Recommendations for antivirus software?

[n0n3]

Use your common sense and do not click everything that sounds too good to be true.

[Eleccybubb]

I use Avast personally. Can't say I have had any issues with it and it works fine for me.

[Vash The Stampede]

I don't use any Ant-Virus, but then again most of my computers run Linux Mint. Windows 10 is pretty good at making sure that nobody messes with it.

[talwynn]

An article from 06/30/16 about how antivirus are really just a big scam nowadays. Norton in particular doesn't really provide any kind of protection and in fact is actually used as a back door to access a computer leaving it more vulnerable than if you didn't have ANY antivirus protection at all. https://www.wired.com/2016/06/symant...security-gaps/

Here is another article saying that pretty much any antivirus software not only is just a waste of system resources, but actually weakens your security in general. https://blog.terraprivacy.com/2016/1...he-frying-pan/

Long story short, just stick with windows defenders, learn how to use firewalls properly, learn how to clean your system.

[breadisfunny]

Im using Kaspersky and right now it uses 113 Mb

you still didn't answer my question.

[Aurimas]

I use Avast because when Windows Defender first came out it was bad. From the number of people recommending it, I guess it must have improved drastically. Let that be a lesson to anyone in product development. The first thing I hear about your product is the thing that is going to stick.

Avast is also free for business, the first one (and possibly only, have not checked recently) to offer it to business. The small business I work at has an accountant who is a rampant conspiracy nut. She clicks every dumb thing she sees, and by virtue of doing that gets hundreds of dumb things emailed to her. I'm seriously on the verge of locking down her computer to only allow access to IMAP, SMTP, and the two websites she needs to pay our taxes. She won't stop, but I don't want to deal with the fallout from trying to repress her search for the truth. Not clicking dumb shit is just what the asshole sheep want you to think after all.

Avast has worked decently well for my needs in that area.

[Perryn]

Guess it depends on your needs and level of experience. I used AVG for a long while and in ye olde days also used Norton, but the last few years I've been using Kaspersky Internet Security and are generally quite pleased with it (features and ease of use).

Got McAfee at work and it's nothing I would recommend, personally. Slow and relatively intrusive.

[Lathais]

I use Avast because when Windows Defender first came out it was bad. From the number of people recommending it, I guess it must have improved drastically. Let that be a lesson to anyone in product development. The first thing I hear about your product is the thing that is going to stick.

Avast is also free for business, the first one (and possibly only, have not checked recently) to offer it to business. The small business I work at has an accountant who is a rampant conspiracy nut. She clicks every dumb thing she sees, and by virtue of doing that gets hundreds of dumb things emailed to her. I'm seriously on the verge of locking down her computer to only allow access to IMAP, SMTP, and the two websites she needs to pay our taxes. She won't stop, but I don't want to deal with the fallout from trying to repress her search for the truth. I've already been called an asshole sheep more than I care to hear from asking her to stop clicking dumb shit.

Avast has worked decently well for my needs in that area.

In a small business myself and we simply use a hardware firewall to block all that kind of stuff. I mean sure, this was 2 years ago, but here something Avast did that would make me never ever want to install that shit on my machines:
http://www.howtogeek.com/199829/avas...til-this-week/

Antivirus that is in itself spyware......

These days anti-virus software ARE the viruses.

[Aurimas]

Oh, I agree. I'm not saying you're wrong, I was in that same boat a couple years ago. I've just given up on caring about who spies on me. If google and amazon and avast are going to give me all this mostly free shit, I've got nothing to hide.

After all, I've been filtering bad internet porn for almost two decades. My amazing collection should be viewed by the world.

Just do me a big favour and don't tell the accountant it's spying on her. That would be just what I need.

And yea, I'm looking into taking a much harder approach to blocking that shit.

[Spike`]

well i just use SecureAPlus

nothing runs on your computer without you allowing it and has offline scanner and online with is great for ransomware for example

also it has until 01/2017 a promo to give you 1.5 years of premium license

[Lathais]

Oh, I agree. I'm not saying you're wrong, I was in that same boat a couple years ago. I've just given up on caring about who spies on me. If google and amazon and avast are going to give me all this mostly free shit, I've got nothing to hide.

After all, I've been filtering bad internet porn for almost two decades. My amazing collection should be viewed by the world.

Just do me a big favour and don't tell the accountant it's spying on her. That would be just what I need.

And yea, I'm looking into taking a much harder approach to blocking that shit.

Yeah, I'm not to worried about people spying on me either. I have nothing to hide and it's gonna happen whether I like it or not. if I didn't want to be spied on I'd move out in the country where there is not even good internet connection. However, when a piece of software that is supposed to stop stuff like that is only stopping OTHER people from doing it so that it can do it more effectively, then we have a problem. It's using my system resources to do the opposite of what I installed it to do. That's just wrong, and they are likely profiting of of it as well by selling that data to other people. Therefore, by using it, you are supporting their practices.

[callipygoustp]

Bashing? How was that bashing you? If anything, the comment of i'd listen to google over some random poster was bashing everyone in this thread.

