What security software do you use on your PC?
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I rely on my common sense to keep me safe. When I need to test something suspicious, I usually submit stuff to virustotal.com and/or run it in a VMware Workstation instance and/or Sandboxie it and/or analyze with Buster Sandbox Analyzer.
For my brother, who is a total newb and visits lots of risky websites, I setup his laptop with the following. No antivirus/anti-malware/HIPS were installed:
For my brother, who is a total newb and visits lots of risky websites, I setup his laptop with the following. No antivirus/anti-malware/HIPS were installed:
- Disallowed-by-default Windows Software Restriction Policy
- Limited user account (LUA) with SuRun
- Extensive manual custom registry ACLs to further lock down LUA
- Internet-facing programs sandboxed with Sandboxie
- Norton DNS servers to block many malware domains
- Secunia PSI to keep his third-party software up-to-date. The beta does so automatically
- MBRguard to prevent MBR modifications
- Firefox addons: NoScript, WOT, SiteAdvisor, Adblock
- Rolling full-system incremental backups to an external drive with EMC Retrospect
Linux :joker: Sorry, couldn't resist.
For anti-virus, I like Avast!. I've had good luck with it blocking any threats and next to zero false positives.
For anti-malware, I use Malwarebytes and Spybot. And I also use the Adblock, NoScript, and Better Privacy plugins in firefox.
All in all, I think Rollyco is right in pointing out that using common sense is really the best preventative measure to take.
If only more people could come to this realisation, the Internet would become alot less of a security threat to businesses.
Physical security is important too.
The best tools which I keep around are Task Manager (surprising how keeping an eye on it helps) and HiJackThis! I have also been known to run things in virtual instances too. :joker:
LOL! Or you could just install a security suite which would do all that and more... but some people like to scratch their left ear using their right hand..
The winning team: Avast, Comodo Firewall Pro (a free firewall), firefox+noscript+flashblock (blocks flash animation on demand), and common sense of course.
I'm running Windows Vista in admin mode since 2 years and half, and still waiting for a virus/worm/spyware, at least something I could notice. :joker:
I'm running Windows Vista in admin mode since 2 years and half, and still waiting for a virus/worm/spyware, at least something I could notice. :joker:
BA-ZING!
In all fairness, Vista is actually not nearly as bad as it was made out to be. Of course, I wasn't one of the people who bought it in the first year, so its easy for me to talk.
And what problem(s) is it supposed to bring me ? :joker:
I didn't choose it, as it was part of the one-year warranty of my computer, I didn't want to remove it during that period, and then you know how it goes...
But this is not the topic of this thread. :gayprance:
I use McAfee Total Protection. I can think of far worse O/S then Vista like say linux 
andalaugh:
andalaugh:i use spyware doctor with antivirus when it runs out i switch to eset smart security
zero viruses and spywares (not counting the ones i make lol) for 2 years :tea:
zero viruses and spywares (not counting the ones i make lol) for 2 years :tea:
Linux. Seriously.
I have Windows 7 installed on my laptop but I don't use it often, it's sole purpose is for ripping CDs with EAC. If I really need some Windows program on my workstation I run Virtualbox, but I have to say from Vista onward Windows made huge security improvements. If you have XP install Windows 7 first, older systems can't be considered as a solid foundation anymore. If you don't want to buy Windows 7, get Linux instead. Just to make my self clear, I'm not advertising for Microsoft.
ThatOtherPerson is right. Microsoft Security Essentials covers everything you would want from an antivirus program.
Common Sense 2011 Fnord Edition is good, but incompatibility to malware is even better. Be aware that incompatibility can't protect you from internet fraud. Though incompatibility is the security through obscurity approach, it's proved to be working well. An Ubuntu user with administrative rights installs and uses much less crappy software than a Windows 7 user with administrative rights. As mentioned before I'm not talking about XP.
He has a very sophisticated setup there. It goes far beyond of what regular security software suite bogus could and should provide. Those suites are the marketing approach to security consciousness made by people who don't understand security at all, but selling products. They are not your friends.
A short example. All suites come with a personal firewall. Why? Windows already has one built in and other OS like Linux also do have a solution right built into the core of the system. If you really want a personal firewall you would want it there, not as a external program by an external vendor. Personal firewalls in general are a bad design, but it's just one feature of those suites, which wouldn't be "complete" without this feature in marketing terms. There are these firewalls that proudly show you every "attack" against your machine. Why? This is not professinal, this is marketing. Professional tools keep logs in plain text and standard format somewhere in your filesystem where the average user doesn't bother to look into. If the system firewall was broken, the reasonable solution would be to fix it instead of replacing it with another mediocre product. That's what developers of other OS do, but for "the steamy pile of crap" you just waste your money on another product.
«Our firewall has moar features!» «Pardon?»
PSI is a good tool, though again it's marketing for Secunia. The average Linux distribution comes with a package manager, a tool of which PSI is just a half-assed copy. Note, that there are package managers for Windows out there, but you should rather get familiar with Linux.
Backups are good and should never be handled by an antivirus, due to the single point of failure. It almost made me laugh, when I heared that some computer magazine in germany had trouble to get their issue into print due to a bad antivirus update. Priceless! They still do this wooden stuff.
