Do you run AV on your personal computers?

[drjones]

Given that we all know what we're doing, do you bother running antivirus software on your personal & work computers that only you touch & have access to?

I've had AVG free on my main desktop for years, am considering removing it & saving myself the system resources.

Thanks!

 

[myleso]

We run ESET on everything

 

[mrapoc]

I get managed av (bit defender) free using logic now. Why risk a drive by assault?

 

[PBComputer]

Managed av from logic now here too

 

[altrenda]

Yes on my Windows work laptop and desktop .

Yes on my Android phone.

No reason not to. But wouldn't use AVG, I use the same thing I sell, Bitdefender.

How big a hit in resources do you think you're taking?

 

[mraikes]

No. Not on my computers or phone.

On the other hand, I've never picked up a virus on any of my own computers in all these years.

I see this in my customers as well. Some of them are virus prone regardless of their AV. Others never get a virus.

 

[katz]

Yes on my Android phone.

Any AV I've attempted to run on a smartphone made it dog-slow. Which AV are you using on Android?

 

[fencepost]

I'm running Bitdefender retail on my regular laptop, my wife's PC and a secondary laptop, MSSE is on another laptop that's not used for email or much else. I could go without, but my concern is mostly same-day exploits in browsers.

 

[mrapoc]

I wouldn't use one on my phone ... Yet

However the amount of zero day exploits is crazy.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yes...
It has nothing to do with "knowing what you're doing."......you do know that common every day websites get hacked into and exploited? Such as your local newspaper websites for example? You do know that forums get hacked into and drive-by-exploits are put into them? This very forum right here could be hacked and messed with one day. I've seen other "tech forums"..one a very big one...get hacked. One day I did my usual morning cruise..and a popup came up in my browser. I use Chrome and shut it down in time...in short time the forums were closed, a few hours later or maybe the next day...opened later with the admin making some post. And it happened more than once at that big tech forum.

Streaming advertisements that many forums subscribe to..they're sources of malware injections.

 

[Markverhyden]

Yes, on my M$ machines. No on anything else.

 

[AndyM]

Running Managed AV on the home PC and the works laptop. Running ESET on my works tech PC (Need a product that is interactive, and Managed AV doesn't allow that level of interaction, which is why I sell Managed AV as the preferred AV to clients - they don't get to override the settings I put in )

Andy

 

[jack-ant]

I didn't use an antivirus before but they have become more resource efficient and with solid state drives and faster processors I believe the additional safety is worthwhile. In the past though I was all about performance and have never received a virus myself that I know of. I always wonder though about those viruses that nobody knows about... the ones that are almost undetectable, perhaps created by surveillance companies. Windows is closed source and so are many other programs. You can see what packets are being sent, but with good encryption you can conceal the message within another message so I believe that nothing is secure if someone is determined and focused on gaining access to something. The more valuable the access is, the more security is needed.

 

[Markverhyden]

Yes...
It has nothing to do with "knowing what you're doing."......you do know that common every day websites get hacked into and exploited? Such as your local newspaper websites for example? You do know that forums get hacked into and drive-by-exploits are put into them? This very forum right here could be hacked and messed with one day. I've seen other "tech forums"..one a very big one...get hacked. One day I did my usual morning cruise..and a popup came up in my browser. I use Chrome and shut it down in time...in short time the forums were closed, a few hours later or maybe the next day...opened later with the admin making some post. And it happened more than once at that big tech forum.

Streaming advertisements that many forums subscribe to..they're sources of malware injections.

Yep. Last time I go hit. While visiting my daughter at college I was using a netbook to research a company on ripoffreport.com. It had no AV as I only used it for doing networking work onsite. Using FF, left the machine up and running with the ripoffreport.com page open. Came back a couple of hours later and had gotten hit with the XP antivirus or something similar. One of my recommendations to EU's is to never leave a browser session live. When you are finished, close the browser.

 

[katz]

One of my recommendations to EU's is to never leave a browser session live. When you are finished, close the browser.

oops...I usually leave 6-12 tabs open from day to day...

 

[fencepost]

One other thing I do on my daily driver is use Firefox with uMatrix, but that's not a viable option for non-techs. Previously I was using RequestPolicy and NoScript, but the two didn't coordinate (e.g. I'd have to allow requests to a CDN hosting scripts, then separately allow scripts for that site). I also had headaches with RequestPolicy vs RequestPolicy Continued which has a much better UI but wasn't an official addon.

 

[altrenda]

I don't know how much it helps, but my phone came with Lookout from T Mobile. A while back it stopped a sketchy app from installing, but I m nor sure what other good it does. Doesn't seem to slow my phone down much.

Any AV I've attempted to run on a smartphone made it dog-slow. Which AV are you using on Android?

 

[gikstar]

I do not install an antivirus program on my person Windows desktop or laptop. There are some programs that I store on them that an antivirus will automatically remove and I hate that. Haven't gotten a virus yet.

 

[ZenTree]

Nope. I do however use adblockers (uBlock origin and admuncher) and disable certain content (javascript etc) by default on webpages. I do the occasional on demand scan with hitmanpro/malwarebytes and upload any "suspicious" files I download from torrents to virustotal first. Like gikstar I found active antiviruses a PITA with flagging up legit files and just killing the computers performance on occasion.

Touch wood I've not had a virus for many many years. Everything is backed up too.

 

[TenYardFight]

Yes. We use what we sell. To protect from drive by infections and to be familiar with what we are supporting.