blinky123 Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 i dont know much about internet security - if i want to be as secure as possible so i can do banking etc online what do i need? i assume: 1.) some sort of paid antivirus like norton 2.) something like the paid version of malwarebytes 3.) is there anything else? 4.) do people still use firewalls or would norton and malwarebytes cover that? 5.) what is VPN? - do i need that? any help would be appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monty Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM_ Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 good place to start for your pc and mobile: https://www.avast.com/ all your answers are on that site Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dral Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 linux Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toni Zamboni Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 a firewall is a must! anti virus etc depends on what platform you use....im on a mac and have never used antivirus or mal scanners etc. VPN will secure your privacy while browsing but not necessary. choosing a decent browser with security options enabled and blockers etc also helps. make sure you use unique passwords for everything that are very strong.....this is very important....dont use the same password twice for different accounts, ie google and a forum etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blinky123 Posted February 20, 2018 Author Share Posted February 20, 2018 what's the difference between a firewall and an antivirus? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-AJ- Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 I have a firewall and use Window Defender. All I've ever needed so far. If you have "internet sense" and know when you're in sketchy areas, common sense can save you a lot of trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peaches5 Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 51 minutes ago, blinky123 said: i dont know much about internet security - if i want to be as secure as possible so i can do banking etc online what do i need? i assume: 1.) some sort of paid antivirus like norton 2.) something like the paid version of malwarebytes 3.) is there anything else? 4.) do people still use firewalls or would norton and malwarebytes cover that? 5.) what is VPN? - do i need that? any help would be appreciated You don't need anything. Windows comes preinstalled with a firewall. The chances of you getting malware from what you'd be doing are highly unlikely. You'd get malware from going to sites with questionable ads, like site with illegal streams. Doing your personal banking, using Facebook, Amazon etc it's highly unlikely you get any viruses. What you do need to be careful of and no real malware protection will help you here is make sure you go to the correct website. You may get some fake mail that says go to BMObank.cc and they will ask you to log in and in doing so you just gave someone your password as BMO's website is BMO.com. If something downloads like a .EXE file never install it unless you know exactly what it is. You're best off asking here if at .EXE file downloads to make sure it is not some malware. Again you can't have this happen unless you go on a questionable site. Most emails clear out spam and most websites have very clean ads and combined with windows firewall it is pretty difficult to get a nasty virus. Also make your passwords difficult. A lot of people make passwords like bird65. Make your password something like Bird/65DwQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancaster Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 1 hour ago, blinky123 said: what's the difference between a firewall and an antivirus? To use an analogy... Firewalls are the like the vaccines you get to prevent stuff. Anti-virus are the medicines and antibiotics you take when you are sick. Both you should have installed on your computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drive-By Body Pierce Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 The paid antivirus software programs such as those from Norton and McAfee are often targeted by virus creators as many of them are some level of anarchist and target the larger corporations. The viruses often embed themselves in the antivirus installation wreaking havoc on your system. But, as alluded to above, some "internet sense" goes a very long way. Don't open sketchy email attachments or click links from unknown senders. And, stay away from the sketchy areas of the internet while NEVER giving out information to a site unless the address begins with "https" at the very least indicating the site has an approved secure connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABNuck Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 14 minutes ago, Lancaster said: To use an analogy... Firewalls are the like the vaccines you get to prevent stuff. Anti-virus are the medicines and antibiotics you take when you are sick. Both you should have installed on your computer. Not entirely true... A firewall is like moving into a hepa filtered bubble...nothing gets in...unless you invite it in... Anti-virus is like a vaccine...but since viruses are always mutating, sometimes you need to deal with upgrading your "vaccine"...and those programs also have a scavenging module...if something does sneak through, they can usually scan back, isolate and terminate (like taking an anti-venin after a snake bite). