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Rare White Ape
May 13th, 2016, 10:04 PM
Asking for a friend. "He" visited an animal porn site and "his" computer contracted the cyber equivalent of needing a full diseased rectal transplant. Plz halp!

Nah just kidding. I'm asking for me.

I've got no issues that I know of since switching to Windows 10 almost a year ago. But the only precautions I take are the built in Windows Defender software, Ad Block on my browser (Chrome - if that combo doesn't prevent some low level viruses please let me know) as well as not following any of the dodgy links you see shared around the place, and yeah general diligent browsing and software installing habits.

I'm mostly asking because I'm curious to see if there are any essential (and free) antivirus/anti malware programs that I should be running in conjunction with the standard Windows protections. I'm also curious as to whether it's even necessary, because Defender seems to be pretty damn good.

Thanks. The sooner I get advice, the sooner I can satisfy my hunger for viewing some durty man-on-horse action.

FaultyMario
May 14th, 2016, 02:48 AM
Microsoft security essentials.

I've been using that since like forever. No complains. The crap that gets thru is because of the streaming that needs me having to add exceptions to NoScript.

LHutton
May 14th, 2016, 04:33 AM
I'm using Malwarebytes premium. Seems to work okay but I don't really attend sites where dirty software is commonly found, if you know what I mean.

Rare White Ape
May 14th, 2016, 02:17 PM
Microsoft security essentials.

I've been using that since like forever. No complains.

So you must be on Windows 7 or 8. The Win 10 equivalent is Windows Defender; it's exactly the same and comes as part of the OS.

Alan P
May 14th, 2016, 05:13 PM
Windows 7, also using MSE. The last time I did a scan it didn't even find anything. Whether that means it's working or failing miserably is another question though! I'm happy with it. It's unobtrusive and doesn't seem to take up many resources at all.

thesameguy
May 14th, 2016, 08:48 PM
First, I use MSE and it's all I have used for years. But it's honestly not that great - it routinely scores pretty low on effectiveness and pretty high on resource consumption . But it never bugs you about anything which can't be said about any of the other entries, so it's what I use. I don't go off road so I don't consider it a liability, but if you're going to I would consider Bitdefender or ESET personally.

Rare White Ape
May 15th, 2016, 07:10 AM
One of the things I wonder about Defender and MSE is if it's built into every Win8/10 install, and 90% of users rely on it to cover them (perhaps unwittingly for a huge chunk of that) then it would be the obvious target for cunning malware developers since it would yield the greatest impact. Hence this thread I guess.

In somewhat related news, my dad bought a new laptop with Win10 on it about two months ago and it's already fucked. Pre installed OEM adware and ridiculous pop-ups on some of the sites he visits (he mentioned banggood.com) started the rot and made it terribly slow, and now it's lost it's start menu and image viewer after an update and he can't fix it himself.

My dad is a classic case of terrible computer habits. When he showed me the problems today I rolled my eyes at him, then told him to back up all of his shit and organise a day for me to come over and do a full clean install of the OS.

thesameguy
May 15th, 2016, 08:13 AM
I will bet MSE/WD have an unexpectedly small market share. Most people buy PCs from major brands and retailers and most of those people get kickbacks from loading 3rd party software so those guys can make cash on renewal. Every PC Dell sells has McAfee on it. Every PC Best Buy sells has Webroot on it, etc. The shitty thing is that most of these are just 30 day trial versions so when they expire you're left in worse shape than if you'd just been running the marginally less effective MSE from the start as they don't expire and then helpfully turn MSE back on - they just sit there being out of date until you respond to their demands for money. Whenever I help someone set up a new computer, first thing I do is uninstall whatever it came with an install MSE, explaining that MSE isn't as good but won't stop working when they fail to pay. For most, it's a good compromise.

JoshInKC
May 15th, 2016, 04:34 PM
Every PC Best Buy sells has Webroot on it, etc.

Terrible name. First time I saw it (on someone else's pc), I was like "WTF? Gotta kill that thing. What kind of idiot hacker gives his virus such an obvious name?"

Alan P
May 15th, 2016, 05:03 PM
I'm sure MSE isn't the best, but it's certainly better than not running anything, or something which hasn't been updated in months, never mind someone who hasn't run a scan on their PC in years.

thesameguy
May 15th, 2016, 07:41 PM
Terrible name. First time I saw it (on someone else's pc), I was like "WTF? Gotta kill that thing. What kind of idiot hacker gives his virus such an obvious name?"


I'm sure MSE isn't the best, but it's certainly better than not running anything, or something which hasn't been updated in months, never mind someone who hasn't run a scan on their PC in years.

Yep x2

Kchrpm
May 16th, 2016, 06:26 AM
Switch to a Chromebook :assclown: Viruses can't do anything, and neither can you!

In all serious-ness, my parents can sometimes be like RWA's dad, though they have gotten better over the years. I was hoping to convince my mom to get a Chromebook for her latest casual computer, so that I wouldn't have to deal with weird Windows 10 stuff that I will have no experience with, but alas, she couldn't make the jump. Fast forward less than a month and we have to figure out why all of her card games suddenly stopped working. Apparently, whenever they update, they break, and you have to uninstall and re-install them. All her saves get erased in the process, so everything she has unlocked then gets locked again.

Kchrpm
June 29th, 2016, 07:52 AM
Google finds major flaws in Symantec and other anti-virus programs: https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/29/google-symantec-antivirus-flaws-are-as-bad-as-it-gets/

drew
June 29th, 2016, 08:06 AM
I've been using AVG for years. While they have a free version, the one I bought was $40 with lifetime updates, if memory serves (been many years).

