What Antivirus/Security Solution are You Using?

With a lot of us working from home, or stuck at home not working, I got curious what people in the community are using for antivirus/security solutions? Most of our home PCs use Windows Defender since it's free and does a decent job, but I've played with ESET's solutions on my gaming PC since it's light with good signatures.

I used to use AVG but it was doing a good job at messing up a bunch of programs, i switched to Avast and it's fine.
It's been years since i've had any issues though, i don't say that's because of Avast, just careful browsing.

Yeah I think browsing/download habits have the most influence on security.

Windows Defender has gotten really decent in recent years. I personally use Malwarebytes. It's a good program that comes with a decent free version as well. Also this is 100% a script kiddie getting our info. We've all been duped!

@rejizzle: ha! I wish I was a 'kiddie'. I'm 'old' and just generally interested in pc security. I use Malwarebytes on and off as well.

My browsing habits largely consist of Youtube, Giantbomb, Reddit, and a handful of news sites and very little else. And I don't click in external links without knowing what they lead to. The built-in Windows stuff combined with adblock software and careful browsing habits seems to be doing just fine for me.

Windows Defender/Windows Security, and only visiting five or six sites a day.

I'm on the F-Secure Total suite and have been for a long time. It combines internet security, a VPN and a password manager into one subscription. There's always a sale going on every now and then where you can get an annual subscription for 60-80 euros and that covers multiple devices. I've got my PC, both phones, laptop and my girlfriends' phone all in the same subscription.

It's true that careful browsing habits are the best way to protect yourself against all the bad junk on the internet. However I travel quite a lot, signing into weird WiFi sources and sometimes handing my devices to border officials, so it's nice to have that extra feeling of security. Also a VPN is pretty much essential these days anyways.

I have Avast on Silent mode so I don't get their popup ads, have had it for 2 years now on both my computers, it has done some series work on my laptop that I use for completely legal (cough) PTP file sharing.

@isomeri: I know multiple people who swear by F-Secure, it seems to be a good product.

It's interesting there aren't the old standby's from threads like this long ago. It was all NOD32 and Kaspersky back then, with some Avast sprinkled in, or at least that's how I remember it.

I use a combo of Windows Defender, a workplace solution that IT installed, and Malwarebytes on my work machine. I have a whole other machine with Windows Defender, Avast, and Maleware bytes on my home laptop, that si where I do shopping...although I do shop and bank on my phone which is probably not as secure as I think. LOL

I do have a junker, where I DO NOT do social media - that is my burner device. Even the burner computer has virus and malware protection, but when things get screwy with I can toss the drive because nothing is on it.

Windows Defender.

Don't run as Admin.

Don't download anything that you didn't specifically request.

Don't click links in email.

I use AVG and I also pay for the premium features. For $30 a year, it's really a no-brainer. I work in IT and have seen companies get hit pretty hard with malware/ransomware/etc...

Also on a side note, I find it funny that some people hate AVG but love Avast when they are both owned by the same company.

The best antivirus isn't available for PC, you can only install it in your head.

I pretty much only use windows defender nowadays, but in the recent past i grew quite fond of iobit's security & driver programs. Like i just wanted a program to scout out the latest drivers for my system on a clean boot and download them all at once and iobit's Driver booster program always did that without any issues for free while also letting you revert back to a previous driver if you needed to.

their Advanced System Care security suite also seemed quite alright. They do like to nag you with 'crazy discounts' if you stay free though.

Don't run as Admin is the best advice!

Careful browsing, and now that downloads / updates / patches are mostly free today, that is huge. I still remember the old days where you would have to go to shady sites to download some software updates, game patches, etc where you would get popup software, crappy adware in a lot of the software.

I guess now companies have offset a crummy practice of installing adware/malware/sponsored-ware to now collecting and selling all of our data to offset costs. Maybe we aren't in a better place? :/

McAfee since I been using it for years and haven't had any issues aside from updating my computer and having to run the virus scan then see what needs to be updated from Windows.

I don't run anything on my Mac. My PC runs windows defender.

I don't visit unknown places on my computers so i've not had any issues.

I use Symantec. You should have some type of AV. Windows Defender is fine. A paid one like Symantec or McAfee is also fine. It won’t protect everything, but having something that does AV, HIPS, etc. will help protect you overall.

Patch your shit (OS, web browsers, applications, phones). There are some bad patches and it can be annoying sometimes, but a lot of patches have built-in security / bug fixes, even if it’s not an emergency security patch.

Don’t click on links in emails you were not expecting. When in doubt, go to the site and log in yourself. Aside from phishing, a ton of malware is sent through email. Even if it’s not something obvious like receiving a random .exe, people will go through a lot of hoops to infect your computer starting with an email. For example, they’ll send you a link that redirects somewhere else, and you have to click on this other link, and then get a Word document, and then you have to enable macros.

Be careful with the browsing and the downloads.

@clagnaught: this is mostly unrelated but when ever I get a phishing attempt I tend to check if the company that I supposedly received a receipt for actually exists. I usually end up on paypal's help forums filled with angry people demanding refunds to non-existant transactions and I realize that all of them used the email links to log in to their PayPal accounts.

This is why I make sure to personally deal with older people accounts in the family. Most of them are savvy enough to log in to an account but not enough to know if they are looking at a bonafide communication or a phishing email.

Lord knows existing email providers don't seem to properly blacklist previously tagged emails.

I personally use Malware bytes and its been pretty good about blocking a number of attempts. I would be using bitdefender but I dislike their move to remote software and their intrusive advertising for a product you literally own.

A GUN

Um...MacOS?

Bitdefender - works a treat.

I constantly protect my computer by any means. I have browser protection, brandmauer, antivirus, and additional protection. I always set the correct passwords. Someone might say that I'm paranoid about this, but I just want to protect my data.My opinion is slightly different from yours, as I believe that the standard windows defender is absolutely useless relative to other antivirus programs.About ESET, I agree with you, it really does its job. I recently found Norton from https://jealouscomputers.com/norton-360-antivirus-review-is-it-worthy/ and I really liked it for its functionality and the rest. Now I use them until I change my antivirus. By the way, judging by the comments-many use the same antivirus software. However, there are also rarer programs.

Defender and Glasswire, hand in hand.

Windows Defender is all I use day to day, and some Malwarebytes from time to time. Its too the point where when I buy a computer for someone I go in and strip out all the MacAfee and Norton...down to the bone. Both Norton and MacAfee act like "viruses" now...they ahve become taht whichg they hate. They will worms their way back onto the machine to annoy if you are not brutal about ripping them out stem & root from the start.

I rarely used any antivirus now a days looking at how being careful is what it takes most of the time.

I used to use AVG, I can't remember why I stopped. Bitdefender thinks Cheat Engine is bad so I got rid of it and just don't click dumb shit.

@jagerxbomb: Probably because Google, Opera & Mozilla removed their webextension after receiving credible claims that AVG & AVast were harvesting user data and browsing histories.

Avast, which owns AVG, says users don't have to worry about anything as the data collected by the company is anonymised.