Best Antivirus Software and Apps

[eric.kaler]

DO NOT TRUST ANY RUSSIAN SOFTWARE ESPECIALLY FOR ANTIVIRUS ! These recommendarion of Russian antivirus is BS. Tom's Guide Seems to be trying to open the door to their readers' tech equipment to Russian spying and identity theft. There's a reason why US Government systems do not allow these software anywhere ear heesystemsnor connected to it. CREDIBILITY VERY MUCH IN QUESTION FOR THIS RECOMMENDATION.

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

DO NOT TRUST ANY RUSSIAN SOFTWARE ESPECIALLY FOR ANTIVIRUS ! These recommendarion of Russian antivirus is BS. Tom's Guide Seems to be trying to open the door to their readers' tech equipment to Russian spying and identity theft. There's a reason why US Government systems do not allow these software anywhere ear heesystemsnor connected to it. CREDIBILITY VERY MUCH IN QUESTION FOR THIS RECOMMENDATION.

Sigh .... Do you really think we're working for the Russians?

 

[tazzca]

Why is there such a discrepancy for antivirus software? Some say kaspersky is #1, some say McAfee is #1, and there are more if you are willing to look.

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

Why is there such a discrepancy for antivirus software? Some say kaspersky is #1, some say McAfee is #1, and there are more if you are willing to look.

It basically depends on the weight you give for each aspect of the software -- protection, system slowdown, pricing, extra features, ease of use. We rank protection first, then system impact, then extra features, then ease of use, then pricing (if two products are otherwise more or less the same).

But it can get even further into the weeds than that. Should the number of false positives an antivirus product detects be counted as a negative? (I think it should.) Should consumer antivirus software be expected to stop highly targeted nation-state attacks that few people will ever face? (I'm not sure.) Should blocking malware from installing count for more than neutralizing installed malware so that it does nothing? (The end result seems the same to me.)

From our point of view, Kaspersky offers the best all-around Windows antivirus software. But its low-end offering skimps a bit on useful extra features like a password manager, so we pick Bitdefender at that price point simply because it has those features and its malware protection is just a hair behind Kaspersky's.

Trend Micro does a very good job of blocking malware, but often at a high performance cost during scans that you don't get with Kaspersky or Bitdefender. McAfee used to have not-so-great malware protection, but it's turned that around and now is on a par with the best, but it still has a somewhat heavy system load.

The overall truth is that any one of these four brands will protect your Windows system well. But since we're in the business of reviewing them, we have to rank them. and the ranking can often come down to small issues.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[eric.kaler]

DO NOT TRUST ANY RUSSIAN SOFTWARE ESPECIALLY FOR ANTIVIRUS ! These recommendarion of Russian antivirus is BS. Tom's Guide Seems to be trying to open the door to their readers' tech equipment to Russian spying and identity theft. There's a reason why US Government systems do not allow these software anywhere ear heesystemsnor connected to it. CREDIBILITY VERY MUCH IN QUESTION FOR THIS RECOMMENDATION.

Sigh .... Do you really think we're working for the Russians?

BIG SIGH! I'd say you are not fully considering the security of your readers' computer equipment, personal identity information and financial information in making this recommendation. As a result you are not being responsible with it. Are you so naive to think the Russians and the Chinese are not spying on the U.S. and are gathering every bit of information they can in any way they can???
What do you think the Russians would do with our personal and business information if and when they get it? I'd say that is the real worry here. Obviously you don't care about that. I don't know who is paying you or if who is paying you is part of this recommendation and all your recommendations. Are you at least getting advertising money from this Russian company??
Maybe the Russians are paying you or some operative for them. Next you'll be telling us to open our routers to the Russians and the Chinese. This software could easily be modified to send our information without our knowledge. This software is created in Russian after all by Russians.

 

[eric.kaler]

Do the authors of these articles take into consideration anything except how well they perform as antivirus software? Kaspersky has been implicated in data breeches at the NSA and other government and corporations around the world. They apparently work with the Russian government for nefarious reasons.

