It's That Time of Year. Best Antivirus for Toughbooks in 2018

Okay guys... I asked this 3 years ago and ended up going with Kaspersky. It's been okay and doesn't slow my system too much. I am running it on my 2 CF-31 and a CF-53. Now my subscription expires mid January so I want to start looking.

What is the best antivirus protection out there for our Toughbooks?

Norton gets high marks but last I used it (10 years ago) it slowed my system down. Same with McAfee.

Thoughts?

 

I use AVG or Avast. You might want to think twice about Kaspersky . Check out this thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-rise-and-fall-of-kaspersky.808833/page-5#post-10632372

 

I use 360 on everything.

 

Bitdefender for me, Microsoft Security Essentials / Windows Defender for everyone else.

 

Qubes or OpenBSD. Everything else is just spray-painting glitter on a dogs dropping.

https://www.qubes-os.org/experts/
http://toughbooktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3176
"If you're serious about security, Qubes OS is the best OS available today. It's what I use, and free." -- Edward Snowden
"When I use Qubes I feel like a god. Software thinks that it's in control, that it can do what it wants? It can't. I'm in control." -- Micah Lee

https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html
http://toughbooktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2991
"During these hostile and trying times and what-not, OpenBSD may be your family's only line of defense" -- Ty Semaka
"BSD fight buffer reign,Flowing blood in circuit vein, Quagmire, Hellfire, RAMhead Count, Puffy rip attacker out.Crackin' ze bathroom, Crackin' ze vault, Tale of the script, HEY! Secure by default" -- Mr. Robot

If you really have to work with dog droppings, then
a) run them inside a Qubes VM.
b) consider switching professions.
c) use the glitter made by Kaspersky. http://news.antiwar.com/2017/10/25/kaspersky-software-caught-classified-nsa-malware/

 

I am staying with Kaspersky.

 

Kaspersky is staying with you

 

The Edward Snowden endorsement... Gotta love it! Looks cool but I am not looking to have to relearn a new OS but rather use Win10 and have something in the background. I stay busy and have a lot going on... No time to learn something totally new.

Kaspersky... I bought 3, 3 year licenses 3 years ago (Is that enough 3s for you?) based upon Shawn's recommendation. I have to say I have been happy with it. Based upon things I have read about the owner of the company and other things... I am a bit uncomfortable with using them now and would like to try something else.

I really do not want freeware. I'll pay. Bitdefender is leading so far... But wanted to get a sense of what works well on Toughbooks.

 

You can run your Win10 as a VM within Qubes, which stays in the background and does not get in your way.
Altough Win 7 is better tested on Qubes...
Nothing to learn, just follow the linked Guide and be happy.
Takes 4-12 hours initial effort.

 

4-12 hours initial effort is too much. I don't have the time.

 

Ah, you're looking for a feel-good solution, not for the best. Gotcha.
In that case, put some homeopathic medicine into the pcmcia slot and be done.

Jokes aside, Kasperskys snakeoil seems to be the best so far.... it detected NSAs malware.

 

If it can find the NSA's own malware, thats good enough for me.

Amazing that everyone is worried that Kaspersky FOUND it. Not worried that the NSA created it..NSA concerns me more than Kaspersky...

 

Shawn, you're spot on.

Your friendly neighborhood CIA hackers have compiled a list of things to avoid*:

"CIA hackers developed successful attacks against most well known anti-virus programs. These are documented in AV defeats, Personal Security Products, Detecting and defeating PSPs and PSP/Debugger/RE Avoidance. For example, Comodo was defeated by CIA malware placing itself in the Window's "Recycle Bin". While Comodo 6.x has a "Gaping Hole of DOOM".
CIA hackers discussed what the NSA's "Equation Group" hackers did wrong and how the CIA's malware makers could avoid similar exposure."


* Kaspersky has redeemed itself due to detecting NSAs malware.
Not only this year, but also 2015:
https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/files/Equation_group_questions_and_answers.pdf
https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/files/Inside the EquationDrug Espionage Platform - Securelist.pdf

 

You can only test for the presence of virus, not for the absence... so, only one virus - that you know of.

 

I have the best AV, it's called " I'm poor,old and boring" You hack my PC you will end up with a couple of pictures of my friends poodle and my classical music library.

