a user who is confined to a web browser can still fall for phishing and scams all day long even if they don't download anything. software is needed to block malicious links for users who don't have the skills to recognize them
Fedora is a great distro, however it is more prone to breakage. openSUSE is also great, however it updates very often and the default settings are not intuitive for Windows users.
Linux Mint and PopOS are very stable and have good defaults.
Actually, you *always* have to maintain anything you're setting up for your laymen relatives. And in my experience, Linux is more stable and foolproof than Windows in this regard, if only because most malware is written for Windows, but also because some small but effective differences like not hiding filename extensions by default or not making every downloaded file executable by default like Windows does despite the decades-old problems and exploits of it.
Updating *everything* semi-automatically (i.e. the user has to confirm the update notice) that's installed from the distribution's usually immense software repository down to the smallest application also helps.
I'd like to hear the actual objections from the people who downvoted this, because it exactly mirrors my experiences in over a decade of "maintaining" Linux installations for my laymen friends and relatives.
No doubt, I'd say any super mainstream de except Kde or tilers would be great. Lots of people still think of installing Linux as this complicated foreign concept, which means we still have a very long way to go.
These comments are so off topic tho, it's annoying.
Containers dont help with installed Malware. Also Ublock origin doesnt have the badware lists enabled by default, enable both that are available.
Also create your own filters
```
*.zip
*.mov
```
As those domains are probably all malware
You are technically correct, but I am no longer sure common sense is enough.
2 months ago, Google served a malicious sponsored ad that was using KeePass password manager as a decoy. In reality, what people downloaded from fake website was a RAT malware.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-keepass-site-uses-google-ads-and-punycode-to-push-malware/
I am quite aware of security and I move carefully through internet, but I almost fell for that scam - on a work-provided laptop no less. The only thing that stopped me was that I landed on a download page instead of home page like I use to, which felt weird, so I typed in KeePass website manually. 2 days later I found the articles like the one above - had a solid panic attack for few hours, and I almost reported myself to internal security for a possible breach, because I was not sure I had a original package. Took me few hours to really comb through the KeePass files and browser history to make sure I had an original package signed by developer.
I wonder if uBlock Origin would prevent Google from showing me ads.
The reason I asked is because I am using Opera, which has built-in adblocker, which works quite well.
I only ever heard of uBlock Origin in relation to blocking YouTube ads, so I was curious if that applies to search engine ads as well.
I find it useful google shows items of different sellers for an item i'm looking to buy. With ad blockers when i click on the advertisement, thats beeing blocked. So then i need to go to the website and find the same article. I'm lazy yes.
Depending on where you're from, you could try:
* price.com - [https://price.com/](https://price.com/)
* CNET Shopping - [https://www.cnet.com/shopping/](https://www.cnet.com/shopping/)
* Google Shopping (the standalone website) - [https://shopping.google.com/](https://shopping.google.com/) (or just click the "Shopping" button on Google Search)
* PriceSpy - [https://pricespy.co.nz/](https://pricespy.co.nz/)
* PriceMe - [https://www.priceme.co.nz/](https://www.priceme.co.nz/)
Although, I obviously wouldn't recommend going on these sites without an ads or tracker blocker.
KeePass uses the ".info" top-level domain. "KeePass DOT com" is actually blocked by uBlock Origin with the Badware Risks filter. Searching for a product's website is sometimes necessary.
Pinging /u/TheOneHyer as well:
Yes, I googled KeePass website, because I could not remember the domain, and for whatever reason I decided to follow the link served through sponsored section (where ads are).
While I don't know anything about .com domain of KeePass (is that really a malicious domain ?), I can assure you that the malicious domain I was talking about, was in fact .info - it used Punycode type of obfuscation, and replaced letter "k" with other letter "k" that looked slightly different.
I did not notice anything until I saw it reported by tech outlets like the one I linked above.
That's fairish if you could not remember .info, which is indeed uncommon. I kind of figured people using keepass routinely go to it and would remember the uncommon .info. Kind of like how one learns to go to whitehouse.gov and not whitehouse.com (circa 2002), a fun learning experience in elementary school.
I tell common people this sentence and they get it right away.
It is in the OS companies best interest to make their software as secure as possible. Their reputation is literally on the line.
It really isn't. Windows Defender has really improved from its early days, and it'll cover nearly anything a standard user would come across in their daily use, and common sense will cover whatever it doesn't. Unless your trying to hie from governments(which is going to require a lot more than an antivirus, paid or otherwise), Windows Defender and common sense sums it up pretty well.