On the application side, sandboxing is a step forward, but sandboxing everything and not taking care of vulnerabilities is a bad habit and so is the behaviour of antiviruses fuzzing with the webbrowser. It's sad to see that NoScript is the only solution for controlling Java Script in your browser, a powerful programming language with no security consciousness at all, just an on/off switch. WOT is an awful misinterpretation of the Web of trust [link].
The better advice to "Never touch a running System", is "For minor problems, reboot. For major problems, reinstall!". Windows only, of course.
Last but not least: Good habits for passwords are mandatory.
I have Windows 7 installed on my laptop but I don't use it often, it's sole purpose is for ripping CDs with EAC. If I really need some Windows program on my workstation I run Virtualbox, but I have to say from Vista onward Windows made huge security improvements. If you have XP install Windows 7 first, older systems can't be considered as a solid foundation anymore. If you don't want to buy Windows 7, get Linux instead. Just to make my self clear, I'm not advertising for Microsoft.
ThatOtherPerson is right. Microsoft Security Essentials covers everything you would want from an antivirus program.
Common Sense 2011 Fnord Edition is good, but incompatibility to malware is even better. Be aware that incompatibility can't protect you from internet fraud. Though incompatibility is the security through obscurity approach, it's proved to be working well. An Ubuntu user with administrative rights installs and uses much less crappy software than a Windows 7 user with administrative rights. As mentioned before I'm not talking about XP.
He has a very sophisticated setup there. It goes far beyond of what regular security software suite bogus could and should provide. Those suites are the marketing approach to security consciousness made by people who don't understand security at all, but selling products. They are not your friends.
A short example. All suites come with a personal firewall. Why? Windows already has one built in and other OS like Linux also do have a solution right built into the core of the system. If you really want a personal firewall you would want it there, not as a external program by an external vendor. Personal firewalls in general are a bad design, but it's just one feature of those suites, which wouldn't be "complete" without this feature in marketing terms. There are these firewalls that proudly show you every "attack" against your machine. Why? This is not professinal, this is marketing. Professional tools keep logs in plain text and standard format somewhere in your filesystem where the average user doesn't bother to look into. If the system firewall was broken, the reasonable solution would be to fix it instead of replacing it with another mediocre product. That's what developers of other OS do, but for "the steamy pile of crap" you just waste your money on another product.
«Our firewall has moar features!» «Pardon?»
PSI is a good tool, though again it's marketing for Secunia. The average Linux distribution comes with a package manager, a tool of which PSI is just a half-assed copy. Note, that there are package managers for Windows out there, but you should rather get familiar with Linux.
Backups are good and should never be handled by an antivirus, due to the single point of failure. It almost made me laugh, when I heared that some computer magazine in germany had trouble to get their issue into print due to a bad antivirus update. Priceless! They still do this wooden stuff.
On the application side, sandboxing is a step forward, but sandboxing everything and not taking care of vulnerabilities is a bad habit and so is the behaviour of antiviruses fuzzing with the webbrowser. It's sad to see that NoScript is the only solution for controlling Java Script in your browser, a powerful programming language with no security consciousness at all, just an on/off switch. WOT is an awful misinterpretation of the Web of trust [link].
The better advice to "Never touch a running System", is "For minor problems, reboot. For major problems, reinstall!". Windows only, of course.
Last but not least: Good habits for passwords are mandatory.
AVAST and kaspersky, combined with windows firewall IMO is a good choice already, i used to use AVG suite but it seems they're a lil less efficient than what they used to be..
still the best of all security measures, is when you are knowing what you are doing. program only helps you and it can fail to... if you are careless no program will be able to protect you... if you know what i meant by being careless [online] :joker:
if you don't really use PC programs as much as i did, LINUX is a good choice, but when everyone start using linux i bet more security threats will be made against that platform (or any popular platforms in that regards) i think that's how security threats developed as is... no one want to break a platform that nobody uses, they will attack those that people uses and depended most on *looking at windows* :thief:
still the best of all security measures, is when you are knowing what you are doing. program only helps you and it can fail to... if you are careless no program will be able to protect you... if you know what i meant by being careless [online] :joker:
if you don't really use PC programs as much as i did, LINUX is a good choice, but when everyone start using linux i bet more security threats will be made against that platform (or any popular platforms in that regards) i think that's how security threats developed as is... no one want to break a platform that nobody uses, they will attack those that people uses and depended most on *looking at windows* :thief:
Until Microsoft issues a patch (it might take some time, since it's a complicated fix) I strongly suggest all Windows users install the free Sophos Windows Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool.
All Windows versions are vulnerable. Current vectors of infection are:
Webpages (when using Internet Explorer)
USB sticks and removable drives
Downloaded .RAR/.ZIP/etc archives
Remote network and WebDAV shares
Nasty stuff.
All Windows versions are vulnerable. Current vectors of infection are:
Webpages (when using Internet Explorer)
USB sticks and removable drives
Downloaded .RAR/.ZIP/etc archives
Remote network and WebDAV shares
Nasty stuff.