purpose -- it's completely free, and can even automatically install some updates when it notices that you need them.
Its more than enough. Ad-based malware are why I also use things like ad blockers, SpyBot and No Script. Like I said, its simple common sense; if you want to keep your system secure without using a resource hogging and often wrong anti-virus, then you need to configure and use your machine securely.

Keeping your software up to date is an incredibly easy thing to do on your own without the assistance of more unnecessary software. All you need to do is make sure anything that can auto-update does (as long as it also asks permission before doing it) and anything that doesn't auto-update (very few things these days), you simply make a habit out of checking for updates regularly. When I get that prompt from Windows Auto-update every month, I know its time for me to check everything else. I have the sites for all my software bookmarked and I just go down the list and update as necessary. Nothing on my machine is ever out of date.
Posted May 10, 2011
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Frontovika: Just my thoughts: the OP's title is misleading and rude.

It's insulting for a digital games distributor, especially one as respected as GOG, to be accused of spreading malware.

You've listed valid reasons in your post, but your thread title is an inappropriate attention grab. Perhaps you should reword it to something along the lines of, "Rayman client has malware"

I do not seek to get into an argument, but your thread title is frankly ill-chosen.
It was attention grabbing and a joke. I'm sorry Canada doesn't have jokes.
Posted May 10, 2011
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cogadh: Its more than enough. Ad-based malware are why I also use things like ad blockers, SpyBot and No Script. Like I said, its simple common sense; if you want to keep your system secure without using a resource hogging and often wrong anti-virus, then you need to configure and use your machine securely.
The problem here of course being the ethics of it. Many of the sites I enjoy rely on ad based revenue, and using an adblocker or scriptblocker, though it speeds up loading and reduces risk of infection, also removes the revenue the sites would make from my visit.

And I guess I'm one of the rare breed who actually click on ads occasionally if I run into something interesting.
Posted May 11, 2011
One time I had to load one of the Carmageddon .wav files into a sound editor and reduce the volume by 1% because the virus checker kept claiming that it was infected.

I'm so glad I run Linux 95% of the time these days...
Posted May 11, 2011
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KavazovAngel: Remove Avira and install MSE. ;)
Avira is way better than MSE, so no.....
Posted May 11, 2011
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GameRager: Opinions, opinions everywhere
Facts for newfags....
Posted May 11, 2011
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DrakeFox: The problem here of course being the ethics of it. Many of the sites I enjoy rely on ad based revenue, and using an adblocker or scriptblocker, though it speeds up loading and reduces risk of infection, also removes the revenue the sites would make from my visit.

And I guess I'm one of the rare breed who actually click on ads occasionally if I run into something interesting.
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GameRager: There is no ethics issue involved here....ads are just legalised spam.....companies put ads everywhere these days, so imo cutting them down a bit keeps me from seeing the crap as often...and also if you want to support a site then enable the ads for that site and let the adblockers block the rest.
And save for the few sites which have their own ad systems like Penny Arcade, the security advantage goes right out the window when you do so ;-)
Posted May 13, 2011
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cogadh: Its more than enough. Ad-based malware are why I also use things like ad blockers, SpyBot and No Script. Like I said, its simple common sense; if you want to keep your system secure without using a resource hogging and often wrong anti-virus, then you need to configure and use your machine securely.
You didn't mention adblockers or NoScript in the original post. Yes, those can help eliminate a lot of vulnerabilities, I won't argue that. Still, there's always the risk of some unpatched webhost that you whitelisted earlier getting hacked and sending in a driveby download that way.

If nothing else, having a good AV (i.e., something that doesn't have Norton or McAfee anywhere in the name) at least increases the chances that you'll notice something strange happening. You're not going to get 100% protection regardless of what you do, but the harder you make it for a virus to get on at all, the more likely it gets that at least some tendril of the infection sets off an alarm.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)GOG is a malware site!(38 posts)(38 posts)
(38 posts)