3
0

Antivirus


 invite response                
2021 Jul 10, 10:50am   890 views  18 comments

by Onvacation   ➕follow (3)   💰tip   ignore  

WineHorror1 says
Tenpoundbass says
Onvacation says



That moment when you realize, you aren't paying a yearly subscription to prevent Viruses and Malware from getting on your computer. But a yearly subscription to have content Censored for you, so your lying eyes don't deceive you.

Sounds right to me.

I have been using Norton for years. I just autorenew and it "protects" my computers, my wife's computers, and our phones from viruses.

I have not researched viruses for years. I have been using some form of antivirus since before the turn of the century; Kaspersky?

Insight? Recommendations? I know there are a lot of people that know a lot more about this than I do. Thanks.

Comments 1 - 18 of 18        Search these comments

1   pudil   2021 Jul 10, 11:10am  

You don’t need antivirus anymore. Linux based os has always been good, which includes OS X. Windows is probably better then that even at this point. Antivirus is a scam that slows your cpu down.
2   Onvacation   2021 Jul 10, 11:16am  

pudil says
You don’t need antivirus anymore. Linux based os has always been good, which includes OS X. Windows is probably better then that even at this point. Antivirus is a scam that slows your cpu down.

Are you a Russian scammer?
3   Onvacation   2021 Jul 10, 1:06pm  

pudil says
You don’t need antivirus anymore. Linux based os has always been good, which includes OS X. Windows is probably better then that even at this point. Antivirus is a scam that slows your cpu down.

Just kidding about the Russian scammer thing.

Is this true? Are antivirus programs necessary?
4   Tenpoundbass   2021 Jul 10, 2:09pm  

Every time I have ever gotten a virus, it was because I was clicking on questionable content. Usually me thinking I'm getting valuable information for free, or some hacked binary.
So now peer to peer networks have been closed down, and I can expect not to find great detailed documentation and sample code, for projects. I don't even search for that content any longer. I don't click on short links, or go to websites prompts any action from me. Like putting them in the whitelist of the add blocker and popup blocker.

I haven't gotten a virus or malware in almost 4 years now. I used to end up having to rebuild my computer every 2 years because of it .

I guess what I'm saying. Even when I was at risk of getting them, I would have rather taken the risk, than to have Norton running in the background sucking up resources. More often than not, the virus that gets you, is the one, Norton hasn't updated their database to include.
5   Tenpoundbass   2021 Jul 10, 2:12pm  

Onvacation says
Are you a Russian scammer?


I concur with him 100%. You don't need it, unless you don't trust yourself enough to have restraint from opening that .eml attachment from the Nigerian shipping Company.
You're not getting infected in the wilds, by going from website to website like before. The browsers have come along way to prevent those kinds of attacks.
6   Karloff   2021 Jul 10, 4:29pm  

Dangerous thoughtcrime in progress! A paddy wagon has been dispatched for your "protection".
7   Bd6r   2021 Jul 10, 5:19pm  

I used to visit Russian version of 4chan. It does require a good antivirus, at least 4 or 5 yrs ago.
8   Patrick   2021 Jul 11, 4:32pm  

URL from the OP image:

https://www.mebere.com/

Gosh, what could be so dangerous on that site?



Ah, now it all becomes clear!

I've added https://www.mebere.com/ to my regular reading. Thanks for the tip!
9   Booger   2021 Jul 11, 5:07pm  

I us Linux and a firewall. I probably don't even need the firewall, but I figure why not not go ahead and set it up so that my computer can only get updates and the only program that has access to the internet is Brave browser.
10   Onvacation   2021 Jul 11, 5:26pm  

Patrick says

Gosh, what could be so dangerous on that site?

It's fucking dystopian.

Next it will be a visit to your door for an "education session" when you go to the wrong site.
11   Patrick   2021 Jul 11, 5:29pm  

Booger says
I us Linux and a firewall. I probably don't even need the firewall, but I figure why not not go ahead and set it up so that my computer can only get updates and the only program that has access to the internet is Brave browser.