 

people are mining bitcoins on your laptop/smartphone by placing evil javascripts on hacked starbucks wifi landing pages,
and (other) people attack 100mhz IoT devices to be used in botnets for DDoS attacks,
whilst USA puts spy chips into processors and Russia reports that China puts spy chips into kettels and electric irons:
https://thehackernews.com/2013/11/russia-finds-spying-microchips-planted_1.html



being boring can only be considered a defense against some highly targeted/focused actions of nation-state actors,
which might delete worms after a period of time or after determining boringness of infected systems/networks.

you might also get attacked if you are boring but your neighbor is interesting.

In conclusion. boringness might save you from NSA, but you might still be helping someone to take down pornhub via DDoS.
you evil anti-porn person you ;-)

 

My other defense is I am on a chromebook right now, my phone is encrypted and I use Linux for 90% of the time on my pc.

 

I am still using MSE and Stinger as my secondary scan every now and then. No problems yet.

 

Actually I am looking for the best solution that fits with my limited time. I built a custom home with an extra master for my mom to move in when she needed to. That time has come. She moved in and has been into the hospital several times with the last time ending with her having a stroke. So now it is Defcon 1 around here all the time with that. In addition I need to work. I get help from my sister and the Medicare nurses once per week while I am away. My time is very limited these days. I'm going to TRY to get out today to meet a soft female form... We'll see if it actually happens.

I no longer keep the nuclear missile codes on my Toughbook but I would like password protection when I enter my bank access info. I don't surf porn (on this laptop anyway, I have a thrown away laptop for that.) so I don't really go to bad websites... Usually my email, this site, a few stock sites (Motley Fool, etc.) and that is about it.

I have learned that there is ALWAYS a better solution! I built a vault in my basement for guns and valuables. 200 sq. ft. of protected coolness! The first purchase for my new home was an $8,000, 1/2" thick steel in-swing vault door. How paranoid am I? I stopped short of adding the N.B.C. seals to the door. Yes... I could have had better protection... But what I have should work for me.

 

well, yeah, the thing is ...the "my lock is better and my house is smaller than that of my neighbor, so I'll be left alone" way of thought doesn't apply to cyberspace.
this is just black and white / 0 and 1 ... either the next attack powns you or you pown the next attack ...

cybercriminals, unless real criminals, just scan and grab everything as quickly and thus as massively distributed as they can.
the difference between powning a city and powning the planet is like 10% of operational costs and like factor 1000 in disposable income.

the economics of a big ransomware attack work out about like this:
criminal spends two months developing a working exploit, for say IE 11 javascript engine (200k usd?)
criminal has just a few days/weeks to use it after the first antivirus company gets hold of an "in the wild" specimen
criminal has to maximize that timeframe, so he launches a couple thousand amazon ec2 instances (30k usd?) ... or rents some Internet-of-**** botnet (10k usd?) ...


more @ https://www.carbonblack.com/2017/09...s-providing-hackers-ability-earn-quick-money/

• Attackers are playing a numbers game to launch a mass set of attacks against the largest vulnerable population possible. “Ransomware as a Service’” (RaaS) and the emergence of Bitcoin have lowered the barrier to entry for attackers using ransomware. Bitcoin and ransomware are very clearly closely tied, with ransomware experiencing triple digit percentage growth since Bitcoin’s founding in 2009.

• These “spray and pray” attacks often rely on spamming and phishing campaigns to guarantee a small percentage of infections to extort money. Similar to many spam campaigns, ransomware has been sent en masse to thousands of email addresses at a single organization, requiring just one person to execute the payload for a successful attack.

 

Well... Here's the way I look at it. Most people screw up and click on something they shouldn't. A phishing email most likely. Then they download something and the ransonware/virus begins. I know a few people that did it and I just stood back shaking my head as it was all easily preventable. Then there are the people I know (and a lot of my customers) that have PCs where they allow people to surf wherever they want... Download torrent crap and all that. Their PCs are gummed up with junk. They should have kept it work only but people get bored at work.

I live in the woods and barely get a signal. Nobody could ever really drive by and hack into my system... They couldn't get close enough. So, in my mind, that leaves me to be hacked by someone who might see me online and want to get into my PC. I am not sure what the percentages are on that but I would imagine they are fairly low.