Looking for fresh meat!

*Experts say you don't need to pay yearly for AV software*!

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/still-paying-antivirus-software-experts-say-probably-dont-need-rcna6335


> Viruses are no longer the biggest threats for most users, particularly
> now that software updates itself automatically and so much personal
> computing happens over the internet.
> 
> Dec. 1, 2021, 11:00 AM UTC
> By Kevin Collier
> 
> Josh Brunty had spent more than a decade in cybersecurity — first as a
> digital forensics analyst for the West Virginia State Police, then as
> someone who taught the subject at Marshall University — when he
> discovered a shocking secret about his father, Butch.
> 
> Butch Brunty was still paying money every year for third-party
> antivirus protection on his home computer, which his son felt hadn’t
> been necessary for most people for years.
> 
> “He was talking about renewing his antivirus. I said, ‘Are you
> literally paying for antivirus?’” Brunty said. “I don’t know how he
> ended up doing it, but he ended up getting connected to Norton,
> spending, like, $60 a year.”
> 
> Brunty’s father, like a lot of other people, hadn’t gotten the message
> that has become intuitive to many people who work in cybersecurity:
> There’s just no longer any reason for regular people to pay for
> antivirus software for their personal devices.
> 
> It’s a shift that highlights not only how computer security has evolved
> in the past decade but also the way many people misunderstand the
> greatest threats to their computer security.
> 
> Antivirus software still centers on its original use: looking for and
> mitigating software viruses. Because modern computer systems already do
> that, many programs now offer additional protections, like monitoring
> the dark web to see whether someone posts customers’ personal
> information, which experts find to be of little use.
> 
> But the greatest threats most users face are no longer from viruses,
> particularly now that so much personal computing happens over the
> internet.
> 
> Brunty said his dad also paid for a virtual private network, which
> routes a computer’s internet traffic through a third party. They were
> once considered vital to prevent nearby hackers from spying on online
> activity, but security experts now say that thanks to additional built-
> in security protections in most major browsers, virtual private
> networks are useful in only a handful of specific scenarios, like
> streaming video that is restricted in certain countries or getting
> around government censors like China’s “Great Firewall.”
> 
> “He had no understanding of those two technologies, really,” Brunty
> said. “I think he just felt like if he spent the money, the investment
> of paying for it was going to protect him from everything.”
> 
> Some antivirus programs can offer certain benefits, such as tools that
> help users avoid email-based phishing campaigns that steal sensitive
> login credentials. Others can help prevent identity theft.
> 
> But most experts agree that the built-in antivirus protections on any
> major system — a fully updated Windows or Apple computer or an Android
> phone or iPhone — already protect against viruses just as well as the
> major programs people can pay for. It’s important, however, for users
> to keep their systems protected through automatic software updates
> offered by all major software providers.
> Patchwork
> 
> It wasn’t always that way. For much of Microsoft’s history, computer
> experts worried that Windows machines were susceptible to viruses, and
> there was no firm consensus about what third-party programs people
> needed to stay safe.
> 
> But Microsoft Defender, the free and automatic antivirus program now
> built into Windows, has gotten so effective that it’s as good as
> anything customers can pay for, said Simon Edwards, the founder of SE
> Labs, a London-based company that compares and tests antivirus programs.
> 
> “We test it regularly, and it’s one of the top products we’ve seen. It
> has improved a lot,” Edwards said.
> 
> That doesn’t mean malicious software isn’t a threat. But newer devices
> tend to take care of most problems on their own. Hackers are constantly
> devising new ways to break into operating systems, and companies have
> to keep updating ways to stop them. Fortunately, the days of
> cybersecurity engineers’ writing patches for new, safer versions of
> software and just hoping users will update them is largely over.
> 
> “It’s almost impossible these days to not have a fully patched Windows
> or Mac system, because they pretty much force updates,” Edwards said.
> 
> While it’s a myth that Macs can’t get viruses, the myth is well-
> founded: Macs essentially had antivirus protections built into their
> operating systems from their early days. The same goes for iPhones and
> Android smartphones. The British government even tells its residents
> not to bother buying antivirus software for their phones, provided that
> they don’t needlessly endanger themselves by installing programs not
> vetted by an app store.
> 
> Butch Brunty isn’t alone. A survey by Security.org, a cybersecurity
> advice website, estimated that nearly 45 million households pay for
> antivirus software. It also found that people are increasingly more
> likely to pay for antivirus software the older they are and that most
> have been using it for years. The dynamic has been observed in other
> parts of the technology world, such as people who continued to pay AOL
> for internet service even though they had other internet providers.
> 
> McAfee, the once-ubiquitous Windows antivirus program, still has more
> than 20 million paying customers, a spokesperson said. More than half
> of the revenue the antivirus company Malwarebytes made last year came
> from personal users, a spokesperson for the company said. Other major
> antivirus companies, including Norton, ESET and Kaspersky, didn’t
> respond to emailed requests for such information.
> 
> But trying to stay secure by relying on antivirus software misses the
> way hackers have evolved, said Bob Lord, who revamped the Democratic
> National Committee’s cybersecurity strategy for the 2018 and 2020
> elections after the party was hacked by Russian intelligence in 2016.
> 
> “When I look at all the personal account compromises I’ve seen over the
> past three years, I don’t think any of them were caused by malware,”
> Lord said. “They happened because the victims had poor password hygiene
> and didn’t have two-factor authentication on their accounts.”
> 
> What to do instead
> 
> The good news is that almost all of the tools everyone should be
> relying on to be more secure are free.
> 
> Hackers today are most likely to target regular people by trying to
> take over their personal accounts for email, social media or financial
> websites. It’s easier to stop them when you know that their goal is “to
> impersonate you and take over an account you want to keep private,”
> said Harlo Holmes, the chief information security officer at the
> Freedom of the Press Foundation, where she advises journalists around
> the world about the best ways to protect themselves from hackers.
> 
> That means using unique passphrases — several words together, which are
> easier to remember than a string of random characters — because the
> longer a password is, the harder it is for an automated program to
> guess. People should also protect every important account with two-
> factor authentication. That lets users use their phones as a second way
> to prove their identities to websites, which gives hackers an
> additional hurdle if they’re trying to get into one of their accounts.
> 
> Experts recommend using an app like Google Authenticator or Authy when
> you set up two-factor authentication, rather than through a text
> message, which dedicated hackers can intercept.
> Extra features
> 
> Some for-purchase antivirus products come bundled with additional
> benefits that address more modern concerns, like monitoring whether
> customers’ passwords have been included in a giant dump of stolen
> credentials or telling them whether criminals are sharing their
> personal information on the dark web.
> 
> But most of the services either do little or are available elsewhere
> for free, said Susan Grant, the director of consumer protection and
> privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit group that
> serves as an umbrella organization for consumer advocacy groups.
> 
> “There’s a limit to what that type of service actually provides,” Grant
> said. “They don’t prevent you from becoming an identity theft victim.
> They can’t prevent your information from ending up on the dark web, and
> they can’t remove it. They can just alert you.”
> 
> The website Have I Been Pwned lets everyone check which of their
> accounts and passwords have been stolen and traded. The Federal Trade
> Commission offers a free guide for people who have had their identities
> stolen, as does the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center.
> 
> “It may make people feel better to pay for such a service,” Grant said.
> But “the advice that you get is available from other sources for
> nothing.”
> Kevin Collier
> 
> Kevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy and
> technology policy for NBC News.
>