From: maxe@who.cares.com

On Tue, 30 Oct 2018 19:30:53 -0200, Shadow  wrote:

>On Tue, 30 Oct 2018 10:16:42 -0500, maxe@who.cares.com wrote:
>
>>I've had it with the pricing and constant intrusion of the newer 
>>AV products.  They've become as bad as the old style firewalls that
>>were always blocking something or asking questions about every
>>keystroke.  I'm thinking of not having any of them on my computer.
>>I'm also thinking that if something goes south with my box because
>>of some malware or other that Acronis True Image will save me by
>>allowing me to load a previous healthy image of my C:
>
>	Yes, it would.

Just in case of a *worst case* scenario I not only keep a True Image
image on the extra partition TI creates on the C:, I also save a
copy to an external drive.

>>
>>My question is about what are my chances of acquiring a virus or
>>some other malware that would lock up my box so that even my Acronis
>>Rescue Disk could not load? 
>
>	Minimal, unless it's some government-sponsored designer
>malware built into the hardware. You will be booting a different OS
>(usually Linux) from an independent media, so a rootkit should not be
>a problem.

I have not counted the number of times Acronis True Image has saved
my machine.  It's done it a lot of times.  Usually, system crashes
are a result of my tinkering around with some badly written
software, or some program that starts a quarrel with something else
on my machine.  

>> Yes, I know such bad stuff is most
>>probably out there, but what are my chances of getting stuck with
>>such a vicious piece of malware?  I operate rather safely.  I
>>haven't had a virus warning for quite a few years from the AV
>>programs I've been using.
>
>	Just scan your system every now and then with a USB or CD
>booted AV rescue disk. Download and burn it on a trusted PC. Pull the
>internet connection before you boot it.

I never thought of doing that with an AV Rescue disk.  I searched
and found an interesting page which lists many of those AV Rescue
disks.

https://www.techsupportall.com/best-bootable-antivirus-rescue-severely-infected-computer/

That's a good idea. Thanks!

>	Practice safe hex. Don't allow javascript for every site, and
>remove Flash and Java from your browser. Don't click on email, Usenet
>etc attachments or unknown executable files without  submitting their
>hashes to Virustotal or Jotti. 

>	Even then a waiting a few days is good, so you won't get a
>zero-day.
>	[]'s

I stopped using Java some years back.

I use Tor a lot for browsing, but it's a bit of a pain at times
because many sites won't work properly with Tor.

I am *very* leery of exe, cmd, bat, etc., etc.  I have a list of
those for my newsreader Agent to kill filter.  As for the Web, I am
going to use VirusTotal if I do download an executable since I won't
have an AV onboard.

I did something today that I didn't think I'd do again.  I
downloaded a firewall.  It's called PrivateFirewall.  I found some
reviews about it and decided to give it a try.  I figured without an
AV, I do need some extra help keeping my comp clean.

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/privatefirewall.html

I knew damn well I didn't want Comodo or any of the other popular
freebies which send  info outbound to their home, so I searched for
something else.  So far, PrivateFirewall is very unintrusive.  I
have it set to "Train" in regard to the programs on my machine that
access Usenet and the Web.  I also have blocked other programs which
have no business trying to connect outbound.

So far, the program is really simple to use - as long as I don't try
to go beyond my understanding of all that packet, udp and tcp stuff.
I figure no matter how stunted my use is of its capabilities, I'll
still be safer with its default settings than not having the program
at all - unless it becomes a pain in the arse.  Then it'll be gone.

Somehow I think I just might be able to survive without those
ridiculously overpriced AV programs, plus the spy suites which send
your online life happenings to their "cloud".

By the way, I have kept my Windows XP firewall active along with
PrivateFirewall.  I checked with GRC's ShieldsUP site and passed the
tests.  I'll have to do some searching around to see if I should
keep the Win XP firewall active or not.

Thanks for helping.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2