Free Anti Virus: your advice please
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any thoughts about 360 total security?
https://www.360totalsecurity.com/This antivirus is good, I’m using it and is lightweight and reliable.
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switched recently from avg free (which has indeed become bulky and intrusive) to Comodo free av. So far so good.
cheers. -
AVG offers a fair level of protection, however I must agree that its tendency to promote itself (or rather its payware version) is becoming increasingly annoying. As it runs trouble-free under my Win7/64, I think I’ll let it stay for a while The only other anti-virus program I know is MSE which I had with my old OS, WinXP.
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I find it hilarious that the word reliable and anti virus is used in the same sentence. You don’t have to believe me but you could do your own research. I suggest def con talks. But basicly AV is out there to catch low hanging fruit. It is apparently not that hard to get a virus or rootkit or Trojan past any scanner so all AV will protect you against is script kiddies and noobs when it comes to that stuff. Common sense is still the best protection you can possibly use to avoid getting your PC infected. And another funny bit. More than 75% of all AV users don’t even know what to do when an AV picks up a false positive or an actual positive. They just click block and think that that’s dealt with.
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Sadly true. Most virus infections are caused by lack of knowledge of the user himself and most of the time even an AV software couldn’t prevent the infection. Software downloads from dubious weblinks, opening email attachements without using common sense etc.
On my dedicated simulator installation i don’t even use a AV software, i just check some reliable homepages there so AV isn’t needed at all.
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I find it hilarious that the word reliable and anti virus is used in the same sentence. You don’t have to believe me but you could do your own research. I suggest def con talks. But basicly AV is out there to catch low hanging fruit. It is apparently not that hard to get a virus or rootkit or Trojan past any scanner so all AV will protect you against is script kiddies and noobs when it comes to that stuff. Common sense is still the best protection you can possibly use to avoid getting your PC infected. And another funny bit. More than 75% of all AV users don’t even know what to do when an AV picks up a false positive or an actual positive. They just click block and think that that’s dealt with.
+1
I remember a high school math teacher, who fancied himself a computer savvy knowledge base, tried to tell me he had 5 firewalls for extra protection and I should do the same. Oh and the person with 257 items running in the taskbar and turned the AV off because it was slowing the computer down, could I help fix the AV.I could go on, but I won’t.
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I find it hilarious that the word reliable and anti virus is used in the same sentence. You don’t have to believe me but you could do your own research. I suggest def con talks. But basicly AV is out there to catch low hanging fruit. It is apparently not that hard to get a virus or rootkit or Trojan past any scanner so all AV will protect you against is script kiddies and noobs when it comes to that stuff. Common sense is still the best protection you can possibly use to avoid getting your PC infected. And another funny bit. More than 75% of all AV users don’t even know what to do when an AV picks up a false positive or an actual positive. They just click block and think that that’s dealt with.
+1
I remember a high school math teacher, who fancied himself a computer savvy knowledge base, tried to tell me he had 5 firewalls for extra protection and I should do the same. Oh and the person with 257 items running in the taskbar and turned the AV off because it was slowing the computer down, could I help fix the AV.I could go on, but I won’t.
Said this to my intro to computing course professor once, “Antivirus is reactive for the most part, not proactive” I think she took it as an insult and tried to argue that it would pick up threats as they came in. To which I said, “If someone wrote a virus today and infected that very machine you’re on; your anti-virus wouldn’t stop it. I’d almost guarantee it, because it’s never seen it or been told what to look for.” That is why I personally don’t use Anti-virus, and just use safe browsing techniques or send the link to people like Revolpathon and observe what happens :D.
Anyways, to bring myself back on topic, personally I’m anti-virus free save for something like SpyBot S&D / Malware Bytes. If a virus hits the machine its better to just nuke the install and start over. PC usually runs better too. That being said, for someone like my parents who aren’t exactly familiar with tech the Anti-virus saves me some late night phone calls occasionally. I have them either on Kaspersky or NOD32 as well as my favorite tool, teamviewer. The freeware stuff I generally use is stuff like AVG-Free, and Avast Free other than that, you’re really not going to find anything decent out there for free.
Best Regards,
Fulcrum
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Great story from my workplace…
Accounting dept. at work received some spam / infected attachment emails as usual.
AV caught them and quarantined them in a sandbox or whatever.
Accountant (not surprisingly) removes the attachment from the quarantined area and attempts to open it since they believed it was a legitimate attachment from a known sender. (probably spoofed, really early in the morning, or just not computer savvy)
AV complains again and quarantines it for a second time…
Accountant (again not surprisingly) now disables AV scanning for the aforementioned file and re-attempts to open attachment.
Entire network infected… Script ran through all office related extensions (.pdf / .zip / .xls / etc…) on both local and networked systems encrypting the found files and/or infecting others.
Dude doing network security didn’t foresee the huge security flaw of having all terminals accessible from each-other, not to mention company didn’t have a backup of the servers.
A note then appeared stating if money was not transferred to their Bitcoin account within 2 days they will throw away the encryption key.
Had a good laugh…
On a side note, would have to assume those who use AV solutions probably:
- Browse a lot of porn on the web.
