Is Anti-Virus A Joke?

[Gabriel Manuel]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and I hope to feel welcomed as a new-comer in LinusTechTips .

 

Anyways, I'd like to focus on if anti-virus is actually a joke. I had a virus on my old computer that just made it very slow and unreliable. My step-brother decided to add an anti-virus software to help clean out the problem but it still did not work. Today, I have what I like to call "A Gaming PC" and I don't want to hurt it . The PC case is a Corsair Spec 02 Case running with a:

CPU
    Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz    25 °C
    Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
    8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
    MSI H97 PC Mate(MS-7850) (SOCKET 0)    
Graphics
    2757 (1920x1080@60Hz)
    2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti (EVGA) 
Storage
    232GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250G SCSI Disk Device (SSD

Continuing it is running with a Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit.

 

I just got off topic lol, anyways I have an Anti-Malware Software and a CCleaner software. Would these be considered the best or the worse for protecting my computer? 

[Guest Kloaked]

Just don't go to sketchy websites and pay attention to your browser's warnings. If you download stuff from Mediafire or whatever, run scans on them to be safe.

 

You can never be 100% safe, but I haven't gotten a single piece of malware on my PC ever since I've had it (almost four years now I think) and I've only had Malwarebytes for scanning.

[Oshino Shinobu]

I consider Windows Firewall, Windows Defender and Malwarebytes (mainly for system scans) the "best" solution for protecting your PC. Along with some common sense, it will catch most viruses and malware that tries to get through. 

I've been using that setup for around 2 years with no viruses or malware at all (that I know of). A lot of anti-virus programs tend to be more intrusive and annoying than helpful from my experience (looking at you, Norton).

[Godlygamer23]

3 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

Just don't go to sketchy websites and pay attention to your browser's warnings. If you download stuff from Mediafire or whatever, run scans on them to be safe.

Legit websites can be compromised. This is an important fact that people seem to just ignore. LTT is vulnerable to attacks, as shown by the big password leak we had. Malware was on the server, remaining dormant.

[Guest Kloaked]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

Legit websites can be compromised. This is an important fact that people seem to just ignore.

If you're implying that I don't understand that

 

5 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

Just don't go to sketchy websites and pay attention to your browser's warnings. If you download stuff from Mediafire or whatever, run scans on them to be safe.

 

You can never be 100% safe, but I haven't gotten a single piece of malware on my PC ever since I've had it (almost four years now I think) and I've only had Malwarebytes for scanning.

Plus, again, browsers are good at knowing if a website has some malicious code in it. So the chances of you getting some malware/virus/whatever from the internet is extremely small as long as you don't go looking for it (which is what you do when you download random files from unknown uploaders without running scans - even those won't catch them sometimes)

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Kloaked said:

If you're implying that I don't understand that

Really, this is about quitting the spread of the "common sense" concept, which is inherently flawed.

[Guest Kloaked]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

Really, this is about quitting the spread of the "common sense" concept, which is inherently flawed.

I don't think any of the "common sense" advocates will disagree - seems like someone always responds to me this way whenever I say something so simple about this.

 

All I'm saying is you can avoid most of the bad stuff if you have basic practices. I'm not implying that you'll be impervious to malware as long as you have some dank anti-virus software and use Chrome.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Kloaked said:

If you're implying that I don't understand that

 

Plus, again, browsers are good at knowing if a website has some malicious code in it. So the chances of you getting some malware/virus/whatever from the internet is extremely small as long as you don't go looking for it (which is what you do when you download random files from unknown uploaders without running scans - even those won't catch them sometimes)

Some websites no matter how safe, any time they could have malware undetected

Lets take the Linux hack for example, they had Malware dormant on there servers and on a whole day they had a Linux version corrupted and filled w/ malware.

--------------

tl;dr

You should always run *FULL* security scans, common sense wont always work. Sometime it will, sometimes it wont. 

[Guest Kloaked]

1 minute ago, Ronnie76 said:

Some websites no matter how safe, any time they could have malware undetected

Lets take the Linux hack for example, they had Malware dormant on there servers and on a whole day they had a Linux version corrupted and filled w/ malware.

--------------

tl;dr

You should always run *FULL* security scans, common sense wont always work. Sometime it will, sometimes it wont. 