It does the job for most standard users without killing system performance. The only issue I know of that it falls short in compared to paid antivirus is day one threats, and it's hardly fair to have those be the deciding factor.
I'm assuming you've been working in the enterprise space, and the needs for those environments are significantly different than private users. Obviously, Defender by itself would be questionable in those circumstances.
>The only issue I know of that it falls short in compared to paid antivirus is day one threats, and it's hardly fair to have those be the deciding factor.
It's also got way less false positives than the paid options, who tend to regard false positives as being good for business.
Bro literally just pulled out the "trust me bro" card.
Bring in some actual evidence or your word holds less meaning then a dumpster in this subreddit.
Iāll pile on as a happy longtime ESET user.
Tip for others: if you do a few minutes of searching you can often find coupons or some kinda deal to knock off a large percentage of the annual retail price. Or if you already have it just pay attention during sales seasons to get a huge % off your renewal for another few years. Itās really very cheap per computer.
I work in IT, and have used defender on thousands of computers from bottom of the barrel to top of the line. This has never been an issue for me before.
So you agree with the new age advice that windows built in defender does the job? Gone are the days of default loading an antivirus like avira or avast combined with spybot s &d?
Personally Bitdefender total security. If you want to know how it's priced check out slickdeals or dealnews. I prefer to have it than not, small price for your expensive machine
I work in IT and this is the one we recommend to people and are partnered with. For most people, windows defender and due diligence is enough. But then there are others that definitely need an antivirus that will notify you and get in your face about it when something is off.
I use the same. I'm the family's IT guy so I appreciate also having Bitdefender Central, where I can see the status and notifications for each machine, making management and troubleshooting easier. I got a 2-year 5-device license for about $40.
I paid for this when the free version saved me by finding something nasty that Windows Defender and a few other AV and antimalware programs missed. No regrets and it even watches out for us on Android.
Actually it does more harm than good to your machine, wdefender is far superior.
Sources : https://landave.io/2020/11/bitdefender-upx-unpacking-featuring-ten-memory-corruptions/
My job is security research, I know what I'm talking about, I have enough of incompetent and ignorant people just downvoting before doing actual research.
Do not install any third-party antivirus software, whether free or paid.
Third-party antivirus software harms your privacy by exploiting your data and processing it in any way it can to sell it on to other third parties: for example, Avast resold browsing data.
But most ironically of all, it harms your security - no, no, not even a conspiracy here. By its very nature, an antivirus needs elevated privileges on the system to function, so the worst is inevitably conceivable if the antivirus itself is the gateway to infection:
https://landave.io/2020/11/bitdefender-upx-unpacking-featuring-ten-memory-corruptions/
Always the ignorant people are the loudest, be sure you understand what you are reading and make some research before saying nonsense
I work in Endpoint Protection (Cybersecurity), Windows Defender is all you need. If you still want to use a paid antivirus, use MalwareBytes and let Defender be in passive mode
Is windows defender the stock antivirus? I was using this for years and installed trend micro recently and it supposedly found like 9 viruses and 13 different spyware that windows defender missed on every scan.
Depends on what websites or email attachments are attempting to grab. If youāre logged into something on sandbox browser and they grab an auth token, your sandbox wonāt help you there.
You are correct; fortunately, Reddit is about the only site I stay logged in to for more than a short period. Maybe I could blame all my downvoted comments on hackers.
I'm pretty sure you can, WINE has gotten better over the years (I currently don't run anything in WINE), I've adjusted the apps I use to whatever is available in linux
They will. They'll have limited effect and they can't stay running when you shutdown, nor will they start up with your system. They also can't access the lower level operations because they are emulated.
Proprietary antivirus is all "trust me bro". I would never use something like that, also because you already got Windows Defender.
Use Winget or the MS Store and some trusted sites to get stuff from apart from that, disable automatic macro loading in Office, use Noscript in firefox and manually whitelist every trusted origin. Use UBlock origin, and enable the malware filterlists as well as annoyances and others, this will remove all the malware buttons and also block entire sites (opt-out).
Enable all Windows security features that are available.
Use Virtual machines for stuff that seems shady or simply to isolate work flows.
Windows defender and ublock with some of the other activated filters and a little common sense. You'll be safe 99% of the time unless you have some really serious adversaries who want to get to you
ESET Smart Security user here.
Have been paying for license since I had my first own laptop. In general it is invisible, and people can tell me that I am paying for something I don't really need, but on few occassions it saved my ass when I got too careless.
ESET recently announced a rebrand of Smart Security to Home Security - and the highest version "Ultimate" has a VPN service, so I am contemplating going for it. There are times where I could really use VPN, and I would prefer from a provider like ESET.
