best virus/malware protection/removing software for windows 10?

Discussion in 'Hardware, Software, Tech' started by Woodchuck, Mar 19, 2019.

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  1. Woodchuck

    Woodchuck Avatar

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    my pc apparently got hacked..

    any recommendations? i tried kaspersky before and hated it.. it was very 'bloaty' and caused a lot of network traffic so i'm not sure what it was doing and don't trust it...
     
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  2. Weins201

    Weins201 Avatar

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    Hummm, this will go all over the place sadly the best is actually proactive, meaning do not open or click on stuff you do not know.

    You are working after the fact, I have used whatever Norton or Symantec that has always been free thru Military and just left windows stuff up and running.

    Do you know where they Maleware actually came from / thru?

    Sorry you have to deal with it is anything lost ?
     
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  3. Woodchuck

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    hi @Weins201 , no i don't know how/where i got compromised.. but they went after my vpn account.. they took control of my vpn account i don't know for how long, but i only found out today and was in contact with my vpn provider for about 1 hour to fix the situation... i only knew because i received an email saying my password and email was changed on the account -- which i didn't do at all.

    i'm not confident that my pc is still not compromised tho.. because if they were able to get my vpn then they can probably get at all the other accounts i access on my pc like my online banking, paypal, etc.. -_-
     
  4. Weins201

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    OUCH sorry
     
  5. monkeysmack

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  6. Woodchuck

    Woodchuck Avatar

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    thanks i will take a look!
     
  7. Elnoth

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    stating the obvious but change all your passwords
     
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  8. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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  9. g04tn4d0

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    The very best anti-virus program is, just like any other aspect of security, a moving target. What was great the last year may be crap the next. This is due to the ever-changing threat vector the fact that each new version of an AV app you're familiar with can, quite literally, be a completely different program written by completely different people with completely different effective results. Here's a link to one independent lab that regularly tests all the most popular AV apps in real-world scenarios so you can make a more informed decision:
    https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/

    That said, if you're running Windows, no matter what the advertisements say, your PC is the most vulnerable on the planet at any given time and there isn't a home anti-virus solution that will ever change that. The biggest kink in the armor of your OS and AV app of choice is that lump of meat sitting between the keyboard and the chair. Be very careful with what you click on when you're browsing the Internet. A couple of rules to live by: There's no such thing as a "driver booster" or "registry optimizer" or any other kind of "PC cleanup/speedup" app that does anything truly useful. These applications are the most likely to carry malware or spyware or otherwise erode the stability of your Windows PC. Beyond that, turn your PC off when you're not using it.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2019
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  10. Lesni

    Lesni Avatar

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    Run Malwarebytes.com (Free).
    Also do an online virus scan. There are several but this is one:
    TrendMicro Housecall

    THEN CHANGE ALL PASSWORDS

    Install an antivirus program. (I prefer PAID versions but anything is better than nothing)
    You can get discount coupons for several antivirus programs.
    I currently use Bitdefender which also has an included VPN but it is not the only good one.
    Do some searching to see what fits your budget and requirements.
    Compare Antivirus

    I don't personally like McAfee (but that is a totally different issue)
    Some of them are resource hogs and others are a PIA.
    But it is better to be protected and annoyed than compromised.

    If you need additional advice, send me a PM.
     
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  11. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

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    Kaspersky Security cloud is what I recommend. Its cloud based AV with Ai learning. I also recommend Malwarebytes which is pretty good to go along with windows 10 built in AV.
     
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  12. Alioth

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    Sorry about your troubles. I recommend you never run windows with anything but a standard user account. By default, it has you use the equivalent of a “root” or “admin” account as your standard user. First thing after a clean windows install, make a new user restricted account and use that for your day to day account. It will ask you for your admin password anytime you try to install anything. This is instead of just installing it. The new UAC in windows 10 tries to emulate this but I prefer an actual limited account. Much more secure way to run and prevents a lot of malware from ever becoming a problem in the first place. There are a lot of articles on the topic but here is a simple one.
     
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  13. Xee

    Xee Bug Hunter

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    If you dont use the same password on all your accounts they probably had access to nothing else unless you were redirected to fake sites and entered your creds. 90% of the ways people gain access to accounts is through people using same creds on other sites and they sites were hacked, or through phishing either through emails or fake web sites.

    As to Kaspersky being safe heuristic data is shared back to all antivirus manufactures. If you were using the Total or network security package it handles all your firewall needs. As to bloat they all have it when it comes to CPU use. Some scan less frequent which keeps the resources lower at the cost of 100% protection. realtime protection uses up alot more resources.
     
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  14. Spinok

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    I use Norton, and deeply satisfied with it.
     
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  15. AoiBlue

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    Immunet is the option I would recommend.

