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Arrogant Anti-virus Doesn't Appreciate Your Choices

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Re: Arrogant Anti-virus Doesn't Appreciate Your Choices

#31

Post by criley »

nolok wrote: post #30
criley wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a thousand times better I was under the impression that MSE routinely did OK in AV benchmarks and rarely even ever held the top spot. How is it a thousand times better? Or does it's ability to keep you safe not really factor into your analysis of the software?

To be honest with you, my point of view is that no antivirus is going to protect me 100%, I always have to care about what I open, where it's coming from, ... What I want from my AV then, is to catch the most obvious (and thus numerous) ones, and do so in a way that doesn't bother me. MSE just doesn't get in the way. It updates silently. It scans silently. It detects silently, ask you for something but take the safe…

Fair enough, I use Lavasoft because its free version is incredibly well featured and it routinely outperforms MSE in AV tests.

I'm just confused by all of the mad-love for MSE. It's good, but I never thought it was the best myself, and I've not seen any objective reasoning for calling it the best.

Re: Arrogant Anti-virus Doesn't Appreciate Your Choices

#33

Post by wfunction »

ambrop7 wrote: post #22
nolok wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft Security Essentials does so much right. When they put their mind into it, Microsoft really does great software.

You have to take into account that Microsoft can modify their own OS and implement what needs to be done in a proper way. On the other hand, third-party vendors can only use the public interfaces exposed by the OS, or resort to unreliable and/or undocumented methods that may break at any time. There probably is no solution to that, any third-party software that needs tights integration with the OS is going to have th…

> "You have to take into account that Microsoft can modify their own OS and implement what needs to be done in a proper way."

Yes, they CAN, but the question is, DID they? Not as far as I know.

Re: Arrogant Anti-virus Doesn't Appreciate Your Choices

#34

Post by relic »

eli wrote: post #25
RyanZAG wrote: post #2

It's unfortunate that more people don't understand just how serious a breach it is to install special root certificates. This actually does a complete home run around the entirety of web-based security. It's very close to having every physical lock sold by a company having a special key that can open all of the locks they sell. Even if you trust that company to buy your lock from them, it's going much too far in allo…

Sure, if you don't trust your AV. But if you don't trust your AV, you've already got problems.

I think there's a difference between not trusting an AV, and not trusting that the humans who created it didn't make any mistakes. By assuming that your AV is perfect and can in no way be compromised is a dangerous assumption, because if it fails even the tiniest bit, you are royally screwed.

Re: Arrogant Anti-virus Doesn't Appreciate Your Choices

#35

Post by dgesang »

I haven't used any antivirus software in years, IMHO they're just annoying and reduce performance (used to use NOD32 until 2007, loved it back then). Here is what I do instead:

  - surf the web consciously
  - do not open any email attachments from unknown senders (seriously, it's 2013, who does that anymore?)
  - do not open any URLs from unknown senders (same as above)
  - disable unnecessary browser plugins (i.e. everything but Flash)
  - use NoScript-like browser addons
  - only run executables I 'trust' (tough one, I know)
  - run executables I do not 'trust' in sandbox or VM
  - properly configured router firewall settings
  - * software firewall to monitor & block/allow incoming *and outgoing* connections (Comodo Firewall)
  - * work with a user that does not have root/admin privileges (*Power User* privileges are sufficient for daily work)
Esp. the last two points are important and unusual. This requires a certain level of knowledge about IT, computers and some common sense, though.

If I really need to check a file for malware I use webtools like http://virusscan.jotti.org

Re: Arrogant Anti-virus Doesn't Appreciate Your Choices

#36

Post by JangoSteve »

dgesang wrote: post #35

I haven't used any antivirus software in years, IMHO they're just annoying and reduce performance (used to use NOD32 until 2007, loved it back then). Here is what I do instead: - surf the web consciously - do not open any email attachments from unknown senders (seriously, it's 2013, who does that anymore?) - do not open any URLs from unknown senders (same as above) - disable unnecessary browser plugins (i.e. everythi…

What you described is similar to my process (though on Windows I always install MSE now too), but it's important to acknowledge the limitations of such an approach. For example:

    - do not open any email attachments from unknown senders (seriously, it's 2013, who does that anymore?)
    - do not open any URLs from unknown senders (same as above)
These only work as longs as no one you know gets hacked. You're vulnerable as much as the weakest person in your trusted network, and I guarantee others in your network aren't as careful as you. So it's not just avoiding URLs and attachments from unknown senders, it's avoiding URLs and attachments even from people you know and trust that you weren't expecting them to send you. I've come really close before to clicking links from friends that said something along the lines of "Holy crap, this is you", which is actually sometimes expected because I have friends who see articles or pictures written about or by me.

Re: Arrogant Anti-virus Doesn't Appreciate Your Choices

#37

Post by dgesang »

JangoSteve wrote: post #36
dgesang wrote: post #35

I haven't used any antivirus software in years, IMHO they're just annoying and reduce performance (used to use NOD32 until 2007, loved it back then). Here is what I do instead: - surf the web consciously - do not open any email attachments from unknown senders (seriously, it's 2013, who does that anymore?) - do not open any URLs from unknown senders (same as above) - disable unnecessary browser plugins (i.e. everythi…

What you described is similar to my process (though on Windows I always install MSE now too), but it's important to acknowledge the limitations of such an approach. For example: - do not open any email attachments from unknown senders (seriously, it's 2013, who does that anymore?) - do not open any URLs from unknown senders (same as above) These only work as longs as no one you know gets hacked. You're vulnerable as…

True, even mail from known senders has to be dealt with care as well.

    "holy crap, this is you"
This scam could be avoided easily by checking the links actual URL before clicking on it. And even if you click and end up with some malware infected website, disabling all unnecessary and insecure browser plugins and using NoScript should be enough protection. If it's not, the restricted privileges hinder the malware from doing serious damage (e.g. rewriting/deleting system files).
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