Wednesday, 23 May, 2007 Offbeat

Most people want to download malware to test their anti-virus software. There are website where you can download malware samples, or virus simulators like the Trojan Simulator here. You can also check out this website.

However, there are websites that on purpose provide viruses users can download. These sites are intended mainly to help professionals and enthusiasts and ordinary users should avoid them.Nevertheless, if you want to know one of such websites, then check out the Malware Domain List. BE CAREFUL: All domains on the site must be considered dangerous, since they include real malware and not samples.

Computer expert put an advertisement on the Internet offering a free computer virus for everyone willing to have one.

Didier Stevens from Helsinki ran his advertising campaign on Google Adwords for half of the year. As a result of his campaign 409 people clicked on the ad, that said: "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!"

It is important for an antivirus to be easy to use, so even children would know how to scan for computer viruses, delete and block them.

There are several suggestion on people's willingness to download malicious virus, said Mikko Hypponen, who conducted the research at data security firm F-Secure. First of all, people must have mistakenly pushed the button, second - curiosity sometimes overcomes natural prudence and thirdly, some people must have been stupid.

In fact, Stevens tried the experiment with no actual virus. He wanted to demonstrate the advertising system can be a good source for everyone including those who have a malicious objective.

Take part in our polls and see if eveyone uses antivirus software and if so, which one.

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