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortorella's Rant Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 1 hour ago, blinky123 said: i dont know much about internet security - if i want to be as secure as possible so i can do banking etc online what do i need? i assume: 1.) some sort of paid antivirus like norton 2.) something like the paid version of malwarebytes 3.) is there anything else? 4.) do people still use firewalls or would norton and malwarebytes cover that? 5.) what is VPN? - do i need that? any help would be appreciated Windows 10 comes with Windows Defender. It's the desktop equivalent of the enterprise grade Windows Endpoint Protection. It's like any other anti-virus out there really as long as you keep it updated, which it will do automatically anyway if you run Windows update. Difference between anti-virus and and a firewall is that anti-virus checks for malware and such things already on your computer and attempts to quarantine those things and remove them from your system. Malwarebytes, even the free version, is great at this so look into getting it. A firewall will only permit the connections that are allowed through. The default Windows firewall will block most things by default. Those crappy little boxes you get from Shaw or Rogers don't really do a ton in terms of security so don't just count on that; they're really just there to give you a connection. The best way to protect yourself is to avoid sketchy websites and never open unsolicited links people send you in Facebook, or email, or anything like that. Especially regarding personal information. Always double check with the person sending it to you - phishers are particularly good at spoofing legitimate emails but they are not legitimate. Otherwise you're best off avoiding it altogether - better safe than sorry. It's fine to bank from home too using your LAN connection. Never use a Wifi - it's just for convenience, not security. Websites use HTTPS over TLS and are secure because they are encrypted between you and them: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95617?visit_id=0-636547610033831450-763169124&p=ui_security_indicator&rd=1 So CIBC for example is secure. This forum, on the other hand, is not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffraff Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 How about an ar-15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tortorella's Rant Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 VPN just masks who you are on the web, to an extent, and encrypts your traffic and ensures the sender is the sender and not someone malicious. You don't need it. Site to site VPN between two companies geographically separated for example. Your computer address is 192.168.2.86, you talk to the guys at the remote location, your communication goes out on the web as your public IP 64.251.xx.xx (making up IPs here), as encrypted traffic to the destination site, and is decrypted, and the source address is 192.168.2.86 again. It looks like you guys are sitting next to each other, but in reality you jumped between 15 routers at the ISP to get to their site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABNuck Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 6 minutes ago, Drive-By Body Pierce said: The paid antivirus software programs such as those from Norton and McAfee are often targeted by virus creators as many of them are some level of anarchist and target the larger corporations. The viruses often embed themselves in the antivirus installation wreaking havoc on your system. But, as alluded to above, some "internet sense" goes a very long way. Don't open sketchy email attachments or click links from unknown senders. And, stay away from the sketchy areas of the internet while NEVER giving out information to a site unless the address begins with "https" at the very least indicating the site has an approved secure connection. Yes...the POS hackers sometimes know more about Norton and McAfee than do their own programmers. Problem with a an anti-virus program is that they are, for the most part, reactionary. They contain basic code that automatically "searches" out mal-code (certain code packets are often written in similar patterns to do their thing ie/ worms etc) but a lot of times serious hackers can write new strings that aren't out there...happens a few times a year. Thing is, usually these hacks are targeted. They might appear to be blanket attacks, but often they are targeted attacks (ie/ sensitive info en masse like a bank, heathcare provider etc etc) with a blanket effect in order to throw counter-intel off the scent. So the days of targeted attacks on personal computers is basically at an end. The true value to any hacker is the mined data en-masse. The 2 ways to gather it is either by mining several computers and combining the data to sell (see Facebook or Google for example...trust me...they're in your computer and know more about you than you do...mostly because people just give it up...like the slut back in HS) or method #2 is as described above...a targeted hunt through supposedly secret and secure data...which can quickly be flipped to the buyer. Once the damage here has been done, it's hard to pull back (ie/ once hackers have your SIN or Health Number etc) you can't ask all of the victims to al go get new SIN's etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABNuck Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 6 minutes ago, riffraff said: How about an ar-15 Too soon brah...too soon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riffraff Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 4 minutes ago, ABNuck said: Too soon brah...too soon... I s'pose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobble Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 I use Kaspersky. Ivan watches my back always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fivethej Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Aliens in Independence Day lost to humans because they somehow didn't have anti-virus or firewall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUPERTKBD Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Lots of good advice here, so I won't get into too much detail. I'm not a big fan of Norton, as it's a resource hog. I work at a college and we use Malwarebytes. We've also recently moved from Kaspersky to ESET antivirus. Our IT guys are pretty much sold on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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