- Download and execute modified executables often associated with pirated software.
- Reply something along the lines of popcorn when asked about a kernel.
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Great story from my workplace…
Accounting dept. at work received some spam / infected attachment emails as usual.
AV caught them and quarantined them in a sandbox or whatever.
Accountant (not surprisingly) removes the attachment from the quarantined area and attempts to open it since they believed it was a legitimate attachment from a known sender. (probably spoofed, really early in the morning, or just not computer savvy)
AV complains again and quarantines it for a second time…
Accountant (again not surprisingly) now disables AV scanning for the aforementioned file and re-attempts to open attachment.
Entire network infected… Script ran through all office related extensions (.pdf / .zip / .xls / etc…) on both local and networked systems encrypting the found files and/or infecting others.
Dude doing network security didn’t foresee the huge security flaw of having all terminals accessible from each-other, not to mention company didn’t have a backup of the servers.
A note then appeared stating if money was not transferred to their Bitcoin account within 2 days they will throw away the encryption key.
Had a good laugh…
On a side note, would have to assume those who use AV solutions probably:
- Browse a lot of porn on the web.
- Download and execute modified executables often associated with pirated software.
- Reply something along the lines of popcorn when asked about a kernel.
i couldnt help but laugh at that last one. those people who know what a kernel is outside of it’s relation to popcorn should know better.
but expanding on my previous post.
i remember a talk at def con by kevin mitnick (not sure i got his name right but he’s a really famous “hacker” of the social engineering kind) where he showcases numerous ways to infect pc’s using nothing more than a picture displayed on a webpage giving him a backdoor into said system, he was running kaspersky iirc which he acknowledged as the best of the bunch as far as internet security software went. kaspersky is not free but it’s made by people who know how to make trojans virusses and stuff of that sort. he also said Av generally catch less than 25% of all “bad” software.and people who run 5 firewalls and 20 AV scanners and whatnot thinking their smart and secure but complaining their pc is slow as hell…
that 5 firewall thing really cracked me up.(the explanation below is dumbed down and i avoided getting too technical with it)
for every anti virus you install you basicly install a “shield” in between the low level system access part and the GUI (be it mac or windows) that shield evaluate’s every piece of traffic and instruction before they let that piece of traffic through. (see it like a border crossing, we’ve all seen video’s or pictures of the US mexico border) if that shield deems it harmless it will let it through. or if it deems it harmfull it notifies the user on what to do (quarentine etc) if the user says it’s okay (for whatever reason) it will let it through.so that’s just one anti virus… it already slows your system down, but it wont be that noticeable really, now imagine having 2 border crossings or 5 border crossings… anti virus software generally do not play well with others, so kudo’s if you get them to work with eachother. but they will exponentially slow down your system. not only are the AV software checking the traffic going through. now they are also checking eachother because each AV software generates it’s own traffic which is checked by the other AV software you’ve got installed. it basicly ends up with the blind leading the blind and the user getting frustrated with a slow system that keeps giving false positives (yes AV software sees other AV software as malicious because it tries to install that “border crossing which is virus like behaviour” so the user is getting used to just click “allow” so when a real threat pops up the user is automaticly tempted to just click allow because it could be a false positive and the user has stopped reading and investigating every instance that the AV reports to the user.
so even though the pc has 5 AV software installed… the user is the weakest link in the chain, it’s the user who has to determine wether a threat is credible or not. and most users simply don’t have a clue.
for the firewall thing. it’s the same story basicly.
you put more walls between you and the internet.
it slows down traffic though not to a noticeable degree in most cases, but if you have to open 1 port you have to open that port in 5 firewalls… it’s just a hassle and it didnt make you anymore secure than it did before.
port 80 is always open (web browsers use this port primarily)
now, we play falcon bms… so we have other ports that are also permanently open (or nearly always open), having a firewall at that point makes very little sense because we’ve already opened the gates to the kingdom so to speak.
what makes more sense is using a firewall that can block access per application. (i use glasswire) with this software i am able to see every single byte of traffic and track where it’s going and if i don’t want that traffic to go through i just block it. (yay no more ads in skype when it got around the hosts file).anti virus and firewalls require a competent user, if the user has no clue what the software does or how to assist and help that software along than that software is useless to the user, and sadly most users are about as tech savvy as captain jack sparrow.
you don’t need to be a programmer or computer nerd to know enough to help this software, but a basic understanding in how a computer works and how it can be compromised is essential to allow software like that to do it’s work properly and ideally have nothing to do because the user itself is already functioning as a better AV and firewall than the software itself because the user is self conscious in his/her browsing and downloading habbits. -
Great story from my workplace…
Accounting dept. at work received some spam / infected attachment emails as usual.
AV caught them and quarantined them in a sandbox or whatever.
Accountant (not surprisingly) removes the attachment from the quarantined area and attempts to open it since they believed it was a legitimate attachment from a known sender. (probably spoofed, really early in the morning, or just not computer savvy)
AV complains again and quarantines it for a second time…
Accountant (again not surprisingly) now disables AV scanning for the aforementioned file and re-attempts to open attachment.
