Vista - Poll: Do you think you do not need antimalware protection?

My Take:

You have to be pretty naive to think you can run without any kind of antimalware program. It's not the obvious infections that you need be worried about-keystroke loggers, rootkits, and trojans are some of the nastier ones that will compromise everything on your computer. Even some tracking cookies these days are notorious malware that track everything you do, everywhere you go and store it on some remote server on the other side of the world, and if you are unlucky enough to have a keystoke logger, your passwords, log-ins, and account numbers are stored as well. The worst kinds of malware are the kind that dont give themselves away with things such as browser hijacking/pop ups/ high cpu usage, etc.
For those who dont use antimalware programs I hope you dont do online banking, Use your credit/Debit card for online purchases, or store tax returns on your systems. Otherwise you may one day discover that Your SSN and credit card info is being traded on the black Market for pennies on the dollar. You are also the ones that cause denial of service attacks on legitiment sites, and spew out spam to the rest of us.
Only the most naive and misinformed people without basic computing/Internet knowledge think they are safe without using antivirus/antimalware programs on their systems. "As long as I am careful where I surf, I am safe from viruses and malware" Is flawed logic, and a recipe for disaster. Especially In this day and age, when it is so easy to hack the code of sites such as yahoo and Facebook, insert malware into the site links, and even spoof Bank sites.



Are you really sure your system is clean? Run the online Scanner (takes less than 10 Min., and no download is required. Free scanner/cleaner) Esset's NOD32 http://www.eset.eu/online-scanner

I consider myself a safe surfer but I wouldn't dream of running without an anti virus program plus a firewall and antispyware removal software.

The first thing I do when I either install or reinstall is check if my firewall is running and install antivirus and antimalware programs before I even connect to the internet.