best free internet security

homeless student

hi, need to get some FREE security on my computer to prevent getting a virus on my computer, anyone know who I should use?

massy086

Security essentials by microsoft

Stuxnet

dont be under the illusion av will STOP you getting a virus, only IT common sense and good practises will go a long way helping you stay clean,

security essentials is ok as mentioned above, will stay out of your way and doesn't seem to hog resources, avast free is better if you have a half decent pc spec

homeless student

Stuxnet wrote: »

dont be under the illusion av will STOP you getting a virus, only IT common sense and good practises will go a long way helping you stay clean,

security essentials is ok as mentioned above, will stay out of your way and doesn't seem to hog resources, avast free is better if you have a half decent pc spec

?

LoLth

Av software are, for the most part, built using virus signatures. So, when a virus is found, Symantec or whoever, study it, find out what it does and how it is put together and then update their AV software so it will "recognise" that particular signature in the future.

however, between the time it is released and the time it has been discovered/analysed/updated, the end user is still vulnerable. (make sure you update AV regularly!)

On top of that, if you ignore a virus alert/warning and click "install anyway" or "allow", a virus could run and do its damage and/or disable your AV so it can download all its virus buddies.

What Stuxnet is saying is, being sensible, careful and basically not doing stupid stuff (like going to an obviously dodgy site and clicking on random links after setting your non-AV security settings to "don't ask me again, just do it because I hate having to click OK" or, not running as root/admin for everyday computer use , is your best defense against security vulnerabilities.

to answer your question though: if you're on a MS based system, go for Security Essentials - who better to know the weaknesses and what is behaving weirdly than the writers of your OS ? (don't answer that - especially if you have read the PRISM thread!).

Its free, it gets regular updates and on any machine I've installed it on, I haven't noticed much of a slowdown even when its performing a scheduled scan. (though that depends on the scan intensity you choose to perform - I usually let it do light scans during business hours and schedule an intensive scan for a time when the PC will be on but not in use).

[-0-]

Unplug your computer from the Internet. That's the best free solution.

Either that or install Linux or FreeBSD.

theedude27

Avast anti-virus is well worth a try. I used it once to see the contents of a hard drive that I couldnt decrypt so in that sense it is pretty powerful software!!

Hotblack Desiato

theedude27 wrote: »

Avast anti-virus is well worth a try. I used it once to see the contents of a hard drive that I couldnt decrypt so in that sense it is pretty powerful software!!

Double ROT-13, was it?

theedude27

ninja900 wrote: »

Double ROT-13, was it?

No it was a Seagate external HDD with 256-bit AES. I created myself a 30 character passphrase which was forgotten about within a week:o

Khannie

theedude27 wrote: »

No it was a Seagate external HDD with 256-bit AES. I created myself a 30 character passphrase which was forgotten about within a week:o

Did you know elements of the passphrase? I'm curious as to how you got access to something that is seemingly so well locked down.

theedude27

Khannie wrote: »

Did you know elements of the passphrase? I'm curious as to how you got access to something that is seemingly so well locked down.

Well I knew most of the passphrase except for the last few characters and in password guessing terms, those few characters would have taken a few months to finally crack!!

I went onto a number of forums and searched hopelessly for decryption software but to no avail and a few months on I just happened to stumble on a section within Avast when I was about to format the drive and, hey presto, it was able to view the root folders and the contents of the folders. I think I might still have the screenshots saved somewhere on my laptop to prove this achievement:D

DonkeyStyle \o/

While we're on the subject, can anyone recommend a good software firewall? I've been using Comodo, but they're ruining it with bloat, as all these programs eventually do.
Also, is there anything you'd recommend for Linux?
I like to be able to see what programs have open connections, the transfer speeds, etc.

Dinner

theedude27 wrote: »

Well I knew most of the passphrase except for the last few characters and in password guessing terms, those few characters would have taken a few months to finally crack!!

I went onto a number of forums and searched hopelessly for decryption software but to no avail and a few months on I just happened to stumble on a section within Avast when I was about to format the drive and, hey presto, it was able to view the root folders and the contents of the folders. I think I might still have the screenshots saved somewhere on my laptop to prove this achievement:D

I'd love to see anything you might have on that, because that seems very strange! Did it do this without providing it with the portion of the passphrase you knew?

Are you sure the encryption was fully completed? I've seen instances where the users thought that their systems were fully encrypted but it was only partially encrypted, and that was with a well known corporate solution.

Hotblack Desiato

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

Also, is there anything you'd recommend for Linux?
I like to be able to see what programs have open connections, the transfer speeds, etc.

You already have iptables, although probably not configured to block anything. In openSUSE you can use YaST to configure it from the GUI. To be honest for the average home setup, if your internet router is configured to block incoming connections etc. then a software firewall isn't really going to add much.

The 'ZoneAlarm' type firewall is basically useless. It's never going to say 'trojan.exe is looking to connect to the internet' - it's trivial for malware to make these requests look like a plausible, trusted process.

DonkeyStyle \o/

I know it's not as bad as the old days of file and print sharing sitting on your public IP. But not everything I want to block outbound is going to consider itself malware. It's as much about troubleshooting/information and seeing what legit programs are doing. Though I suppose superstition has a large role to play too
I've heard about malware/rootkits being able to hide files from the OS, and I've always wondered if at that stage all bets are off. ie. it's able to completely hide (not just disguise) network connections and processes too. Are there any stories about that? And can you hold a torch under your face while you tell it? :pac:

Hotblack Desiato

Consider itself malware? Software has no ethics, it just executes or it doesn't. Whether you were aware of, and really wanted, all the 'features' of that software is another question.

Perhaps SELinux might be worth a try?

oscarBravo

ninja900 wrote: »

Perhaps SELinux might be worth a try?

I made the move from Ubuntu servers to CentOS recently. CentOS comes with SELinux enabled out of the box.

It amazes me how often I see advice posted online: "If you're having trouble getting XYZ to work with SELinux, the easiest approach is to turn off SELinux." Sure, there's a learning curve to understanding how SELinux approaches things, but it's well worth the effort.

My home Ubuntu server died a couple of months ago, and I had to rebuild it largely from scratch. I built it on a CentOS platform and have kept SELinux enabled - there was a fair bit of head-scratching involved, but I got there.