Solved Norton and Crypto mining.

The-Hive said:

@Winuser the video seemed to cause scare mongering in my opinion

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If the video is fake, then yes, it is scare mongering. If it is real, then I have to disagree. Either way Crypto Mining has nothing to do with security and shouldn't be included. If it was only included in the free version my feelings would be mixed.

Scare mongering maybe but the new Norton 360 installers are installing it by default

Dark Knight said:

Scare mongering maybe but the new Norton 360 installers are installing it by default

Norton 360 Antivirus Now Mines Cryptocurrency

You read that right: your antivirus is also a crypto miner.

www.howtogeek.com

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It is turned off though and I am not going to get all uptight unless it is in fact turned on without my consent

The-Hive said:

It is turned off though and I am not going to get all uptight unless it is in fact turned on without my consent

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Most certainly , although there should have been an option included in the installer giving the user the option to not install it at all instead of jumping through hoops to get rid of it. Luckily I saved my original installer.

I agree @Dark Knight I may sound like I am defending Norton, I am not but I am a fan of 360, but I really think that they should not have gone that way. If ever they do turn it on I will be moving to another AV

@f23948 Why in case they ever decide to crypto mine or because Norton own them?

I understand that a lot of people in this thread don't even use Norton. I have looked into this. and found that the majority of everyday users machines do not appear to be compatible with Norton Crypto miner (that is what I read) also it can only be turned on if you see this on your My Norton and then click on show me how

It's unlikely that this will impact any and those who do meet the specs I wonder how many will opt in. My only thought and last one is it's still odd to add this to an AV package.

BunnyJ said:

It's unlikely that this will impact any and those who do meet the specs I wonder how many will opt in. My only thought and last one is it's still odd to add this to an AV package.

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I agree Jeff. Best avoided especially on a laptop because of the heat and power issue.

Says it needs a discrete GPU with at least 6GB of Vram, which will rule out laptops other than gaming ones with 6GB or more.

However as Nvidia are restricting the RTX GPUs so that they can't be used for cryptocurrency mining, Norton may well be on a looser.

Oh and not forgetting Crypto mining is taxable in the UK as I think it is in the US and probably most other civilised Countries, those that haven't banned it.

Well if it's taxable, then anyone doing it with Norton should get a refund :)
I know Bitcoin was taxable but didn't know about Ethereum. My laptop has 8GB VRam. I have deleted the file anyway.
Because it is Ethereum not Bitcoin I don't think they can turn it on in the future without you agreeing to the terms and conditions and activating a wallet. I think a lot of people were jumping to conclusions

Dark Knight said:

Defender being just as good or better ,

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I am not up to date on this, because I haven't used Windows Defender in the last few years. But unless it got improved seriously, and I mean by a LOT, then it is not something I would dare to say. It used to be like this: link , and even now it is not cream of the crop.
Some strong AV maker who has been in the business for decades, such as Kaspersky or Norton, definitely is to be considered superior to Defender. I'm sorry but in all likelyhood, Defender cannot even come close. But, it might just be enough for home usage if one is careful on the web.

Dark Knight said:

paid AV is going the way of the DO DO Bird, they are losing $$$.

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They don't. Maybe they do on cheap home users yes, but companies who cannot afford an outage due to ransomware attacks, which are extremely common and wild nowadays, they WILL pay $$$ for paid AVs to prevent such a disaster. As a matter of fact, we do pay for it at all the offices I manage. I trust Kaspersky, Norton, GDATA and ESET on this. Never would I trust Defender.

Dark Knight said:

I know ..... I am using Norton 360 , only reason I am using it at the moment is I got it REAL cheap and it does not put a real big load on my system, so I figured I'd run it

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Good choice. I also have Norton 360 on my personal notebook as well. I like it, it is lightweight, affordable (with great regular discounts) and comes with VPN.

The-Hive said:

I think a lot of people were jumping to conclusions

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I also think that. It is an optional feature in select countries. In most other countries, it is not even included with the product. Nowhere it is turned on by default, and it likely won't ever be. But it made great headlines with that clickbait title at many places. Including here.

I agree @ish4d0w I think defender is so much better now and a lot of people on this forum use it, so it can't be bad as they all know what is what. Myself I will stay with Norton, have done so since SystemWorks. but like all AV that is my choice and I don't mind paying for it as it gives me peace of mind. I did have a bad experience once with defender but that was years ago and it put me off even though it's fine now. Norton cannot just enable Crypto Mining, it is a lot more complicated than that and clearly not very well understood

ish4d0w said:

Some strong AV maker who has been in the business for decades, such as Kaspersky or Norton, definitely is to be considered superior to Defender

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www.avtest.org disagrees with you.

All the best,
Denis

ish4d0w said:

Some strong AV maker who has been in the business for decades, such as Kaspersky or Norton, definitely is to be considered superior to Defender. I'm sorry but in all likelyhood, Defender cannot even come close. But, it might just be enough for home usage if one is careful on the web.

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I am sorry but I have to woefully disagree, the ONLY reasons I am using Norton at the moment is because first, I got it on the cheap and second, because I trust it from past experience. But when the license runs out, if I don't get the same deal or better , I will go back to Defender.
There is absolutely no reason to pay $60 - $100 a year for AV protection, actually , there is no reason to pay anything at all for AV protection.

@Try3 interesting site Dennis, there is not much to choose between any of them, As long as the AV you use gives you confidence, that's what counts

The-Hive said:

there is not much to choose between any of them

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I agree. Windows defender has been in that top group for several years now.

The-Hive said:

As long as the AV you use gives you confidence, that's what counts

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Sorry but that's illogical. You might as well pay me £1,000 to send you a crystal that will protect you from being attacked by tigers**. The confidence that will give you will be what counts.

** Crystal not valid for use in certain parts of the BA12 Postcode District.

Denis

In all reality the best AV is the one found between your ears. There's no AV to prevent you from doing stupid things.