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I've always wondered if having a third party anti virus software is better than just going on with the built in windows defender. I think being considerate with your browsing on the internet and with windows defender as your AV is plenty. With that being said, do you guys think that third party AVs are better security than windows defender? or if they can be better than windows defender in the use case of new/inexperienced users?

Is it as good at detecting viruses as other consumer brand anti virus programs like Malwarebytes? I'm particularly curious about its boot time scan function since there aren't many consumer grade programs that offer that. I was told by this one dude who tested it in a virtual machine that it really isn't that good. When he created his own malware, it basically detected nothing, while Malwarebytes for instance, did a pretty good job detecting most of it.

Hello.... I have an urgent question... does somebody know a good free anti virus software?\ P.S. Windows 10

I'm having a bit of an issue. Avast keeps detecting a "VBM:Malware-gen". It started randomly after going to the NCIX page. It was literally popping up a couple times a second. It seems to have infected the "Chrome.exe" judging what Avast was telling me. So I then scan the entire google folder in my program files, it detected nothing. But continued to say Chrome.exe in that same folder was infected. I uninstall Chrome, and reinstall it, although it saved my bookmarks and login info and such, so I guess I didn't delete all the folders like I though (appdata, programdata, etc). It's moved 3 files to my virus fault, one being MPOW.ink, and 2 counters.dat from a Windows/Netcache folder. MPOW is just a bluetooth dongle I use for connecting wired headphones to my PC through bluetooth, also use it with my phone so something infected that file, it didn't come like that. So as of now I'm scanning my entire my PC with Avast, it's about 11%. But in the meantime I figured I'd install malwarebytes and see if it can help faster, but here's a strange problem. There's already a malwarebytes folder in my programdata (which is where it tries to install, I'm not being prompted beforehand to try a different folder) and so it attempts to overwrite these files, but it gives me 'access is denied'. I tried changing permissions through the security tab and stuff, no matter what I do it tells me I don't have the privileges to change that file. I tried running cmd as admin, and trying the 'del filename.extension', but CMD also tells me access is denied. This is my PC, my Windows, I'm the only account on the PC, I can edit everything else except that malwarebytes folder. The folder was created march 2016, which was the last time I installed the program, and it's retained a few files like "exclusions.data", and 6 files in the "configuration folder", which are 'gatekeeper.conf, license.conf, notifications.conf, scheduler.conf, settings.conf, and statistics.conf'. Otherwise there's nothing else in the folder. I'm not sure if it's related to the apparent malware problem, but I'm frustrated and can't seem to figure out what's going on. I search the file Avast is warning me about, and it tells me it's clean, yet it keeps blocking it (unless it's blocking the infection from HITTING the exe. I'm not quite sure). Ideas about either issue?

I am getting my first Windows laptop (Dell XPS 15 9560). I am wondering on what anti virus service I should be using. I know it comes with 1 year of McAfee but I've heard about it being bad. Any advice will be appreciated!

ok guys im sure this is here already but i cant find any real help. i have a toshiba HDD from an old laptop. my brother distroyed his computer and i stole the HDD from him since he cant use it anymore and i checkd it and it had viruses on it. i ran my AVG and got rid of them. i then deleted the volumes on the HDD and reformated it to use as a storage HDD for my anime and PDF books i backed up from my collection. anyways i know there are viruses and rootkits that can still be on the HDD but AVG doesnt find anything and all the help i find are for primary HDDs that have windows installed. since this will be a 2nd...well 3rd hard drive that i will install on my computer but want to make sure its 100% risk free before i install it for my main rig. if there is no way to make sure i will just buy a new drive just for that since i dont wanna bog down my main HDD for my rig. thanks for the help guys. also what affects does having more than 2 HDD/SSD installed on one computer (non-raid). will there be like slow speeds or anything like that. i know HDDs are slower than SSD but i mean just in general on stuff like that XD. just currious guys and gals haha