Exactly !! Why won't Tom's Guide reviewers take this into consideration in something as critical as security software?
Maybe something else or something subversive is going on here? I am extremely suspicious of this and becoming very leary of these recommendations. Wikipedia says Purch Group owns Tom's Hardware and Tom's Guide and says they are an on-line marketing group. So apparently they are marketing this Kaspersky software and don't care about the breaches they have been involved it.
DON'T BUY KASPERSKY software!

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

DO NOT TRUST ANY RUSSIAN SOFTWARE ESPECIALLY FOR ANTIVIRUS ! These recommendarion of Russian antivirus is BS. Tom's Guide Seems to be trying to open the door to their readers' tech equipment to Russian spying and identity theft. There's a reason why US Government systems do not allow these software anywhere ear heesystemsnor connected to it. CREDIBILITY VERY MUCH IN QUESTION FOR THIS RECOMMENDATION.

Sigh .... Do you really think we're working for the Russians?

BIG SIGH! I'd say you are not fully considering the security of your readers' computer equipment, personal identity information and financial information in making this recommendation. As a result you are not being responsible with it. Are you so naive to think the Russians and the Chinese are not spying on the U.S. and are gathering every bit of information they can in any way they can???
What do you think the Russians would do with our personal and business information if and when they get it? I'd say that is the real worry here. Obviously you don't care about that. I don't know who is paying you or if who is paying you is part of this recommendation and all your recommendations. Are you at least getting advertising money from this Russian company??
Maybe the Russians are paying you or some operative for them. Next you'll be telling us to open our routers to the Russians and the Chinese. This software could easily be modified to send our information without our knowledge. This software is created in Russian after all by Russians.

I don't recommend that anyone working in a sensitive job -- government, energy, defense, a big financial firm -- use Russian software, or any antivirus software not cleared by their organizations. For those people, whether or not the allegations against Kaspersky Lab are true, using Russian antivirus software would be an unacceptable risk.

But I think Kaspersky software is fine for everyone else, especially for home use. None of the allegations raised against it in the press hold water upon close examination. Kaspersky researchers are well respected throughout the information-security world, and the company discloses Russian spyware when it finds it, just as it does spyware from other countries.

I'm not the only person with this opinion. Here's PC Magazine:
https/www.pcmag.com/commentary/356214/should-you-believe-the-rumors-about-kaspersky-lab

And here's CSO Online:
https/www.csoonline.com/article/3219848/vulnerabilities/show-the-proof-or-cut-it-out-with-the-kaspersky-lab-russia-rumors.html

Those writers aren't working for the Russians either.

 

[originalletmepicyou]

How on earth is Kaspersky getting recommended?? It is banned for use by any federal agency or contractor and has been documented as a portal for espionage, bots, malware distribution, and is a Russian company owned by a Putin Oligarch with FSB ties...jeeze..get real.

I know one thing and only one thing. I know if my government says "Gaah! Don't use it!" that makes me WANT to use it. Do I trust Kaspersky more than I trust the U.S. Government? AB SO <removed> LUTELY.

Language removed by moderator.

 

[stopstealingmyacct]

ORIGINALLETMEPICYOU is bang on! I am more confused now than before I read this lol. I don't know what I am going to use, but LINUX is looking pretty good right now !
I am with this dude ^^^ too. LOL, thanks for nothing to this review, all I hear is trust nothing and if you want good protection sorry but you'll have to freaking buy it. Yay.

 

[falling10]

DO NOT TRUST ANY RUSSIAN SOFTWARE ESPECIALLY FOR ANTIVIRUS ! These recommendarion of Russian antivirus is BS. Tom's Guide Seems to be trying to open the door to their readers' tech equipment to Russian spying and identity theft. There's a reason why US Government systems do not allow these software anywhere ear heesystemsnor connected to it. CREDIBILITY VERY MUCH IN QUESTION FOR THIS RECOMMENDATION.

No way.
Russians create very good quality security products.
Do you know Telegram Messenger created by Pavel Durov?
This is really good example.

 

[rickinchi]

It seems like there's been a lot of evidence against Kaspersky culminating with a court ruling that it poses an actual security threat just this month. https/www.alphr.com/kaspersky/1010277/kaspersky-loses-battle-to-reverse-government-ban . How could you recommend it without addressing this issue to explain why you believe it is not founded?

