Operating Without An Anti-Virus Program....?

[m***@who.cares.com]

I've had it with the pricing and constant intrusion of the newer
AV products. They've become as bad as the old style firewalls that
were always blocking something or asking questions about every
keystroke. I'm thinking of not having any of them on my computer.
I'm also thinking that if something goes south with my box because
of some malware or other that Acronis True Image will save me by
allowing me to load a previous healthy image of my C:

My question is about what are my chances of acquiring a virus or
some other malware that would lock up my box so that even my Acronis
Rescue Disk could not load? Yes, I know such bad stuff is most
probably out there, but what are my chances of getting stuck with
such a vicious piece of malware? I operate rather safely. I
haven't had a virus warning for quite a few years from the AV
programs I've been using.

[Shadow]

Post by m***@who.cares.com
I've had it with the pricing and constant intrusion of the newer
AV products. They've become as bad as the old style firewalls that
were always blocking something or asking questions about every
keystroke. I'm thinking of not having any of them on my computer.
I'm also thinking that if something goes south with my box because
of some malware or other that Acronis True Image will save me by

Yes, it would.

Post by m***@who.cares.com
My question is about what are my chances of acquiring a virus or
some other malware that would lock up my box so that even my Acronis
Rescue Disk could not load?

Minimal, unless it's some government-sponsored designer
malware built into the hardware. You will be booting a different OS
(usually Linux) from an independent media, so a rootkit should not be
a problem.

Post by m***@who.cares.com
Yes, I know such bad stuff is most
probably out there, but what are my chances of getting stuck with
such a vicious piece of malware? I operate rather safely. I
haven't had a virus warning for quite a few years from the AV
programs I've been using.

Just scan your system every now and then with a USB or CD
booted AV rescue disk. Download and burn it on a trusted PC. Pull the
internet connection before you boot it.
Practice safe hex. Don't allow javascript for every site, and
remove Flash and Java from your browser. Don't click on email, Usenet
etc attachments or unknown executable files without submitting their
hashes to Virustotal or Jotti.
Even then a waiting a few days is good, so you won't get a
zero-day.
[]'s