Posted: 6/1/2017 12:43:24 PM EDT
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TLDR: what free virus malware protection is descent enough to put on my FIL's computer?
FIL came across a website that is likely a one letter off misspell of the actual website and it flashed a message "your computer is infected, call XXXXX." He purchased a computer last year and the free with purchase McAfee expired a month prior and face him pop ups letting him know, so virus protection was on his mind. Unfortunately with this combination he called the number and allowed scammers access to his PC. They put on a access link and a remote program to turn on the webcam. Fortunately he didn't have anything on it but pictures and a couple worthless letters and baseball schedules. Also he caught on when they asked for $90 MoneyGram for a one time fix and ended the call. I educated him on these scams, and other like the faked call from the grandson that in a Mexican jail. I'm presently doing a clean wipe on the system. |
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Short answer: windows defender
i worked roughly 6-7 years as a customer support in IT before I moved up. I always use windows defender as well as the people I worked with, its more than enough as long as you arent an idiot with your browsing habbits. In reality if you give someone a computer who just does not know better then it really does not matter what type of AV you have or how locked down the computer is. Eventually that person is going to hose the computer, end of story. Think about it like this. no matter what pair of boots you wear to walk through a pile of shit you are still going to have shit on your boots. Those who dont walk through shit, dont have shit on their boots (by this I mean people who know what emails to ignore and what not to click on). |
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They're nearing the same rates of detection at this point. The key is to teach people to be better internet consumers.
1) Configure automatic Windows Updates, this is more important than anti-malware software, IMO. 2) Chose the least intrusive protection that updates frequently and runs automatically. In his case, it's probably Windows Defender: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-10/ 3) Install Malwarebytes as an added layer of protection, run it every time you go over there. Run them both a few times, make sure to turn off any nag screens for him. |
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Yeah, instead of spending a day wiping the computer and installing a free AV solution, he can spend the next 6 months teaching his dad a new OS. Quoted:
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Linux Thank you. |
| Did you actually read your first link? The issue there was the fact that Mint's website was hacked and redirected people to download a compromised version of the OS, it wasn't malware that infected existing installations. As for the wikipedia link, I don't think anyone is surprised that there's malware targeting Linux, especially in light of the fact that an enormous number of devices (servers, routers, switches, most things that run the internet) are running on Linux. For a normal user you're pretty safe, especially if you stick to official repos, and especially considering Linux users are generally much more computer literate than your average computer user. Obviously being a smart user is the best defense no matter what OS you use, but neither of the links you provided are much of an indictment of Linux security compared to Windows. |
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I just installed BitDefender Free to try it out on my new Win 10 laptop, and it seems good. VERY simplistic UI, almost no options at all. Basically all you can do is a manual system scan, everything else happens automagically. If your granpa isn't too tech savvy, this may be the best option.
ETA: It's updated its definitions twice today by itself. That's nice. |
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If Win7 or greater...
Uninstall any dog shit AV software your cousin's boyfriend's mom's hairdresser's husband's IT guy told you would fix the problem and of course it didn't. Reboot pc Go into add/remove programs and sort the installed programs by date, newest on top. The crap causing the problem is probably near the top of the list. Remove it and any other BS that was installed. Reboot Download the free version of CCleaner from piriform.com. Install and run it. This will take a few to 30 minutes. Let it cook. Download Malwarebytes from malwarebytes.com Install it, run it and let it download updates. After updates run a scan with default settings. This will take a few to 30 minutes. Let it cook. Tell it to fix any problems found. It will look like it's doing nothing for a few minutes. This is normal. Good chance it will tell you to reboot to complete the fix. Do it. The first reboot after the fixes may take longer than usual. This is normal. Let it cook. This fixes everything this side of a hardware problem 99% of the time. Don't install AV software. Defender does everything all the others do and it's already installed and free. Win10's version of Defender is even better. If you have XP and it's screwing up you deserve it for using 15 year old garbage. Don't let very young or very old people use your PC if you have critical information on it. Get them an android tablet or iPad to play with. If you use your PC for nefarious stuff learn about VMs and use them for your one handed data processing sessions. |