Microsoft Spreads Virus by Accident

[Jerry Jones]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111910,00.html

[Dr Mordrid]

Of course some would reply that Windows itself is a virus

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

I've had a couple of hackers attempt to install backdoor Trojans which look like Microsoft files recently. These have names starting ms....exe and install themselves either in C:\windows (\winnt) or in ...\system32. One of them was mssg.exe and there was another with something like msfhp.exe (I don't remember exactly and I've got rid of all trace of them). Happily, NAV detected them before they were installed and I've installed a personal firewall which has successfully stopped all hacker activity (from Spain and S. Korea). Both of them have apparently been systematically scanning all the IP numbers allocated to my ISP (the biggest in Cyprus) every few seconds and trying to get into anyone they can do. I've a coupla friends who did have at least one backdoor Trojan installed. Every time they go on line, the hacker is informed and can start his dirty work immediately. I'm told that they are not apparently doing any damage, so they are probably just reading all your confidential files! If they are installed, it requires some registry editing to eliminate them.]

Why doesn't everyone use anti-virus software?

[Technoid]

Originally posted by Brian Ellis

Why doesn't everyone use anti-virus software?

Could it be because the general computer population don't think it will happen to them?

Or that they belive that it only happens if you dont run scandisk and defrag more than once every year....