Myspace and Antivirus 2009

When it rains it pours. This post follows-up to this one.

Getting Rid of Antivirus 2009 – Antivirus 2008
http://smartergeekcom.wpengine.com/blog/2008/12/antivirus-2009-is-actually-spyware-or.asp

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From Email
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im so aggravated at this thing all i do is check my yahoo mail and talk to my niece on yahoo messenger

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My Response
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As I told you yesterday via email and on the phone, I will be glad to help you fix it. I realize that you just want to check your email; however, when other people use the computer, typically they will do more than just check email. If something unintentional happens, then your email checking suffers the consequences.

We can put some systems in place to help prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future. However, I can’t change the behavior of the people using the computer – except to warn you of the consequences.

Myspace.com itself is not evil (in a tech sense). It has great social networking value. What happens though is that malicious content gets inadvertently posted on someone’s profile page.

People (teenagers and adults) add anything and everything that looks silly to their profile pages, and then Myspace users just click at any “jumping monkey” on the screen. That’s where the problem lies – in the behavior of users.

*85% of Myspace users are 18 yrs or older.

source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/01/09/social-network-stats-facebook-myspace-reunion-jan-2008/

Fortunately for me, that sort of behavior keeps me in business even though I am an evangelist for responsible behavior. As people screw up their computers, I get paid to fix them and warn them.

Please review the following links:

Why did I get infected in the first place?
http://smartergeekcom.wpengine.com/blog/2008/07/why-did-i-get-infected-in-first-place.asp

Layered Security Basics
http://smartergeekcom.wpengine.com/blog/2008/03/layered-security-basics.asp