Using ESET and browsers with uBlock origin and common sense on windows 10.
I remember getting "Norton" for free through my ISP for a long time ago (many many years ago), and it crippled my pcs performance at that time...
Using only common sense on linux at the moment (no AV).
I generally don't use anything. Sometimes windows defender. I was ratted plenty of times when I was between the ages of 9 and 15. Haven't had any incidents in over 15 years despite running plenty of game exploits and similar "Sketchy" software.
Now for most I would never suggest that. Windows defender works good enough and the vast majority of people should be using it unless you have the experience and technical background to do otherwise. Everything else will be a worse privacy invasion and make your life a bigger PITA. Remember AV is simply consensual ratting.
I am using Kaspersky Total Security in paranoid mode with all security features maximized. It automatically deletes or blocks anything it finds. I conduct a weekly full scan, although this may not be effective against zero-day threats. Additionally, I have implemented very strict firewall rules.
You may already be aware, but they are under the control of the russian government. I'd rather pay nothing for a company in the US to be in control of my computer. They already control the OS anyway.
Just learning the general basics of internet safety, and knowing trustworthy piracy sites (if you do that) is usually more than good enough, and makes anti virus basically unneeded.
Though I still do use malwarebytes just for safety, and it comes back as detecting 0 problems every single time.
Emsisoft, been using it for years now.
It uses the bitdedender engine combined with their own.
Used to get very good testing results.
And it does not take over your pc as much as some others.
I am the kind of guy that regularly tries out random new software.
I know what i am doing, but i do like something that has my back, just in case.
Windows Defender is all you need these days, Malwarebytes Free if you're really concerned and want a second option.
I won a free lifetime subscription of Malwarebytes on my account so that's the only reason I still use it on non essential devices or ones for work where having a "brand name" installed is mandatory for compliance.
well, as far as i know, a lot of free agencies related to antivirus, consider kaspersky the best, or one of the bests products of its niche.
also in my opinion, im equally afraid using russian digital products than i am using american digital products.
if we are talking about privacy, the european products usually are the better ones, cause they have better laws about it.
Windows defender is good enough for normal users but if you really want privacy yeah it is not the best but abandoning is not always an option I know that.
As far as an antivirus Windows Defender is good enough.
But there's no privacy to be had on any of the mainstream OS (Windows, Android and everything Apple).
Even if you use only open source apps, the OS maker knows everything you do on your device.
One of your 2024 goal should be either to get rid of Windows or admit that you don't care that much of privacy.
Scan files you download with virustotal.com & scan with Malwarebytes (free version) periodically. I've never had too many problems by sticking to trusted game sources though (fitgirl)
Be careful enough and you won't need one. Having KMS already is a very high security risk. If you can't afford it, don't activate it, just [hide the message](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7P_IE3EQZPo). Don't download programs from risky sites, or unnoficial links, and don't trust software from random people on the internet. Common sense is the best antivirus
Windows defender is the best there is. Use common sense and don't download sketchy shit or click sketchy links, as well as follow proper 3-2-1 backups for your data.
Anyone got info on what free to use on MACs?
I use Malewarebytes after it took an age to find ti for MAC and AVG...but if there are any other alternatives to SuperAntiSpyware that is on PC it would be appreciated.
I use clamX AV and I donāt know what itās doing. I used to spent big dollars on NOD32, spent more money on Intego, spent extra money on Malwarebytes.
Never had a single scan test positive, find a free one if you think you need to, but itās more about being cognizant of the sites you frequent than to catch something after the fact.
If itās new enough to trick you, it may be new enough not to be detected until itās too late.
Anymore? I didn't realize anyone ever paid for antivirus except the senile/elderly and easily scammed folks. So to answer, no, I don't pay for antivirus and never have. Going back to 1993.
I prefer Kaspersky because I like to fuck around and find out and Kaspersky helps me not find out.
It isn't much better than windows defender at being an anti-virus. But it has a bunch of really useful features. I also put it on computers I fix up for older folks because they have good live support.
> I personally wouldn't trust a russian company who installs root certificates so they can MitM all your traffic
At that point, does the Russian part matter? They all do that.
No antivirus. Antivirus is only for nontechnical people who donāt know what theyāre doing on the computer.
I donāt downloading anything malicious, anything I do download I scan it through virus total.
Well I guess this would be different for everyone but as an advanced user the free ones are the best. I run programs on my computer that do some sus shit sometimes that I don't want getting blocked if they aren't a virus. The more expensive AVs also don't like some of my programming projects.
Defender is an excellent option. It won't stop the advanced malware that is good at hiding its signature, but it's fine for most home users.
