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Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 3:40 PM
I've been thinking lately I should probably boost things up on this front and make it as secure as possible instead of continuing with AVG, but I'm out of the loop with what's considered good or bad these days. I know about the usual players like Norton, Kaspersky and such, but what's the recommendations these days?
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Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 4:09 PM
I've been thinking lately I should probably boost things up on this front and make it as secure as possible instead of continuing with AVG, but I'm out of the loop with what's considered good or bad these days. I know about the usual players like Norton, Kaspersky and such, but what's the recommendations these days?
I've used MalwareBytes in the past, its pretty good for what you get. The free version is obviously very basic but the pro version has all the features you'd expect. Another option is AVAST! but I've not used that one personally so couldn't really say much about it.
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Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 4:37 PM
–
Last edited by Sul-Matuul; Wed 02 Sep, 2020 4:58 PM.
You'll probably see loads of good reviews for Bitdefender but don't touch it with a 6ft pole...it is utter crap if you'll pardon my language.
It slowed my PC down to barely a crawl and resulted is completely insane start-up times when switching on the machine. Also took forever to start up to the user interface to control it. Had the exact same experience with it on my wife's laptop as well (and it was brand new, top of the line for work). Absolutely not worth the price even with all the good things it claims to do.
There are many free options that do pretty well these days.
Honestly I find many of the paid for software options put your PC in a worse state than it getting infected in the first place.
Edit: forgot to mention, I'm using the Windows 10 defender without any issues.
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Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 4:38 PM
I have been using Symantec Endpoint Protection for the longest time, but the build in Windows Defender has become very good too.
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Post ID: 425157
#5
Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 4:57 PM
I’ve used the built in Windows Defender for years, never had any problems since ditching third party applications.
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Post ID: 425158
#6
Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 4:58 PM
I’ve used the built in Windows Defender for years, never had any problems since ditching third party applications.
Same here!
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe...
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Post ID: 425162
#7
Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 5:25 PM
I also use Windows Defender and have had no problems. I find that as long as you're smart and keep an eye on what you download, you don't need anything too advanced.
I really hope I haven't tempted fate by saying that XD
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Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 5:33 PM
I'm using ESET on a multi device license at home; really handy for managing my daughters PC.
Windows Defender has come a long way but its still a bit basic and is always behind dedicated AV platforms.
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Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 5:53 PM
I also use Windows 10 Defender on my New rig
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Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 6:17 PM
I had to replace Windows Defender, it was doing something funky and eating up massive amounts of CPU cycles.
I think I'm just using Comodo since I've been using their firewall for ages.
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Post ID: 425183
#11
Posted Wed 02 Sep, 2020 9:11 PM
–
Last edited by aceman67; Wed 02 Sep, 2020 9:16 PM.
Personally, I use a mixture of common sense and Windows Defender. The majority of infections you get online happen because people are being idiots and doing things that aren't smart, like downloading stuff they shouldn't or browsing sketchy websites.
All my important files are backed up on Google Drive, and everything else honestly doesn't matter if it gets lost with a virus/ransomware attack, Just nuke and reinstall.
The big, old names in Anti-Virus like Norton and Mcafee are just bloatware where the benefits/protection gained aren't worth the hit to performance, and even in the case of Mcafee's case some security firms classify it as Malware due to the performance hit, the intrusiveness of the program (pestering the user) and its difficulty of removing it.
AVG and Avast are good for those who don't have the money to shell out on a subscription (although these do offer subscription tiers), but I find that both are intrusive and with Avast, I get a metric tonne of false positives. Also, the performance hit on lower-powered systems for both AVG and Avast is pretty high.
As for Kaspersky... Sorry, Mr. Putin, I'm not giving the Russian GRU a back door into my computer. Call me paranoid, but given the recent events in 2016 that gave us the orange man, I don't think I'm that far off in my assessment.
And Petrarch, if you're thinking about beefing up your system security, maybe make the move over to virtual machines with a LInux back-end? I'm actually planning on doing this in the near future. Going to be doing something similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7SG7ccjn-g
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Posted Thu 03 Sep, 2020 11:34 PM
I have used AVG free, AVAST!, Kaspersky paid or pro or whatever they call it (My father bought a 3-year / 3 install package), and a ton of other free anti-virals. Right now I'm using Windows Defender. I have been for almost 2 years without issue. It's VERY lightweight, it's free, and it gets installed whether you want it or not. Honestly, judicious port closures, a decent VPN, and Windows Defender should make you purt-near bulletproof as long as you don't do stupid stuff on your own.
Most infections come from stupid things the ID:10-T in charge does. Don't be that person and you should be okay no matter what you use.
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Posted Fri 04 Sep, 2020 5:28 PM
When you talk anti-virus, you're mostly looking at signature-based protection. For Windows 10, Defender does a pretty solid job for being built-in and free. Just be sure to keep your system updated, as signature updates come out fairly regularly.
For home use, I supplement with MalwareBytes (free) as I found that to do a good job of purging browser-registry type issues.
At work, I manage our AI based (i.e. Behavior-based) protection. We use Cortex XDR (PaloAlto Networks) for endpoint protection on clients and servers. Basically, behavior-based protection is where it looks for a series of commands that are launched that when viewed in sequence and together can be a subtle cyber attack. This is pretty powerful, as I have seen where a series of normal commands are launched and then "try" to initiate a call for an FTP site in China. Of course, that was stopped at that point due to policy set in place. This is also not cheap.
On a sidenote, besides your anti-virus or any endpoint protection software, one of the most important things you can do for system health is to keep your system patched. I'm talking eliminating the known vulnerabilities. Not just operating system but applications. Especially your browsers, as you use them a lot as your gateway out into the 'wild wild internet'.
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Posted Sat 05 Sep, 2020 6:12 PM
Some definite food for though here, cheers folks. I do have Windows Defender working behind AVG so it's sounding like I'm already in a good position as it stands. I'll have a bit of think before going any further.