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Originally Posted by Jeysie
Er, I dunno about you, but I *scan* my files for viruses before installing them.  |
A virus scanner isn't looking for code that deletes files from your hard drive when it is scanning files. It looks for code that places the damaging piece of code on your computer without you knowing about it, and executes them. When the damaged software is embedded in a file that you have personally authorized for installation, it will go right past your anti-virus.
It's not even difficult. I could write you an executable that will go right past your virus scanner and do something nasty. The difficulty is to convince you to actually run that executable, and if that's impossible, find a way to run it on your computer without you knowing it, for example by embedding it in another piece of software (Winrar) or by spreading it through exploits in other pieces of software.
So once again, Winrar is just as potentially dangerous to your system as is Starforce, until proven otherwise. Don't get too paranoid about it.