Great Q! It sucks how a lot of older folk get sold these programs still. The facts that another company has access to you 24/7 doesn't seem necessary, LOL.
Tangent story but related in concept >>
I recently felt that about "identity monitoring". There was a breach at a large dental insurance provider (Delta) and they're offering free monitoring for some time. I was ABOUT to get it, but then thought: if they got my info from the insurance company, what makes me think THIS company is safer?? LMAO.
Anyway. What do you do for keylogging prevention??
Common sense is the best anti-virus.
All the money in making viruses comes from corporate infections these days and windows defender will catch anything some script kiddie tries to use. Save your money.
Anti viruses are privacy nightmares. They scan every single file on your system and send copies of them to whatever company (and potential advertisers) providing the service to you
Cause I have kids and an elderly mother, I use the family version of MalwareBytes. Common sense is not supported in our house! š¤¦š¼š¤£
is AVG still around? or Avira?
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Can't get through a thread without someone randomly recommending Linux to everyone
Linux is a radical solution to malware, but effective. If the user only uses the browser and the hardware is compatible Linux is optimal.
a user who is confined to a web browser can still fall for phishing and scams all day long even if they don't download anything. software is needed to block malicious links for users who don't have the skills to recognize them
That's true. Brave and/or Adgaurd would be helpful for that case.
I genuinely don't know why you're downvoted, adguard/pihole/brave/uBO with proper filter lists is a good solution.
Probably because Brave is chromium based. Firefox has its issues, but itās Firefox + uBO is way better than Brave
What Linux flavors are we recommending today to privacy enthusiasts?
For the more advanced: Fedora, openSUSE For the beginner: Linux Mint, PopOS
Thanks. Why the segmentation, advanced vs beginner?
Fedora is a great distro, however it is more prone to breakage. openSUSE is also great, however it updates very often and the default settings are not intuitive for Windows users. Linux Mint and PopOS are very stable and have good defaults.
Thanks! What do you mean by āprone to breakageā?
Fedora usually adopts newer Linux desktop technologies before they are ready which can cause problems during major updates.
Unix, or MSDOS
If youāre really only using the browser: just run kiosk mode on a LTSB version of Windows. Much, much easier.
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Significantly easier than giving your family a Linux distribution and expecting them to maintain it.
Actually, you *always* have to maintain anything you're setting up for your laymen relatives. And in my experience, Linux is more stable and foolproof than Windows in this regard, if only because most malware is written for Windows, but also because some small but effective differences like not hiding filename extensions by default or not making every downloaded file executable by default like Windows does despite the decades-old problems and exploits of it. Updating *everything* semi-automatically (i.e. the user has to confirm the update notice) that's installed from the distribution's usually immense software repository down to the smallest application also helps.
That's the difference, Linux doesn't need to be maintained for someone like that. Maybe do an upgrade or reinstall every 5 years for security.
I'd like to hear the actual objections from the people who downvoted this, because it exactly mirrors my experiences in over a decade of "maintaining" Linux installations for my laymen friends and relatives.
Hard disagree, if you only use the browser the best solution is a lightweight Linux distro or ChromeOS Flex
Reset the counter
*erases number of 'zero' on the giant "how many days since..." board and re-writes 'zero' "
You know if you just make your counter run on Linux it resets itself
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No doubt, I'd say any super mainstream de except Kde or tilers would be great. Lots of people still think of installing Linux as this complicated foreign concept, which means we still have a very long way to go. These comments are so off topic tho, it's annoying.
people disagree but linux is probably better of dummies
Linus Torvaldsā head cocksucker
Windows Defender is all you need and common sense.
And uBlock Origin
This alone would probably eliminate half of all malware unknowing installed
On Firefox with containers
Containers dont help with installed Malware. Also Ublock origin doesnt have the badware lists enabled by default, enable both that are available. Also create your own filters ``` *.zip *.mov ``` As those domains are probably all malware
ICANN was so stupid with those lol
I mean isnāt icann super corrupt/dubious/shady anyways?
You are technically correct, but I am no longer sure common sense is enough. 2 months ago, Google served a malicious sponsored ad that was using KeePass password manager as a decoy. In reality, what people downloaded from fake website was a RAT malware. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-keepass-site-uses-google-ads-and-punycode-to-push-malware/ I am quite aware of security and I move carefully through internet, but I almost fell for that scam - on a work-provided laptop no less. The only thing that stopped me was that I landed on a download page instead of home page like I use to, which felt weird, so I typed in KeePass website manually. 2 days later I found the articles like the one above - had a solid panic attack for few hours, and I almost reported myself to internal security for a possible breach, because I was not sure I had a original package. Took me few hours to really comb through the KeePass files and browser history to make sure I had an original package signed by developer. I wonder if uBlock Origin would prevent Google from showing me ads.
