Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable • Hacker News Board

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#11

Post by NetStrikeForce » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 7:49 PM UTC

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

>> I'm not sure the AVs have helped much, but they give some sort of psychological benefit, at least.

I find this a very dangerous way of thinking. You use the placebo (well, not even a placebo, just useless) and then you stop worrying that much about opening downloaded files, checking their hash if you trust the source, visiting dodgy websites...

An analogy taken to the extreme, would be to smoke and binge drinking without worries because you're taking homeopathic "solutions" (sic).

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#12

Post by elorant » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

>> I believe the future for tech-aware users will be browsers in some sort of container / VM that reset themselves upon each session, with absolutely no control to the file system or data from other sites.

Or you could set-up a linux box just for web browsing.

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#13

Post by bitwize » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 7:58 PM UTC

Whitelisting is one of the only proven security technologies in a world where you can download and run arbitrary executables. Bit9 should be a requirement on office PCs.

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#14

Post by kgwxd » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 8:22 PM UTC

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

NoScript with the occasional whitelist has been a perfect solution for me. I don't feel like I'm missing any part of the web, in fact, most of it is better without JS. At this point, sometimes I go weeks without having to add anything to the list. I don't think it would be a good solution for my mom but she only uses an iPad now so it doesn't matter.

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#15

Post by mox1 » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 8:36 PM UTC

johhnnnhyrocko wrote: post #6

If you guys are looking for a list of some decent AV heres one from this year http://no-adware.com/blog/best-malware-removal-tools-of-2016... I am a huge MB fan myself.

Mackeeper is listed as #2 on the list you linked to...[1] They aren't exactly a high quality AV product.

1. http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/08/10/mackeeper-to-pay-o...

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#16

Post by rpgmaker » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 9:14 PM UTC

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

Another NoScript user here and the web is better because of this addon. It's amazing the quantity of websites that auto-play their videos, just by blocking those scripts alone NoScript has helped my blood pressure immensely.

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#17

Post by orionblastar » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 9:31 PM UTC

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

I used to use commercial antivirus products like McAfee and Norton and Trend Micro etc. I went with Avast Home for free. I scan with Emisoft Emergency Kit because it can fit on a USB drive and be portable.

No matter what you do eventually you will get infected by some exploit. Be it Flash, Java, some pop-up ad, or just an email sent to your email client that exploits it.

I got a lawyer still runs XP and Vista and uses ClamAV because it is free. I worry that her systems might be infected, but her husband runs the tech support for their firm. She used to have employees steal data via floppy disks, and these days a simple virus infection can steal data.

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#18

Post by reubenmorais » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 9:35 PM UTC

ghrifter wrote: post #8

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

>> the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd Is this the case for Apple's OS well (Yosemite or whatever its called nowadays)?

OS X is a UNIX, so file extensions don't matter a whole lot. You can double click a plain Mach-O executable file and it'll run it in a Terminal window. For application bundles (folder with name ending in .app), OS X will warn you if the file was downloaded/not signed by a key trusted by Apple.

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#19

Post by jasonmp85 » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 9:46 PM UTC

NetStrikeForce wrote: post #11

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

>> I'm not sure the AVs have helped much, but they give some sort of psychological benefit, at least. I find this a very dangerous way of thinking. You use the placebo (well, not even a placebo, just useless) and then you stop worrying that much about opening downloaded files, checking their hash if you trust the source, visiting dodgy websites... An analogy taken to the extreme, would be to smoke and binge drinking…

I don't know if the OP actually exhibits this, but what you're describing is known as risk compensation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

Re: Antivirus software could make your company more vulnerable

#20

Post by voltagex_ » Mon, Jan 11, 2016, 9:53 PM UTC

rpgmaker wrote: post #16

hiram112 wrote: post #4

I avoided AV software for most of my life. Though, when I worked as a student admin, I would always install AV for the majority of my users. Most users (especially older) simply could never learn not to download that cool new 'freeware' app or game or not double click a downloaded exe (the fact that hidden extensions are still the default on Windows OS is absurd). As a more savvy user, I did not desire the typical AV…

Another NoScript user here and the web is better because of this addon. It's amazing the quantity of websites that auto-play their videos, just by blocking those scripts alone NoScript has helped my blood pressure immensely.

I found that NoScript required too much customisation for each site I visited - do you have some kind of default ruleset that makes this easier?