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A little bit off topic. Which AV do you use on Windows? Do you run AV on Linux and Mac in the background, just like most people run on Windows? There is relati

A little bit off topic. Which AV do you use on Windows? Do you run AV on Linux and Mac in the background, just like most people run on Windows? There is relatively less malware which target Mac or Linux. So it generally doesn't affect them so often as it happens on Windows. But if any of you can recommend a good lightweight AV for Mac and Linux, it will be great.

rodgerd 10y ago
Microsoft's own AV is as solid as anything else you're going to pay for. If you're really concerned, whitelist.
astrodust 10y ago
What use would an AV package for macOS or Linux be? The number of hostile programs for that is so short you could write it out on a napkin, and many of those have been addressed at the operating system level. There's malware detection built into macOS, though most wouldn't realize it since almost nobody ever encounters this stuff. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202234 https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202234 You have to go out of your way to find, download, and force-install this. Likewise, I'm not even sure there's actual viable Linux malware in the wild. The biggest threats you have on Linux are with SQL injection vulnerabilities or WordPress-type installs that have bugs that allow arbitrary execution of code. No AV package will ever help you there.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  As long as people don't do curl ... | sh on their $HOME. So many years joking about Windows users to nowadays suggest this as way to install software.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    Yeah, that's a terrible habit to get into and there really should be a better way of doing that. Technically it's no different than downloading and running an unsigned installer, you're just executing arbitrary code anyway. I think the concern is these are a lot easier to intercept and hijack. Maybe lobbying people to produce a first-class installer that's code-signed would help, but I'm not sure the open-source world wants that to become common.
moogly 10y ago
I don't. Haven't for, I don't know, 15 years? Before that I tended to do passive scans a few times a year, and I never had any viruses so I don't even bother now. Here's a secret: You don't need AV on Windows if you're remotely tech savvy, and it doesn't mean you need to be paranoid about what you download either, only use some common sense. The AV's I've come in contact with (friends, family, work) are worse than the viruses they purport to defend against anyway. Just the other day the IT department installed some undisableable Webroot extension in Chrome that injects some godawful green checkmarks throughout Google Search's HTML. That's a virus to me.
- untoreh 10y ago
  webroot is quite decent but I definitely don't enable the browser extensions, at best they just slow down browsing, at worst...eh. It also does another "funny" thing, basically whenever it meets a process it does not like, it starts dumping hundreds of MBs of data into its ProgramData folder, and I wonder, how are you gonna upload all that stuff with my 0.5Mbps tx speed ? :)
pjmlp 10y ago
Microsoft's own AV. Windows 10 with an user account, and Hyper-V sandboxing. For UNIX, always keep everything updated, run whatever sandboxing stack it is supported e.g. SELinux, AppArmor, ... with all knobs turned on, and most importantly never ever allow strange code to access your $HOME.
masklinn 10y ago
> Which AV do you use on Windows? Defender because it's pretty much built-in so there's little reason not to. Before defender, none. > Do you run AV on Linux and Mac in the background Nooooope.
vxNsr 10y ago
I stopped using 3rd party AV ~10 years ago personally. For family and friends I used to recommend Kaspersky because it usually scores highly on tests, but now as I spend more time looking into the industry I think I'll just tell them to stick with defender and ublock, and I'll remote in whenever they install a virus. I'm entirely on windows by the way, same with family, friends generally.

rodgerd 10y ago

Microsoft's own AV is as solid as anything else you're going to pay for. If you're really concerned, whitelist.

astrodust 10y ago

What use would an AV package for macOS or Linux be? The number of hostile programs for that is so short you could write it out on a napkin, and many of those have been addressed at the operating system level. There's malware detection built into macOS, though most wouldn't realize it since almost nobody ever encounters this stuff. https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202234 https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202234 You have to go out of your way to find, download, and force-install this. Likewise, I'm not even sure there's actual viable Linux malware in the wild. The biggest threats you have on Linux are with SQL injection vulnerabilities or WordPress-type installs that have bugs that allow arbitrary execution of code. No AV package will ever help you there.

pjmlp 10y ago
As long as people don't do curl ... | sh on their $HOME. So many years joking about Windows users to nowadays suggest this as way to install software.
- astrodust 10y ago
  Yeah, that's a terrible habit to get into and there really should be a better way of doing that. Technically it's no different than downloading and running an unsigned installer, you're just executing arbitrary code anyway. I think the concern is these are a lot easier to intercept and hijack. Maybe lobbying people to produce a first-class installer that's code-signed would help, but I'm not sure the open-source world wants that to become common.

moogly 10y ago

I don't. Haven't for, I don't know, 15 years? Before that I tended to do passive scans a few times a year, and I never had any viruses so I don't even bother now. Here's a secret: You don't need AV on Windows if you're remotely tech savvy, and it doesn't mean you need to be paranoid about what you download either, only use some common sense. The AV's I've come in contact with (friends, family, work) are worse than the viruses they purport to defend against anyway. Just the other day the IT department installed some undisableable Webroot extension in Chrome that injects some godawful green checkmarks throughout Google Search's HTML. That's a virus to me.

untoreh 10y ago
webroot is quite decent but I definitely don't enable the browser extensions, at best they just slow down browsing, at worst...eh. It also does another "funny" thing, basically whenever it meets a process it does not like, it starts dumping hundreds of MBs of data into its ProgramData folder, and I wonder, how are you gonna upload all that stuff with my 0.5Mbps tx speed ? :)

pjmlp 10y ago

Microsoft's own AV. Windows 10 with an user account, and Hyper-V sandboxing. For UNIX, always keep everything updated, run whatever sandboxing stack it is supported e.g. SELinux, AppArmor, ... with all knobs turned on, and most importantly never ever allow strange code to access your $HOME.

masklinn 10y ago

> Which AV do you use on Windows? Defender because it's pretty much built-in so there's little reason not to. Before defender, none. > Do you run AV on Linux and Mac in the background Nooooope.

vxNsr 10y ago

I stopped using 3rd party AV ~10 years ago personally. For family and friends I used to recommend Kaspersky because it usually scores highly on tests, but now as I spend more time looking into the industry I think I'll just tell them to stick with defender and ublock, and I'll remote in whenever they install a virus. I'm entirely on windows by the way, same with family, friends generally.