Man-horse double blowjob?

dodint
June 29th, 2016, 08:21 AM
Offering?

Rare White Ape
June 29th, 2016, 03:45 PM
Google finds major flaws in Symantec and other anti-virus programs: https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/29/google-symantec-antivirus-flaws-are-as-bad-as-it-gets/

Jeebus.

The worst part of that is all of the computers sold with pre-installed nagware that includes 30-day trials for these antivirus programs. I doubt a lot of people actually do continue to subscribe to them and just leave it as their first line of defense, which means there are millions of PCs out there with gates essentially wide open.

thesameguy
June 29th, 2016, 05:17 PM
He even questioned the wisdom of using antivirus software in the first place, calling it "a significant tradeoff in terms of increasing [the] attack surface.

Long time believer in this.

Random
June 29th, 2016, 07:48 PM
Is his point that vulnerabilities in the add-on anti-virus software add to the possible numbers/ways/methods of attack? Or is he trying to make some point about anti-virus protection in general?

overpowered
June 29th, 2016, 08:00 PM
I relied on MSE for years. Caught something recently, which included a boot record virus. Install Avast and did a scan from boot which took it out. Not sure how it compares with others. I used AVG many years ago but it got obnoxious for a while there and I got rid of it. Avoid McAfee.

Yw-slayer
June 29th, 2016, 08:52 PM
Kaspersky 4 Ly43 (or at least since I switched away from Norton to it in around 2006-07).

Kchrpm
June 29th, 2016, 09:29 PM
Is his point that vulnerabilities in the add-on anti-virus software add to the possible numbers/ways/methods of attack? Or is he trying to make some point about anti-virus protection in general?

His point is that poorly made anti-virus software makes your computer even more vulnerable, because of the deep access that type of software has. Unfortunately, many of the most well known options seem to be poorly made.

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/06/25-symantec-products-open-to-wormable-attack-by-unopened-e-mail-or-links/

Tuesday's advisory is only the latest to underscore game-over vulnerabilities found in widely available antivirus packages. Although the software is often considered a mandatory part of a good security regimen—on Windows systems, at least—their installation often has the paradoxical consequence of opening a computer to attacks that otherwise wouldn't be possible. Over the past five years, Ormandy in particular has exposed a disturbingly high number of such flaws in security software from companies including Comodo, Eset, Kaspersky, FireEye, McAfee, Trend Micro, and others.

thesameguy
June 29th, 2016, 10:44 PM
Is his point that vulnerabilities in the add-on anti-virus software add to the possible numbers/ways/methods of attack? Or is he trying to make some point about anti-virus protection in general?

The former. Because of the way antivirus must work - that is with very high privileges - installing AV creates one more attack vector ("increases the surface area") for exploits. If someone compromises, say, Edge on Win10, they don't have much access to your system in general. You either have to have certain things turned off, or you have to take specific action... like, you can't get from the internet to your boot sector without compliance from the user because Edge doesn't have sufficient permission to write to the boot sector. But, if you compromise some other application with higher privileges, then you can get access to the boot sector or whatever. In the context of this particular article, the fallout is pretty frickin severe. if your computer is 100% locked down and someone manages to plant a specific file on the system that is otherwise totally inert, the act of scanning it by Symantec (and others) "activates" the attack. That's darned creative on the attacker's part, and darned pathetic on the AV app's part.

Edit: Whoops - didn't see Krunch's post. Spot on.

Yw-slayer
June 30th, 2016, 12:05 AM
From the link from that ars link, at least I can take comfort in this:


Thanks to Kaspersky for record breaking response times when handling this report, they’ve set a high bar to beat for other vendors! More Kaspersky issues, including multiple remote code execution vulnerabilities, should be fixed and visible in our issue tracker over the next few weeks.

overpowered
July 24th, 2016, 12:32 PM
Avast started to get obnoxious, so I uninstalled it.

After that, the Windows Firewall started having problems. I would get notifications that it stopped on a fairly regular basis.

After a bit of Googling, I found the solution to the firewall problem which was to run a cmd window as Administrator and in that run "sfc /scannow" to repair Windows files. Firewall seems to work now.

Rare White Ape
December 25th, 2016, 11:53 PM
Here's an interesting one I saw recently; behavioural detection of ransomware, to catch viruses before they're known to antivirus programs.

http://thehackernews.com/2016/12/free-anti-ransomware-software.html?m=1

The software will detect ransomware based on typical ransomware behaviours, rather than by using a signature database like traditional antivirus programs.

Cool idea.

thesameguy
December 26th, 2016, 07:53 AM
That is going to become really important, as "malwareless malware" is a thing for '17. :(

Rare White Ape
January 28th, 2018, 03:59 PM
I’m still of the opinion that a decent ad blocker in your browser is one of the best and most basic forms of malware protection available.

See why: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2018/01/youtube-ads-targeted-by-cryptocurrency-malware/

Cryptojacking is now a thing. It’s not totally harmful, but it’s a good example of the shenanigans that can take place on ze Internet.

Yw-slayer
January 29th, 2018, 03:13 AM
I'm thinking about moving away from Kaspersky because of where it's from. It's a pity as I think I have 9 subscriptions to it. Bitdefender?

speedpimp
February 5th, 2018, 05:46 PM
I have had nothing but success with Malwarebytes.