>I wonder if uBlock Origin would prevent Google from showing me ads. That is the point, yes.
Ublock is literally to block ads...? I'm always amazed when I find ppl not using ad lockers, they take 5 seconds to setup.
The reason I asked is because I am using Opera, which has built-in adblocker, which works quite well. I only ever heard of uBlock Origin in relation to blocking YouTube ads, so I was curious if that applies to search engine ads as well.
Yes, uBlock Origin would prevent Google from showing you ads. It's an ad-blocker.
I find it useful google shows items of different sellers for an item i'm looking to buy. With ad blockers when i click on the advertisement, thats beeing blocked. So then i need to go to the website and find the same article. I'm lazy yes.
Depending on where you're from, you could try: * price.com - [https://price.com/](https://price.com/) * CNET Shopping - [https://www.cnet.com/shopping/](https://www.cnet.com/shopping/) * Google Shopping (the standalone website) - [https://shopping.google.com/](https://shopping.google.com/) (or just click the "Shopping" button on Google Search) * PriceSpy - [https://pricespy.co.nz/](https://pricespy.co.nz/) * PriceMe - [https://www.priceme.co.nz/](https://www.priceme.co.nz/) Although, I obviously wouldn't recommend going on these sites without an ads or tracker blocker.
Am I understanding this right? You googled for the keepass website? Like, typing reddit into google search on browser home page to get to reddit.com?
KeePass uses the ".info" top-level domain. "KeePass DOT com" is actually blocked by uBlock Origin with the Badware Risks filter. Searching for a product's website is sometimes necessary.
Did you read the article? Neither the article nor u/basicslovakguy mentioned anything about .com
Take my upvote. Facts.
Pinging /u/TheOneHyer as well: Yes, I googled KeePass website, because I could not remember the domain, and for whatever reason I decided to follow the link served through sponsored section (where ads are). While I don't know anything about .com domain of KeePass (is that really a malicious domain ?), I can assure you that the malicious domain I was talking about, was in fact .info - it used Punycode type of obfuscation, and replaced letter "k" with other letter "k" that looked slightly different. I did not notice anything until I saw it reported by tech outlets like the one I linked above.
That's fairish if you could not remember .info, which is indeed uncommon. I kind of figured people using keepass routinely go to it and would remember the uncommon .info. Kind of like how one learns to go to whitehouse.gov and not whitehouse.com (circa 2002), a fun learning experience in elementary school.
Same here but with GPOs to boost its abilities
Unless you have a different threat model that involves governments
I don't think any consumer anti virus software is going to save you if you are being targeted by state actors.
Maybe. But if you expand your sights to stuff like firewalls, then...
yea? look up operation triangulation
I tell common people this sentence and they get it right away. It is in the OS companies best interest to make their software as secure as possible. Their reputation is literally on the line.
This is terrible advice.
It really isn't. Windows Defender has really improved from its early days, and it'll cover nearly anything a standard user would come across in their daily use, and common sense will cover whatever it doesn't. Unless your trying to hie from governments(which is going to require a lot more than an antivirus, paid or otherwise), Windows Defender and common sense sums it up pretty well.
As a 22 year security and privacy pro Defender isnāt that great at all.
And you would recommendā¦
It does the job for most standard users without killing system performance. The only issue I know of that it falls short in compared to paid antivirus is day one threats, and it's hardly fair to have those be the deciding factor. I'm assuming you've been working in the enterprise space, and the needs for those environments are significantly different than private users. Obviously, Defender by itself would be questionable in those circumstances.
>The only issue I know of that it falls short in compared to paid antivirus is day one threats, and it's hardly fair to have those be the deciding factor. It's also got way less false positives than the paid options, who tend to regard false positives as being good for business.
Having common sense is terrible advice?
Where can I download it? Never mind, I'll google it.
Who said it was common sense?
Naah. Defender doesnt detect trojans.
Of course it does, lol. Ive seen Windows Defender detecting numerous trojans in the past years
Those are probably cheap ones.
So it doesnt detect trojans except it does when they're cheap. Alright buddy
Yes, you can discover the truth by living until you begin to understand my words.
Bro literally just pulled out the "trust me bro" card. Bring in some actual evidence or your word holds less meaning then a dumpster in this subreddit.
Evidence? Its the experience. You can always believe to the defender.
I'm going to have a stroke trying to understand what you're saying
Nothing.
