Is antivirus software still needed?

[Guilherme Alles]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been primarily a Linux and Mac user for good part of the last 5 years, until I recently decided to build a respectable Windows machine. Now that I am turning my main computing station to a Windows environment, I must ask: how is the situation with malwares and viruses in general on Windows? Assuming I will not be downloading pirate games, movies or anything "suspect", how safe am I using only Windows Defender and Windows Firewall?

 

Also, what would be the best antivirus software nowadays, in your opinion? Detection ratio, regular updates and low system overhead are my main concerns...

 

Cheers,

[Aytex]

1 minute ago, Guilherme Alles said:

Hello everyone,

 

I have been primarily a Linux and Mac user for good part of the last 5 years, until I recently decided to build a respectable Windows machine. Now that I am turning my main computing station to a Windows environment, I must ask: how is the situation with malwares and viruses in general on Windows? Assuming I will not be downloading pirate games, movies or anything "suspect", how safe am I using only Windows Defender and Windows Firewall?

 

Also, what would be the best antivirus software nowadays, in your opinion? Detection ratio, regular updates and low system overhead are my main concerns...

 

Cheers,

only if you download alot of stuff via browser

 

[AlbinoTexan]

If your not smart with downloads yes.

 

 

[VTF5252]

2 minutes ago, Guilherme Alles said:

Hello everyone,

 

I have been primarily a Linux and Mac user for good part of the last 5 years, until I recently decided to build a respectable Windows machine. Now that I am turning my main computing station to a Windows environment, I must ask: how is the situation with malwares and viruses in general on Windows? Assuming I will not be downloading pirate games, movies or anything "suspect", how safe am I using only Windows Defender and Windows Firewall?

 

Also, what would be the best antivirus software nowadays, in your opinion? Detection ratio, regular updates and low system overhead are my main concerns...

 

Cheers,

How safe you are depends on your skill level. I have never had anti-virus and i have never gotten a virus either. 

[Guilherme Alles]

Just now, NTF5252 said:

How safe you are depends on your skill level. I have never had anti-virus and i have never gotten a virus either. 

Yep, that's my main point... Usually I am very cautious with my downloads, but I cannot be 100% sure all the time. I was wondering if Windows Defender will have my back when (and if) I mess up and download some crap.

[Naeaes]

Back at the Win 7 era the Defender was a steaming pile of poo but I guess they've managed to fix it. Or 10 isn't as holey as 7 was. 

I've been just fine with just defender since the launch of Win 10 RTM. I've double-checked by installing/scanning/removing Avast and AVG two times. Never found anything. I'd still like to add that you and I and most of us here are relatively sensible on-line. Some people aren't and Defender might not cut it for them. 

[Networking Wolf]

Well let me put it like this, there is a free program which can cover you no matter what you are doing. If you dont get it you will be ok but with it you will be the best off. Its free and you should just get it because technicians like me make a lot of money off of people like you who ask these type of questions.

[Naeaes]

5 minutes ago, NTF5252 said:

I have never had anti-virus and i have never gotten a virus either.

How can you tell?

[Cryosec]

As a pentester (not expert I must say), I consider Windows to be really exposed to a shitload of kinds of malware: from ransomware to trojans. Installing a really good AV software should be a priority for Windows users, as Microsoft Security Essentials can't even detect one of my simplest trojans, coded to be detected by any good AV.

 

I use Bitdefender, because it has ALWAYS detected and blocked any kind of malware I've thrown to it. It has daily updates of malware definitions and can even protect you from ransomware.

[VTF5252]

3 minutes ago, Guilherme Alles said:

Yep, that's my main point... Usually I am very cautious with my downloads, but I cannot be 100% sure all the time. I was wondering if Windows Defender will have my back when (and if) I mess up and download some crap.

I have a monthly backup that backs up to a extra drive in my pc. If i get  a virus i can roll back to before i got it. It wont help with some ransomware that will encrypt it along with the rest of the drives. This has the benefit of only running once a month were a proper AV will run all the time and be live defence but has an impact on performance. 

 

Just now, Naeaes said:

How can you tell?

Its never hurt performance and i've had no issues so... I guess I'm ok with a virus that does nothing.

[Guilherme Alles]

3 minutes ago, Jstone said:

Well let me put it like this, there is a free program which can cover you no matter what you are doing. If you dont get it you will be ok but with it you will be the best off. Its free and you should just get it because technicians like me make a lot of money off of people like you who ask these type of questions.