Again, I'm not implying you're impervious to any type of virus or malware at all times.

 

If you have basic practices you can avoid most of the bad stuff on the internet. This isn't hard to understand.

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Kloaked said:

All I'm saying is you can avoid most of the bad stuff if you have basic practices. I'm not implying that you'll be impervious to malware as long as you have some dank anti-virus software and use Chrome.

And people are using this to be the end-all-be-all to security. "As long as I avoid these websites, I'll be okay." While that is mostly true, the minute they encounter malware, they'll likely be fucked. And they'll wish they had something that would most likely be able to stop it from happening in the first place.

 

That being said, I don't like when people say "I've been using X antivirus for Y years and never had any issues with viruses." Of course you wouldn't have issues with viruses if you've never encountered them in the first place, which also means that if you've never encountered them, you've no idea the actual effectiveness of the program you're using.

 

This is my view on the issue: Run a proper antivirus and firewall program, keep your OS and programs(especially Java and Adobe Flash) up-to-date, and avoid bad websites. And in the event that you do encounter malware, KEEP A BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM. That is perhaps the most important aspect - It allows you to restore back to a clean state before encountering the malware, and of course keep it stored away from the actual system such as on a NAS or external hard drive which is not connected.

[Guest Kloaked]

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

And people are using this to be the end-all-be-all to security. "As long as I avoid these websites, I'll be okay." While that is mostly true, the minute they encounter malware, they'll likely be fucked. And they'll wish they had something that would most likely be able to stop it from happening in the first place.

And that's an extremely slim chance if you have basic practices.

 

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

That being said, I don't like when people say "I've been using X antivirus for Y years and never had any issues with viruses." Of course you wouldn't have issues with viruses if you've never encountered them in the first place, which also means that if you've never encountered them, you've no idea the actual effectiveness of the program you're using.

Exactly. It's there as a potential safeguard. I even tell my family who has questions about those phone hackers they keep hearing about. I tell them you can have all of the security that you can get your hands on, but if someone wanted to deliberately get into your specific phone, they will get into it.

 

For the (third?) time, I'm not implying you're completely safe from malicious code. All I said was you can avoid most of it if you use basic practices. I don't know what the big deal is.

[maulemall]

Kinguin has some license keys at pretty reasonable rates... Just buy the insurance and you are locked and cocked.

http://www.kinguin.net/catalog/genre/view/genre_id/22/

[HelplmChoking]

I've never in my life had a virus, neither on Mac or PC. I run windows firewall and defender, and I'm not super careful about where I download from. Things like AVG or Norton and intrusive, gobble up system resources and are no better than what comes installed.

[itsmyjobtoknow]

12 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

This is my view on the issue: Run a proper antivirus and firewall program, keep your OS and programs(especially Java and Adobe Flash) up-to-date, and avoid bad websites. And in the event that you do encounter malware, KEEP A BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM. That is perhaps the most important aspect - It allows you to restore back to a clean state before encountering the malware, and of course keep it stored away from the actual system such as on a NAS or external hard drive which is not connected.

 

 

Wouldn't the best practice be constantly backing up your important data to a NAS and a detachable HDD and to keep your OS drive as clean as possible?  That way if a virus does hit you and infect the operating system, you can easily wipe the drive and start fresh with the important data still existing in your hand. (In terms of consumers)

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, itsmyjobtoknow said:

Wouldn't the best practice be constantly backing up your important data to either a NAS and a detachable HDD and to keep your OS drive as clean as possible?

I'm not really judging on what the person does on their computer. I don't really care how they keep their data stored, as long as it's safe and it works for them. Keeping a backup is important regardless of what's on the boot drive.

[Stardar1]

42 minutes ago, Gabriel Manuel said:

Hello, I'm new to this forum and I hope to feel welcomed as a new-comer in LinusTechTips .

 

Anyways, I'd like to focus on if anti-virus is actually a joke. I had a virus on my old computer that just made it very slow and unreliable. My step-brother decided to add an anti-virus software to help clean out the problem but it still did not work. Today, I have what I like to call "A Gaming PC" and I don't want to hurt it . The PC case is a Corsair Spec 02 Case running with a:

CPU
    Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz    25 °C
    Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
    8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
    MSI H97 PC Mate(MS-7850) (SOCKET 0)    
Graphics
    2757 (1920x1080@60Hz)
    2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti (EVGA) 
Storage
    232GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250G SCSI Disk Device (SSD

Continuing it is running with a Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit.

