Delete your antivirus software...says Ex-Firefox developer

Was that before or after Mozilla decided to support Yahoo and their malvertising? This guy is a joke.

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2015/08/large-malvertising-campaign-takes-on-yahoo/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Yahoo!
Yahoo! has also been criticized for funding spyware and adware — advertising from Yahoo!'s clients often appears on-screen in pop-ups generated from adware that a user may have installed on their computer without realizing it by accepting online offers to download software to fix computer clocks or improve computer security, add browser enhancements, etc. The frequency of advertising pop-ups for spyware, generated from a partnership with advertising distributor Walnut Ventures, who had a direct partnership with Direct Revenue, could be increased or decreased based on Yahoo!'s immediate revenue needs, according to some former employees in Yahoo!'s sales department.[3][4]
Click to expand...

SO, let me get this straight.. I'm supposed to listen to a guy that is benefiting from supporting a company that actively supports, advertises and distributes adware, malware and viruses for profit. Listen to him when he says "no AV."? Right.....
 
I saw this yesterday on hackernews if you want to read what others had to say about it. I think his point was that all you should use if you have windows 10 is microsoft's built in windows defender av and he thinks third party av is worthless. I know a lot of people that only use windows defender but I wouldn't say that it is the only thing you need to be safe.



https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13489100
 
Back in May 2014 Symantec's Brian Dye & Peter Norton proclaimed Antivirus as "dead"....
But I don't think we should be dumping Antivirus programs just yet! Only today I had a client with a computer running an outdated version of Trend "Titanium" Security. It was only 2 days out of date but was still so badly infected that I decided to N & P!
In my experience, Windows 10 with "Defender" is near to useless! A large proportion of my income is derived from Virus/Malware removal, cleanup and AV sales.
To say that we should not use an Antivirus is irresponsible and reckless!
 
Barcelona said:
To say that we should not use an Antivirus is irresponsible and reckless!
Click to expand...
Depends on several factors.

1. Type of user - end or technical
2. Type of O/S - in my case I'm running Linux Mint 18
3. Whether it is (or is not) connected to the Internet
4. Policies of companies

And I'm sure there are many more to add to this list.

Most end-users will click on nearly everything just to see what it is - even after we have attempted to teach them NOT to do so. And for that we (computer techs) should be happy as it will bring in more A-V / Malware Removal work to us.
 
Altster said:
Depends on several factors.

1. Type of user - end or technical
2. Type of O/S - in my case I'm running Linux Mint 18
3. Whether it is (or is not) connected to the Internet
4. Policies of companies

And I'm sure there are many more to add to this list.

Most end-users will click on nearly everything just to see what it is - even after we have attempted to teach them NOT to do so. And for that we (computer techs) should be happy as it will bring in more A-V / Malware Removal work to us.
Click to expand...
I was speaking from a "break fix/residential" standpoint.
Antivirus software may be unneeded in large corporate areas where they are behind firewalls/UTM appliances/cloud based security etc.
 
Barcelona said:
Back in May 2014 Symantec's Brian Dye & Peter Norton proclaimed Antivirus as "dead"....
But I don't think we should be dumping Antivirus programs just yet! Only today I had a client with a computer running an outdated version of Trend "Titanium" Security. It was only 2 days out of date but was still so badly infected that I decided to N & P!
In my experience, Windows 10 with "Defender" is near to useless! A large proportion of my income is derived from Virus/Malware removal, cleanup and AV sales.
To say that we should not use an Antivirus is irresponsible and reckless!
Click to expand...

Keep a log for a month of your malware removals. Bet you find more paid, up to date AV than not.

That's essentially what I see. No matter the brand of AV, paid or free, machines get horribly infected. None of the AV's are worth what you pay for them, at least in the consumer/small business market, so I leave Defender in place, and that's it.

Rick
 
Maybe it's because Mozilla never could fix the SSL errors with some anti-virus programs? We sell exclusively KIS and have to manually check every installation that has Firefox installed to make sure that browsers will work on banking websites. Never seen this issue with Chrome or IE. Probably half of the ones with FF installed we have to manually add the fake Kaspersky certificate in FF to get around SSL blocks.
 
inbargains said:
Maybe it's because Mozilla never could fix the SSL errors with some anti-virus programs? We sell exclusively KIS and have to manually check every installation that has Firefox installed to make sure that browsers will work on banking websites. Never seen this issue with Chrome or IE. Probably half of the ones with FF installed we have to manually add the fake Kaspersky certificate in FF to get around SSL blocks.
Click to expand...
That is part of that engineer's point. Many AV programs totally circumvent the SSL stack to implement their own. They are breaking something that works just fine to put there SINGLE checked certificate in place of the multichecked certs provided and built into your OS. It's bad security.
 
glennd said:
... that you know of ...
Click to expand...
Evidently you didnt catch it :)

choose-linux_zpsb91cf9d6.jpg
 
nlinecomputers said:
That is part of that engineer's point. Many AV programs totally circumvent the SSL stack to implement their own. They are breaking something that works just fine to put there SINGLE checked certificate in place of the multichecked certs provided and built into your OS. It's bad security.
Click to expand...

Kaspersky was doing this and probably still is. First I thought it was just the PC I was working on then found the issue cropping up on multiple other computers and stopped selling it. Shame on them for that.
 
red12049 said:
Keep a log for a month of your malware removals. Bet you find more paid, up to date AV than not.

That's essentially what I see. No matter the brand of AV, paid or free, machines get horribly infected. None of the AV's are worth what you pay for them, at least in the consumer/small business market, so I leave Defender in place, and that's it.

Rick
Click to expand...

How many new computers do you see without a paid AV? as far as I know they still coming with packaged deals. Also general malware is not really something AV companies focus on but in terms of best antivirus its never going to be windows defender...certainly wont mcafee either though =P
 
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