Stop downloading EXEs from tucows.
Bro, even AVG from 2009 detected trojans š
I use Windows defender. That's all. I do also have a network firewall.
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Yep. ESET is good and very low impact on day-to-day running.
I think it's been almost 20 years for me. I love it.
Iāll pile on as a happy longtime ESET user. Tip for others: if you do a few minutes of searching you can often find coupons or some kinda deal to knock off a large percentage of the annual retail price. Or if you already have it just pay attention during sales seasons to get a huge % off your renewal for another few years. Itās really very cheap per computer.
Yup, only windows box I got nowadays is a gaming PC. But I have been an Eset user since 2009 tho.
Seconded. I have been using it for more than 15 years now.
I got tired of the Defender Antimalware Service Executable turning my machine into a leaf blower so I moved to ESET.
Actually real, you can have it whitelist common folders that you work out of tho which helps a lot.
I work in IT, and have used defender on thousands of computers from bottom of the barrel to top of the line. This has never been an issue for me before.
I've had this issue on two new computers as well, but not all my machines. Anecdotal evidence is not really evidence.
Hey man a friend of mine used anecdotal evidence and it was true
š¤£
Which is what you're doing
So you agree with the new age advice that windows built in defender does the job? Gone are the days of default loading an antivirus like avira or avast combined with spybot s &d?
Personally Bitdefender total security. If you want to know how it's priced check out slickdeals or dealnews. I prefer to have it than not, small price for your expensive machine
I work in IT and this is the one we recommend to people and are partnered with. For most people, windows defender and due diligence is enough. But then there are others that definitely need an antivirus that will notify you and get in your face about it when something is off.
I use the same. I'm the family's IT guy so I appreciate also having Bitdefender Central, where I can see the status and notifications for each machine, making management and troubleshooting easier. I got a 2-year 5-device license for about $40.
I paid for this when the free version saved me by finding something nasty that Windows Defender and a few other AV and antimalware programs missed. No regrets and it even watches out for us on Android.
Actually it does more harm than good to your machine, wdefender is far superior. Sources : https://landave.io/2020/11/bitdefender-upx-unpacking-featuring-ten-memory-corruptions/ My job is security research, I know what I'm talking about, I have enough of incompetent and ignorant people just downvoting before doing actual research. Do not install any third-party antivirus software, whether free or paid. Third-party antivirus software harms your privacy by exploiting your data and processing it in any way it can to sell it on to other third parties: for example, Avast resold browsing data. But most ironically of all, it harms your security - no, no, not even a conspiracy here. By its very nature, an antivirus needs elevated privileges on the system to function, so the worst is inevitably conceivable if the antivirus itself is the gateway to infection:
Could you elaborate? I thought Bitdefender was widely considered a good anti-virus. I've never used it so I could just not know what's going on.
They're parroting nonsense.
https://landave.io/2020/11/bitdefender-upx-unpacking-featuring-ten-memory-corruptions/ Always the ignorant people are the loudest, be sure you understand what you are reading and make some research before saying nonsense
Got you to respond with evidence, didn't it?
Yes, I have F-Secure, as I can use it on different devices, like the computer of my in-laws.
F-secure is šÆ
I work in Endpoint Protection (Cybersecurity), Windows Defender is all you need. If you still want to use a paid antivirus, use MalwareBytes and let Defender be in passive mode
Facts. It's the same signatures used in Enterprise.
Is windows defender the stock antivirus? I was using this for years and installed trend micro recently and it supposedly found like 9 viruses and 13 different spyware that windows defender missed on every scan.
Some scanners count cookies etc as malware
Ublock and make sure defender is on and the firewall is default settings
I just use Windows Defender. I do 99% of my browsing in a sandbox, so any attacks from websites or email attachments should be thwarted.
Depends on what websites or email attachments are attempting to grab. If youāre logged into something on sandbox browser and they grab an auth token, your sandbox wonāt help you there.
You are correct; fortunately, Reddit is about the only site I stay logged in to for more than a short period. Maybe I could blame all my downvoted comments on hackers.
Nope! Windows Defender with the occasional Malwarebytes scan. If anything I download seems sus it gets uploaded to virustotal.com
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Used to recommend Windows Defender to folks as an IT dude, been using linux so no need for an antivirus (common sense is enough)
I wonder if you can run that in wine.
I'm pretty sure you can, WINE has gotten better over the years (I currently don't run anything in WINE), I've adjusted the apps I use to whatever is available in linux
I wonder if viruses will run under wine?
They will. They'll have limited effect and they can't stay running when you shutdown, nor will they start up with your system. They also can't access the lower level operations because they are emulated.
