Anti virus on computer -- nonsailing question

[Christian Williams]

In the past year the log of my subscription to Trend Micro antivirus has netted zero catches or preventions of anything, going by its own monthly log.

I have a PC with the standard Window 10 Defender protection.

Now Trend bugging me to resubscribe for the 5th year....

Opinions?

 

[Loren Beach]

Good Question

All Mac in our house since 1992. I used to subscribe to one of the anti virus 'name brands' like Norton, IIRC. Then found out more about problems caused (!) by their product than any solutions claimed... It's been maybe 15 years since we've used any of those applications.

Other than a really irritating advertising piece of malware that sneaked into Safari a couple years ago, we have never suffered an attack on any version of the Mac OS itself.

Everyone I know with windows does have some sort of annual upgrade ($$) or regular subscription ($) defense against virus attacks. They all just shrug say that it's normal for computing and that my experiences do not count.
I guess that changing to a different OS is too traumatic for them to contemplate, altho I used to use Windows at work, starting with 3.1, and never found any difficulty with adapting either way. Actually, for a while my employer used IBM's own OS/2, which was much more stable and Mac-like, but then a salesperson from MS used either liquor or hypnosis to get them to change over to Windows.
Oh well, the Roman's probably had similar problems with the suppliers of spears and shields, too. And tunics and sandals!


Hope you get a useable answer.

 

[alcodiesel]

After I caught a virus with an anti virus program running, a good one, I haven't used anything but Defender and simply open nothing unless I am sure what it is. 5+ years- no anti virus program, no virus either. Just a little vigilance.

 

[bgary]

I'm...uh... an "insider", and use nothing but Defender. It's been sufficient.

I will note that some principles of computer hygeine based on awareness of common threat-vectors has a lot to do with it. I don't click on links in emails unless I know the sender. I don't open docs or videos from unknown sources. I don't download executables. I don't sign up for the sites that offer to let you download PDFs for manuals. When I get an offer for the latest Maui Jim sunglasses (or whatever), I go to the Maui Jim site instead of clicking on the ad. Etc.

I have someone in my household who shall remain nameless who *does* sometimes click on links in emails and watches videos from weird sites ("oh, look, cute puppies!!!")... and is constantly getting crap that tries to load on her computer. But Defender (so far) has caught it and blocked it and there's been no issue. The most insidious example is the browser window that pops up and tells you it has discovered a problem and "click here" to do something about it. There's no way to do anything *but* click that box - everything else is disabled. It's ugly. After several go-rounds with that, I have taught her to just shut down the computer, restart it, and never go to that site again.

$.02
Bruce

 

[GrandpaSteve]

The traditional computer virus, that is a piece of malicious code that infects your computer or takes advantage of the programming language of a computer application to execute malicious code, is not as common as it once was. The more common infection now is caused by inadvertently clicking on and advertisement or otherwise unwittingly downloading a malicious application to your computer. The application is likely to open ports on your computer so your computer can be used as part of a larger network to be used with malicious intent, sometimes by spamming others with email advertisements, or maybe just acting as a repeater for stealthy illegal electronic traffic.

I do not recommend running without AV protection, since it is likely doing more good than harm. It is doing AV scans, that may log nothing, but it is also protecting those ports against known attacks just by keeping you from unknowingly opening those ports.

 

[MMLOGAN]

+1 for Defender

Defender, tons of common sense and a large dose of suspicion.

 

[kiwisailor]

Give up on MS Windows go Linux Mint

I've given up on MS Windows. MY PC's now run Linux Mint looks like MS W7. Very secure and best of all FREE.

https://linuxmint.com/