    I know it's not heard of much outside of the commercial IT sphere, but they offer one of the lowest impact protections out there which won't bog down your system with bloatware which appears to be a major concern for you.

    Furthermore, their personal edition is free.
     
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  16. AoiBlue

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    I thought now that I'm done playing for now, I'd give you a good FULL answer:

    As a note, for a scanner only protection, you can simply use ClamAV. It probably isn't the best at catching unknown and variant malware, but it is the leading one used by most ISPs. It also uses the same signature set used by Immunet, except that it's not cloud enabled, and doesn't have the change-detect, cloud offload and extensive known-binary whitelist systems that make Immunet so lightweight. That said, it is higher privacy and doesn't require always on network. Plus it's open source.

    ClamAV is the solution used in the vast majority of email scanners.

    As of a secondary scanner, I'd still recommend Spybot Search and Destroy. It is still the absolute best one for non-conventional malware, especially adware and Potentially Unwanted Software.

    As of how to uninstall the bloatware on Windows 10. You should first start by disabling all search, indexing and telemetry functions.

    You should then go through services and remove any you don't need/use, and set any that will run as needed to run as such.
    Remember, only services called locally can be set to run as needed, (e.g. File Sharing services must run in background if you want other computers on the network to access your computer).
    Always test that things still work afterwards.

    The following bloatware should be removed in favor of the following replacements:
    Adobe Acrobat reader can be replaced by the pdfjs reader built into Firefox, Chrome or any browser based on these two that includes it. You can find an extension to use it on Edge if you really want to.
    Adobe Flash can be replaced by Chrome's PepperFlash, or simply by using only HTML5 sites.
    Oracle Java / Sun Java can be replaced by OpenJRE.
    Replace the advanced audio driver panel with JUST the INF driver. (Almost nobody uses that stupid panel, and it installs all sorts of software audio filters with it.)
    Replace the printer bloatware with the simple driver (that can be extracted from the package)
    Install just the simple video (inf installer) driver instead of the fancy panel if you don't use the fancy panel's features or use an alternate software panel. (If use it, go ahead and keep it.)
    Replace the bloated Windows Media Center with a simple player or lightweight jukebox. (A huge number of lightweight jukeboxes are available that are far better than Windows Media Center.)
    If you use Bittorrent (yes there are legal uses for it) use a lightweight client like Transmission, instead of one of the oversized bloated clients.

    The following bloatware should be completely removed from the "Install/Remove Programs" panel:
    Any advanced "control panels" that are unneeded.
    Any "download store" software
    Any music player service replaceable with a webclient. (e.g. Spotify) unless you use the offline player mode that requires the music player application.

    *Edit: Firefox doesn't include SWF player, a client side variant of libgorden.js was considered similar to javascript pdf reader, but abandoned after Adobe refused to provide the proper decoding and display module for the FLV encoded DRM, making it useless for most legacy sites.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2019
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  17. Woodchuck

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    thx all for the great tips!

    i decided to start clean.. only 2 more passes (~4 more hours?) to go!

    [​IMG]
     
  18. DavidDC

    DavidDC Programmer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Well first thing to think about is, did you get hacked or your vpn box got hacked. If you say you are using your bank account and paypal and all that kind of thing on your computer and ONLY the vpn got hacked... I mean was it that important so hacker only took care of that from your pc? I cant imagine so... The vpn server probably had problem on their side and put it on your fault.
    Microsoft is doing quite a good job with the recent windows (7+) to protect their home computer with windows defender. Unless your the kind to download crack from the web without knowng what your doing and run any application you can find... which you probably had a few warning before getting there. Pretty much impossible.

    Also it sound strange to use a VPN from home. That is usually used for company to move important information trought their own intranet. Why use that home? And why pay for one when there is plenty of free one you can use if you want to keep your data private? Plus the fact that it require knowledge in computer to actually use a VPN make me think you know exactly what is a good anti virus. This whole story sound a bit weird ;)

    To me, the best anti virus is no anti virus. They are the problem that will usually slow down your computer.


    EDIT: I see you are using mac, its even less probable that you got hacked on a mac..
     
  19. Lesni

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    Famous last words...
    It is a shame that Mac/Apple users believe that.

    Mac's don't get viruses!
     
  20. Duke Olahorand

    Duke Olahorand Localization Team

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    I use Malwarebytes (which also does a great job vs. potentially unwanted apps and their traces in the system) in combination with another virus scanner (Defender or ESET or something else).
    I got a handful of lifetime licenses of Malwarebytes Antimalware, as they still were sold or shortly after - nowadays the product is a subscription model as so many others.
    The most current trial is also a very first step to check a potentially infected computer from other persons.
     
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