I spoke at the OP not to a specific post. You spoke directly to my post; that's the significant difference.

I was just stating a fact. In order to be in the tpo three results on google, you HAVE to pay google. Beneath that, and most of those sites paid an SEO company or hired someone to do SEO Optimization in order to get there. In other words, your google search is only showing you people that paid to be seen.

Right. So everyone should stop using the internet because its heavily marketed. Riiight. Conspiracy theory at its best. If you (meaning, any general internet user) can't separate the marketing from something with substance you have bigger problems than finding the right antivirus software.

You are correct that it is not verifiable that many people on this forum are IT Professionals. Myself, I am not, but I know many and they all tell me the same thing. Yeah, that's anecdotal. However, the guy posting that Kapersky is great? Well, I did link factual articles proving that it very recently had some major holes in it, which proves the theory that anti-virus software just opens up different vulnerabilities on your system, which is the same thing IT Professionals have been telling me for a while.

You are one person saying Kaspersky is bad. One person self admittedly not an IT guy. But your opinion is more valid than reading reviews on the internet. All your doing is perpetrating another fallacy : argument from authority. My suggestion to the OP was specifically not to fall into that. That he should do some quick reading himself to see what there is to be seen.
(I do not use Kaspersky)

Either way, do what you want,

Heh, that's essentially what my original post stated with the slant being that the OP does what he wants based on some research.

but seriously, installing anti-virus software on your system merely uses unnecessary resources and while it may prevent some things, it just opens other holes that people can exploit.

Yeah, that's why IT professionals and every company I have worked for are wrong in protecting themselves with antivirus software. You go ahead and find me an IT professional or large company that doesn't protect themselves with antivirus software. Even the friends I have working for Microsoft have third party antivirus software installed on their work computers. But, lets ignore all of that because some random user on mmo-c says antivirus software is unnecessary and is a resource hog.

[Lathais]

Right. So everyone should stop using the internet because its heavily marketed. Riiight. Conspiracy theory at its best. If you (meaning, any general internet user) can't separate the marketing from something with substance you have bigger problems than finding the right antivirus software.

That's not really what I am saying and you know it. However, yes, your google results when searching things are based on who paid more money or paid someone to manipulate the site to show up higher. So Googling is not really the best source of information. The best source of information would be the guys who work all day removing this stuff for people. Plenty of those people here on these forums.

You are one person saying Kaspersky is bad. One person self admittedly not an IT guy. But your opinion is more valid than reading reviews on the internet. All your doing is perpetrating another fallacy : argument from authority. My suggestion to the OP was specifically not to fall into that. That he should do some quick reading himself to see what there is to be seen.
(I do not use Kaspersky)

One person, who also linked articles showing why. They had some pretty bad holes in their software and it took them about 3 months to get it fixed, then told everyone they were pretty minor. People were able to exploit Kaspersky and see you active memory, and they said that's minor.....

Yeah, that's why IT professionals and every company I have worked for are wrong in protecting themselves with antivirus software. You go ahead and find me an IT professional or large company that doesn't protect themselves with antivirus software. Even the friends I have working for Microsoft have third party antivirus software installed on their work computers. But, lets ignore all of that because some random user on mmo-c says antivirus software is unnecessary and is a resource hog.

I know several, including some who work in a building that does not officially even exist and you need a bare minimum of Top Secret Clearance to even enter the building, in which no outside electronic devices are even allowed. When my Dad goes to pick his fiance up for lunch, he has to park about 5 minutes away and wait for her to come to him before they can even go anywhere as he can't even get in to the parking lot. It is one of the most secure buildings in the country, and while they do have active internet, they do not have any software antivirus/antimalware/antispyware software at all. One time the had some dipshit bring some in for his computer on a USB stick and it compromised their entire network, he got fired, and they had to spend a bunch of time redoing a lot of stuff they couldn't talk about. They don't use software for this protection, they use hardware firewalls. I have worked at a few larger corporations and they did not have anti-virus installed on the individual machines. They used a VPN and blocked you from doing anything not directly work related and had hardware firewalls in place that were updated regularly. It's how things work. Another "random mmo-c poster" just linked multiple articles that say the same thing. Here they are again since you apparantly missed them:

https://www.wired.com/2016/06/symant...security-gaps/

“These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets,” Ormandy wrote. He would know. Ormandy has previously discovered serious flaws in products belonging to a string of high-profile security shops like FireEye, Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, Sophos, and Trend Micro. In some cases, the flaws only allowed an attacker to bypass antivirus scanners or undermine the integrity of detection systems. But in others, like this Symantec scenario, they turned the security software into an attack vector for intruders to seize control of a victim’s system.

https://blog.terraprivacy.com/2016/1...he-frying-pan/

In 2016, Concordia University tested 14 popular internet-security products. The result?

“We found that all the analyzed products in some way weaken TLS security on their host.” — Xavier de Carné de Carnavalet and Mohammad Mannan, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering; Concordia University

Every product tested literally weakened internet security — opening a door for hackers which is normally closed off by the browser itself.