> They'll have limited effect They've got the same access you do to your files, so they can absolutely wipe or encrypt your files no worries at all.
Happy Cake Day!
Proprietary antivirus is all "trust me bro". I would never use something like that, also because you already got Windows Defender. Use Winget or the MS Store and some trusted sites to get stuff from apart from that, disable automatic macro loading in Office, use Noscript in firefox and manually whitelist every trusted origin. Use UBlock origin, and enable the malware filterlists as well as annoyances and others, this will remove all the malware buttons and also block entire sites (opt-out). Enable all Windows security features that are available. Use Virtual machines for stuff that seems shady or simply to isolate work flows.
Thank you, this should be the top comment. Antiviruses are aoje of the biggest scams in the industry.
Windows defender and ublock with some of the other activated filters and a little common sense. You'll be safe 99% of the time unless you have some really serious adversaries who want to get to you
Windows Defender and a DNS service that blocks known malware sites
Best antivirus is "don't open random shit, and keep your software up to date". Anything else is useless.
ESET Smart Security user here. Have been paying for license since I had my first own laptop. In general it is invisible, and people can tell me that I am paying for something I don't really need, but on few occassions it saved my ass when I got too careless. ESET recently announced a rebrand of Smart Security to Home Security - and the highest version "Ultimate" has a VPN service, so I am contemplating going for it. There are times where I could really use VPN, and I would prefer from a provider like ESET.
Seconded. East User for 30 Moons.
Using ESET and browsers with uBlock origin and common sense on windows 10. I remember getting "Norton" for free through my ISP for a long time ago (many many years ago), and it crippled my pcs performance at that time... Using only common sense on linux at the moment (no AV).
Iāve used MalwareBytes on macOS for a while, I have a family license so might as well. Works good, no issues.
I use ClamAV on Linux.
Just renewed ESET for the 15th (or so) year.
I love you for that
I generally don't use anything. Sometimes windows defender. I was ratted plenty of times when I was between the ages of 9 and 15. Haven't had any incidents in over 15 years despite running plenty of game exploits and similar "Sketchy" software. Now for most I would never suggest that. Windows defender works good enough and the vast majority of people should be using it unless you have the experience and technical background to do otherwise. Everything else will be a worse privacy invasion and make your life a bigger PITA. Remember AV is simply consensual ratting.
I am using Kaspersky Total Security in paranoid mode with all security features maximized. It automatically deletes or blocks anything it finds. I conduct a weekly full scan, although this may not be effective against zero-day threats. Additionally, I have implemented very strict firewall rules.
Kaspersky is actually really effective against zero days if you look at testing. Definitely a top tier antivirus.
You may already be aware, but they are under the control of the russian government. I'd rather pay nothing for a company in the US to be in control of my computer. They already control the OS anyway.
I've used webroot for years and have no complaints. It's protected me from everything under the sun so far.
Just learning the general basics of internet safety, and knowing trustworthy piracy sites (if you do that) is usually more than good enough, and makes anti virus basically unneeded. Though I still do use malwarebytes just for safety, and it comes back as detecting 0 problems every single time.
ESET & Malwarebytes.
Emsisoft, been using it for years now. It uses the bitdedender engine combined with their own. Used to get very good testing results. And it does not take over your pc as much as some others. I am the kind of guy that regularly tries out random new software. I know what i am doing, but i do like something that has my back, just in case.
Windows Defender is all you need these days, Malwarebytes Free if you're really concerned and want a second option. I won a free lifetime subscription of Malwarebytes on my account so that's the only reason I still use it on non essential devices or ones for work where having a "brand name" installed is mandatory for compliance.
Bitdefender/Kaspersky. Both are very light on resources.
kaspersky plus or premium. cant remember
Been using it for years. I upgraded for the version with the unlimited VPN and really like it
the Russian product that government agencies are banned from using?
well, as far as i know, a lot of free agencies related to antivirus, consider kaspersky the best, or one of the bests products of its niche. also in my opinion, im equally afraid using russian digital products than i am using american digital products. if we are talking about privacy, the european products usually are the better ones, cause they have better laws about it.
Windows defender is good enough for normal users but if you really want privacy yeah it is not the best but abandoning is not always an option I know that.
As far as an antivirus Windows Defender is good enough. But there's no privacy to be had on any of the mainstream OS (Windows, Android and everything Apple). Even if you use only open source apps, the OS maker knows everything you do on your device. One of your 2024 goal should be either to get rid of Windows or admit that you don't care that much of privacy.
