Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: mthrockmor on December 04, 2015, 11:23:54 PM

Title: Browser security
Post by: mthrockmor on December 04, 2015, 11:23:54 PM
I just purchased a nice lap top, which is part of my transition into a nice desktop for AH3.

This laptop runs Windows 10 and for security it gave me the option of MacAfee. I declined it. What is a good, free, security system I can download? I hear bad things about both MacAfee and Kaspersky.

Thanks in advance!

boo
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Skuzzy on December 05, 2015, 06:30:00 AM
Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky are horrible.  I do not know of a free one I could recommend.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: The Fugitive on December 05, 2015, 08:20:30 AM
I use avira. Seems to work well, updates often and has caught a couple things when I strayed.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Masherbrum on December 05, 2015, 11:12:20 AM
ESET Smart Security 8 and have had this Suite since 2007.   It is not free and is great for gaming.   
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Ratsy on December 05, 2015, 11:53:38 AM
Another Avira user.  I used the free version for about 6 years and last year I bought the Internet Protection suite.  I like it, apparently.   :)

 :salute
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Bizman on December 05, 2015, 12:37:12 PM
I use Avast Free, but as Skuzzy said, there's really no free I could recommend.

Truth to be said, having seen almost every Anti-Virus program within my clientele, each one of them has flaws every now and then. One trick is to put AH on every exception list you can find in whichever program you're using. That might, just might help a little bit.

As for the title, there's many other things you can do for safer browsing than just having an AV running in the background. Choosing a non-spying browser and search engine is a good start. Modifying your browser settings to at least clear the history automatically at each shutdown is another easy-to-do trick. Adblock and Disconnect don't really hinder anything essential, instead they block many misleading ads. An even safer approach would be to set everything from "allow" to "ask each time" and then slowly creating a whitelist by permanently allowing selected functions for certain trusted sites.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Vulcan on December 05, 2015, 02:41:21 PM
Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky are horrible.  I do not know of a free one I could recommend.

I've been running the McAfee SAAS version lately and had no issues with it. I used to run the Kaspersky SAAS (we get free McAfee and Kaspersky via work) and it was fine too. I've had Nortons is not as bad as it used to be.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: BaldEagl on December 05, 2015, 03:00:24 PM
I used to run McAfee for the longest time but it became a bloated resource hog so I dumped it and went to Microsoft Security Essentials (both on Win XP Pro).  MSE was very light and seemed to do a reasonable job although it's pretty rudimentary.

When I got my laptop (Windows 8/8.1) I took up Norton on the offer included on the laptop.  It wasn't nearly as bad as the rep it has but it did use more resources than MSE by a fair amount but wasn't as bad a McAfee.

When I upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 I just stuck with Windows Defender/MSE and am happy with that.

On my smart phone and my older XP box I'm running the free version of Avast alongside the free version of Malwarebytes and am very happy with that setup.

I've also run AVG (free) in the past.  It used to be a very good, light program but it too became a resource hog at one point so away it went.

The best antivirus/antimalware is the user.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Max on December 05, 2015, 08:03:57 PM
I would also recommend ESET.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: mikev on December 05, 2015, 10:59:17 PM
I used to run McAfee for the longest time but it became a bloated resource hog so I dumped it and went to Microsoft Security Essentials (both on Win XP Pro).  MSE was very light and seemed to do a reasonable job although it's pretty rudimentary.

When I got my laptop (Windows 8/8.1) I took up Norton on the offer included on the laptop.  It wasn't nearly as bad as the rep it has but it did use more resources than MSE by a fair amount but wasn't as bad a McAfee.

When I upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 I just stuck with Windows Defender/MSE and am happy with that.

On my smart phone and my older XP box I'm running the free version of Avast alongside the free version of Malwarebytes and am very happy with that setup.

I've also run AVG (free) in the past.  It used to be a very good, light program but it too became a resource hog at one point so away it went.

