Antivirus switch?

Hi! I hope you can help me make a difficult decision to protect 4 different computers. I've been using Kaspersky since 1998 when at the time it was named AVP (Antiviral Toolkit Pro) and the the WINCIH/Chernobyl virus hit. Remember that? Luckily I was never infected. Being in the US and Kaspersky being banned here I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to use for AV. Over the years I played around with a lot of other AV programs, but I always stuck with Kaspersky. After KAV I liked Bitdefender, but the last time I used it a few years ago it was so buggy I had to uninstall it. It was the worst AV experience I ever had and I wasted money on it. Next I liked Avira, but it's my understanding that it's been purchased by Norton and Norton, Avira, Avast, and AVG are all being rolled into the same AV program? Is that the case? Those ones are basically all the same program now or will be at some point?

I have multiple Malwarebytes lifetime licenses so on my one computer running Windows 11 I already made a protection switch to a combination of the built in Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes with Malwarebytes NOT registered in the security center. I was thinking running these two at the same time would be a good real time protection team? However while I hear good things about Microsoft Defender, I'm uneasy with it. I guess I just can't get over the confidence of security that KAV gave me. I wish Microsoft Defender was set up like a 3rd party AV so access to the settings and controls were at ones fingertips. If I wanted to temporarily disable KAV all I had to do was right click the KAV icon and select "temporarily disable." Can I do that with Defender somehow?

My ISP provides Trend Micro Maximum Security for free, but I don't know if I have faith in it. Any opinions on it? Another option is to cross my fingers and purchase
Bitdefender Total Security and hope I don't get a repeat of a headache of bugs I had before. Other considerations are Norton 360 or Avast Ultimate. I don't know what to do and I'm very bummed about the Kaspersky situation. Should I make the switch to a combination of Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes on all of my computers? I have multiple Malwarebytes lifetime licenses to compliment Defender if I go that route. I also use uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger. Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

Unless you work for the state, can you not just stick with Kaspersky? I recommend Webroot as it is compact and speedy.

kelper said:

Unless you work for the state, can you not just stick with Kaspersky? I recommend Webroot as it is compact and speedy.

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Unfortunately no as this ban is being enforced on the entire US population. US users can not purchase it anymore and at the end of September US users can not get updates for it either. It's done for all US users totally. I'm not a fan of Webroot as it has weak proactive protection and a very weak antimalware engine.

Webroot is superb but it acts differently to other anti malware programs. It will only intervene if malware takes action. It can even rollback malicious encryption from ransom ware. Most testers don't seem to understand this and rate it poorly

kelper said:

can you not just stick with Kaspersky?

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PaulF said:

Unfortunately no as this ban is being enforced on the entire US population

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The ban is not just on providing the software, AV signature updates are banned too.

At 12:00 AM EDT on September 29, 2024, Kaspersky, and any of its successors or assignees, shall be prohibited from:

• Providing any anti-virus signature updates and codebase updates associated with the ICTS transactions identified above; and
• Operating the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) in the United States or on any U.S. person's information technology system.

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https://oicts.bis.gov/kaspersky/

Personally I find the built in Defender is as good as anything else.

Bree said:

The ban is not just on providing the software, AV signature updates are banned too.


https://oicts.bis.gov/kaspersky/

Personally I find the built in Defender is as good as anything else.

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I am well aware that not only is the program being banned, but updates as well will not happen either. I clearly stated that in my previous post. This...

"US users can not purchase it anymore and at the end of September US users can not get updates for it either."

Perhaps US citizens could use a VPN to get daily updates?

kelper said:

Perhaps US citizens could use a VPN to get daily updates?

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I immediately thought of a VPN solution as soon as the news broke, but in discussions no one knows for sure, and Kaspersky isn't saying. People spoke of a ban via DNS, but again they are not saying if that's possible. My guess would be that the keys sold to US users could be blacklisted by Kaspersky so no updates are available to them. That's just a guess on my part though.

Why would Kaspersky do that? He does not face any penalties. Let's wait and see. There must be a few Kaspersky users in this forum.

kelper said:

Why would Kaspersky do that? He does not face any penalties. Let's wait and see. There must be a few Kaspersky users in this forum.

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I wish that weren't the case however here's one of several articles you can Google... Kaspersky Labs: Russian antivirus firm leaving the US after ban

I like the basic Eset Nod32 (Not the full works). Once you get your head around the UI, it's fast, unobtrusive and just gets on with it's job. You can tweak it to your needs.

Most on this forum simply use Windows inbuilt Defender. It is as good as any 3rd party tool.

cereberus said:

It is as good as any 3rd party tool.

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Almost as good......

PaulF said:

I immediately thought of a VPN solution as soon as the news broke, but in discussions no one knows for sure

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I am sure the circumventing the ban would be pretty easy, but based on the info, using Kaspersky will be considered as a criminal offence. At best, you might face a fine, at worst charges for espionage, they do not play around when it comes to the national security.

TairikuOkami said:

I am sure the circumventing the ban would be pretty easy, but based on the info, using Kaspersky will be considered as a criminal offence. At best, you might face a fine, at worst charges for espionage, they do not play around when it comes to the national security.

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"Individuals and businesses that continue to use existing Kaspersky products and services will not face legal penalties under the Final Determination," the Commerce Department said.

https://oicts.bis.gov/kaspersky/

I was using Webroot which is still a great product, but I wanted something that had better protections against fileless vectors and scripts, so I switched over to BitDefenders small business offering which also support Linux bonus for me. I can manage all of my devices and policies in a web console.

I'm a Windows defender user, and have been forever. I've never had problems with viruses or malware on my computer. I've never had a need to toggle it on/off as it's just working in the background and has never given me a bit of trouble that I have ever had to troubleshoot. I've never felt inclined to look at another product or pay for anything to help protect my windows computers.

I'm in the UK so doesn't affect me, but it's possible that if you use a banned Anti Virus or other product on your device, and you use it for say online banking or purchases and your account is hacked, it may be difficult to claim a refund from your bank or retailer as it could be considered negligence. As far as I can see, the rules are not clear cut.
Mitch.

Windows Defender is good and will suit most users. But many products provide better protection and have additional features.
Av-comparitives gives it only two stars so it is bettered by all these.

• Avast
• AVG
• Avira
• Bitdefender
• ESET
• G DATA
• Kaspersky
• McAfee
• Total Defense

Mitch said:

I'm in the UK so doesn't affect me, but it's possible that if you use a banned Anti Virus or other product on your device, and you use it for say online banking or purchases and your account is hacked, it may be difficult to claim a refund from your bank or retailer as it could be considered negligence. As far as I can see, the rules are not clear cut.
Mitch.

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My bank does not require me to use any antivirus and I suspect this is true for al UK banks. Some banks wil provide an AV but they can't force you to use it. Lloyds bank would not allow me to install their app on a rooted phone but that's about it.