 

[joshmathews710]

I would like to recommend Comodo Antivirus which offers a trial period with impressive set of features

 

[progt06]

Watch your firewall with Kaspersky installed and you will see it send packets for "improvement" purposes to a location in Russia. Just like all Chinese companies, all Russian companies files, servers and information are property of the government. They will use that information for whatever they like, whenever they choose, without any sort of rules\laws to protect that info. Go ahead and say its not substantiated in any news article, because it never will be. Nothing free is ever free, why would they offer the service when there aren't even any ads to support the products.

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

Watch your firewall with Kaspersky installed and you will see it send packets for "improvement" purposes to a location in Russia. Just like all Chinese companies, all Russian companies files, servers and information are property of the government. They will use that information for whatever they like, whenever they choose, without any sort of rules\laws to protect that info. Go ahead and say its not substantiated in any news article, because it never will be. Nothing free is ever free, why would they offer the service when there aren't even any ads to support the products.

Most antivirus products send data back to the mothership because they're looking for new malware on customer machines. You can turn that data-sharing off in the settings and/or preferences.

As for why Kaspersky (and Bitdefender) offer a free service, one reason is because they hope you'll like it enough to upgrade to a paid product.

Another reason was that until recently, if a paid antivirus subscription expired on Windows 10, Windows 10 would revert to Windows Defender for antivirus protection and the customer wouldn't even notice. Somehow, though, if the vendor had a free service, that wouldn't happen -- I'm not sure of the exact mechanism.

A third reason is that because Windows Defender is getting better all the time, it's getting harder to compete with free. The paid antivirus makers are hedging their bets by planting a flag in the free-AV sector.

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

It seems like there's been a lot of evidence against Kaspersky culminating with a court ruling that it poses an actual security threat just this month. https/www.alphr.com/kaspersky/1010277/kaspersky-loses-battle-to-reverse-government-ban . How could you recommend it without addressing this issue to explain why you believe it is not founded?

That court ruling doesn't state that Kaspersky is a security threat. It states that Kaspersky doesn't have the right to sue the federal government over the purchase ban because Congress has the overriding authority to ban certain products from federal systems in the interests of national security.

Kaspersky's case argued that the U.S. government is deliberately punishing Kaspersky with the ban. The court rejected that argument and found that the government was simply protecting national interests.

We are not forcing anyone to go out and buy Kaspersky products. I don't think you should be using Kaspersky products if you work in any field related to national security. That's just a matter of common sense.

But people want to know what the best antivirus products are, and Kaspersky is one of the best. Whether or not you buy it is up to you.

 

[spaniard0069]

Shame on Tomsguide for recommending Kasperky. Stay away. Top intelligence official in the CIA, FBI, etc have flagged Kaspersky as being Russian malware. Beware.

 

[Paul Wagenseil]

Shame on Tomsguide for recommending Kasperky. Stay away. Top intelligence official in the CIA, FBI, etc have flagged Kaspersky as being Russian malware. Beware.

If so, I'd like to see a link to that story.

 

[ElectrO_90]

For those who think only Russians and Chinese are the bad guys may have never read what the American Government does to firms.
https/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit

This is just a the tip of the iceberg if you want to read more, its all quite fascinating.

Anyway - I use Comodo Internet Security and Glasswire. Glasswire is amazing

 

[spaniard0069]

Shame on Tomsguide for recommending Kasperky. Stay away. Top intelligence official in the CIA, FBI, etc have flagged Kaspersky as being Russian malware. Beware.

If so, I'd like to see a link to that story.

Here you go.

https/www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-to-ban-use-of-kaspersky-software-in-federal-agencies-amid-concerns-of-russian-espionage/2017/09/13/36b717d0-989e-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0bf1bd4cf8de

https/www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-us-government-cant-get-controversial-kaspersky-lab-software-off-its-networks

 

[linvillepottery]

Malwarebytes FREE and AVG FREE do have a serious conflict if both are active at the same time. I urge Tom'sGuide to do your homework regarding my claim and update your review page. A phone support agent at AVG warned me that these two installed programs can cause a computer to crash. There's a "fix" if you want to alter the "hosts" file but most users are hesitant to make this adjustment or simply don't have the skills to do this to their computer.