No firewall or anti virus test

[David H]

I just had my laptop disk wiped and as it's old and only really to go online I left the replacement of the old software as the firewall may have crashed it the last time. 2 weeks have passed with no protection and it's running like new. I'd like to have waited a year for full test results but my guess is it may well be just the same a year from now.

If they invade all I do is reinstal Windows as I keep all my data on the PC. My actual question is has anyone else ever 'gone commando' and shown it actually makes no difference in most cases?

[poinsy]

This is not recommended. Not just for your safety, but for others too. Your laptop could easily be used to form part of a DDOS attack, send rogue emails that could dupe some poor folk. Everything you type could be logged and sent to criminals and this does happen.

With the sophisticated trojans, you wouldn't notice, so you wouldn't know to re-install Windows.

But, to answer your actual question - NO.

There was an article in PC Plus recently where a new PC was introduced to the internet, to see how long it took before it was 'probed' - 30 minutes if I recall.

Paul

[David H]

I may reinstall the firewall now... Back in the days when viruses seemed stronger I got the sort that made the computer play up, so that was what I expected. If someone's watching me gossip about trivia they won't learn a lot but it's better to close the doors I suppose just in case.

[Mac70]

Ive just switched off all my security, but for good reason.
I WANT to be infected so I can test the clean up tools I instruct others to use.

[rojash]

As poinsy says, it's easy to get infected and not even know it. Your machine could become part of a bot network and start churning out spam and/or viruses, thus clogging the internet for the rest of us.

Running without a firewall and AV is about as irresponsible as driving a car without insurance.

[popy]

i haven't been using any antivirus programme for a year or so and it all runs smoothly. i do have ad aware and spybot though. for all sort of rubbish i find ccleaner excellent. if one does't go to porn sites it should be fine.
that's my experience anyway.

[abranei]

If your directly connected to the internet then its a death wish!

If your behind a NATed and Firewall Router then you have protection from direct internet attacks but still wide open to the other attack vectors such as email attachments and booby trapped websites to name a couple

With respect just by the fact that you have broke the basic security rules by removing or not installing the AV and SP tools you show your understanding of security.

Without the security tools how do you know your safe until you install them and check that your ok? obviously you can't
because not all threats slow you machine down or pop up windows etc. Many are silent watching and gathering and sending information without you knowing.

Rootkits are evil and pose a virtually undected threat using conventional sec tools. Without knowing what and understanding what a rootkit is then you could be infected and never know it. Industry best practise details a rebuild it required to ensure rootkits are removed for sure.

What about your personal data? You going to change all your passwords, cancel credit cand debit cards each time you think your infected just incase your security information has been recorded?

Is the laptop for work? This poses security questions under the data protection act. Potential loss to clients means law suits against you.

Popy - Adware wont protect you fully and your possible already infected. McAfee has a browser plug in for IE and Firefox that shows ratings for sites who spam and are not to attemp to infect you machines. If you think its just porn sites that you are seriously misguided.

Anybody thinking that the threats are not real then read the Symantec threat reports

[fo3nix]

What firewall and antivirus have you been using?

Install these 3 programs, which come highly recommended:

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2007-Free/300 0-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=d l&tag=top5

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5 #avg-anti-virus-free

http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4 -10653297.html?tag=lst-0-4