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ritual1982
Former Member
Message 1 of 3

i was infected had to reformat

I'm posting this from my windows 7 phone because I no longer trust connecting my computer to the internet if I can help it.  I am a Cox cable customer so received McAfee for free as part of my service.  I kept my computer up to date,  had my internet browser settings almost to the max.  I never downloaded anything and used my computer mostly for reading the news and viewing flash videos like YouTube etc.  I did frequently use my Facebook to post comments to websites like wired.com, Slashdot.org, nbcnews.  I consider myself an advanced computer user in that I do enjoy computer programming she take a paranoid approach to computer security.  I don't know what specifically the infection was doing but I know that it was preventing me from changing settings on my computer,  and was using CPU resources which I could not monitor with traditional tools like the windows resource monitor.  It would lockup the CPU totally every now and then when updates came through either from McAfee or Microsoft. I figured it had to be communicating but network inspection didn't show anything so it was either using its own network driver or was using god knows what else to get around being detected.  I was infected for approximately two months or longer until it annoyed me to the point of reformatting.  McAfee never did detect anything and I must of ran a dozen full scans everytime there was an update.  I have basically lost confidence in McAfee. In the past fifteen years I don't think McAfee has ever detected any infections I have had.  Not anything novel and certainly not anything more advanced then a tracking cookie.  I have installed Microsoft security essentials for the few times I will connect my computer to download updates, etc.  I will use my phone which runs managed code and I hope won't expose me to the same vulnerabilities when browsing.  I don't know how McAfee has been getting away with charging so much for their product. I gave you the benefit of the doubt for a long time but realize everyday another company or website hacked using McAfee that i think it's time we all demand something better then the status quo virus signature crap that doesn't work and never will.  I feel free of McAfee bloatware that just slows you down and gives you a false sense of it actually doing something important but I wanted to come here and give feedback on how mcafee failed to protect my computer.  The only route of infection I was exposed to was with either flash videos or JavaScript.  So I would recommend coming up with something better in that area.  In fact you should probably lobby for JavaScript and flash to be banned because they seem to be responsible for ninety percent of all exploits.  Good luck in the future.  ex mcafee user.

2 Replies
spc3rd
Former Member
Message 2 of 3

Re: i was infected had to reformat

Hi ritual1982 and welcome to the McAfee Community Forums,

I'm sorry to hear of the major problems you've experienced with your McAfee program.  (I myself am a Cox Internet customer too).

Until perhaps some of our more enlightened/knowledgeable forum members and Moderators can stop by to review your post,  I would just venture to say that from reading your post...you certainly appear to be quite knowledgeable and "attuned" to the ins and outs of computer security issues.  That being said, we both know that there is no AV or other security product on the market that will be 100% effective at catching all malware infections...unfortunately.

One observation I note is you didn't indicate whether or not you have tried supplementing your AV with an anti-malware program, such as Malwarebytes or SAS.  I've had my share of infections get past McAfee, but subsequently found that regularly using a good antimalware program in conjunction with a good AV has dramatically reduced incidents of malware infection for me.  (In the past 12 months, I have only encountered one - - a Sirefef trojan).

Hope you are able to find an effective program or combination of programs to resolve the issues you have experienced!

Regards,

ritual1982
Former Member
Message 3 of 3

Re: i was infected had to reformat

I am  sick and tired of excuses about no anti virus can ever stop all of them.  If a company is pushing that as its mantra its already lost.  Computers are machines and they do what ww tell them.  I'm not an expert by any means but I am far from a novice.  I had McAfee settings at a higher security level then comes as default.  But that doesn't do anything when if you want to watch a streaming video you are just as vulnerable then the guy that has no security.  McAfee doesn't have any protection against exploits in say someone trying to remotely exploit me with a malicious flash video stream.  I can either not watch videos on the internet, or I can watch them and be exposed. A billion dollar company like McAfee should have the flash code dissassembled into timbuktoo by now and have scans for video files that do not conform to nice behavior.  In fact they should have a scanner that does that for every file or network packet I come into contact with.  virus,s all have things in common like they all want to hide,  communicate with badguys,  listen for keystrokes.  McAfee they should have itself so far up my computers ass that it alerts me when software even thinks about doing something naughty.  But the best they can come up with is some weak ass signature file that looks for virus,s that have been found the months and years before, probably submitted by some fag hacker for a little extra cash. with all the money mcafee has, they should have their own operating system.  mcafee total security should not be a firewall and anti virus program,  it should be a total rewrite of windows or Linux. Anything less they are doing as little as possible trying to get the most money.  Thank you for the reply though. 

Message was edited by: ritual1982 on 8/3/12 4:04:22 PM CDT
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