 

I just got off topic lol, anyways I have an Anti-Malware Software and a CCleaner software. Would these be considered the best or the worse for protecting my computer? 

A bit late to the party:

 

 

I do not use an anti-virus or firewall, instead I am very careful about the websites I go to, what I download, etc. Most viruses seem to come from 3 places:

Adult sites  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Non-reputable download sites

anything advertising with the word "free" listed far too many times

 

In addition to avoiding sources, once a month I download, install and run Malwarebytes, which will do a full scan, get rid of Viruses, trojans, malware and PUPs,and then I delete it, because it doesnt take long to install and I do not have to have it running all the time. 

 

 

another tip is to every now and then look in the list of installed programs, see something you don't recognize? google it with the word "virus", and there will usually be people on forums with the same questions. 

 

I highly recommend against installing anti-viruses like Norton and Mcaffee, they are almost virus-level themselves. 

 

 

Last thing I recommend is this: if the PC is getting slow, do a fresh windows install, as long as the motherboard isnt changed, that windows key can be used an infinite number of times. 

 

[SansVarnic]

One.

AntiVirus software is not a joke. Whoever you heard this from is setting you up for failure. You can be diligent all you want but it will get you.

 

Two. 

An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure.

Common Sense goes along ways.

 

Be sensible about where you go, surf, search, etc... across the internet. I do advise you to use anti viral software. 

Windows Defender in Win10 is just as good as any antivirus program you will find. Add MalwareBytes to your arsenal and you will good to go.

If your running Windows 7 you can use Windows Security Essentials (Precursor to Defender), and MalwareBytes.

 

Three.

Do daily or weekly backups. (you can even do hourly) Use a dedicated drive setup in your system or better yet do a NAS setup. No anti virus software is 100% perfect and you can still catch a bug. This way in case you do get one you can easily recover.

[Sir. Swagelot]

To be honest, one of the best ways to remain secure is to use methods/things like the tor, and just exercising safe browsing. That means no responding to that poll you got sent, or going to goggle . I don't pay for any special security software, and so far I'm fine. However, that's not to say that having something like malware bytes couldn't help, but just make sure you get the right stuff.

[SImoHayha]

If anything use a lightweight anti-virus. Like Bitdefender or Panda Anti-virus. Very reliable and lightweight by lightweight I mean by not needing a whole lot of resources for it to work.

[SansVarnic]

defender is pretty light weight and pretty much leaves you alone until it finds something or stops something. 

[AshleyAshes]

Washing your hands doesn't make you bullet proof to disease but it doesn't mean it's useless either.

[royalcrown]

It depends on the Anti virus product, Norton is absolute crap and will slow your system to a crawl, McAfee USED to be good but slipped, Avast is okay and free.

 

Kapersky, AVG and Bit Defender seem to be well regarded and not system hogs.

 

[Bhav]

I got and installed a year of Norton with my new mobo doh.

 

Avast is good because it has a feature to not make pop ups while you are Gaming. AVG would keep popping up all the time.

[Bhav]

So I had Norton for two days.

 

I deleted it.

 

I download a community mod / patch for a game I want to play, try to install it, and Norton just goes and deletes a 300 mb file because it thinks its unsafe.

 

It asked me to give them feedback for why I was uninstalling / leaving. I did, with many naughty words.

[Pesukarhu]

7 minutes ago, Bhav said:

So I had Norton for two days.

 

I deleted it.

 

I download a community mod / patch for a game I want to play, try to install it, and Norton just goes and deletes a 300 mb file because it thinks its unsafe.

 

It asked me to give them feedback for why I was uninstalling / leaving. I did, with many naughty words.

Norton only deletes automatically files that are viruses, untrusted will just get "paused" until you go to norton and tell that the file is safe. You can actually disable this. But norton eats resources like hell every time it wants to do something. Have noticed that disconneting the internet speeds it up a ton, but then there's really no point having active anti-virus. The default configuration is horrible if you want to use anything that might not be used by thousands of people that have norton.