Most people’s first reaction when they get a virus is to download an antivirus program. We recommend exactly the opposite. Virus removal isn’t always easy but we recommend uninstalling any antivirus and get help from a professional or completely wipe out the computer and start fresh. At AK Hawaii we offer remote support to remove viruses at any time. Antivirus, over time, has become one of the biggest online scams in existence. We’ll explain some of the reasons why in layman’s terms at first and then delve into the technical details later for all to understand. To fully grasp the reasons that antivirus doesn’t help, you need to understand how it works. When a hacker creates a virus, it’s generally built from an existing virus. They don’t want to spend the time creating their own unique one. In the past antivirus programs took advantage of this by collecting “signatures”. Signatures are a small unique piece of code that can only be found in that virus. Antivirus programs then build a huge library of signatures and compare them to the files on your computer. There are a lot of problems with this and we’ll go through each one. SPAM AND VIRUSES Sounds ironic right? Why would an antivirus program contain spam or viruses? While most antivirus programs don’t actually contain harmful viruses, there are a few exceptions. Mackeeper and Kaspersky . These two indefinitely contain harmful viruses. Click on each to read articles uncovering them. Other antivirus programs may not contain these really bad viruses, but they do constantly push the user to renew subscriptions, download extra tools and updates, and annoy their users with other popups. This is the definition of adware. Another reason we think it’s not worth the performance hit. “Antivirus is the ultimate back door,” Blake Darché, a former N.S.A. operator and co-founder of Area 1 Security. “It provides consistent, reliable and remote access that can be used for any purpose, from launching a destructive attack to conducting espionage on thousands or even millions of users.” – NY Times PERFORMANCE When an antivirus program has to check all 100,000 – 10,000,000 files on your computer for any matching signatures, plus constantly checking all running programs. It uses up a lot of resources and causes the computer to run very slow. This is another reason users assume they have viruses. The main issue is your write/write rate. Reading through each of those files, especially with a standard hard drive, utilizes 100% of the speed your drive can handle. UNRELIABILITY The problem with using this method to look for viruses means that any new viruses, not in the library, will not be detected and continue to run free on your computer. It also means that a hacker can actually use antivirus on his own computer, scan the virus he’s creating and change the signature to prevent it from being detected. Hackers use what’s called a file-splitter. This turns the virus into thousands of smaller files. On their own they are harmless, but the hacker uses antivirus to scan all of these files and pinpoint which one contains the signature. Then they split again and again until they’ve narrowed down the code to the exact signature. Adding a simple number or letter and the antivirus has no idea. They recombine the files into one and it’s ready for infection. Kyle Dixon Kyle Dixon is currently an IT consultant and tech writer living in Honolulu. He's has worked in the tech field for 15 years as a software and hardware developer and as a cybersecurity research expert.
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