As others have mentioned false positives, they have caused me more issues than any malware has. I have seen at least 3 Windows installations destroyed by AV false positives over the years. Had to reformat.
After windows 10 and always full updated system..... i have many years to see real malware......in my computers....maybe some adware only..... but i have see malware in other computers....most of them are secure after install something like ublock origin...... if you have knowledge.... you don't have malware these days.
are we talking about malware in special -> virus or malware in general? thats different, same for ads of browser malware. talking myself about decades antivirus software is NOT reliable - only a second check if brain fails. if a user wants to get his system hitted it will surely happen. and nowerdays in most cases its the forbidden fruit, the kick do do something illegal "boo i am evil" - "sorry, you're an idiot" dont mix up ads or malicious scripts with other malware. uB/adblockers can prevent first, showing fake update pages or those crap. but there are enough users which think that adblockers are futile and those get hitted from fake pages which tell them to update their flash or to call suspicious hotlines when they click on "ok, i am stupid - install anyway" ransomware is spread over mail, nothing more to comment. people have to learn, lean a lot - the earth is not flat and no software can prevent malware when users click like idiots. pc vendors think they have done enough when pre-installing an antivirus - wrong. half baked solutions. the community have to make people more sensible but that is a hard job. kids using smart phones like regular why should they work in another manner on regular pc?
Something that has a strong signature and heuristic engine WITH decent behaviour blockers and a minimum compliance on cloud. Something like Emsisoft, BullGuard, Kaspersky, G-data, Avira or AVG/Avast. I'm happy to say that in the month of July 2017, BullGuard has successfully blocked 43 attempts at malware intrusion on my parents' computer (situated 580 kilometres from my current location and generally only attended to once every few months), successfully and properly remediating the situations where McAfee with so-called efficient cloud-active "LAM" engine failed.
Are you saying 43 is insignificant? If the ballpark of 50 is a small number per month, McAfee should have been up to the challenge. It wasn't, plain and simple. I gutted McAfee from a number of computers a few months ago due to multiple such failures.
To be honest I never used Bullguard. Have always been a strong ESET guy. Also Kaspersky and Norton. I may have to give a look to Bullguard but at the moment I go between Emsisoft and just straight up Windows Defender. Crazy about all the malware attempts. Do you have them running an adblocker of some sort? How are they getting so many attempts on their pc?
No adblockers as such, just letting suites run their job (MBAM free + BullGuard). My father is a professor - the main source of malware here is usually links and downloads received via email, OR USB flash drives and external HDDs that get infected after plugging them into a number of computers at conclaves, university symposium, scientific meetings etc. Another computer (laptop) is used aggressively by my brother for anime, manga, and (well), some mature content along with his business work. That one also gets upwards of 20 attempts (malware + phishing) in a month. So far BullGuard has been up to the job even when users have been careless. It's behaviour blocker ALWAYS comes up to the job even if the real-time scan can't for any reason. I sorely missed this component in McAfee - from my analysis of why the systems got infected, it appears that an over-reliance on the cloud to analyse behavioural patterns works poorly in some specific case scenarios (especially for laptops wherein internet access/wifi may not be readily available on the go, and scenarios where you are trying to access internet through a local proxy in institutions already vulnerable to severe risk as is often the case in my country - india). It probably doesn't help that McAfee's update frequency isn't as good as BullGuard or AVG (for example). Very subjectively speaking, I do feel Emsisoft is a slightly better product, but the difference to me is not significant, and BullGuard has been reasonably light on every computer I installed it on. That, combined with some cost considerations, has moved me towards this product over others.
