Did the death of elaborate computer viruses help cause the massive

Yes in the same way that the loss of malicious/obnoxious spam online lead way to more casual users entering online comunities

>death of elaborate computer viruses
>the loss of malicious/obnoxious spam online
Have I entered bizarro world?

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>>1573819
>>1573821
Newfags don't even know the shit we've been through

I think the massive influx of norms onto the internet led to the massive influx of norms onto the internet.

>>1573846
Viruses were awful, and I did have my computer get fucked once, but I really do miss how much better people were before the internet became too easy to safely browse.

Blame smartphones and cheap/universal internet access. Also destructive computer viruses aren't really a thing of the past yet. Did you already forget about wannacry?

>>1573874
>wannacry
I've never had that affect me or anyone I know, and I know some real stupid people. How did it infect peoples computers?

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>>1573842
You have no idea man. Reinstalling XP was like a daily routine after watching porn and picking up 37 new viruses from the thousand or so spam pop up windows
Then you'd go and relax and play some starcraft only to see completely unmoderated "lobbies" (games don't even have these anymore?) with endless spam and textart penises. When's the last time you ever deleted an email sent to you personally from the Prince of Zimbabwe?

I think it also rubbed off on people's attitudes too because the personality of people online was much more disconnected and spammy.
Today you can actually talk to people, even if they get angry and meme you to death it still feels like they're understanding what you're saying. Back in the day sometimes you'd swear you were talking to a bot

Oh and did I mention after all that you'd then go to 4chan and see gore and other graphic shit. When's the last time a new meme like goatse even popped up?

That's why I always hated /pol/. They're a bunch of edgy kids who think they know what an untamed internet is supposed to be like but they really have no idea, and ironically most of the shit they do actually makes the internet more tame rather than less so. Racism used to be a given. You didn't have to fucking fight for it, it was like just assumed that everyone on the internet was a racist rapist or something.

>>1573889
>How did it infect peoples computers?
Used a leaked NSA 0day vulnerability.

>>1573892
>Reinstalling XP was like a daily routine after watching porn and picking up 37 new viruses from the thousand or so spam pop up windows
Common Sense 2k users did not have this problem.

>>1573874
I'm not sure it's even compareable on the most important levels, though I'm merely a lamen at best.

>>1573896
Oh so it only worked on certain computers? I wouldn't consider that the same as the old viruses since there was no way to avoid it if you were susceptible to it.

>>1573925
>Oh so it only worked on certain computers?
Yeah but it still spread extremely fast. It only stopped because some security researcher accidentally triggered its kill switch.

>since there was no way to avoid it if you were susceptible to it.
This doesn't mean anything.

>>1573946
I feel as if there is a big difference between a virus that you can't do shit about, and a viruses you can avoid. The wannacry virus doesn't have the same impact as other past viruses because it was patched too quickly, and people learn nothing from it as it wasn't really at all their fault. The old viruses however could be avoided and were made for the sole purpose of fucking up your computer, unlike wannacry in which the intended purpose was to generate profit. Because the old viruses were avoidable they caused people to be more cautious on the net, and not venture to any site they wished in case they may have gotten a virus.

>>1574160
>in which the intended purpose was to generate profit
This is the biggest difference. All the malware people have gone commercial.

>The old viruses however could be avoided
There are a lot of things you can do to avoid most modern malware. A lot of it is just social engineering. I guess those aren't technically viruses, though.

>>1574619
>modern malware
It's so easy to avoid modern malware that you would have to be a literal retard to get it. You don't have to be nearly as cautious as you used to. Also modern malware at worst steals your information. It doesn't wreck your computer or anything.

Password breaking is the new malware

>>1574900
CryptoLocker and the like are pretty destructive if you don't pay up. It may only wreck your files and not your system, but your OS can be reinstalled. If you don't have a backup of your files, they're gone forever.

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>>1573892
Even if everything you wrote is true it doesn't change the fact that there are 1) still elaborate computer viruses (read the news once in a while) and 2) there is still malicious and obnoxious spam online (try browsing for porn without an adblock)
>When's the last time you ever deleted an email sent to you personally from the Prince of Zimbabwe?
Those are still there, but filters are better. Look at my junk inbox.

>death of elaborate computer viruses
viruses are so elaborate now, that it is usually difficult to determine if your computer is infected. the viruses no longer shut your computer down or do other annoying stuff, they just use a small part of your computing power as part of a botnet or run small background programs to steal your data.

>>1573892
you were an extremely stupid child

>>1574922
this person understands.

virus are so complex now that it's a government operation. people are now using virus as tools of war. when the exploits get leaked it causes stuff like these hostage situations where they encrypt the hospital harddrives and require you pay them in bitcoins to unluck it. what they're doing now is on entirely new level compared to what we use to see

>>1574908
All I'm hearing you say is all that stuff is FAR less of a concern today than it used to be and your average computer user doesn't need to even know such things exist
Which is exactly what the OP was talking about

>>1574922
>you were an extremely stupid child
And I doubt you're even half my age or you're seriously trying to downplay the presence of malware back then for some reason.

Machines that were barely a few years old would literally pick up viruses by just benignly hooking them up to the internet without even ever opening a browser if they went too long without being patched.

And even if you're argument that the viruses are still elaborate holds, that doesn't have ANYTHING to do with what the OP was talking about and in fact you're just proving OP's point.
He was saying that they were more visible to your average user. That's an undeniable fact.

>>1573892
You should like pol because its the last bastion of sonewhat free speech left.

Ita the only thing making a dent in their plans

>>1576745
>>1576745
Why would you bring up /pol/ as a good example of free speech? Anything not serious is deleted, and anything that goes against their agenda is shitposted into oblivion.

>>1573819

>>1575719
I see your point that most cyber attacks are carried out with extremely elaborate viruses. What I should have said is something like this. Has the decrease in destructive viruses found across websites, downloads, links, and ads on the internet led to the average user feeling safer on the web, and therefore more comfortable branching out to sites they would have avoided due to fear of infections?

>>1573819

>>1573819
>the massive influx of norms on the internet
That happened back in the mid 90s, dumbass. And the worst part of it was baby boomer parents letting you stupid millennial brats online without supervision.

>>1578185
i don't know what you mean branch out. normal people just browse facebook and maybe 2 other websites. facebook is the entire web to the average person. nobody is branching out they just visit the same websites.

i only ever got a single virus and i was downloading warez and other carp since the late 90's. the most common ways people got fucked were emails which were virus and other crap. most people never branched out to a website with viruses they got an email and then got fucked. the other way was what downloading porn on a filesharing program and think it's a jpg image but it's actually a virus .exe

there's nothing going to stop the expansion of the web. it just needed to get faster and more developed so the average person can go to facebook, do shopping, banking, and other stuff.

there's more potential for viruses to fuck people as well. with the internet of things people will be hacking cars crashing them or hacking ovens starting house fires and shit. before you could make random images flash or delete files. in the future you can hack their robot and make it kill them in their sleep