Security Software

[Finnman]

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.

[Canada EH]

Malwarebytes

MSE

any free A/V

 

Norton is bloated, do not trust PCMag!

[DrMacintosh]

Do not buy McAfee

 

That company went the way of being a virus itself. 

 

Basically as long as you are smart on the internet all you need is Windows Defender and an ad blocker. 

 

Anti-virus on smartphones does literally nothing

[Oshino Shinobu]

>Windows Defender - Active protection and system scans

>Malwarebytes - System scans

>Some common sense - Don't run an .exe when you thought you were downloading an .mp3

 

Most anti-virus programs actually use the same or similar sets of repositories for identifying threats, so quite a bit of choosing one is just down to the amount of bloat and how the application behaves as most will pick up the same things during a scan. 

[Zmax]

I have Norton. Works fine. And I use Windows defender.

[Finnman]

Thanks, I haven't kept up with the virus protection world.  Fairly certain I have windows defender and I'll pick up Malwarebytes.

10 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Anti-virus on smartphones does literally nothing

I am moderately surprised that there are not viruses for smartphones yet.

[desertcomputer]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

>Windows Defender - Active protection and system scans

>Malwarebytes - System scans

>Some common sense - Don't run an .exe when you thought you were downloading an .mp3

 

Most anti-virus programs actually use the same or similar sets of repositories for identifying threats, so quite a bit of choosing one is just down to the amount of bloat and how the application behaves as most will pick up the same things during a scan. 

Having adblock install on browser helps alot, especially for less tech savy people.  Window defender on window 10 works quite well.

 

On the phone maybe try to use firefox focus? It quite light browser that block ad/trackers and most of annoying popup ads is blocked. Just beware what app you have installed and check apps permissions.

 

I mean i never really used any antivirus like Norton, Avast, Bitdefender as i found them keep giving me false positive and alot of random popup and hog up resources. 

 

The only program i run is malwarebtyes with lifetime licensee which I brought long time ago. It really lightweight and sit in background i never really notice it, plus it 3.0 version it comes with bunch of other protection from their other suite which is dope, like exploit detection especially when you going through alot of PDF/word docs for uni.

[captain_to_fire]

I don’t know why so many people are into Malwarebytes when it fact it’s one of the AV programs with sketchy detection they might as well just go with built in Windows Defender especially in W10 FCU. 

 

My personal top picks are paid versions of Bitdefender and Kaspersky as their behavior blocking components are excellent. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

10 minutes ago, Finnman said:

I am moderately surprised that there are not viruses for smartphones yet.

There are though, it's just much less common, primarily due to the fact that most things you can install on your phone will come from somewhat pre-checked sources and ones that do slip through will probably get taken down pretty quick. 

 

The viruses and malware come when people try to install "free" versions of paid apps from other sources. It's mostly seen on Android as you can install apps from unknown sources, while iOS devices are basically limited to Apple's App Store only. 

[Ryujin2003]

23 minutes ago, Finnman said:

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.

Um, in my experience McAfee blows. BitDefender is ok-ish? Maybe.. If you're into that kind of thing. I really dislike Webroot. Norton is super resource heavy. I'm not a fan of how invaisive it is. I do like Kaspersky, and I have been using it for years. I also like Malwarebytes. SpyBot Search and Destroy is also really great. And Panda is pretty good too. The only free versions I would EVER recommend would be Kaspersky's free version, Malwarebytes, SpyBot, and Panda. Each of them makes revenue from actual subscriptions (with SpyBot taking donations as well). Anything that makes money from Free I would ignore. No Avast or AVG.. Stay clear away from them.

20 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Anti-virus on smartphones does literally nothing

I actually have Kaspersky on my phone because it's part of my subscription with them. But i don't have it because i'm afraid of a virus. I have it because some of the features are much better than what Google or Samsung offers if my device is ever lost or stolen. Literally, the only reason it's on my phone.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Ryujin2003 said:

I have it because some of the features are much better than what Google or Samsung offers if my device is ever lost or stolen. Literally, the only reason it's on my phone.

Find my iPhone is all I need. 

 

If lost I can log in from any device in any browser and locate, ping, lock with a message on the screen with a message, wipe, and etc. 

 

Not really sure how Google does theirs but I would hope they would have those basic features.