Smashboards can't give you viruses, correct?

[The_Altrox]

So my mother is watching 60 minutes, and one discussion is on Malware virus, and my mother is afraid our computer will get it, and she says "You should stop going to your Smashboards and GameFAQs websites, because they said on 60 minutes that gaming websites give you viruses even when you don't download anything."
I tried to explain that these websites are forums. not gaming websites, and that the boards would be more dead if rampant viruses existed, and she's all "YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!!!"
so, correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't get infected by this board, correct?

 

[AltF4]

It is possible to get malware (aka viruses, etc...) from certain advertisements. However, rest assured that the Smashboards and MLG do not have any such ads. And even then, your chances are pretty low of being infected. Those kinds of things are just 0-day attacks on flash usually.

If you really want to be paranoid, you can download a firefox add-on called NoScript:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

It will block any active content (aka scripts) that potentially give you viruses. It's a good add-on.


That said, the majority of viruses you'll get are from you downloading something you shouldn't. Not jsut from browsing web pages. You're safe, don't you worry.

 

[The_Altrox]

It is possible to get malware (aka viruses, etc...) from certain advertisements. However, rest assured that the Smashboards and MLG do not have any such ads. And even then, your chances are pretty low of being infected. Those kinds of things are just 0-day attacks on flash usually.

If you really want to be paranoid, you can download a firefox add-on called NoScript:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

It will block any active content (aka scripts) that potentially give you viruses. It's a good add-on.


That said, the majority of viruses you'll get are from you downloading something you shouldn't. Not jsut from browsing web pages. You're safe, don't you worry.

That's what I thought. Thanks. Now if you could just come over and explain this to the female parental unit, everything would be perfect, because she stopped listening to me.

 

[noradseven]

That's what I thought. Thanks. Now if you could just come over and explain this to the female parental unit, everything would be perfect, because she stopped listening to me.

Heh I should show your mom a whole bunch of crazy stuff like the laptop batteries being able exploded by hackers due to an exploit in one version model.

And who cares if you get a virus just get malwarebytes and run it every so often.

Also get the script above it makes it impossible to get a virus from sites like these.

Also if your parents are that freaked they can always get a mac, or linux (NOT FOR COMPUTER ILLITERATE *unless its preinstalled).

 

[meta master]

since we're on the topic of security: i would recommend Ad-Block Plus. check our freeware board for some anti virus/malaware links

 

[Big Sean]

Interestingly if your afraid of a certain site try to enter them through google. When google uses their spiders to scan the internet they often get viruses. If a website gets a virus through one of these scans then google will let you know about it before you attempt to enter the site.

 

[eman]

There's no way you could get a malware virus from this site, not unless someone post's a bad link up or something. I only get malware if I'm downloading stuff...