Choosing an Internet Security Provider

1st Official Post

    Hello,


    Making sure you have a reliable Internet Security Suite Provider for your computer is something everyone needs to seriously consider.

    But which provider? There are several "out there" that claim to be the "best" - but are they?


    The surest way of discovering which provider is truly best, reliable, and without the "security suite" causing trouble or complications on your computer

    or with your website or forum, is through "hands on" experience!


    And what about support? Which one is "best" - or at least prompt in answering your questions and offering assistance whether that be a "technical problem"

    or something simple (or which should be 'simple') - like switching off "Automatic Renewal" for example; depending upon which ISSP it is, this can become a

    very "messy" and frustrating situation!


    I don't want to get in a "legal hassle" with any company, so I won't mention here who is the "best".

    However if you are interested in knowing which Internet Security Suite Provider is truly "best", hit me up - either through my "Woltlab Forum Account Profile" -

    or by contacting me directly through my forum (email, conversation, etc.).


    DJ

    If Internet security provider means something like a firewall and antivirus bundle... Windows has everything you need. The firewall does it's job perfectly and there's no need for any other anti virus Software than the integrated windows defender. I personally use Malwarebytes in addition, but it's not necessary.

    Quote from SoftCreatR

    If Internet security provider means something like a firewall and antivirus bundle... Windows has everything you need. The firewall does it's job perfectly and there's no need for any other anti virus Software than the integrated windows defender. I personally use Malwarebytes in addition, but it's not necessary.

    Echoing this--Windows Defender has come a long, long way since the days of XP. It has some of the best protection I've ever seen and since it's built in to Windows, there's very little additional overhead.

    Quote from SoftCreatR

    If Internet security provider means something like a firewall and antivirus bundle... Windows has everything you need. The firewall does it's job perfectly and there's no need for any other anti virus Software than the integrated windows defender. I personally use Malwarebytes in addition, but it's not necessary.

    Quote from Nebulon Ranger

    choing this--Windows Defender has come a long, long way since the days of XP. It has some of the best protection I've ever seen and since it's built in to Windows, there's very little additional overhead.


    Hello SoftCreatR and Nebulon Ranger

    You said: Windows has everything you need

    My Reply:

    In reality ....no it does not (at least not fore me).


    I have had more than my share of frustration and serious problems with hackers, unwanted intruders, and an assortment of "goof-balls" who have nothing more to do with their time and energy than to figure how they can make life miserable for individuals who have websites and forums -

    especially forums!


    As for "Windows", such over-whelming confidence you both apparently have in "Windows",

    I cannot count myself as being one who shares that opinion..


    I have since 2015 used at least five different Internet Security companies; the particular one I use now outshines them all -

    including anything Windows has to offer in the way of "security".


    A friend of mine - who is on the internet more than I am (or care to be) - is a person who no doubt would have unconditionally agreed with you -

    that is until he had the extremely unpleasant experience of having his computer hacked into; and losing valuable (to himself at least) irreplaceable

    data he had collected over the internet.


    Each individual must access and evaluate what is most important to them, of course; and that includes safety and security with their websites and forums. Experience - and how the individual incorporates that into his or her life - can be the ultimate measurement between a successful outcome or one that can only be accurately described as disaster.


    DJ

    • Official Post

    The issue with those “security softwares” at large is that they are giant blackboxes. They do a lot of (sometimes downright insane) things that actually weaken the security of your system instead of strengthening it. The worst offenders are softwares that intercept your browser traffic by breaking the security chain, effectively carrying out a local “man in the middle” attack.


    For years there is a rising trend of targeting these “security softwares” themselves because they both appear to be hot garbage on the inside and are running with extremely elevated privileges. So instead of having to defeat Windows' multiple layers of security, one can target the “security software” itself and immediately penetrate all defense layers at once. And worst of all is that you even pay for that “privilege”.


    Pro tip: Enable the malware protection in the security settings and set the UAC to the highest possible value. This has been my personal practice for many many years together with the built-in Defender. It gets the job done just fine, especially the UAC is by far the strongest defensive measure by a long shot, period.

    Quote from Alexander Ebert

    The issue with those “security softwares” at large is that they are giant blackboxes. They do a lot of (sometimes downright insane) things that actually weaken the security of your system instead of strengthening it.