The best antivirus/antimalware is the user.

defiantly this is the best for free , just watch what you click on.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: mikev on December 05, 2015, 11:23:31 PM
very confusing results... http://www.av-comparatives.org/dynamic-tests/ . this came from a reply back when i was dealing with my pre installed norton problem from microsoft forums comparing AV . the reply also recommended bit defender. from the chart below 1 can guess it is either a poor example or a bias example to 1 AV over another. i somewhat dispute the chart for accuracy but i will post it for others to comment.
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff115/MAVADAKIN_2007/11.jpg)[/URL]
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: MADe on December 05, 2015, 11:29:41 PM
I use anti malwarebytes preemie. I would not recommend it at all.
Reason, I just redid my OS because it did not stop the cryptoware ransom virus, and they suggested I pay the ransom if I truly wanted to recover my files from the encryption.
FYI
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: mikev on December 06, 2015, 01:21:56 AM
I use anti malwarebytes preemie. I would not recommend it at all.
Reason, I just redid my OS because it did not stop the cryptoware ransom virus, and they suggested I pay the ransom if I truly wanted to recover my files from the encryption.
FYI
what would be nice to know is how you got the "cryptowall ransom virus"
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Bizman on December 06, 2015, 03:13:52 AM
very confusing results... http://www.av-comparatives.org/dynamic-tests/ . this came from a reply back when i was dealing with my pre installed norton problem from microsoft forums comparing AV . the reply also recommended bit defender. from the chart below 1 can guess it is either a poor example or a bias example to 1 AV over another. i somewhat dispute the chart for accuracy but i will post it for others to comment.
(http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff115/MAVADAKIN_2007/11.jpg)[/URL]
There's a lot of variance depending on which month you're looking. At some point a program can block everything without any false positives, at some other point the same program blocks only 95% with half a dozen of false positives. The results would vary even more if the graphs showed a daily situation. The race between viruses and anti-virus programs is more action packed than most sports.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Vulcan on December 06, 2015, 05:56:31 PM
what would be nice to know is how you got the "cryptowall ransom virus"

Most of the time it is email.

Two up and coming Antimalware products to keep an eye on are Carbon Black and Cylance.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Skuzzy on December 07, 2015, 06:20:43 AM
Most of the time it is email.

Two up and coming Antimalware products to keep an eye on are Carbon Black and Cylance.

Correct me if I am wrong, as it has been a long time since I did anything with the Internet using a normal consumer setup, but if you disable HTML in your email and ActiveX/Active content controls in the Internet Options->Advanced control panel, that should prevent emails from automatically embedding malware/spyware.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: WaffenVW on December 07, 2015, 12:25:31 PM
Windows 10 comes with its own AV called Defender. It's similar to MS security essentials for Windows 7.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: BaldEagl on December 07, 2015, 02:06:19 PM
Windows 10 comes with its own AV called Defender. It's similar to MS security essentials for Windows 7.

It IS Microsoft Security Essentials.  Go to All Apps/Windows System/Windows Defender and open it.  It's the exact same interface as MSE with no changes whatsoever except the name.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Skuzzy on December 07, 2015, 02:55:15 PM
At one point Defender was the malware/spyware application and Security Essentials was for anti-virus work.

Has Microsoft merged them in 10?  I hated MSE (Security Essentials).  It messed with far too many applications and was not very good at being an anti-virus solution, but it is free.  ARRRRRRGGGHHH!
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: BaldEagl on December 07, 2015, 03:51:24 PM
It looks just like MSE but is named Windows Defender.

In multiple places it refers to Virus and Spyware definitions (for instance your Virus and Spyware definitions are up to date) but on the update page under Did You Know it also mentions malware definitions.  IIRC that's the same as MSE.

It appears the sum total of Windows Defender is MSE and Windows Firewall.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Bizman on December 08, 2015, 04:11:00 AM
At one point Defender was the malware/spyware application and Security Essentials was for anti-virus work.

Has Microsoft merged them in 10?  I hated MSE (Security Essentials).  It messed with far too many applications and was not very good at being an anti-virus solution, but it is free.  ARRRRRRGGGHHH!

That happened already in Win8.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Vulcan on December 08, 2015, 01:53:58 PM
Correct me if I am wrong, as it has been a long time since I did anything with the Internet using a normal consumer setup, but if you disable HTML in your email and ActiveX/Active content controls in the Internet Options->Advanced control panel, that should prevent emails from automatically embedding malware/spyware.

Not for Outlook 2013, in fact I couldn't find an option anywhere to dumb it down to text only.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: Skuzzy on December 08, 2015, 02:13:24 PM
Not for Outlook 2013, in fact I couldn't find an option anywhere to dumb it down to text only.

So they removed that option.  How rude.
Title: Re: Browser security
Post by: BaldEagl on December 09, 2015, 08:15:23 AM
I've now moved all my computers to Avast Free with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free and added Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit Free to my laptop.

I wasn't aware of Anti-Exploit but it looks like a worthwhile additional level of protection.

[EDIT]  Uninstalled Ant-Exploit as every time it ran there was an annoying notification telling me how protected I was and no way to turn it off.