Users find 100% guaranteed fix for infected systems

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/12154785.htm

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Tucker, an Internet industry executive with a doctorate in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.

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The number of viruses has more than doubled in just the last six months, while the number of adware and spyware programs has approximately quadrupled during the same period, said Vincent Weafer, a senior director at Symantec, which makes the Norton computer security programs.

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Of course this does not prevent them from getting their new machines infected.

Seems like there may be an interesting business opportunity to take these infected PC's off their hands, fix them and donate them or even resell them.

LMFAO..
But he is right.. Depending on salary, it might be more efficient to just buy a new computer.. But make that a MacMini ;)

MS and lower TCO my ASS !!

And for people that dislike loging in for star-telegram (or something) here's a better link http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24690

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Originally posted here by ams2d

Seems like there may be an interesting business opportunity to take these infected PC's off their hands, fix them and donate them or even resell them.

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I agree, if you got thigns going good you could make a lot of money. Or donate some to a foundation or a school

I didn't RTFA... but.

Um... call me stupid... but even if you get a new machine.. you still have to configure it and install/uninstall software for your environment. That takes time. Time costs $$. So, add that to the cost of the new computer.

Now... some sort of imaging solution for this would work well (ghost, etc.). Why not just have good images and just reimage the box when/if they become infected?

I think prevention would be a better solution to spend $ on?

If a worm gets loose on his network then he is going to replace ALL computers that are affected by said worm? A case of DNS poisioning and unpatched browsers can infect all his machines with spwyare... (that try to visit a common site(s) ) again... replace ALL workstations?

Its been months since I've had to remove any spyware on boxes... thanks to group policy, blackhole dns, web filtering proxy and windows update services and up2date antivirus.

Replacing the whole computer because it gets infected is the most retarded thing I think I've heard... But then again... I don't have my PhD. They don't pay me that much to start with... so it doesn't cost much to remove. ;)

I think it's just a parody

Parody?

You could be right, it has been picked up by several media outlets. But reading the apparent source article from the NY Times (sorry another subscribing link) gives several more examples of individuals and I tend to believe it is legit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/te...u23l8AulTaIvtg

I agree the time and effort to fix it yourself (or better yet take steps before hand to make sure you don't need to waste your time) is in most cases far cheaper. The NY Times article did mentioned someone that did do something along those lines.

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Buying a new computer is not always an antidote. Bora Ozturk, 33, who manages bank branches in San Francisco, bought a $900 Hewlett-Packard computer last year only to have it nearly paralyzed three months ago with infections that he believes he got from visiting Turkish news sites.

He debated throwing the PC out, but it had pictures of his newborn son and all of his music files. He decided to fix it himself, spending 15 hours learning what to do, then saving all his pictures and music to a disk and then wiping the hard drive clean - the equivalent of starting over.

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The prices of PC have gotten in a sense like VCRs ... it's cheaper to buy a new (and probably improved) model than fix the current "older" one.

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Microsoft executives say they decided to enter the anti-spyware business earlier this year after realizing the extent of the problem.

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My version:

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Microsoft executives say they decided to enter the anti-spyware business earlier this year after realizing the majority of the problems were linked to Microsoft Windows.

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sorry another subscribing link

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http://bugmenot.com/

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Now... some sort of imaging solution for this would work well (ghost, etc.). Why not just have good images and just reimage the box when/if they become infected?

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Excellent suggestion! :)

I still don't see how getting a new PC gets you round the problem of transferring all your data and applications?

And if you don't have anything worthwhile that you haven't ghosted/saved why not just reformat & reinstall.................it would be a lot quicker than getting out the automobile and going down to the store to buy a new one.

In a commercial environment your important stuff should be stored on a server NOT locally and there should be "reference" or "standard" builds that you just mirror onto the affected machine.

And this guy is an IT executive with a PhD in IT?......................he must have found it in a box of cornflakes :D

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Originally posted here by jinxy
http://bugmenot.com/

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You can also access the NYTimes with cypherpunk/cypherpunk

Thank you, Slashdot community.

http://bugmenot.com/view.php?url=htt...barclays.co.uk hahahaha thought i would give it a try to see what it would say, no malicious intent though, just curiosity (killed the cat)

If it isn't a parody, then it's just completely retarded. Exactly as phish said:

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Replacing the whole computer because it gets infected is the most retarded thing I think I've heard

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No need to even defend it.....it's just blatently obvious that it's far cheaper to secure and maintain existing computers than to replace them each time they become infected. This along with the fact that I got a kick out of it is why I initially assumed it must be a joke.

Keezel,

I agree it is stupid for these people to toss their computers just because they were not smart enough to take steps to prevent it from happening in the first place. I wasn't defending it, just providing the one example that the showed someone tried to do the right thing and the full article as evidence that it's not a parody.

The title of the thread may have made it seem like a joke but unfortunately it's not. I couldn't believe it when I read it on Sunday and knew people here would be suprised as well.

Someone on the Times message board basically said that computer companies should join the spam/virus bandwagon given how naive people are.

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I agree it is stupid for these people to toss their computers just because they were not smart enough to take steps to prevent it from happening in the first place.

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very good point..

Try this.. when the profit in computer sales (or should I say lack of) prevented me form configuring customers new pc's before they left the shop.. I resorted to a CD with some common tools and a mini booklet (A4 page folded in half) with instruction on keeping the Windows OS uptodate, the antivirus defs uptodate, the use of the Adware prevention and scanning progs. A few Cautionary notes, and a brief overview of email safety..

I can almost predict how many hours that cd and sheet of paper survived out of the WPB.. in 90% of cases the pair were in the bin 30seconds after the pc got home..
HAd one of these people become abusive because Virus removal is not covered by warranty.. and the cost was more than his monthly payment for the PC.. real financial intelligence.. Leased the PC for home use.. . geez..

what people are getting are Appliance PC's.. easy to use (?) disposable, and non configurable ..oh yes non geeky.. .

the less they need to think the better.. Why has TV remained so popular? because you dont need a brain to watch it..
And that is what many want from their PC's

More and more people who come into my shop say "I think I should go buy a new one." The worst is when they say that about a 8000 series dell dimmesion that could be running well if it was clean, but they will go off and buy a new 2000 series which has a POS celeron in it.

Can some one point me to the dumpster people put their old computers in because at this rate I could be getting free computers for the rest of my life

Let's start a computer liberation front..


Save these poor puters from the dumpster :D

Yeah, where do I sign up! I could make tons of money fixing computers that people throw away either restoring them or cleaning off the malware and such. :-D