Sources: Reuters, Twitter (Eugene Kaspersky), Forbes To be fair, Eugene Kaspersky offered first to the US Congress to testify and have their source code inspected saying "In addition, we’ve offered the U.S. government any assistance it might need to help clarify the ongoing confusion regarding the falsely perceived threat they wrongly believe our products and technologies pose. We’re even willing to meet with any of them and give them our source code to thoroughly review it, as we’ve got nothing to hide. We want the government, our users and the public to fully understand that having Russian roots does not make us guilty." [Source: Eugene Kaspersky's personal blog] He even called out Bloomberg saying that they're editing an agricultural newspaper (here). Yesterday, he responded to the NY Times article by US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) who said that the Russian cybersecurity giant is a danger to US security. Kaspersky wrote at the Forbes saying "it's not only damaging to the livelihood of 300+ KL employees in the United States but also detracting from valid concerns about the ability of different nations to engage in cyberespionage and to direct digitally enabled attacks against critical infrastructure." Personally, this is an investigation I'll pay attention to as a user of Kaspersky Lab products since 2011. I don't know if there's anything nefarious going on but I'm not paranoid because their products work so well without being heavy on system resources and being unobtrusive and their products are well received. I think they are the few AVs to block WannaCry even before it hit the news saying on 30% of AVs detected and blocked WannaCry when it first hit which includes KL. (source: The Mirror) If they found something truly nefarious in their source code after the investigation, I'd stop using Kaspersky Lab but if not, then I'll continue using KL. Since Eugene Kaspersky himself wanted to testify on behalf of his company and employees, I guess it's a form of sincerity. I think he even said on his blog that it's not good to be Russian at the moment but he can't do anything about it.

Hey all, my storage drive recently kicked the bucket and I have replaced it since. Now my issue is, AVG was installed on that old drive. When I attempt to redownload it and install it, it tells me that it cannot be installed again except on the hard drive where it was previous installed, my dead drive. Is there a work around for this other than finding a different free antivirus?

Sources: Ars Technica, Reuters, BSI (Germany) The WaPo article reporting the same events is here It adds additional details about the role Kaspersky AV reportedly played in identifying the NSA material the employee stored on his home computer. In a statement, Kaspersky Lab officials wrote: This is a bit concerning. I've used Kaspersky AVs since college when my PC got infected by a nasty worm that hid all my essential files and replaced them with shortcuts and stupid Microsoft Security Essentials wasn't able to detect and remove it so I downloaded a 30-day trial of Kaspersky Internet Security and it detected the nasty worm and I was able to recover my files and from that day on, I've been a customer and I even installed it to my parents' PC at home. While I don't think home users have little to worry about, it is what the alleged spying it does. Until the US Senate hearing ensues, I'd still give them the benefit of the doubt unless the code inspection by US CERT and NIST found something deplorable. Founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky responded to the allegations in his personal blog saying: I don't know if I'm buying Kaspersky's response there. But the crazy thing is that Israeli hackers penetrated inside Kaspersky Lab's own network and remain undetected for months just to know the shenanigans of the NSA but only to see that allegedly, Kaspersky is working hand in hand with the Russian intelligence. It does raise a lot of concerns but the caveat is that a lot of these evidences proffered against Kaspersky are unknown sources. I think Kaspersky is caught in the middle of a modern day cold war but doubts on cyber espionage cannot be ruled out until the 25th of October when Eugene Kaspersky himself will testify on the US Senate. In their company website, they explained how they work and how their cloud services protect user privacy which you can read here and here.. You be the judge. I'll just wait here as the story unfolds. Although reading their privacy statement on their cloud protection service, I kinda wish Microsoft would finally allow full disabling of telemetry in Windows 10. Maybe they'll finally add it in their Spring Creators Update? UPDATE: There was an Ars Technica article at the moment about how allegedly Kaspersky modified their AV to be used by Russian intelligence to steal NSA secrets. In the latest Reuters article, Germany's BSI federal cyber agency said that the malicious accusations to Kaspersky Lab have no evidence that the Russian government used Kaspersky Lab AV to spy US authorities. Here's the original press release from Germany BSI in the original German language. Any German member in LTT can translate it correctly: Is Google Translate correct in translating? I hope so. But I want to know on what grounds or how did the German BSI investigated and found nothing. If Germany is correct, then all of the allegations to Kaspersky Lab and Eugene Kaspersky is basically oral defamation due to geopolitical conflicts. I wish other intelligence agencies from other countries to come to prove or disprove the allegations.

