AntiVirus - If I have a choice?

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Awrrr
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#1720454 15-Feb-2017 10:57

I haven't used an active anti-virus for years. Occasionally, when I think about it (not often), I run a scan with Defender or Malwarebytes or both, but that is all. They never find anything except the occasional PUP, and most of those I want anyway.

I think common sense is the best anti-virus you can have.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

sidefx

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#1720455 15-Feb-2017 11:01

Lias:

Windows Defender.

Yes seriously.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/antivirus-is-bad/

When Google and Mozilla engineers are recommending this, I tend to think there might be something to it...

http://robert.ocallahan.org/2017/01/disable-your-antivirus-software-except.html

https://www.onmsft.com/news/google-chrome-engineer-says-windows-defender-the-only-well-behaved-av

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1101

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#1720507 15-Feb-2017 11:35

sidefx:

When Google and Mozilla engineers are recommending this, I tend to think there might be something to it...

I was skeptical , until I saw..
https://arstechnica.co.uk/security/2016/06/severe-bugs-25-symantec-norton-products-details/

https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/analysis-and-exploitation-of-eset.html

If AV companies can get it so wrong ....
And some malware can & does get past every AV out there . Some basic common sense is better protection than AV , thats
why its often the same people getting re-infected , no matter what AV they use :-)

JayADee

2148 posts

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#1720579 15-Feb-2017 12:36

joker97: Other than spam, is Avast ok? I just ignore all the stuff they try to sell. Seems to block all viruses at the rare times.

we used to use it. These days I just run defender on everything.

Jedsdad

120 posts

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#1720599 15-Feb-2017 13:13

Everyone has their own preferences for AV, and thats fine, at least you are trying to guard against something you may pick up while on line.

The only one I totally disagree with is if you do not have any AV at all.

No matter how much care you take with trying to protect yourself against some Virus etc., it will occur sooner or later.

CutCutCut

1039 posts

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#1720712 15-Feb-2017 16:01

I've been using bit defender, the free version for a couple of years after reading that it had done well in some tests. Seems to have done the trick so far, seems pretty non-intrusive. I run malwarebytes also. My other PC I just have defender.

Coil

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#1720718 15-Feb-2017 16:04

Windows Defender and Common sense 2017.
Every AV out there is just bloat ware trying to sell you hideous backup solutions and just mine data from you.

99.9% of AV programs id say are a virus themselves.

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lNomNoml

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#1720720 15-Feb-2017 16:11

TimA:

Windows Defender and Common sense 2017.
Every AV out there is just bloat ware trying to sell you hideous backup solutions and just mine data from you.

99.9% of AV programs id say are a virus themselves.

I hope you don't work in IT then.

Coil

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#1720730 15-Feb-2017 16:40

lNomNoml:

TimA:

Windows Defender and Common sense 2017.
Every AV out there is just bloat ware trying to sell you hideous backup solutions and just mine data from you.

99.9% of AV programs id say are a virus themselves.

I hope you don't work in IT then.

Haha maybe a bit exaggerated with my comments there but you get the idea.
Maybe not a Virus but Bloatware.

richms

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#1720735 15-Feb-2017 17:17

My run random crap on it that I dont trust computer has avira on it (its the one that I use with dodgey CDs that came with hardware from china etc, questionable keygens and software from torrents etc) and it has missed several things in keygens and stuff, fully up to date, computer still gets owned from the stuff.

It often will give a positive on things, but uploading those things to virustotal and none or one of the ones on there show up, and its usually that chinese AV that flags anything thats a positive on virustotal. Turns out that anything encrypted with a certain tool will get flagged by avira since thats one that the malware writers use to protect their stuff. Problem is so do the people that write the software for the random aliexpress eeprom writer.

Richard rich.ms

dt

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#1720741 15-Feb-2017 17:40

Enterprise/business versions of eset, symantec and sophos are all great because you don't even notice them

The consumer versions are the ones that are real in your face every time you turn on your PC or click on an email link etc

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, the basic packages are all that are really needed.

I personally use eset endpoint antivirus on my home PC and symantec endpoint protection on work laptop.

virus definitions for eset updates 1-3 times daily whereas symantec updates once every 1-2 days..

AV is quite well utilized these days.. they don't smash system resource like they did back in the day which a lot of people still think is a problem.. that and pc's are quite a bit more powerful today to :)

Quite a lot of the biggish vendors offer 30 day free trials so you could have a poke around and see what you like before you make a final decision! good luck :)

alinz

71 posts

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#1720867 15-Feb-2017 21:27

A pro-tip for Avast is to set update popup duration to 0 seconds. Not once had an advertising popup in years.

Athlonite

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#1720952 16-Feb-2017 00:31

I just use Windows defender on Windows 10 and as a once a month safety measure I'll run a malware bytes scan it never finds anything so guess I'm doing alright for now and I'm all over the place on the net in some very shady places at time between Opera's adblocker and uBlock Origin anything that would be harmful is either stopped in it's tracks or picked up pretty quickly

1101

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#1721255 16-Feb-2017 14:02

J

The only one I totally disagree with is if you do not have any AV at all.
No matter how much care you take with trying to protect yourself against some Virus etc., it will occur sooner or later.

I went 2 years with no AV running. Zero infections . Common sense actually works .
I wouldnt recommend that generally either, but can be done with getting infected .

AV simply does..not..work against zero day malware anyway.
New Malware/virus can spread really fast, and can take a day for AV programs to come up with signature updates to detect it, by then too late .

Lias

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#1721473 16-Feb-2017 17:48

lNomNoml:

TimA:

Windows Defender and Common sense 2017.
Every AV out there is just bloat ware trying to sell you hideous backup solutions and just mine data from you.

99.9% of AV programs id say are a virus themselves.

I hope you don't work in IT then.

I'm a senior infrastructure engineer at one of the largest enterprises in the South Island, and I'd pretty much agree with what he said.

We are steadily migrating away from Symantec to SCEP on our fleet, I think at last count we were down to under 50 servers (about 7-8%) still running Symantec.

Signature based AV isn't quite dead, but it's vastly less important than it used to be.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

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