Is my Anti-Virus Program valid?

[will-max dairy]

Sarcasm...don't flame me...

 

[Non-farmer]

Sarcasm...don't flame me...

I have never transferred anything of mine to the cloud. Disk space is dirt cheap, why give your stuff to someone else? Buy USB drives and keep copies somewhere that won't burn if your house does. In my case, that's my machine shed.

 

[trackrat]

Who has an IT department NOT ME

 

[tech5201]

False. The only major operating system that doesn't need anti-virus protection is Linux.

For more than a decade, Apple sold the claim that their system was bulletproof. But for the last several years, that claim has been thoroughly debunked. OSX was never bulletproof (in spite of being derived from Linux), it was simply a case that no one was shooting at them because their market share was too small. Once they became more popular, they were targeted successfully by virus authors.

The only question that remains is - were they dishonest about it, or just ignorant?

https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/can-macs-get-viruses/

Yawn...

 

[hurleyjd]

My computer tech installed this on my new computer. Works pretty well: WWW.bitdefender.com

 

[kencombs]

Malwarebytes is pretty good general-purpose protection. For Windows computers, the built-in Windows Defender is actually decent, and probably good enough if you know not to be clicking on phishing email links and other seemingly obvious things.

I haven't used any anti-virus beyond Defender for years. I do run the free Malware version once in a while, as well as CCleaner just to clean unused files and do a checkup. Never find anything other that too many temporary files that don't get deleted as they should.

 

[Non-farmer]

Yawn...

Reality is boring I guess.

 

[Non-farmer]

The only major operating system that doesn't need anti-virus protection is Linux.

I stand corrected. It turns out that Linux is susceptible to malware as well. Learn something new every day

 

[will-max dairy]

Every operating system is susceptible to viruses. The only difference is how lucrative hackers feel they are to crack.

Thus the enigma of cybersecurity. The more you follow the crowd, the more you become part of a more lucrative nut to crack.

 

[tech5201]

Reality is boring I guess.

What long-term personal experience do you have with Macs?

 

[John M]

Unless your paying for it every years, I seriously doubt that Webroot is still working after 12 years.

 

[Ray,IN]

When a computer begins acting weird the first things to do is clear the browser cache, then the DNS cache. If you don't know now ask on the website of your computer mfgr., virtually all have a Q&A section.
If those don't work, think about refreshing your OS, which is in your settings.

 

[tech5201]

What long-term personal experience do you have with Macs?

Bueller.....................

 

[SweetFeet]

My computer is an IMAC, bought new several years ago from Best Buy. My anti-virus program is Webroot, from the same store. Lately, I have been seeing screens pop up that look bogus to me, especially when I am using Faceb---. How can I tell if the anti-virus program is working? BTW, the brochure with my Webroot is dated 2013. Any assistance appreciated!

Webroot is a subscription... I think for one year at a time, unless you had it setup to auto-renew annually on credit or debit card (or some other payment method).

Open webroot using the icon on your computer (NOT via a popup).
Check for updates. Update if someupdates are available, restart to apply updates.... then run a Webroot computer scan.

 

[Ray,IN]

Go to the Norton website and download NPE to your computer and follow the directions. It will perform a deep webroot scan among other things.