Intro: What I have and what I know Antivirus So I've been using McAfee for a little over a year because my Dad said it's one of the best anti virus, but my Dad only knows the big brands and was somewhat good with tech but what he's been using for a while isn't the best anymore, especially to many tech enthusiasts like me and everybody on LTT forums. VPN I also never use VPN unless I might need to unblock some random sites (no, not Porn) in countries overseas so for stuff like that I just use some random free VPN I can find on the Google Play store. The problem is most free ones don't really work that well and usually degrade the quality of the WiFi connection to the point that it's unusable, and some work enough to unblock sites but when I try to keep it on when I do my normal stuff, the WiFi becomes unsuable. Password Manager So I used to use a free password manager that was really good, 1Password, but I honestly never really needed it cause there was like one main password I used for almost everything and sometimes (rarely) would I modify it for some sites. But it's paid for the PC and when I changed phones, I just decided to stop using it. Then I started to need to sign up with many more very important sites because I started having to look at colleges, start studying for the SAT, and take AP exams, etc. And I also started really changing up my passwords, to the point that it was definitely impossible to remember them, so I started looking towards ways to organize my passwords. When I asked my Dad if he could let me buy a password manager I really liked he said, there's no use, just do what I do. What he does is write his passwords in a document and changes parts of the password that he uses often into little codes and it makes it quite unreadable. So for some time I used a combination of binary, coding syntax, a secret language my cousin made up a while ago, Cesar cipher, and used in weird ways to secure my passwords that I would put into a document on google drive. And I guarantee that anyone who tries to decode them would not be able to, here's the whole current list Data Set Inpeeps = Eeep Langeep; Int varEeep = Norm; inputShift(even.Num) = inpeep.Num(odd.Num); Ex.input {1st key = [Int indexNumber myEvnShft = OdShft;]} Ordeep = code.bineep; lrn = educateep, scheep; frum = foreep, Teep’s Hardweep; shp = Ebeep, Amazeep; prfsnl = busineep, careep; prsnl = meep, priveep steep; gmng = videep geeps, gameep acceeps; ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890!@#$%^&*() 00000001Int lrnCnnUggru = Epvkbjkj4499!; 00000010Int frumPiitXiitXiit = Jgrxm&&!!; 00000011Int shpTkkvKmm = Litzo((##; 00000100Int prfsnlOummx = SlihuvuKv2qAA%%; 00000101Int frumcwoozLooz3 = Pmx4sCC&&; 00000110Int prfsnlZm8umzoqq2 = Roz6uEE((; 00000111Int gmnga3xss4 = Yron121Q28wGAGA; 00001000Int prsnl!WOOZ = S40ypxyxatqICICI; 00001001Int gmngV1!uww8 = cvsr565UKKK; 00001010Int prfsnlnyy0p3y&yy0 = W8$3t232exuGGGGG; 00001011Int lrnY!8811@X11@ = gzwv909YII; 00001100Int prfsnll71633$ = i2ya@*7QQQ; 00101000Int manyvids = hello7tele89wo#rmus; But my process was too slow and if I was to make it less complicated then it wouldn't be that secure and I would not be able to put it onto a cloud storage service like Google Drive. I also had way too many passwords and I've decided I'm just gonna use a password manager. Need: What I'm looking to gain from you guys What I'm here for is to ask you guys for... Good Antivirus: I think I'm gonna switch to bitdefender ASAP cause I've heard a lot of great things about it. Good VPN: When I was checking bitdefender's plans I found that you can add their VPN to it but when I searched up about it, people said it's just a rebrand of hotspot shield (or something like that) and it's really bad. So I need a good VPN that is able to protect my data and privacy from my ISP and anything bad. Good Password manager: Lastly, I want a good password manager that people like, trust, and actually recommend to others. I also need it to have these requirements Support for PC and other devices, most importantly Android. It needs to work well with other devices and not just a good PC app but an Android app that was just thrown together with a shitty UI (like the Steam app on IOS) I also want to be able to store a bunch of passwords. And any other features would be good like it works well with android to the point that it could ask me if I want it to fill a certain app's password when it comes up or that it auto fills in google chrome well unlike Truekey's trash autofill (although I haven't tried it in a while so it might have improved) I am kind of asking a lot but just please tell me what you can and help me out to the best of your abilities. All help is appreciated

So I've been looking for an anti virus/malware program and was wondering if any of you had recommendations? PCMag recommends Bitdefender, Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, and Webroot. I'm leaning towards purchasing McAfee since it will cover my 2 PCs, Laptop, and 2 phones with a single subscription.

I'm looking into getting new anti virus for my pc and ideally would be wanting a program with the least amount of performance hit to my pc. What lightweight low impact anti virus do you guys suggest? I was using Bitdefender on my old laptop and it completely taxed it. Thanks!