Entire network infected… Script ran through all office related extensions (.pdf / .zip / .xls / etc…) on both local and networked systems encrypting the found files and/or infecting others.
Dude doing network security didn’t foresee the huge security flaw of having all terminals accessible from each-other, not to mention company didn’t have a backup of the servers.
A note then appeared stating if money was not transferred to their Bitcoin account within 2 days they will throw away the encryption key.
Had a good laugh…
On a side note, would have to assume those who use AV solutions probably:
- Browse a lot of porn on the web.
- Download and execute modified executables often associated with pirated software.
- Reply something along the lines of popcorn when asked about a kernel.
Ransomware is getting really bad these days. I’m an IT engineer / consultant and every one of my clients has a Windows bare metal backup as well as an offsite backup. I’ve seen the cryptowall / cryptolocker quite a bit over the last few years, and because of good backups in place, I have never had to pay the ransom (knock on wood). Everytime there’s an infection, the culprit computer user always claims “I never opened any weird emails” or “I never clicked on any weird websites.” BS.
The only A/V that I’ve seen stop the cryptowall is Malwarebytes premium, which isn’t free, and Kaspersky. Of all the A/V out there Kaspersky is the strongest, but it’s very invasive and can interfere with production software, like accounting software packages and VPN access. I will say that Trend has stepped up it’s game. I’ve seen it stop alot of nasty stuff lately. I’m a big fan of Trend. Like I said, Kaspersky causes too many problems than it solves.
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So, all in all, do you gents recommend giving up any such AV protection? My Internet usage is very limited indeed (I don’t even have a FB account), and if I download something it’s usually the BMS-related stuff… I’d gladly get rid of the AVG software. I’m by no means a computer geek, but I’m certainly aware of the basic safe browsing rules. Some people posting in this thread have used arguments that seem quite reasonable and appeal to just common sense, why not listen to those who know more about the subject than I do ?
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So, all in all, do you gents recommend giving up any such AV protection? My Internet usage is very limited indeed (I don’t even have a FB account), and if I download something it’s usually the BMS-related stuff… I’d gladly get rid of the AVG software. I’m by no means a computer geek, but I’m certainly aware of the basic safe browsing rules. Some people posting in this thread have used arguments that seem quite reasonable and appeal to just common sense, why not listen to those who know more about the subject than I do ?
Having an AV is best practice, you should have one and keep it up to date , just like your OS. Unless you trust 100% all your websites, all the other sources you use ( USB, other equipment on the same network ). And backup your sensitive stuff regularly.
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Having an AV is best practice, you should have one and keep it up to date , just like your OS. Unless you trust 100% all your websites, all the other sources you use ( USB, other equipment on the same network ). And backup your sensitive stuff regularly.
I only hang out at safe porn sites, but I still wear some protection on my sensitive stuff.
On a serious note I got caught once in the last few years, couldn’t fix it it in 45min. Reload windows.
I think it was a movie from a YIFY knockoff site
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I only hang out at safe porn sites, but I still wear some protection on my sensitive stuff.
On a serious note I got caught once in the last few years, couldn’t fix it it in 45min. Reload windows.
I think it was a movie from a YIFY knockoff site
2 Trojans 1 Port?
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A layered security approach is the way to go these days. As others have said, AV alone tends to react to baddies once they get in, rather than stopping them in the first place. FWIW, my set-up is…
Emsisoft Antimalware (paid, although gets cheaper year-on-year, as a loyalty bonus) As well as dual-engine (Bitdefender and Emsisoft’s own) it packs surf protection and a fantastic behaviour blocker which is one of the best in the business, monitoring for suspicious file activity. Given all that, it runs really light on my lappy. It’s my only paid security app, but worth it for peace of mind. Freebies such as Avast, AVG et al, whilst reasonable options, nag too much to upgrade to pro, and have often questionable policies with regards to your personal info. They also have a nasty habit of installing stuff (toolbars etc) that, unless you are vigilant, you didn’t even realise you had agreed.
Malwarebytes Anti Exploit (free) - protects your browsers. I don’t even know it’s there.
Ublock Origin in Firefox - another essential freebie which blocks ads and flags suspicious sites.
Windows Firewall - now strong enough, IMO. I used to use Comodo, but it can be rather temperamental and takes a lot of tuning.
A couple of other free on-demand scanners - Malwarebytes Antimalware and Zemana Antimalware (very effective and fantastic for quick scans)
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Ublock origin FF extension is amazing.
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2 Trojans 1 Port?
Yes I think it was the 2004 movie “Troy” the one with Brad Pit, but I had a lot lot more then 1 Port, the bottle was almost empty.
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Yes I think it was the 2004 movie “Troy” the one with Brad Pit, but I had a lot lot more then 1 Port, the bottle was almost empty.
Next time use this
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NoScript Addon for FF and/or Chrome and uBlock Addon for the same. Together with brain.exe 1.01 - best virus protection.
Beside that I use Avast free for the case that brain.exe has any fatal errors^^
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Welcome, brother, get on the stick.