Originally Posted by mcpatchy

Norton antivirus ftw!

Originally Posted by Seire

a) It's essentially IMPOSSIBLE to be safe from anything. I'm deeply involved in cyber security; I know. Most consumer software is signature-based. Signatures are based on what's already out there and discovered. You can be infected by something undiscovered. It's that simple. Consumer malware protection is reactive, no proactive.

b) If you want a solid combo that will mitigate somewhat successfully, you need a trio of the following:
- BitDefender or Kaspersky 7 (not 8!) - these are the most comprehensive and least intrusive, as well as the least consuming on computer resources. Kaspersky 8 is simply terrible. Run quick scans whenever you want. Full scans weekly or monthly.
- a-squared Hijack Free - this is a great FREE program. It lists what's up with your computer, what it finds to be strange, and then you can look it up and verify if things are in fact wrong, then quarantine them.
- CCleaner - just a solid solid app to remove old temp files and potential malware that's poorly written. Run everyday before you shut down.

c) Ensure you're running the latest version of whichever web browser you use. I personally use Firefox.

FYI, that's the trio I use. I've been virus free for a LONG time. No issues here.

(I'm saying this is the most ultimate way to keep your virus safe in the entire universe. If the people can break into government computers that have layers upon layers of intrusion detection and malware detection systems, they can also break into yours. The trio I recommend is just to protect your machine from the daily, general crap out there.)

Hope that helps!