Makes sense. I always tell people to install an adblocker to block a lot of accidental clicks on crap. But yeah, I see a lot of attacks coming via email and phishing at my work, but never to me personally. Good to know that BullGuard is doing the job for you and your family. I was never a fan of McAfee either so do not blame you at all there. As for BullGuard, which one do you run the AV or Internet Security Suite? Good to know that it is light as well. I may have to give it a go. Thanks! EDIT: Speaking of BullGuard FYI - http://www.bullguard.com/beta2018
My guess is that 95% of the population still gets viruses, 5% cant get infected no mater what they do. My feeling is that to become part of the 5% is easy, all you have to do is read some about security. Sometimes I tell friends what I just wrote and suggest to read for an hour about security every day for 30 days, and tell then that after the month is over, they ll be on their way to leaving malware behind. What should they read? It doesn't matter where they start, all that matters is they start. In my personal case, I started trying to answer why I had 13 versions of Java in my XP, and what would happen to my PC if I uninstalled all of those plugins. In the end, nothing broke, I was WOW, now lets see if I actually need Java and the rest of plugins I had that I knew nothing about or where they came from. When this was over, I had gotten rid of every plugin but Flash. That was a solid step 1. And coming to the conclusion that I needed something better than scanners was step 2. My last infection took place in late 2008, it was was a rootkit. Before, I always had someone clean the PC for me, but this time I decided to do it myself and took the challenge as a game. A game that was not going to end until the infection was gone. It took two weeks, the infection would go and come back. I had fun cleaning it and learned a lot while doing it. At the end, I started looking for programs that protected against rootkits, and programs that did not require signature for protection against Zero day threats, that's how I discovered Sandboxie. Sandboxie was among the hundred programs that all the sudden I had in front of my face, most claiming to protect against this and that and a million and a half viruses while Sandboxie sat in the corner carrying a big stick and speaking softly (a la TR). It caught my eye, and it was over. From that day on, malware belongs to the past. Bo
It's the cheapest AV locally available to me, and covers unlimited devices in it's licensing. I had hoped that Intel's involvement would lead to significant improvements in the product - but over 2 years I've only seen it go from average to below average. I actually use the premium protection. I don't really need the fluff like parental controls etc. but I let my family members take decisions on how to use those features since they are the main users of those computers. That being said, I'm happy there exist products where alerts and settings are simple enough for 60+ year old people to understand and configure.
I take that as a compliment. I got 150 malware just the other day. I downloaded on purpose to test An Eset latest release AV. It missed about 8. Not bad. That was a scan of the files only. The remaining 8 I decided to run. Smart screen alerted on all 8 but I decided to go ahead any way and run them. Voodooshield caught all of them. They were all ransomware samples.
I have yet to experience a virus (or whatever you prefer to call malware) in 22 years of using Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP or 7. I'm not doing anything special. I have always used realtime AV so I guess that had an infected payload arrived I would have been informed. I regularly scan with the AVG Rescue CD and Malwarebytes Antimalware Free. Nowadays, my Windows XP SP3 system (present incarnation installed in 2006 remains stable and speedy) endowed with POSReady security updates, Panda Free 18.3.0, Outpost Firewall Pro 9.3, Comodo Memory Firewall 2.0.4.20, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit and FoolishIT CryptoPrevent 8.0.4.2 (set to maximum protection) sails serenely through the pirate infested seas of the Internet. I cannot understand how my apparent immunity is so enduring. I am not averse to browsing web sites displaying, ahem, attractive scantily clad young ladies at play (and some who are not so young). Flash NPAPI Plugin version updates are automatically installed every second Tuesday of each month so I can for my further delectation watch movies of said young ladies (using the additional protection of Sandboxie). I would at this point like to reveal myself as no less than the late great J. Peasmold Gruntfuttock, the world's dirtiest Dirty Old Man of Round the Horne on the BBC Light Programme (but alas I am not). Older British contributors to this forum might remember listening to it around 50 years ago. Outpost Firewall Pro 9.3 enables me to ensure that only OpenDNS is allowed to resolve web site addresses. Other resolvers are blocked. Running Windows XP is my I.T. equivalent of driving a classic car, in my case a Wolseley 1500 (while listening to tapes of Round the Horne). N.B. I most definitely do NOT use this system for online banking or purchasing or any purpose where private data is at risk.
I've been running Sandboxie for the past 10 years so logically if my browser got infected I should be able to see it. But no, I've never gotten anything in 10 years. I just don't think malware just hops into your computer anymore. With sandboxing in Chrome/Edge 0days have gotten harder and harder which means most malware today has to be installed by the problem in the chair.
I have been on line with a Windows machine since 1995 and I have gotten one virus - - Anti-exe virus and it was placed there by a repair shop who didn't know how to protect a floppy disk. For the record, it was discovered by McAfee Antivirus when I got home. I am now a big boy and do all of my own repairs and I also build all of my computers.
The 7 Types of Computer Viruses to Watch Out For & What They Do Boot Sector Virus Direct Action Virus Resident Virus Multipartite Virus Polymorphic Virus Overwrite Virus Spacefiller Virus http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/types-computer-viruses-watch/
Indeed for me the question is more articulated: do virus again exist and hit the systems ? Yes. Are they dangerous ? yes, some very, others less. Did you got a virus ? If no: you have a good defense and your system has a good level of security - or: you go to the Web very rarely - or: you have very safe internet surfing habits - or: you are lucky - or: you never was a target for some bad boy.......