@Booger The firewall is definitely a good idea.
12   NuttBoxer   2021 Jul 11, 6:25pm  

anti-virus programs are completely useless. If you aren't discerning enough about what you click on, you will get hacked/get a virus, regardless of your SW. The most important points for a secure network are:

1. Good wifi password, that you ROTATE. Otherwise, anyone in range can use a de-auth command to get your encrypted key, and with a decent password list, they will have you eventually.
2. DON'T USE YOUR ISP's, OR GOOGLE'S DNS!!! They will use this to spy on you, and even redirect your traffic. I've seen both. Cloudflare is a good one, they have a reputation for not giving two shits about tracking users.
3. Use a browser you can trust. Either Brave or Tor. They will block a bunch of shit for you by default.
4. Even better, setup Pihole or similar at your router.
5. Use a password manager, best is offline. That way any site that's hacked only gives up your info for that site.
6. NEVER use your real information unless you have to. Setup an email with zero connections to your personal info for most communication, or get an app on your phone for a second number. Use prepaid credit cards, or other anonymous payment methods.
7. DO NOT, click on links you aren't confident in.
8. Use a Linux OS. There are flavors for any OS you're used to in Linux now. Windows, Mac, no excuses to used a closed OS anymore.

Majority of your security should happen where traffic enters your system, at the router. Everything else is secondary.
13   Patrick   2021 Jul 11, 10:33pm  

NuttBoxer says
There are flavors for any OS you're used to in Linux now. Windows, Mac, no excuses to used a closed OS anymore.


Hey, pretty cool.

https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/elementary-os-luna/
14   HeadSet   2021 Jul 12, 8:22am  

NuttBoxer says
There are flavors for any OS you're used to in Linux now. Windows, Mac, no excuses to used a closed OS anymore.

That works for home users who just browse the 'net and do some email. Maybe use some LibreOffice stuff. That is a bit harder to do if you need to run Access databases. Also not sure if Adobe Creative Cloud can be run from Linux.
15   Hircus   2021 Jul 12, 9:32am  

I still think most users should use an anti virus. Sure, software engineers and other power users can rely on their experience and intuition to avoid the vast majority of viruses, but regular users are more likely to get one, and less likely to realize they have one.

Browsers have made enormous leaps in quality since the 90s, when they were horrendous. But they still have occasional security flaws, and if you visit sites which allow user posted links to other sites (like this site) a hacker can take advantage of it and get you. You do not need to click a link - just loading a page containing user posted content, like images, is sometimes enough to get you.

I haven't had a virus in a long time, but I've been bitten a few times by similar stuff like malware / spyware.
1) I was downloading camstudio, a reputable screen recording software from source forge. It didnt give me a virus, but it installed some junk advertising malware which wasnt mentioned. camstudio was considered safe and "golden" up to this point by many users.

-2) Any software that auto updates, including browser extensions, can blindside you. There's now a small economy for browser extensions - hackers buy extensions, so they can inject their spyware crap into the code base, and your browser will silently auto update it. Sometimes they inject code to steal your passwords, or mine bitcoin using your idle cpu, inject ads into the page, inject hidden iframes into all web pages you visit, redirect you to sites with crap etc...

I've never been someone who installs many extensions, just a small handful of them, but I've still had 2 VERY popular, like 1M+ users popular, browser extensions go rogue on me like this, sold to a hacker. I also have a few popular browser extensions that I personally wrote and maintain, and every so often I get emails from shady people from russia who want to buy my extension, or want to pay me to install their "data collection" code into my extensions. I'm sure lots of extensions authors do it.

Due to this, I no longer allow browser extensions to auto update. If I want to install an extension, I download the crx file, audit the source code (possibly stripping out any junk), and then freeze updates, locking me into that known safe version.

Anyway, lots of good advice in this thread. I also started using a dedicated linux box for logging into important stuff, like banking and investing, and I keep that as a browser only, banking only computer. I also plan to soon build a new computer, and I plan to have extra ram so I can easily run multiple VMs, so I can sandbox less trustworthy software, and do my internet browsing.
16   Bd6r   2021 Jul 12, 9:53am  

Patrick says
Gosh, what could be so dangerous on that site?

Exhibit A. I was reading something on Twatter and the following image came up:



Take a guess what was censored, despite repeated reloads:



Our tech companies are in pockets of CCP. I wonder how/why, as Twatter/Facebook/etc are banned in China anyway..
17   Hircus   2021 Jul 12, 10:28am  

Rb6d says
Our tech companies are in pockets of CCP. I wonder how/why, as Twatter/Facebook/etc are banned in China anyway..


Maybe CCP daddy told them that if they play like a good boy for a while, they may reconsider the ban.
18   HeadSet   2021 Jul 12, 10:37am  

Hircus says
Rb6d says
Our tech companies are in pockets of CCP. I wonder how/why, as Twatter/Facebook/etc are banned in China anyway..


Maybe CCP daddy told them that if they play like a good boy for a while, they may reconsider the ban.

More likely is that CCP owned and controlled companies buy lots of ads in the US and Europe.

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions