Symantec Claims 80% of all gamers are Infected by malware

[zekrahminator]

Or, at least 80% of all gamers that attended DreamHack Summer 2007. Symantec went around the LAN party, and found that 80% of all gamers there were either infected by malware, or previously had been infected by malware. Symantec claims that the reason the infection rate among hardcore gamers is so high is quite simple. When gamers start practicing/gaming, they turn off their anti-virus programs in order to maximize performance. While this makes sense during the game, as the risk for getting infected while playing a game is very low, most gamers neglect to re-activate the protection of a good anti-virus program.

Symantec claims that with their Norton 360 software, there is no need to worry about this, as their anti-virus solution is designed to encumber performance as little as possible while still providing optimal protection.

Source: Nordic Hardware (http://www.nordichardware.com/news,6552.html)

[wazzledoozle]

I bet they counted tracking cookies as "malware". :rolleyes:

[zekrahminator]

:laugh: If tracking cookies were malware, I'd be up to my eyeballs in spyware :p.

[Jonnycat]

I bet they counted tracking cookies as "malware". :rolleyes:

Hehe, that is exactly what I was thinking.

[Cuzza]

http://xs317.xs.to/xs317/07273/malware.jpg

[MarcusTaz]

"Symantec claims that with their Norton 360 software, there is no need to worry about this, as their anti-virus solution is designed to encumber performance as little as possible while still providing optimal protection."

Norton not use up resources?? Common what a joke... I use avast free verison any day over that bloatware....

[WarEagleAU]

I was going to say the same thing Wazz.

[DaMulta]

I haven't ran any kind of virus destroyer on my system in a few years. I have found them pointless with smart Internet practices

[MarcusTaz]

I haven't ran any kind of virus destroyer on my system in a few years. I have found them pointless with smart Internet practices


very true, since my last reinstall of vista I have not reinstalled avast. But the home edition for free is a good product...

[OnBoard]

Kaspersky is nice in that it doesn't try to update signatures while processor usage is high. Nothing worse than some update kicking in while playing on net :) And don't mind it taking 5megs of memory and games run fine. Everything else (programs) is on manual update or program start. *scanning for those 5 "malwares" I usually find what wazzledoozle mentioned* :)

edit: oh noes, 54 infections found! (54 tracking cookies).

[tkpenalty]

well i reinstalled zone alarm and I only had gamespy being detected as spyware... that was it. Nice try norton but we enthusiasts are different to those so called "Gamers" who have dells, HP, etc preloaded with crap.

[FOXCONN1115]

well said TK. couldn't have nailed it on the head any better myself

[tkpenalty]

Also, upon installing antiviruses, games froze all the time, not because of my PSU, crappy boxes popped up and then next thing i knew when i was back I had failed a quest I spent an hour on.

[Frederik S]

Norton is the worst Anti virus for a gamer its memory footprint is huge and it uses resources all the time when you write to a disk. McAfee Enterprise versions on the other hand is the way to go minimal memory usage and customizable scanning technique. The only problem with it is that it is for advanced users only.

[Ketxxx]

I use AVG free edition, kicks the crap out of that bloatware known as symmantec. AVG also happens to do a much better job than symmantech for free, it would seem irony isnt without a sence of humor, something free doing a far better job than something you have to pay for :D

[HellasVagabond]

Symantec ? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha......Should i say more ? :P

[little geek]

i use zonealarm pro i dont bother with antivirus simply because noone else uses my machine and i only go on sites that are safe if theyre not safe i i use my mums pc instead but if i do ge a virus i just format as all my games and stuff are on seperate drives

[hotrippr]

AVG Free+ spybot S&D+CrapCleaner+Panda free online scan+Outpost firewall=clean. ZA was good but now is meh. I use the emule and get malicious files all the time and havent been infected in years since my protection setup. I like the AVG messages in Gmail on attatchments it lets me know that it is a virus or not, have been happy with AVG for a few years now. Symantic is for the masses. I got a virus with symantec along time ago I used AVG to find it and kill it. I would say you need to have at least 2 solutions one on your machine and a DIFFERENT on line scan to cross reference any missing virus from a companys db.

[mrmonk]

hi I use these guides as to determine which software is good at protecting your pc .

They update they site every month.

http://anti-spyware-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

http://personal-firewall-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

[15th Warlock]

I bet they counted tracking cookies as "malware". :rolleyes:

qft :toast:

[Grings]

Symantec have actually made a lot of changes so it dosent guzzle resources anymore, seems this thread is evidence that once you (as a company) get a bad name for whatever reason, it can take a good while to lose it again, and no i dont use norton, i use avg, its just that ive read a few write ups on the new norton(or 360, or whatever they call it now) saying it has one of the LOWEST resource overheads of current a/v products

[tigger]

nod32 here,seems ok

[waspman3]

Since I work on software related issues for friends and I see they have Norton I just shake my head and continue to uninstall and get them Avast.The only problem with Avast is the scanner is sloooooow.But other than that pretty descent.As for spyware related issures I use XOFTSPY SE.Very quick and thorough.Takes less than 5 minutes to scan 140,000 pieces(files)and in some cases will find viruses.Very good program!!So far not too impressed with the AD-AWARE 2007 free edition,maybe Im just not use to it yet. WASPMAN

Would NEVER SUGGEST anyone to get Norton!!

[Tau]

Or, at least 80% of all gamers that attended DreamHack Summer 2007. Symantec went around the LAN party, and found that 80% of all gamers there were either infected by malware, or previously had been infected by malware. Symantec claims that the reason the infection rate among hardcore gamers is so high is quite simple. When gamers start practicing/gaming, they turn off their anti-virus programs in order to maximize performance. While this makes sense during the game, as the risk for getting infected while playing a game is very low, most gamers neglect to re-activate the protection of a good anti-virus program.

Symantec claims that with their Norton 360 software, there is no need to worry about this, as their anti-virus solution is designed to encumber performance as little as possible while still providing optimal protection.

Source: Nordic Hardware (http://www.nordichardware.com/news,6552.html)


To bad they dont have any worthwhile software isent it?

I find that hard to beleave though.

On the other hand if i was using Norton anything i would turn it off before doing anything anyways :laugh:

[demonbrawn]

Using Symantec = :nutkick:

[Darkrealms]

Norton = bloatware (Hostoricly proven)

I 4th or 5th the cookies really don't count.

Hardcore gamers . . . ofcourse most of them have something weird that has been on their system, we are always trying mods and tweaks. From my experience the more hardcore the more likely the system is formated/reinstalled at least twice a year do to new tweak attempts, hardware updates, etc. Chances are of the hardcore people there a third of them had fairly fresh systems.

[HellasVagabond]

I have yet to find a tweak that has a malware.....BUT Hardcore gamers usually are HardCore Internet Users who always try to find....Ways to make....Free purchases....And thats how malware mostly get onto ones computer. ;)

[Darkrealms]

I have yet to find a tweak that has a malware.....BUT Hardcore gamers usually are HardCore Internet Users who always try to find....Ways to make....Free purchases....And thats how malware mostly get onto ones computer. ;)

I've had a mod or two show up on a virus scanner before, don't remember what it modified but it wasn't really malware.