View Full Version : Viruses the money maker
fdrake
March 5th, 2007, 09:12 AM
i was thinking why Linux users don't have many problems with viruses and spywares like windows users do. i am not a computer specialist but it came to me a funny comparison with the medicine today. if today there wasn't any disease probably all the pharmaceutical industry would be gone, and with the knowledge and technology we have today it should have cure almost everything. instead not, new diseases came and spread among us like HIV, birth flue etc giving at the medicine a primary role in our society. Same thing with the viruses with the exception of Linux. Why? well i thought all the Linux user make use of open source and free programs therefore it wouldn't be of any use for a company to support that os in the development of their antivirus. At the end we find this, the cheapest one is the more secure. why??? I know that the linux community has great programmers and developers that support the os but still i don't get it. i don't want to insinuate anything but i think that antivirus companies are and are going to make a lot of money out of this.
tubasoldier
March 5th, 2007, 09:15 AM
I too have often wondered about this virus conspiracy.
What if the major viruses that were released that were supposed to end the world were actually released by MS? WTF, who would ever think they would do something like that to their customers?
What if most viruses were just non-malignant code that ran in the background but was still classified as a "virus". Interesting.
nick.inspiron6400
March 5th, 2007, 09:33 AM
I think there will be more viruses for Windows, and Microsoft will make millions out of it. Have you heard of the 2038 problem??? What if that is done by Microsoft???
fdrake
March 5th, 2007, 09:37 AM
what's the 2038 problem??:confused:
Orval
March 5th, 2007, 04:49 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
Orval
March 5th, 2007, 04:57 PM
http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/07feb/uf010026.gif
ardchoille42
March 5th, 2007, 08:33 PM
i was thinking why Linux users don't have many problems with viruses and spywares like windows users do. i am not a computer specialist but it came to me a funny comparison with the medicine today. if today there wasn't any disease probably all the pharmaceutical industry would be gone, and with the knowledge and technology we have today it should have cure almost everything. instead not, new diseases came and spread among us like HIV, birth flue etc giving at the medicine a primary role in our society. Same thing with the viruses with the exception of Linux. Why? well i thought all the Linux user make use of open source and free programs therefore it wouldn't be of any use for a company to support that os in the development of their antivirus. At the end we find this, the cheapest one is the more secure. why??? I know that the linux community has great programmers and developers that support the os but still i don't get it. i don't want to insinuate anything but i think that antivirus companies are and are going to make a lot of money out of this.
I finished four years of medical school and then dropped out as I couldn't morally continue. One of the things they taught us was if doctors wanted to continue to enjoy a nice rich lifestyle, the best way to do that is to make sure your patients come to see you. And, the best way to do that is to make sure they are just healthy enough to pacify them, but not healthy enough to keep them from coming back - and don't teach them how to care for themselves. Hard to believe, but true.
I think viruses are the same way. What better way for the antivirus companies to guarantee their livelihood than to write and distribute viruses?
Viruses on Linux are a waste of time to write due to the way Linux is built and the root vs user model Linux uses. The ratio of viruses in Linux compared to Windows has nothing to do with how popular each of those operating systems is. Sometimes, in Windows, all you have to do is click a link in IE and a virus or worm can be launched. Most of the time in Linux, running a virus requires the user to download the virus, save it, mark it executable, and then run it. And even then if it is run as a normal user, it won't damage the system - you would need to run it with root privs to do that. Another hurdle for virus writers in Linux is the fact that most people who use Linux end up learning so much about their systems that they are knowlegable enough to never run strange files as root.
Writing a virus for Linux is simply a waste of time, this is why you don't see viruses much, if at all, in Linux.
aysiu
March 5th, 2007, 08:38 PM
Well, Microsoft didn't really get into the anti-virus business until recently, as far as I know.
So I don't think Microsoft is creating the viruses.
But could Norton or McAfee be creating viruses? Sure. Why wouldn't they? Or at least allow them to continue when they could be stopped.
By the way, since this is more of a discussion thread than a support thread, I've moved it to the Cafe.
hikaricore
March 5th, 2007, 08:59 PM
This is the kinda crap people come up with when they watch The X-Files while smoking a very large rock of ICE. Go get some sleep you pookers. For real.
FuturePilot
March 5th, 2007, 10:09 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
Oh, great, Y2K all over again:-?
Watch, nothing will happen....
agurk
March 5th, 2007, 11:53 PM
Writing a virus for Linux is simply a waste of time, this is why you don't see viruses much, if at all, in Linux.
I'm not convinced. Slipping some nastiness into a "latest Beryl Dapper svn build" and posting it on some forum for unsuspecting users to download and execute wouldn't be too difficult, e.g. if you wanted to set yourself up an FTP on someone else's pipe.
Promiscuity, bad security practices, naivety, whatever you want to call it, it someday will bite.
On Windows, in addition to my firewall, I run Spybot Search & Destroy, the monthly Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and the occasional virus scan. Granted, the Windows environment might be more prone to infections, but it also has an infrastructure in place to deal with malicious code floating around.
Now, how do I make sure no keylogger has slipped into my Linux system?
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.2 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.