Got an email from the US distributor of Kaspersky Labs anti-virus software - the US Dept. of Commerce has banned it effective September 29, 2024. After that they won’t be able to issue any codebase or virus signature updates.
My small business uses Kaspersky on about half a dozen Windows PCs. The distributor is providing a free, seamless transition to BitDefender, but I figure I should look into alternatives just to be thorough.
I have Malwarebytes on my laptop and it seems fine, though its frequent popups are rather annoying. And of course there’s Windows Defender built-in. Any other opinions or recommendations for small business AV software?
Believe it or not, Windows Anti-Virus is very solid. For Windows 11 it is just part of the Windows Security screen. Uninstall the Putin-ware and turn on the Virus and Threat Protection. What it doesn’t cover, your Malwarebytes should.
Whatever you do, stay away from McAfee.
If you care, BitDefender is based out of Romania.
Norton’s is Arizona & The Czech Republic. Norton’s is own by US company Symantec of course.
Too many bad experiences with McAfee in the past, but as of 2011, it is owned by Intel at least.
All the obvious security holes that let attackers get in when operating systems were still experimental things in universities have been long closed. Open TCP ports etc… that’s been gone for ages.
Nowadays the way attackers get in is by stupid users downloading attractive junk.
Thanks for the replies. I agree that the obvious exploits are perhaps not as common any more, but it doesn’t hurt to have something extra just in case an employee does something ill-advised. (I do at least have things configured so you can’t install software on a client PC without the network admin password.)
That’s the easy part. I consider McAfee and Norton to be the sort of “shovelware” that consumer PC manufacturers would load up in the old days - it’s a “feature” but not necessarily a good or useful one.
Sounds like I might give BitDefender a try since they’re giving me a free year, and if it’s too annoying, just go with the Windows built-in stuff.
FWIW, we have Trend Micro on our home computers. Have not had any malware issues, easy to use and renew. I think they have solutions for small businesses, but I have not used that. Just tossing another name out there should it come to trying out different solutions. Formerly a Kaspersky Lab customer.
This was honestly the biggest issue I’d been running into with third-party antivirus software in recent years; it would make everything else run like crap, because it was eating up so much of my computer’s processing bandwidth. After consulting with several industry pros, I dumped the third-party stuff, and just went with Windows Defender.
An additional supporting vote for Windows Defender / Default Windows security (11) plus Malwarebytes.
One thing I always mention, having troubleshot a lot of problems on various computer for my in-laws and parents, is that the first troubleshooting steps on a LOT of flows is “turn off your third party antivirus” if you’re having problems connecting.
A third party antivirus will often give the feeling of safety, while simultaneously hogging system resources and locking your out of otherwise needed software that wasn’t designed to work with whatever specific solution you’ve selected.
Not the biggest deal, and by no means always the source of such problems, but just another factor to consider.
So after that fine explanation, why is Malwarebytes on any of your machines? Seems to me as useless as a registry cleaner; a tool to solve a once-legit problem I / you / we no longer have.
Personally, I have found Malwarebytes is a bit better and finding PUPs than Defender. I also find it is helpful if I’m worried that a machine that’s been out of my hands is acting in a manner that indicates Malware is already present, I don’t really see the need for it as a preventative measure in most cases.
My one complaint is it keeps bugging me to add their VPN. I already use PIA.
Kaspersky offered a 300mb limit VPN free. I miss that in Bit Defender
McAfee still protects my Laptop.
I did a factory reset before switching antivirus.
I remember from my days of Window Support, that antivirus was plastered all over the Registry. Uninstall didn’t clean the registry entirely. I don’t know for sure if Android is similar. But a factory reset is simple if you are properly backed up.
My setup for the last few years. I have in the past had an iteration or two of Malwarebytes be annoying when left running in the background. But it is handy to have an updated copy on hand for scans and I’ve used it enough over the years I figured I might as well pay them for its utility instead of just using the free versions.
That seems like an overly simplistic one-size-fits-all generalization which is surprising coming from a former IT guy. There are many good and valid reasons why not everybody and his dog is running Windows 11 with all the latest Microsoft updates – things like software compatibility and certification requirements, hardware compatibility issues, a practical matter of costs and disruptions for all the foregoing, and many other considerations. Small businesses may need months to upgrade to new versions; large businesses could take years and spend millions on the process.
A major corporation I did consulting work for years ago is still running Windows 2000 on thousands of computers in hundreds of offices, supported by a multi-million dollar contract with Microsoft. Because it’s much cheaper to pay Microsoft millions of dollars to support that which is declared unsupported for others than to engage in another massive upgrade and testing project – the last time they did it an entire lab with a new computer room was built just for that purpose. Others just run without Microsoft support, but with strong anti-virus, anti-malware, and firewall protection.
Maybe my criticism isn’t entirely fair because I presume you’t talking about the typical home user and not business users, but still, this constant quest for upgrade!! upgrade! really bugs me. In my mind, I associate the word “upgrade” with “breaking it”, because it happens so often. And I honestly see no useful improvement in functionality between Windows 7 and Windows 11 and even some degraded functionality, and arguably no real practical improvement even between Windows XP and Windows 11, either. The only actual improvements are the elimination of messages like “we refuse install on your computer because Win-Doze is too old” and “we refuse to talk to you because your browser be too old”. But listen up, kids, these are not actually useful improvements!
As for Kaspersky, back in the day it was highly regarded, and justifiably so. It could often find and clean malware that other mainstream products couldn’t even detect at all. I have no idea if it’s still as good, and although I have no issue with it being banned from US government computers and those of its contractors, banning it entirely throughout the US seems like paranoid overkill.
Add me to the chorus of “Surprisingly, the built-in Windows protections are now actually really good.” In the last few years I’ve dumped all third-party applications.
As opposed to “the antivirus analogue to Internet Explorer”. I suppose part of the instinctive reluctance that some people (including myself) have about things like Windows Defender is left over from the days when complex built-in Windows features like this were not the greatest quality.