My SSD died, so I’m starting clean with a new one. Still on the fence if I should re-install Kaspersky or not. It was pretty cheap annualy and the performance cost was minimal.
I know that “common sense” is the best AV, plus Windows Defender is pretty good, but I’ve had instances where I visited normal sites (like my cousin’s store site) and the AV stopped an automatic download or warned about data leakage.
I’m based on Brazil, so the laws are not the same as the US and EU in regards to data and privacy, so “Kaspersky is Russian spyware” is not a valid point.
So, for your current system, is common sense enough or do you use an antivirus software?
Defender is good, and paired with malwarebytes for spot checks is even better but not perfect. I’ve seen many malware analysis videos where the malware will first try to disable Defender. They sometimes target third-party AV as well but not nearly as often.
Bitdefender is usually on par with Kaspersky in many lab tests. I personally use Bitdefender, and for extra piece of mind, set the firewall to require permission if a new program or program version tries to access the internet and it will automatically block connections unless I specifically allow it. This is an additional defense because if malware does get on the system and runs, the chances of it spreading on the network or exfiltrating data are significantly reduced. I’ve only had maybe 2 or 3 false positives over the last few years. I also use uBlock origin on Firefox and have it set to disable javascript by default. Some sites will break and request you enable javascript, which can be done easily. It can also be temporary, or you can add the site to a white-list, so it always allows javascript when you visit that site.
Disabling javascript and setting your browser to ALWAYS ASK where to save downloads should prevent 99% of unwanted downloads. The 1% being you accidentally clicking on SAVE instead of CANCEL in the pop-up if something happens to get past uBlock. It is also a last line of defense in case a whitelisted site gets compromised.
The only ‘free’ AV that you should ever use is Windows Defender. Malwarebytes is more like a tool to use with an AV and shouldn’t be relied on as the only defense. The premium version of Malwarebytes is much better but still not quite at a point to serve as a stand-alone AV, in my opinion.
Any other ‘free’ AV is not worth it and most likely will sell your data
Depends on how risky you like to be with your clicks.
Defender is honestly good enough from my experience, but if you really want 3rd party AV, Bitdefender and ESET are very good, as well as Kaspersky outside the US.
I wouldn’t buy anything other than those 3, as it would be worse than Defender in either performance hit, detectability, or both…
I use Bitdefnder but only because it tests well, runs well and I can get it cheap. It provides centralized management over all the household computers I need to monitor.
I use Bitdefender just cause I like to install a lot of game mods and want to have a dedicated anti virus. Also am using a website called Virustotal that uses a bunch of anti viruses to scan files/urls.
Inb4 downvotes but I will say Kaspersky has served me very well. Its application control module is second to none thus far. That’s the reason why I keep using it. I’ve fully automated my system image deployment, including Kaspersky.
Windows Defender should be plenty. Being smart on the Internet is the best ‘antivirus’ though. Use a browser that has tracker protection, ad blocking, etc. or at least has extensions for all those things such as Firefox or Brave. Any other sort of 3rd party antivirus software is just bloatware designed to help make the developers money.