This isn't just some random poster on MMO-C saying this stuff. It's a Google Security Researcher and Concordia University. They both say what I am saying.

You don't see those results if you just google looking for it. You have to know where to look. If you just google "Best Anti-Virus", you are gonna get shit results, I guarantee it. If you google "Why Antivirus programs are bad" you'll also get a lot of information. how much of it is good I leave to you to decide. But I'll put my faith into Google Security Researchers and the folks at Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering.

[Sentynel]

I use Windows Defender and it does the job perfectly.

[callipygoustp]

That's not really what I am saying and you know it. However, yes, your google results when searching things are based on who paid more money or paid someone to manipulate the site to show up higher. So Googling is not really the best source of information. The best source of information would be the guys who work all day removing this stuff for people. Plenty of those people here on these forums.

That is what you were saying and it's what you restated in the above : random poster on a gaming website, mmo-c, is more trustworthy than doing some research on the web. You just doubled down. I'll state it again, that going off what some random user says, with little or no support to back up their statement, is worse than doing some reading on your own.

One person, who also linked articles showing why. They had some pretty bad holes in their software and it took them about 3 months to get it fixed, then told everyone they were pretty minor. People were able to exploit Kaspersky and see you active memory, and they said that's minor.....

And?
Guess what, I've seen that article, and others similar to it, and not just about Kaspersky. Know how I saw them? Via a web search on the quality of antivirus software.

I know several. They don't use software for this protection, they use hardware firewalls. I have worked at a few larger corporations and they did not have anti-virus installed on the individual machines. They used a VPN and blocked you from doing anything not directly work related and had hardware firewalls in place that were updated regularly.

I call bullshit on this. I've worked for ~8 large software companies over the last 26 years and never has one of them not had multilayered protection. I don't know how any company would pass the annual security audit without having multiple layers of protection. Like I said before, a couple of my friends at Microsoft say they have 3rd party antivirus software on their work machines.

Maybe smaller companies skip some level of protection to cut costs. I don't know. What I do know is that I've never had a work computer that did not have a locally running antivirus software package running on it.

It's how things work. Another "random mmo-c poster" just linked multiple articles that say the same thing. Here they are again since you apparantly missed them:

https://www.wired.com/2016/06/symant...security-gaps/

https://blog.terraprivacy.com/2016/1...he-frying-pan/

Don't strawman me. It's hard to miss something that I wasn't actually looking for. Man, you really got a bug up your ass over me telling the OP to do some research on his own.
On a separate note, and more in line with my suggestion : you are providing information you found on the web. That's exactly what I was telling the OP to do.

This isn't just some random poster on MMO-C saying this stuff. It's a Google Security Researcher and Concordia University. They both say what I am saying.

You don't see those results if you just google looking for it. You have to know where to look. If you just google "Best Anti-Virus", you are gonna get shit results, I guarantee it. If you google "Why Antivirus programs are bad" you'll also get a lot of information. how much of it is good I leave to you to decide. But I'll put my faith into Google Security Researchers and the folks at Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering.

I see both of those in a google search. Do you think you are the only person that knows how to search for information on the internet? Is that what this is all about: you know how to search the web but no one else does and so they should listen to you?

Re-reading your posts I'm now thinking you got upset because you think I was directly devaluing your opinion. Funny thing is, you are doing what I suggested the OP do : online research. Relax a bit when reading forums, its not all about you.

[pansertjald]

you still didn't answer my question.

I all ready did. Look at the review.

Just like with Hardware, you look at the reviews and the once that gets bad reviews, you stay away from and in all the reviews on the net, Microsoft gets bad reviews

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Big fan of ESET NOD32 AV. Been using it for like a decade now.
Small performance footprint. Have had zero issues with it across a dozen or more different computers and operating systems.

I had that until it decided that the windows logon process was dangerous and needed to be blocked :/

[Schmilblick]

The last Comodo is a good one.

[Lathais]

I call bullshit on this. I've worked for ~8 large software companies over the last 26 years and never has one of them not had multilayered protection. I don't know how any company would pass the annual security audit without having multiple layers of protection. Like I said before, a couple of my friends at Microsoft say they have 3rd party antivirus software on their work machines.

Call BS all you want. The people that know what they are doing know that these antivirus software's only open you up to more vulnerabilities. There are multiple levels of security though. You have a firewall. You block sites that are dangerous. You use Windows Defender. You have network security in place that prevents users from accessing stuff they don't need. There's your multi-level protection, without software anti-virus. Some probably use a software firewall on top of the hardware firewall as well, but that is not the same thing as software anti-virus.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Depends on the user.

I use two layers of proactive and reactive measures in the form of blockers and scrubbers and I've never run in to any issues whereas I could put an infinite amount of security on my mom's laptop and she would still find a way to get it all fucked up.

uBlock and uMatrix are always on and when I do run a scrubber once or twice a month it's usually just a combination of letting Windows Essential do its thing then use the free BitDefender Anti-virus and MWB for the sake of being thorough while I run some errands even though I am always confident they won't find anything.