Do you use an Antivirus for your PC and/or Phone?

[KingBlank]

I currently use Norton antivirus on my PC and Phone

Last I heard Norton was worthless, has it improved?

 

[Lacius]

Last I heard Norton was worthless, has it improved?

Is it worthless? No, it blocks about 100% of real-world threats according to the AV-Comparatives tests. Is it worth the money when compared to something free like Windows Defender? No, probably not. Windows Defender blocks about 99.3-100% of real-world threats.

 

[Deleted member 506316]

Last I heard Norton was worthless, has it improved?

Norton is not worthless. It basically saves my life biweekly. Don't ask how I manage to get that many viruses.

 

[Lacius]

Don't ask how I manage to get that many viruses.

How do you manage to get that many viruses?

 

[FAST6191]

Don't have a phone. Only install from repos on Linux and if they are compromised then I have bigger issues. Windows Defender or whatever it is called these days on Windows installs. On Windows defender then +1 to the oversensitive issue these days... so many nice little tools (I imagine half of http://www.nirsoft.net/ is probably blocked) that it usually knocks out before you can even stop it (learned to leave them zipped on my USB of wonder). Other than that I don't want to fix viruses and with that in mind I still go with it.

Adblock and nice things to stop scripts on any browser I come across. Haven't really seen exes on email for a few years now. Such things have probably saved me and mine more than anything else.

 

[Ryccardo]

Always used Common Sense Pro since about 2005 (that includes XP with an admin account when it was the most popular OS), unsurprisingly with no problems except two times where I deliberately tried two malwares for fun

Worth noting that I use µMatrix to blacklist javashit by default in my web browser - while I do that for performance and efficiency reasons, it appears that 99% plus of advertisers, wannabe exploiters, and other sources of undesirable content can't figure out a way to do such without me allowing their (allegedly sandboxed) unsolicited code execution!

 

[Necron]

I call bullshit on their metrics. From experience fixing people's pc's for years, windows defender might as well not exist. Had to remove a couple viruses off my bro's pc just a month or 2 back.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Ah found where you got that statistic.
"The results are based on a test set consisting of 371 test cases (such as malicious URLs), tested from the beginning of August till the end of September."
https://www.av-comparatives.org/tes...-enterprise-august-september-2019-testresult/
That is by no means comprehensive. There are millions of viruses, let alone attack methods. Even the absolute worst AV on that list have a "98.1% success rate".
Oof, and those false positives too. Microsoft had the same number as the next 3 highest false positive counts combined.


But that's where the fun is

Been fixing computers for years as well (more like a hobby tho, not a full time job) and most things slowing down computers are crapware that comes bundled with other programs, like search bars or those "we optimize your pc" programs. Rarely I've needed to do something deep besides uninstalling and cleaning folders/registry.

 

[Uiaad]

A good mix of common sense, windows defender and malwarebytes for PC - For phones I never really see a reason to have an AV as again common sense and checking out any sideloaded apps in a vm before hand does the trick.

When it comes to work I'm a bastard, but then again sometimes it's my job to be a bastard. Usually if we are have new hires, they have the pleasure of 3 hours with me going over do's and don'ts, VPN's, inhouse software etc. One important part of this is security. I give them the exact scenario that's going to happen,A flash drive found in the car park. Of course what they are supposed to do is either hand it over to IT or leave it where it is and tell IT. But what usually happens is someone will take back to their desk and plug it in. Of course the second they do it pings lets me know ( through inhouse software ), i email their manager and they end up with a written warning.

You would be shocked how effective this tactic is for getting inside a 'secure' network - moral of the story ... if you see a flash drive on the street just walk on by

 

[IC_]

I use linux but back when I used windows 10 I didn't have any antivirus (not even windows defender) and I never got any viruses or crap

 

[dAVID_]

None, Linux masterrace FTW.

 

[The Catboy]

Yeah, I use a little known anti-virus that goes by the name of “Linux.” My computer had this really nasty spyware right out of box and Linux was able to clean that up quite nicely.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Yeah, I use a little known anti-virus that goes by the name of “Linux.” My computer had this really nasty spyware right out of box and Linux was able to clean that up quite nicely.

You purchased a computer with spyware? You should have got a refund.

 

[The Catboy]

You purchased a computer with spyware? You should have got a refund.

Getting a refund for Windows is a hassle.

 

[the_randomizer]

Just my PC, not my phone

 

[Minox]

I'm using ESET NOD32 as a last line of defense, but hopefully I will never need to rely on it.

 

[Hardline]

https://www.pandasecurity.com/secur...mLnst6m2GWVOfqumWcrQcf0XCyUu8l6UaAltNEALw_wcB

 

[sautzer]

I only used it the first few years I got my first PC. Then I just learned how virus can infect your pc, how to be safe on the Internet and never used one. Never had a problem or got any viruses.

 

[JuanMena]

I actually did used one... but then learned that Windows Defender on Win10 is good.
I would love to have MalwareBytes but $
And I do not download or visite malicious sites. I do not use any third party software, so I'm good for now I think...

Or at least that's what Windows Defender says.

 

[YOUCANTSTOPME]

I'm not saying that viruses don't exist nowadays because they certainly do, but compared to what it was like 10-20 years ago, viruses are hardly a thing anymore. It used to be that when you bought a PC, the first thing you did was also buy an antivirus and install it.

 

[Lacius]

I would love to have MalwareBytes but $

The on-demand scanner of Malwarebytes is free.

I'm not saying that viruses don't exist nowadays because they certainly do, but compared to what it was like 10-20 years ago, viruses are hardly a thing anymore. It used to be that when you bought a PC, the first thing you did was also buy an antivirus and install it.

Both the number of new malware and the number of devices infected with malware are higher in 2019 than they were in 2018, and they were higher in 2018 than they were in 2017, and so on. It would be very silly to describe viruses as "hardly a thing."
https://purplesec.us/resources/cyber-security-statistics/