Which Antivirus to Use?
The number of cyberthreats is only growing, and people are defenseless. There are many antivirus softwares available on the web that promise to keep your computer secure, the only question is to choose one. So which one to use?
Well: None. Yes that is correct. If you think that installing a software on your computer and clicking on a big bright green button is going to save your from anything bad, then you are very naive and probably living in a fantasy world induced by this trendy consumerism that makes you believe that something else can save you from from bad things if you give money to them.
Well it's completely wrong. It isn't just wrong on the surface, but fundamentally wrong. The whole concept of having a cat/mouse or cop/robber game of searching and eliminating a virus in completely wrong.
First of all once a virus infects your computer, you are done. You have no idea to the extent of the damage it caused, since it's no way to know since all "detection" tools can be presumed to be giving you disinformation, what the virus wants you to see. So once an infection is happened, you have to treat that system as totally compromised, and everything has to be reinstalled from scratch.
A computer virus is not just some bacteria that you can clean off the toilet seat. It has to be assumed that it's smart, meaning that the first thing it would do after infection, is to compromise your antivirus, and basically hide itself so that you won't even know that an infection happened. And from then on it will feed you disinformation, it will show that everything is ok, and it will be very hard to detect it, let alone remove it. From then on it will do it's dirty work: stealing passwords, Bitcoin private keys, slowing down your computer, whatever nasty thing you can imagine, and you will never know what hit you.
So this cop/robber virus chasing mentality is fundamentally flawed for this reason. Once you let the virus in, it's over. And if it's a really nasty one, you have to throw away your computer and buy a new one.
So the best defense is to not let it in. You have to change your behavior to make sure that nothing gets in. This means that you have to have a secure operating system, only Linux based. And not just that, but also you have to change your browsing habits.
Here are a few thing you must do:
- Have a Linux based operating system
- Make sure the OS is password protected
- Never install non-open source software, neither from untrusted repositories, nor without verifying the integrity of the download. And never give
root accessto anything else. - Don't use non-open source software, but if you must, then don't install it, only use it as a portable app without
root access - Don't browse shady websites, don't click on suspicious links, or if you must, then do it from a virtual environment
- Don't open shady files or e-mail attachments, but if you must, then do it from a virtual environment
- Have your data backed up, and encrypted all the time
- Compartimentalize, have hardware wallets for really important money, and use a separate computer for silly stuff
If you follow this security protocol, then you have greatly reduced your cyberthreat, there is always a small risk that despite your best efforts, you get unlucky, but that is just the risk you have to take.
Sources:
https://pixabay.com
I really hate android. They started off with allowing installs from any website you pointed it at. Installing programs without your permission and without your knowledge.
I really really hate microsloth for their very poor security.
Such as, on linux, if I give the computer to a normal person, they will never need root access. On microsloth, they need administrator access all of the time.
On linux root access means you have access to everything, and can do anything.
In winders, administrator access is not enough for removing things like viruses, or old programs.
On linux all of your operating system files are owned by root. And can only be changed by root.
In winders, anyone can dump stuff in /win32/system and does.
So, I strongly suggest linux. There is even a distro out there that looks almost exactly like XP
I just love how on Windows almost all apps require admin access, so basically it's worth nothing. Plus the admin access is not password protected, it's just there. So any virus can probably bypass it.
In the Linux kernel different rings are isolated. So ring 0 is the kernel, and all outer rings have well designated privileges for each security layer.
So you know for use that the user privilege is just that, and any malware in this space can't normally interact with the root system.
Normally, because there is always some kind of kernel bug that creates privilege escalation. But it's less and less, the Debian team is working hard to patch all bugs, I support them 100%.
I think Open source is the future.
Yes there is a Windows 10 unofficial skin for Cinnamon desktop. But gonna be careful with these, they are possible trademark violations.
And Microsoft doesnt joke around, they are big IP bullies. Besides the Windows UI is just so ugly with all those big ugly buttons.
I find the Gnome/Cinnamon/KDE Desktop envionments to be so much more elegant, simplistic, and comfortable.
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These days is better to use Ubuntu linux
Interesting article.
Do you know any tools to check if you are infected with key-loggers or other nasty stuff. I don't mean a usual virus check but a program that tracks which programs are actually running and might be harmful.
I don't know I am no expert in the field, I am still learning.
But I dont think any kind of "detection" tool can be trusted. If the virus is already in, then it can just simply hide itself from the detection tool, and feed fake data to the detection tool.
All viruses have to be treated as smart ones, so evading any kind of detection has to be assumed.
The OS has to be reinstalled from a trusted DVD, there is no other way.