So i use windows defender and malware bytes but saw that malware bytes uses a decent amount of ram at all times (not a lot but enough to start a topic about it :D) so my question is, should i turn off malware bytes and just have defender running in the background and then do a scan with both every once in a while? or just keep both running? Thanks

Hi, I've been trying to add a false positive file to my exclusions but bit defender is preventing me from even clicking "add to exclusions" or not doing anything at all. Any suggestions on this or is this a common issue with the free version of bitdefender? Cheers

I tend to run a lot of Virus Scans(Probably between 3 and 6 a day), I use Malwarebytes and Avast for scanning btw and I have AVAST Actively monitor my pc as well. I have never had any issues with these programs and as of now, I have yet to get a serious infection on my PC. My main question is, can running this many AV scans hurt my OS or my PC at all. I also tend to use CCleaner at least a few times a day, Although when I use it, I dont clean everything, I particularily avoid windows files and the registry cleaner(which I have yet to use). Is there any danger in this either as far as harming my computer. Thanks In Advance!

I have a large music library on my Macbook Pro and I recently got a 4TB HDD for my PC. I've bought most of my music from iTunes / bandcamp. But some of the really "hipster underground" albums weren't available on either platform so I had to either download them from a sketchy website or torrent them. This obviously wasn't a problem for the Mac because they don't give a shit about viruses. I want to keep my PC as clean as possible. What would you recommend using to scan video and audio files for viruses etc? *Something available on Mac so I can scan them before transferring if scanning the files on an external isn't possible. Thanks.

I hope the video comes through, but the video is of of my task manager. Is shows Kaspersky Anti-Virus using 50% or more of my total CPUs. Very disconcerting for me seeing how my CPUs is an AMD athlon II x2 220 and I need it's power going to my more vital things. Thank you community for your help!! IMG_1420.MOV

Simple question, also post as description on why you won't use it ever again & also which AV soft would you recommend both free & paid

Hello, can any body suggest a good free antivirus, that will not load hard ob the netbook , that we use for studding , while in university. Thank you

so i got my new Gaming pc and i don't have any anti virus or anti Malware to protect my computer, i spend a lot to build this pc and i want to spend for anti virus or anti malware (better that have both) to protect my computer. i download a lot mods and (many) torrents. any recommendations? pls comment so i can buy. thanks

What's your say in 2 anti virus programs like malwarebytes and webroot or a different combo etc etc

Hi Friends, I recently installed Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 in my Computer. Till then I had regular Windows 8.1 updates. But as soon as I installed the AV, the updates stop showing up. Is anyone else facing the problem. What is the solution for this?

So I am running windows 8 pro on my PC and I believe there is the windows defender app built into it. Do I need to go out buying a anti virus software?

(Before starting a description, this is not exactly news and I am not much of a writer, however I am posting it here including my sources. This issue, as-well as the IPv6 Router Advertisement flood needs to be resolved. This won't be the easiest to read however, anyone with some technical knowledge should be able to get the just of what I am saying) Sam Bowne teaches Ethical Hacking at the City College San Francisco1. Sam Bowne has done many talks at Defcon which can all be found on You Tube2. Most recently Sam Bowne had his students modify & compile malware in Python into Windows executables3, thus making Virus Total.com unable to detect it(Virus Total does not use heuristics, as normal Anti Virus engines would) making the code effective against Anti Virus softwares with Behavioral Analysis options disabled(Which they very rarely are)4. After having published his findings a Twitter follower by the name of Bobby 'Tables5 suggested to Sam Bowne that Behavioral Analysis really only watches the process for "a minute or two", suggesting that a simple delay in combination with Sam's original method could make both definitions obsolete by modifying the malicious code, compiling in Python, then switching it over to a Windows executable, leaving heuristics or "behavioral analysis" the only thing left to pick up the malicious code. To get around heuristics Sam simply used a delay after starting the process to in essence wait until the guards pass to do something malicious. The delay issue in itself actually worries me a fair bit more than, a slight modification of malicious code in Python. My suggestion for Anti Virus manufacturers is to offer users the flexibility on both how long heuristics will watch certain processes, and maybe even the intervals in which the Anti Virus software re-checks processes. Anti Virus Software such as ESET Nod32/Smart Security is already so light weight and efficient that, I could see myself having it watch processes for about an hour long still with minimal performance hits. If you are interested in watching a video on Sam Bowne demonstrating these concepts the link has been provided in the sources, as-well as a link to a video on IPv6 Router Advertisement Floods. Sources: 1: https://twitter.com/sambowne 2: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Sam+Bowne+Defcon 3: http://samsclass.info/124/proj14/p8-av.htm 4: http://samsclass.info/124/proj14/norton.htm 5: https://twitter.com/info_dox 6: RA flood Videos: RA flood hitting fortigate: RA flood discussion: