Ask HN: What antivirus software do you use?
Recently I got my hands on a new laptop and during the initiation process, I got to the part of which antivirus software to use. Which one do you use and why? Have you considered or tried any open source ones as ClamAV or Open AntiVirus Project?
16 comments
Linux.
In all seriousness though: without knowing anything about state of the art AV software I question how effective even big brand software is without compromising your own operating system integrity these days.
Whenever I encountered cases of an infected system in the last 5 years or so it was nothing regular AV software could have caught anyway. Specific tools had to be downloaded for removal and if you put this in contrast to the annoying number of false positives you start to question the effectiveness. I imagine all of this is of course highly subjective.
In all seriousness though: without knowing anything about state of the art AV software I question how effective even big brand software is without compromising your own operating system integrity these days.
Whenever I encountered cases of an infected system in the last 5 years or so it was nothing regular AV software could have caught anyway. Specific tools had to be downloaded for removal and if you put this in contrast to the annoying number of false positives you start to question the effectiveness. I imagine all of this is of course highly subjective.
I typically ride bare. AV software just doesn't feel good.
I've mixed feelings about AV. It's very disruptive and most really only work well with Windows (Mac and Linux are second-class citizens for most products). That said, over the past year I've helped my father get rid of malware on his mac twice. And at work, we've seen AV block browser-based bitcoin miners. And yet our AV has also caused computers to be unable to boot after automatic upgrades.
If you want to run AV, check if your OS already has one (Windows Defender is standard on Windows and Mac has its own AV product and firewall). Turn those on. Avoid ClamAV, it has a lot of false positives, usually on something important.
If you want to run AV, check if your OS already has one (Windows Defender is standard on Windows and Mac has its own AV product and firewall). Turn those on. Avoid ClamAV, it has a lot of false positives, usually on something important.
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Malwarebytes Anti Malware (MBAM). It is exceptional for a free tool. Windows Defender is too simplistic for my liking, with a very small filter list.
That being said, I run ComboFix + ADWCleaner + RKill + JunkwareRemovalTool every few weeks to remove any malware that may have creeped in.
That being said, I run ComboFix + ADWCleaner + RKill + JunkwareRemovalTool every few weeks to remove any malware that may have creeped in.
Don't use AV because it's slow and annoying. But I do use sandboxie (1) for untested programs and that takes care of most of the problems.
(1) https://www.sandboxie.com
(1) https://www.sandboxie.com
Depends on usage. Going to browse sketchy websites all day? Probably need something.
Just doing dev work on Linux and also Thinking before clicking(TM)? Probably CommonSense2018(C) will be enough.
Keep in mind that AV software also runs as very high authority on a system, and they all had serious vulnerabilities, annoying popups, etc.
A lying DNS + IP blacklist could also help protect you. see for UNIX-like systems e.g. https://gitlab.com/moviuro/moviuro.bin/blob/master/blackhole & https://gitlab.com/moviuro/moviuro.bin/blob/master/lie-to-me
Just doing dev work on Linux and also Thinking before clicking(TM)? Probably CommonSense2018(C) will be enough.
Keep in mind that AV software also runs as very high authority on a system, and they all had serious vulnerabilities, annoying popups, etc.
A lying DNS + IP blacklist could also help protect you. see for UNIX-like systems e.g. https://gitlab.com/moviuro/moviuro.bin/blob/master/blackhole & https://gitlab.com/moviuro/moviuro.bin/blob/master/lie-to-me
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Windows 10 comes with defender which is sufficient for my needs.
When in the US or EU : Kaspersky or 360.
When in China: Mcafee or F-Secure.
Etc.
All big commercial names are sufficient; just not at keeping nation states out of your machine.
All big commercial names are sufficient; just not at keeping nation states out of your machine.
Nothing on macOS -- just the XProtect stuff that comes as part of macOS.
Nothing on Windows 10 -- Just Defender, which comes as part of Windows 10.
Nothing on Windows 10 -- Just Defender, which comes as part of Windows 10.
Since switched to Mac I assume macOS is protecting me. I have not had any issues for years.
I don't use any myself, but if my friends ask me I recommend them Kaspersky. Seems to be working very well for them.
Windows Defender.
I am using Sophos
ChromeOS