Who uses security software?

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So I just thought I'd ask, who uses security software on their computer?

I have a Macbook that I dual-boot with 7 and Lion, and I just built a new work PC with 7 on it. The Macbook is going on 8+ months with no security software and the desktop is going on 3. I've gone through many Windows installations over the years, and in the past 3 or 4 years, I've neglected security software entirely. I even disable Windows Firewall and whatnot because it annoys me. The reason being this: if you know what you're doing, you can generally avoid most viruses. But since I want to keep my work PC in tip-top shape for a long time, I'm thinking of installing mobile installations of some software and scanning once in a while.

So what are your opinions on security software? Do you have it or not? And why or why not?
 
You're taking a huge gamble on the PC side IMO. I'm extremely careful with my PC and I've been hit by spyware just by mousing over things like an ad.

Considering that there are so many good ones out there for free, I don't see why you wouldn't use one.

Not sure if you're trolling about mentioning your mac or what, but comparing the security of a mac to that of a PC when talking about spyware/viruses is borderline troll bait.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']You're taking a huge gamble on the PC side IMO. I'm extremely careful with my PC and I've been hit by spyware just by mousing over things like an ad.

Considering that there are so many good ones out there for free, I don't see why you wouldn't use one.

Not sure if you're trolling about mentioning your mac or what, but comparing the security of a mac to that of a PC when talking about spyware/viruses is borderline troll bait.[/QUOTE]

When I mention the Macbook, I mean security on the Windows 7 side. I put 7 on my Macbook so I can have a mobile workstation for when I'm away from the desktop.

Also, the main reason I don't use one is because I hate when my PC is bloated. I don't install anything unless I know I'll be using it daily, and I'll uninstall anything that I haven't used in a while. Anti-virus is just something else on my PC to take up space. Not to mention that it runs in the background, runs at startup, etc. And they often prevent me from doing things that I want to do. (Like when it detects a 'virus' that I KNOW isn't a virus.)
 
MSE is very low profile and doesn't give many (if any at all) false positives. I also keep Malwarebytes installed on my machine and scan every other week or so (it doesn't run in the background unless you pay for it and want it to).
 
[quote name='Lawyers Guns N Money']MSE is very low profile and doesn't give many (if any at all) false positives. I also keep Malwarebytes installed on my machine and scan every other week or so (it doesn't run in the background unless you pay for it and want it to).[/QUOTE]

That's why I like MSE, it does its job without pestering me every few days to upgrade or buy some other crap (liek AVG and Avast started to).

Actually, I might give Malwarebytes a try too. I uninstalled AdAware after years of use because it had become so slow and inefficient.
 
Well, Windows 7 has a good firewall. I use an addon Windows 7 Firewall Control that makes it easy to add rules for any new program that tries to connect to the internet. I use MSE and a couple other free anti-virus programs (one each on different machines). I also use Malwarebytes for occasional scans.

Most routers have some basic firewall functionality too.

And of course a basic thing is keeping up to date with Windows and other software patches, especially browsers and plugins. I also use browser security settings and addons to block scripts and on unknown and third party sites.

I haven't tried any of the sandbox type programs, but they might be good to set up for a non-technical person who has trouble keeping their machine clean.
 
I have a physical firewall made from an old PC using Monowall.

I use ZoneAlarm as a software firewall for outbound info.

I also run AdAware as I feel it is the best free antivirus program available. Used to run Avast! but they've been slacking.

Use NoScript with Firefox.

I use common sense when browsing the web and always scan and check md5 hash when downloading anything.

In extreme cases I will use Tor before venturing into questionable territory.

Why do I do these things? Because the internet is a scary place.
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']Used to run Avast! but they've been slacking.[/QUOTE]

How so?
 
If you're not going to run anti-malware software, you should definitely run script and add blocking addons in your web browser.
 
I'm running AVG free only atm along with Windows 7 firewall. I basically feel like a Windows newb after spending the last few years being an OSX only house.

Anything out there better than what AVG free offers? Anything I should run aside it?
 
[quote name='DonDonRaiden']I'm running AVG free only atm along with Windows 7 firewall. I basically feel like a Windows newb after spending the last few years being an OSX only house.

Anything out there better than what AVG free offers? Anything I should run aside it?[/QUOTE]
I found AVG to be a resource hog on occasion, I think it had to do with how it integrated itself into the browser. It would slow Firefox down to a crawl until I rebooted. MSE is much more efficient with your computer's resources, IMO.

I haven't used AVG in quite a while, so it might be better now, but that was my experience with it.
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by security software. Technically, the Windows OS Firewall is "security software". I'll vote no though since I think you're implying if you use additional 3rd party user-installed security software.

I don't have anything extra installed on my win7 machine. I think it has the windows defender or whatever is built-in, since it keeps downloading new definitions as updates every few days. I do use the windows firewall though, but not MSE. My main security is simply that I don't browse very much on my PC, use it 99% of the time just to game. I also don't have flash or Java installed on it either. What browsing I do is done using Apple Safari with adblock and Ghostery installed.

On my main machine, mac mini, I also don't use 3rd party security software. But again like Windows, OSX Lioni has some level of built-in malware protection that supposedly silently updates in the background. Here too I don't have flash installed (but I think Java was installed by the OS). I also browse using Safari with adblock and Ghostery.
 
