Alternative to Kaspersky

[Police State]

My Kaspersky Anti-Virus/total security licence is due to expire soon, can anyone reccomend a good alternative that doesn't slow things down behind the scenes and efficiently does the job in hand?

[Harpoon]

What platform? If it's Windows, I'd just go with the built-in (free!) Defender and a good dose of common-sense

[Mr Pointy]

Police State said:

My Kaspersky Anti-Virus/total security licence is due to expire soon, can anyone reccomend a good alternative that doesn't slow things down behind the scenes and efficiently does the job in hand?

Why do you want an alternative to Kaspersky? Hasn't it done a good enough job so far?.

If it's a cost issue you can get cheap licences from Amazon.

[Police State]

Mr Pointy said:

Police State said:

My Kaspersky Anti-Virus/total security licence is due to expire soon, can anyone reccomend a good alternative that doesn't slow things down behind the scenes and efficiently does the job in hand?

Why do you want an alternative to Kaspersky? Hasn't it done a good enough job so far?.

If it's a cost issue you can get cheap licences from Amazon.

It alway's irked me that it's Safe Money/Banking module, always seems to be behind browser development, and results in a cludgy experience, which doesn't give me full confidence. It has failed/frozen too many times recently.

Also, I don't like the way they do their pricing; multi-channel nonsense, multi-service/product offerings.

and... I would rather give my money to a company that was not Headquartered in Moscow.

[SteBrown91]

Ive ran windows Defender for years and not had an issue.

[Bacon Is Proof]

Harpoon said:

What platform? If it's Windows, I'd just go with the built-in (free!) Defender and a good dose of common-sense

Absolutely this, why fk about with anything else?

[mmm-five]

I'll repeat what the others are saying...if you're on Windows 10 then use the built-in offering...it's more than good enough.

Just make sure you completely remove Kaspersky with their uninstaller tool...not via the control panel or windows settings pages.

[mikef]

Police State said:

My Kaspersky Anti-Virus/total security licence is due to expire soon

An apt username - given that Kaspersky are based in Moscow and have been declared a security risk by the Federal Communications Commission

[Brainpox]

mikef said:

An apt username - given that Kaspersky are based in Moscow and have been declared a security risk by the Federal Communications Commission

Hardly surprising the FCC would make a move like that though

[eliot]

UK National Cyber Security Centre warned about using Kaspersky 5 years ago before all the current hassle - they cottoned on to the fact that the product that is supposed to protect you from spyware and viruses could easily be leveraged itself to perform the very thing it’s supposed to protect against given the control and access it has to your PC.

In my opinion you would of been mad to use it ever - let alone now.
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/letter-permane...

[Jenny Tailor]

Bitdefender.

[Mr Pointy]

eliot said:

UK National Cyber Security Centre warned about using Kaspersky 5 years ago before all the current hassle - they cottoned on to the fact that the product that is supposed to protect you from spyware and viruses could easily be leveraged itself to perform the very thing it’s supposed to protect against given the control and access it has to your PC.

In my opinion you would of been mad to use it ever - let alone now.
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/letter-permane...

If you're going to quote a source, at least quote the current advice:

Individuals using Kaspersky AV

We've had enquiries from people worried about their home IT. It almost certainly remains the case that nearly all individuals in the UK (and many enterprises) are not going to be targeted by Russian cyber attack, regardless of whether they use Russian products and services.

If your personal laptop uses Kaspersky AV (or other products):

it's highly unlikely to be directly targeted
it’s safe to turn on and use at the moment

However, you may need to move to a new AV product if Kaspersky itself becomes subject to sanctions, since the AV product would likely stop getting updates (and AV software is only effective if it's updated regularly)

Advice located here, dated 29/03/2022, unlike your link which was last updated in 2018:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/use-of-russian-t...

[Police State]

Jenny Tailor said:

Bitdefender.

I may give that a go...

[eliot]

Mr Pointy said:

eliot said:

UK National Cyber Security Centre warned about using Kaspersky 5 years ago before all the current hassle - they cottoned on to the fact that the product that is supposed to protect you from spyware and viruses could easily be leveraged itself to perform the very thing it’s supposed to protect against given the control and access it has to your PC.

In my opinion you would of been mad to use it ever - let alone now.
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/letter-permane...

If you're going to quote a source, at least quote the current advice:

Individuals using Kaspersky AV

We've had enquiries from people worried about their home IT. It almost certainly remains the case that nearly all?individuals?in the UK (and many enterprises) are?not?going to be targeted by Russian cyber attack, regardless of whether they use Russian products and services.

If your personal laptop uses Kaspersky AV (or other products):

it's highly unlikely to be directly targeted
it’s safe to turn on and use at the moment

However, you may need to move to a new AV product if Kaspersky itself becomes subject to sanctions, since the AV product would likely stop getting updates (and AV software is only effective if it's updated regularly)

Advice located here, dated 29/03/2022, unlike your link which was last updated in 2018:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/use-of-russian-t...

My point, was that even 5 years ago - it was considered to be a sensible choice not to use it.

[xeny]

Police State said:

I may give that a go...

The built in product is perfectly competent against my best efforts to get a machine infected and doesn't have the same incentive that an add on product does to keep you scared so you pay for it.

[Mr Whippy]

The built in product can be a bit over protective though.

And it’s not very polished in how it deals with stuff it finds in a nice clear abs obvious way.

I used Malwarebytes previously in Win7 which was good, Win10 built in now though.

I just turn off sample submission and cloud derived protection so it’s more passive.
Depending on what you do, letting them have samples, and snoop your entire file system (checksums I assume) seems a step too far and beyond necessary for protection.


Also take a look at Windows Firewall Control, which can be useful to lock things down a bit… Win10s attack surface is as big as a planet.

[ARHarh]

I have used windows defender for years now with no issues. As said it can be a bit over protective but if you don't understand what you're dealing with then that is surely a good thing. I would not be paying for a service which is already running on my PC.