Just when you thought it was safe to surf the internet. . .

[Jim Wynne]

James,
I'm taking it, you are either a programmer or you dabble?
What rogue codes have you found the most difficult to deal with?
Wallace.

I have training in programming (BASIC, COBOL, RPG, etc.) and worked in IT many moons ago when it was still called data processing, but I didn't stay at it for very long. To be honest, my interest in malware is keeping it away from me, so I don't have many stories to tell, other than helping friends and coworkers clean up their infected machines. I did battle with a nasty variant of Klez not too long ago, and was surprised that it was still around.

 

[wmarhel]

In almost every case, the "rogue code" is disclosed in the license agreements that hardly anyone ever reads before installing free software.

That's true, even download.com warns of potential "additions" that may be placed on the user's 'puter during the installation process. In some cases, deleting these little extras would cause the main program to stop functioning.

There used to be a little set of programs back in the day when people actually used DOS called "Nowhere Man Utilities" that could assist in the hiding or virii or helping to fool the unsuspecting user. One of the little tools would generate some fake files in order to make the virus look like a complete piece of software or modify the program to appear bigger than it really was, after all, who would believe that a game was only a few kilobytes large with the exception of some AOL users.

In most cases, a little common sense and a little bit of caution will go much farther in keeping your files safe than any software package out there. All too often computer users trust in their anti-virus/spyware programs to keep them safe, but most of them (unless they have a really good heuristics ability, or the virus creator is really poor and just modified a few lines of the code) won't identify the problem until after it has been in released into the wild, or the virus writer decided to brag on some bulletin board about his latest creation to bring down the "Net".

Wayne

 

[Jim Wynne]

In most cases, a little common sense and a little bit of caution will go much farther in keeping your files safe than any software package out there. All too often computer users trust in their anti-virus/spyware programs to keep them safe, but most of them (unless they have a really good heuristics ability, or the virus creator is really poor and just modified a few lines of the code) won't identify the problem until after it has been in released into the wild, or the virus writer decided to brag on some bulletin board about his latest creation to bring down the "Net".

Yes. There's always that window of vulnerability between the time malware gets released and when the AV people devise and disseminate new definitions for it. And personsal caution is the only real protection in such instances.