Ransomware protection

[Midevil Chaos]

Is there an antivirus that offers free ransomware protection? I haven't found any so far. (except Bitdefender in any case, as that AV always crashes on any system I install it on. Not that I know if it offers free ransomware protection lol)

[Electronics Wizardy]

I mean backups? You really don't want to rely on a av for this, make sure you have good backups as well. Defender should be fine here.

[Razor Blade]

Best ransomware protections are inaccessible backups. Be them offline on a disk you physically plug in every time or through something you have to log in every time to access anything.

 

Windows defender has a "ransomware protection" option but again... backups... it is difficult to know once your system is infected what is okay and what isn't or what damage it has done.

[Midevil Chaos]

Yeah, backups is always good. But, I still would like an AV that has some ransomware protection, just in case. This won't be for me, but for my mother as I'll be setting something up that will have automatic updates etc. But a ransomware protection as an extra bonus on an AV would be nice. As a last layer of defence.

[191x7]

KARTB - Kaspersky Anti ransomware Tool for Business (free) should work great alongside any free AV.

[captain_aggravated]

45 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

KARTB - Kaspersky Anti ransomware Tool for Business (free) should work great alongside any free AV.

I don't know if I trust Kaspersky.

 

Take good backups.  Large capacity external hard drives are quite inexpensive these days.  Buy at least two and alternate them.  I take a week's worth of backups, and then rotate to another drive.  The others remain unplugged while not in use.  Unplugging the backup drive while not taking backups isn't a bad idea either.  In case of ransomware, just immediately nuke all drives attached to the system and reload.

 

Also, don't run untrusted files, don't go to sites you don't trust, etc.

[Midevil Chaos]

2 minutes ago, captain_aggravated said:

I don't know if I trust Kaspersky.

 

Take good backups.  Large capacity external hard drives are quite inexpensive these days.  Buy at least two and alternate them.  I take a week's worth of backups, and then rotate to another drive.  The others remain unplugged while not in use.  Unplugging the backup drive while not taking backups isn't a bad idea either.  In case of ransomware, just immediately nuke all drives attached to the system and reload.

 

Also, don't run untrusted files, don't go to sites you don't trust, etc.

What is wrong with Kaspersky?

[captain_aggravated]

1 minute ago, Midevil Chaos said:

What is wrong with Kaspersky?

Alleged ties to the Russian government, etc.  DHS ousted their software from the US Federal government awhile back for alleged spying efforts.  I have no reliable method to determine if those allegations are true or if it's just some limp-dingus chickenhawk in Washington posturing for any one of a trillion reasons.  And that's sort of the crux of it, I don't have a basis for trust in either direction, so I'm out.

[Midevil Chaos]

2 minutes ago, captain_aggravated said:

Alleged ties to the Russian government, etc.  DHS ousted their software from the US Federal government awhile back for alleged spying efforts.  I have no reliable method to determine if those allegations are true or if it's just some limp-dingus chickenhawk in Washington posturing for any one of a trillion reasons.  And that's sort of the crux of it, I don't have a basis for trust in either direction, so I'm out.

I see your point. Although, I have not yet found any Canadian articles about this. Personally, I view Canadian articles as more trustworthy (as it's an outsider), but since I could not find any thus far, I assume it was either because they could not find anything substantial, or I am just terrible at googling stuff XD

[captain_aggravated]

1 minute ago, Midevil Chaos said:

I see your point. Although, I have not yet found any Canadian articles about this. Personally, I view Canadian articles as more trustworthy (as it's an outsider), but since I could not find any thus far, I assume it was either because they could not find anything substantial, or I am just terrible at googling stuff XD

I just happened to stumble on an article by The Guardian, are the Brits Canadian enough? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/13/us-government-bans-kaspersky-lab-russian-spying

 

The ban certainly happened but I'll reiterate, I feel I have no plausible way of determining whether those allegations have merit.  It could be as simple as "Hey, you know, maybe our government should be running security software written on our own soil, just sayin'."  It could be "Look see, we're even banning some of their software. #nocollusion #fakenews"  It could be "I miss the Cold War, let's piss off a big Russian software firm, that'll show my wife them."  It could be (I suspect it is) "I miss the '50's; all that lead paint I ate back then sure was tasty.  What?  Some emails?  Well overreact to them already!"  And it could be that a Russian company that makes software with root access to the machine and regularly phones home is a legitimate security concern. 

 

I found an article on Wired.com stating the CEO of Kaspersky invited the US government to inspect their source code.  That's certainly a point in their favor, but I don't get to read that code personally even if I had the technical skill to verify a program that complex (which I certainly don't), I couldn't determine if the binaries I'd get from them are compiled from that or different source code, I wouldn't know if that code has been edited for review, and so forth.  I'm looking at a bunch of geriatric baboons who will say literally anything if they think it'll make them any money, and a foreign business I have no prior working relationship with.  I have little basis to trust either one.

 

I'm also a Linux guy so I'm not as in the market for security software as your average guy.  They talk a big game about Linux being more inherently secure than Windows, but I'm not so sure. I think we just break, nuke and rebuild our systems so often that malware can't get a foothold.

[Midevil Chaos]

Took me 20 minutes to download the tool and test it out... and I get this message at the end: "sorry, something went wrong. please contact your administrator". Who? Me? XD So, for all I know, you could be right and someone is not happy in the US or Russia lol. As for the Guardian, naw, I don't trust it. Whether good or bad news.

 

As for Big Brother, the only place I enjoy seeing that is in 1984 where it belongs. Concerning Kaspersky though, they are out there to make money, not spy on people. I had a co-worker who is Taiwanese and he told me that I should not install Qihoo 360 because he strongly believes that the Chinese government would spy using that AV. Would AV companies facilitate that? I don't know to be honest. But until there is a Canadian AV out there, what can I do? XD