    By far my biggest single issue with third-party security suites is how much they impact system performance. Their live disk scanners absolutely hammer your storage media when they're running and if you're even vaguely intelligent about your Internet use, they do this just to find at most a PUA, but almost always nothing.

    Quote from Nebulon Ranger

    By far my biggest single issue with third-party security suites is how much they impact system performance. Their live disk scanners absolutely hammer your storage media when they're running and if you're even vaguely intelligent about your Internet use, they do this just to find at most a PUA, but almost always nothing.

    Hello Nebulon Ranger and Alexander Ebert :)


    Thanks for contributing to this Thread regarding the subject of Internet Security.


    Obviously we are standing at opposite "sides" when it comes to this particular issue.

    However this isn't by far the first time in my life I have been on "opposite sides" - with some issue or someone;

    so far I have survived ........and I trust you will also. ;)


    DJ

    As an independent app developer I had great pains with antiviruses and what they detect in my .exes. First of all, there is no perfect antivirus. They mostly use heuristics and code comparisons against their known malicious software databases. As for exe scanning (C/C++ app) it can be sometimes right, sometimes not. I could change various meaningless bits in my program and have one AV stop reporting "viruses" while other start finding something else. Eventually I settled on methods that don't trigger any AV, although there are still problems from time to time.


    Obviously, my apps are not malicious (they're even open source), but AV has no clue what they do, only how similar they look to known malicious programs (trojans, malware, ransomware). Nevertheless, they still failed to detect my accidental keylogger addition last year - I was trying to detect Alt-Tab keypresses in a Win32 application, but I actually ended up detecting all keypresses on a system, even when the app was not focused and running in background. This wasn't a security threat to anyone, but it easily could've been.


    So what is a virus? You can write a perfectly valid program that opens a picture at C:\Users\...\AppData\myprogram\mypicture.jpg and sends it somewhere over the internet for your own purposes. But if it was to send your private photo from C:\Users\...\AppData\my_summer_photos\me.jpg now that could be considered a virus. And AV can't tell.

    For .exe apps there is one common solution to make your apps trusted, and that involves buying a digital signature. It's at least $100 a year, involves verifying your identity (or your company's identity), and poses you to legal consequences if your app was indeed malicious. It has been exploited many times in the past though. Either digital signing keys leak to the internet or someone finds a bug in the signature-checking code. And most AVs will say an obviously malicious program is safe, because it's signed with a valid signature. Sometimes AV can do more bad than good, because it gives you a feeling of safety when there is none.


    In the end everything's unsafe, but you shouldn't get paranoid because of it. :) There's always a risk of losing your data, losing identity (passwords), being robbed, ransomwar-ed, or becoming a part of botnet. And this is both with and without an antivirus. There's a set of good practices that minimize the risks - get to know them! In my opinion they should really teach kids about cybersecurity in schools...

    Quote from Ruff Seas

    that is until he had the extremely unpleasant experience of having his computer hacked into; and losing valuable (to himself at least) irreplaceable

    So did he evaluate how this happened? The first thing I'd do is double down on my online behaviour. Sticking to official software, always ensure to visit the official websites only, don't blindly install something, and of course, stay away from any kind of shady websites. And if needed or in doubt check things first out on a virtual machine via VirtualBox or Microsoft's inbuilt Windows Sandbox. Also consider web browser extensions like uBlock Origin and uMatrix.

    Quote from >_ Tim

    So did he evaluate how this happened? The first thing I'd do is double down on my online behaviour. Sticking to official software, always ensure to visit the official websites only, don't blindly install something, and of course, stay away from any kind of shady websites. And if needed or in doubt check things first out on a virtual machine via VirtualBox or Microsoft's inbuilt Windows Sandbox. Also consider web browser extensions like uBlock Origin and uMatrix.

    "So did he evaluate how this happened?"

    Knowing "Ken" as I do, I doubt it.


    As for the remainder of what you stated, e.g. "sticking to official websites", " staying away from shady websites", "blindly installing something",

    he probably "engaged" in all of that.


    As for myself, I am extremely careful of what I look at (browse); what I install even more so; and "shady websites" - (well that covers a big area for sure) -

    I always pay attention to recommendations of Firefox Browser - unless I personally know the site can be trusted.

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