Computer Malware Issues

[greengoose1]

I have been thinking, reading, and studying about the subject of Malware and all the problems it has caused, is causing, and will cause for the forseeable future.

The government is concerned, criminal activity is increasing, online sales are affected, magazines, newspapers. and other media dicuss this incessantly. I see figures that indicate fully 80 or more percent of the computers being used have a malware infection of some kind.

VirDr and many many other forums, computer magazines as well as other publications try to deal with it.

It has become an economic windfall for many. More and more malware defense types of programs are selling at $49.95 and more. (Thank goodness for the free programs for us little people.)

But (there is always a but is there not? ) I want to make all aware that there is a small segment of computer users that have no problems. Some of these people have posted on this subject before at VirDr.

These computers users have taken a personal responsibility to take certain steps to protect their computers. And they have been very succeessful at it. They have saved themslves quite a bit of money in the doing thereof. There is nothing hard about it.

And I think it is time to try and find the solution to this as Malware is a threat to the IT industry.

But my question is this.

How can we get this message out so the average computer user will respond, and start doing these things that this small successful segment of computer users have done and are doing?

[fink]

How indeed.

It's now such a huge issue I'm sure most computer users are quite familiar with it. They are aware of the problem but they aren't aware of the solution(s).

To get the many to do what the few have done would take a massive and very expensive campaign of promo and advertising to let them know how to protect their computers. People who come here are already proactive and trying to fix their computers so we need to get out past the help forum domain to the world beyond and that's not cheap since we have to go to them instead of waiting for them to come to us.


I read a stat the other day that over 20% of computer users have curtailed their online time because of spyware and spam problems. That's massive. It's not like it's a hidden problem... everyone knows about it so you have to assume they would want to try and solve it but most don't until it's almost too late or is too late.

Why? I don't know. Seems many just live with the popups, crashes and slowdowns until it gets so bad they can barely get on line then they try and fix it when it's been compounded by more than one problem.

Perhaps a better and more effective alternative would be to get the software manufacturers (read: Microsoft) to fix the holes so they can't so easily be exploited by the scum who make these unending malware programs.

How would we do that? By not spending money. That's the only thing that motivates. Once it gets so bad that even more than 20 percent of PC users curtail their activities, meaning spending not only less time but less money on computer related goods then perhaps we'll see a change in the attitude of MS towards thier customers security and they'll stop just making or offering patches and stop-gap utilties and go to the root of the problem which is their shoddy programming.

[Train]

How indeed:
1. For most folks it ain't sexy to protect their computers, it looks like maintenance and that is a wasted time as far as most people are concerned.
Why they could be clicking through a few dozen links in the same time frame.

Took a young man 3 times of restoring his computer until he realized what it is he needed to do. That was right after it sunk in I was not having any of those problems on my 3 computers. OK, so I took him in hand. Yep, having to educate the guy.

[HAN]

Good question... but I can't think of any real solutions. Microsoft certainly bears responsibility in this situation. But that said, the average user needs to take some responsibility too. As Train notes, most people around users like us think we're nuts when we worry about slimeware.

The only semi-motivating thing I've seen is when users have to cough up $$$ to get their machines cleaned out. But even then, many think they shouldn't have to stay vigilant for the future... (How wrong they are!)