I would truly like to read more about this magical piece of software

[Bogica]

I think it's very much needed. 
Unless you are 100% sure of your downloads. But keep in mind, you might be, but some family member that uses your PC occasionally might not be.
If you want your data safe, just use it. It's not like they are resource hogs, unless you are using an Intel Atom from 2011.

[VTF5252]

1 minute ago, Bogica said:

100% sure of your downloads

only a sith deals in absolutes. on a more serious note, you need to be reasonably sure of them, like i'm not even 100% sure of any downloads even from trusted sites. Just run a loss/gain analysis. compare the benefits of success to the losses of fail. also the percents associated to those out come. Its this thing that humans are great at called reasoning. 

[stconquest]

5 minutes ago, Guilherme Alles said:

I would truly like to read more about this magical piece of software

Your brain... jk, but not...

 

I have not used AV software for about 5 years now.  I don't have sensitive data on my PC though; if I did though I would choose regular backups over AV software any day.

 

Currently I have my system cloned.  I have never needed to use it though.  The clone (ISO) has been sitting on a hard drive for 2+ years now.

 

I install Windows and update it.  I install my utility programs.  I play LoL, so I installed that too.  After I get Windows set up just right, I clone it.  If I ever have a virus that causes any critical system failures, I just install the clone (ISO) and in 10 minutes my system is virus free.

 

 

[Bogica]

1 minute ago, NTF5252 said:

only a sith deals in absolutes. on a more serious note, you need to be reasonably sure of them, like i'm not even 100% sure of any downloads even from trusted sites. Just run a loss/gain analysis. compare the benefits of success to the losses of fail. also the percents associated to those out come. Its this thing that humans are great at called reasoning. 

Or you could just have an AV sitting in the background, not doing anything until you download something or run something new and then it analyzes for a few seconds and done. Not really hogging any resources if you are running 2010 or newer PC.

[VTF5252]

Just now, Bogica said:

Or you could just have an AV sitting in the background, not doing anything until you download something or run something new and then it analyzes for a few seconds and done. Not really hogging any resources if you are running 2010 or newer PC.

But sitting in the background is my problem i have so many background things already. Also im impatient and those few seconds are like SUPER agonizingly slow.

 

[Naeaes]

12 minutes ago, NTF5252 said:

Its never hurt performance and i've had no issues so... I guess I'm ok with a virus that does nothing.

Fair enough. At the end of the day, antiviruses and backups are mostly for peace of mind. None of them are perfect anyway. But you should know, a good keylogger would never act up by taxing the computer or messing stuff up. It only records your inputs, looks for logins and passwords, uploads them on-line and stays quiet. I'd personally never in my life log into my online bank or type in my social security number on a computer with no antivir. 

[VTF5252]

Just now, Naeaes said:

Fair enough. At the end of the day, antiviruses and backups are mostly for peace of mind. None of them are perfect anyway. But you should know, a good keylogger would never act up by taxing the computer or messing stuff up. It only records your inputs, looks for logins and passwords, uploads them on-line and stays quiet. I'd personally never in my life log into my online bank or type in my social security number on a computer with no antivir. 

any way i could find out if i have one with out AV. I didn't think of key logging, so thanks for reminding me they exist. 

[Networking Wolf]

22 minutes ago, Guilherme Alles said:

I would truly like to read more about this magical piece of software

It's a magical piece of software which lives in a magical forest. The forest is guarded by a big bush which you need to hope down a happy trail full of laughs and giggles.

[Naeaes]

5 minutes ago, NTF5252 said:

any way i could find out if i have one with out AV. I didn't think of key logging, so thanks for reminding me they exist. 

I've wondered about the same thing. As I understand, keyloggers utilize hooks to access the input data. Maybe there's a way to detect that hooks are being used. I don't know.

[Wolf_Lbh]

This shows really well how just going on a bad website, or a good website that has one bad element on it (it does happen, they can be hard to catch or hack the site/have a guy working on the inside) can very easily put malware on your computer which then can do all kinds of crap.

Additionally there are many bits of malware, particularly ransomware that do not do anything malicious from a coding standpoint and simply encrypt your files and ask for money to decrypt them. As there are many legit encryption programs new varieties of this kind of malware can be very difficult to catch early on with predictive scanning called heuristic analysis.
 

 

tl;dr while common sense can avoid 99% of malware the 1% you could be the unlucky guy to miss causes me to run an antimalware program 24/7 and I'm an extreme minimalist considered ocd and anal about system performance.