I use MSE and Malwarebytes on all our pc's (Win 7, Vista, XP pro desktops and two Win7 and one Vista laptops). They're both light and very accurate. I just got rid of AVG free on my XP machine and replaced it with MSE because AVG was giving me some false positives with some older games .exe files and it was always bugging me to upgrade to the pay version.
 
I'll throw 2 cents into this and add that if you are naive enough to believe that any home-based firewall is going to prevent malwave you deserve to be infected. Unless you have something that does application & packet inspection you are not adding any additional value than if you have the Windows 7 firewall enabled. If the malware comes over a hijacked web session, they already have a way back onto your machine via the TCP (port 80 or 443) session you setup going to them.

As for anyone with a Mac - there is no security by obscurity. It's already been hit, same with your various flavors of *nix. Finish the phrase: failing to prepare is.....
 
I haven't used anything but the Windows built in software for 4 or so years, and by or so I'm pretty sure longer. Never had a problem.
 
Absolutely. Besides protecting my work, not having some type of protection on your PC is just foolish imo. I'm a careful person and know how to avoid malware and the like, but sometimes no matter how careful you are something can slip by or a site gets hacked you frequent a lot and next thing you know you're screwed if you don't have protection.

Also, I've seen a few people in the past that didn't run any protection and proclaimed they haven't for xxx time and never got anything. Imagine their surprise when they do install some type of protection and they got notifications of infections.
 
Yes, I know what I'm doing, but not so much w/ everyone else. Since I make students turn in flash drives w/ their school projects I usually find a few that have viruses on them. Stranger yet is the majority of viruses that I get come from students who own Macs.
 
[quote name='lilytrabbit']Yes, I know what I'm doing, but not so much w/ everyone else. Since I make students turn in flash drives w/ their school projects I usually find a few that have viruses on them. Stranger yet is the majority of viruses that I get come from students who own Macs.[/QUOTE]

Because there are still people that buy into the Macs are immune lie.
 
[quote name='lilytrabbit']Yes, I know what I'm doing, but not so much w/ everyone else. Since I make students turn in flash drives w/ their school projects I usually find a few that have viruses on them. Stranger yet is the majority of viruses that I get come from students who own Macs.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='n25philly']Because there are still people that buy into the Macs are immune lie.[/QUOTE]

THANK YOU! :applause::applause::applause: People with Macs don't understand that the only reason why it's not a giant problem is because no one is going to try to hurt 10% of the population, what would be the point

[quote name='KaOTiK']Absolutely. Besides protecting my work, not having some type of protection on your PC is just foolish imo. I'm a careful person and know how to avoid malware and the like, but sometimes no matter how careful you are something can slip by or a site gets hacked you frequent a lot and next thing you know you're screwed if you don't have protection.

Also, I've seen a few people in the past that didn't run any protection and proclaimed they haven't for xxx time and never got anything. Imagine their surprise when they do install some type of protection and they got notifications of infections.[/QUOTE]

I would like to say, and by no means am I saying I don't believe you, but I do have Malware-Bytes installed on the computer but never run it. I did one day just for giggles in the summer after so many years of never doing so, found nothing. Just one of the lucky ones I guess :D
 
[quote name='strikeratt']

I would like to say, and by no means am I saying I don't believe you, but I do have Malware-Bytes installed on the computer but never run it. I did one day just for giggles in the summer after so many years of never doing so, found nothing. Just one of the lucky ones I guess :D[/QUOTE]

I have no doubt that people don't get anything as well. It's just, why take the risk? it isn't like not having the resources to run it with everything else is a problem any longer. If you don't wish to spend any money there are plenty of good free programs out there as well. Once it is installed and setup, you don't even need to bother with it anymore, and that initial setup time is tiny anyways.
 
I'll be honest in saying that I'm a big fan of downloading things through the seedy under belly of the internet, for one reason or another.

That being said, my current lineup of security software on my primary machine, and my impressions on them are:

Mcafee Virus Scan - Got this free from my University while I was a student. Works great but I turned off the auto-scan feature since that taxes my machine into submission. I do a weekly update/scan with this.
Zone Alarm - God I hate this program, but it's one that I've been using for YEARS. Does a good enough of a job.
Spybot and Malwarebytes: Love the first, but I have the later as a secondary scanner. Scans once a week.

And nothing get's double-clicked without a thorough scan (or three, depending on what it is and were i got it). Never failed me once.

My laptop/school machine gets MSE, since it's pretty lightweight for what it is in my observations.
 
[quote name='KaOTiK']I have no doubt that people don't get anything as well. It's just, why take the risk? it isn't like not having the resources to run it with everything else is a problem any longer. If you don't wish to spend any money there are plenty of good free programs out there as well. Once it is installed and setup, you don't even need to bother with it anymore, and that initial setup time is tiny anyways.[/QUOTE]

I agree, no need to take the risk, my situation is more of a point to prove. I've had people and class mates ask me if they should get a Mac for virus protection. I show them the dates I used my software last, that I use the computer for countless hours during the day and never had problems for years. I then do turn around and explain to them that they should have something for protection.
 
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