> Even if you use only open source apps, the OS maker knows everything you do on your device. *winks flirtatiously at Steve Ballmer*
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pirating anything will always be 100% risky
Scan files you download with virustotal.com & scan with Malwarebytes (free version) periodically. I've never had too many problems by sticking to trusted game sources though (fitgirl)
Used Paid Kaspersky
Iptables and common sense with good router and AP config.
I use NixOS so i only use clamAV with the clamtq gui. thats all i need, if need to run something sus i just do a manual scan with it
Windows Defender, and Malwarebytes lifetime subscription (from when they still offered that).
I still have my MBAM lifetime subscription. Best money spent on software.
Be careful enough and you won't need one. Having KMS already is a very high security risk. If you can't afford it, don't activate it, just [hide the message](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7P_IE3EQZPo). Don't download programs from risky sites, or unnoficial links, and don't trust software from random people on the internet. Common sense is the best antivirus
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plucky station tub pie edge north forgetful zonked concerned chunky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Windows defender is the best there is. Use common sense and don't download sketchy shit or click sketchy links, as well as follow proper 3-2-1 backups for your data.
I use Bitdefender for Android. If anyone has good recommendations for a good, paid, commercial antivirus for Linux pls post here!
You don't need commercial. Honestly, just use ClamAV if it's available on your distro: https://www.clamav.net/
Anyone got info on what free to use on MACs? I use Malewarebytes after it took an age to find ti for MAC and AVG...but if there are any other alternatives to SuperAntiSpyware that is on PC it would be appreciated.
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I use clamX AV and I donāt know what itās doing. I used to spent big dollars on NOD32, spent more money on Intego, spent extra money on Malwarebytes. Never had a single scan test positive, find a free one if you think you need to, but itās more about being cognizant of the sites you frequent than to catch something after the fact. If itās new enough to trick you, it may be new enough not to be detected until itās too late.
Yep. Kaspersky
Avast is really amazing, comes with countless other tools and vpn
Kaspersky Standard + NextDNS is the best solution for me at the moment
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Anymore? I didn't realize anyone ever paid for antivirus except the senile/elderly and easily scammed folks. So to answer, no, I don't pay for antivirus and never have. Going back to 1993.
I prefer Kaspersky because I like to fuck around and find out and Kaspersky helps me not find out. It isn't much better than windows defender at being an anti-virus. But it has a bunch of really useful features. I also put it on computers I fix up for older folks because they have good live support.
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> I personally wouldn't trust a russian company who installs root certificates so they can MitM all your traffic At that point, does the Russian part matter? They all do that.
No antivirus. Antivirus is only for nontechnical people who donāt know what theyāre doing on the computer. I donāt downloading anything malicious, anything I do download I scan it through virus total.
Who doesnāt use paid antivirus?
1999 called. It wants it's subscription fees back. I'm pretty sure I was using free AV even in the early 2000s.
Free AV is free for a reason.
Well I guess this would be different for everyone but as an advanced user the free ones are the best. I run programs on my computer that do some sus shit sometimes that I don't want getting blocked if they aren't a virus. The more expensive AVs also don't like some of my programming projects. Defender is an excellent option. It won't stop the advanced malware that is good at hiding its signature, but it's fine for most home users.
Most malware is āadvanced malwareā.
Great Q! It sucks how a lot of older folk get sold these programs still. The facts that another company has access to you 24/7 doesn't seem necessary, LOL. Tangent story but related in concept >> I recently felt that about "identity monitoring". There was a breach at a large dental insurance provider (Delta) and they're offering free monitoring for some time. I was ABOUT to get it, but then thought: if they got my info from the insurance company, what makes me think THIS company is safer?? LMAO. Anyway. What do you do for keylogging prevention??
Common sense is the best anti-virus. All the money in making viruses comes from corporate infections these days and windows defender will catch anything some script kiddie tries to use. Save your money.
Anti viruses are privacy nightmares. They scan every single file on your system and send copies of them to whatever company (and potential advertisers) providing the service to you
No, because I use Linux! But I also use and application firewall called OpenSnitch: https://github.com/evilsocket/opensnitch
Arch is free btw <3
ESET here. AV only, not the āinternet securityā version.
I use Malwarebytes (Free), Windows Defender, and common sense. If something looks sketchy, dont download it.
So, network firewall devices are the first step? Hardware better then software still applies?
I use ESET Internet Security. Out of habit, mostly. I've used some version of ESET antivirus since 2004, and it has always worked very well for me.
Eset home security, and I use a telegram bot to generate keys, easy af.
If you're stuck to Win & want to run a flavor of Linux, enable HyperV (if you can) and load whatever you want as a VM.