What is the best anti virus?
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The ones that tend to get the best ratings tend to be the Russian/Slavic paid ones - Kaspersky and the like. If you google it, Lifehacker does yearly rundowns with links to a bunch of the companies that help certify and test AV programs.
As for free ones:
-AVG and Avast both work /fairly/ well and are not too bloated, though some people have complaints about the free versions' EULAs.
-Security Essentials has gone horribly down-hill unfortunatelyNowadays antivirus is unfortunately only useful for uninspired attacks. When antivirus software first came out, viruses actually were viruses - they spread to files by amending or perverting them. The early viruses (and then worms, trojan horses and malware) were easy enough to deal with once they were analyzed; early anti-virus scanners simply contained lists of 'fingerprints' - telltale signs used by viruses to mark files that they'd infected, comments in the virus code and the like. If a file had a fingerprint, it was infected and the virus could be removed. Nowadays though, that's simply no longer the case in the vast majority of cases; malware is a multi-billion dollar industry and malware authors have been winning the arms race against antivirus scanners for quite some time. Things like polymorphism (code that mutates itself so it has no reliable fingerprint) and encrypted code (if the code can't be easily studied, a 'cure' can't be found easily) are commonplace and most malware authors sell kits that can generate customized malware on the fly to the specifications of the client. It sucks to say, but security these days requires a more proactive approach so my suggestion is:
-Use AVG, Avast or one of the paid solutions, but keep in mind that this is not 1989 and you are not 100% safe
-Disable Java in your browsers (not javascript) – it's rarely used and still a big buggy attack vector that is commonly on PCs
-Consider using a Firewall, either the Windows built-in or a free solution like Comodo
-Keep a malware-centric application on hand; Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is generally recognized as the leading piece of software in terms of detection and healing, plus their forums (and the app!) are free so long as you don't need real-time scanning
-Keep regular, staggered backups, and don't leave your backup system connected to your computer. This will help protect you from ransomware.
-Remember to have antivirus for your smartphone, especially if you use Android!And this is probably controversial, but: if you are infected with something that is not trivial and which your antivirus or antimalware only detected after you noticed things going wrong or after it damaged things, format the OS drive and re-install; unfortunately a lot of the new stuff digs itself in so deeply that you may never get all its pieces out.
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Common sense is the best and most effective antivirus
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A lot of my friends tried to discourage me from using Essentials, but I've been using it for almost 4 years now and so far it hasn't failed me. That and the fact that I'm very vigilant when downloading stuff from the internet. So, I guess common sense also plays a part. ;D
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The best AV is: "first think, then click"
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Common sense is the best and most effective antivirus
Yeah, not clicking "TOTALLYNOTAVIRUS.SCR.EXE" or "HOT COED WOMEN WANT TO FUCK YOU NOW, DOWNLOAD OUR APP" type ads/emails/etc will protect you 99% of the time, but it's still important to have an antivirus and antimalware solution for that 1% of times where you cannot have knowledge of the threat - the last virus I got was a 0day exploit dropper that I couldn't have possibly seen coming because it had only been released into the wild hours earlier. Fortunately my antivirus /did/ catch the files it tried to download and my firewall and antimalware caught the dropper itself when it tried to talk to its command/control server.
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One of my professor once said to me that if my files on my computer are important, i should invest in antivirus. and i think he's right. bought a licensed avg and it was great. switch to cracked kaspersky after the license expired coz i can no longer afford one.
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Okay, let me give you some proper information.
anti virus software ist useless. completely and utterly useless.
Why?
Because they can't keep up with the bad guys. Every av-company has databanks full of hundreds of thousands of potential virus or other malware. Most of them are just derivates of other malwares and most of them are not analyzed.
Remember Stuxnet? The virus who was supposed to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program in 2010? It was written by Israel (and with help of the US?) and guess what…the mainbody of this virus was in those databanks for years and just nobody had time to analyze it.And well..the applications themselves. A lot of av-software digs deep into your system and is hard to control or just a pain in the ass to configure and some even have annoying ads etc.
Mostly they are just going to report files based on an heuristic approach (they scan and analyze the file and say statistically it could do something bad). So they have pretty much no clue.And well….anti virus software is dead..said the senior vice president for information security of Symantec
So…
1. I wouldnt look up for benchmark tests or scores or reviews of anti virus software I have to pay for. They are not worth your money.
2. Start using brain.exe. If the website seems shady dont use it.
3. Use your browser and its features. Like NoAds Plugin or the automated domain security check all the browser do in the background and configure your browser correctly (turn java off and sometimes even java-script etc).
4. Get some free av-programs. You dont need the whole range of features like real time protection. For example: iirc Spybot Search & Destroy blocks known bad sites by putting them into your localhost file (so the urls will be redirected to your own computer ergo you cant even surf to these websites to begin with).
5. if in doubt use www.virustotal.com -
I'm using Avira.. It's free and useful..
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If you're using Windows, Security Essentials plus common sense is fine. Security essentials is even built into Windows 8 and beyond (as Windows Defender). Other security/antivirus programs offer different realtime shields that may be helpful, but those also incur performance costs. If you're using a bit of common sense, these realtime shields are largely useless, so you're taking a performance hit for very little benefit. As far as virus definitions go, there isn't much of a functional difference between different antivirus programs. In some cases, paid programs even have problems with false positives (http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/04/broken-mcafee-dat-update-cripples-windows-workstations/) which in the extreme cases will even break your operating system. Security Essentials is the best choice in my opinion because it provides a good level of security without getting in the way of normal operation. If you don't trust yourself, or prefer the comfort that the realtime shields of another program offer and you're fine with the performance hit, those are fine too.
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MSE is enough
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Yeah, I'm using Microsoft Security Essential since I changed my windows to 7, like about 4 years now. It works awesome and I never had any virus attacked since.
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AVG is the best antivirus which I have been using from years. Also Malwarebytes anti malware. There is MSE too.
Also I would suggest to use browser addons like Web of trust, McAfee site advisor or Link extend. I always look at the green, yellow or red suggestion given by the Link extend addon while visiting new websites. -
pretty difficult to say
as some skip one part f.e keyloggers and other do something different. I use MS security essentials but i have doubt on it -
I love trendmicro… It lets you close it, isn't annoying, and is up in the 99% detection rating on the comparative sites..
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Further reasoning:
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I use AVG and it works fine. Have also used Nod32, Kaspersky, Panda Security but AVG will do the work!!!
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Kaspersky
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not using any antivirus is the best option, just don't open any suspicious exe or insert random flash drives and you'll be fine
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I have used AVG Free for years. Never had any problems. Of course I usually use some common sense when downloading and surfing as well. ;D
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im uses one that came with W10, it block lot things (ir u make it updated) the best thing is not enter at suspicius sites or open facebook or sns links and dunno email XD
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