Paid for Anti Virus and Password Manager Recommendations for the Paranoid!

Cocksure

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I've been using Avast for years now, but the subscription is about to expire and frankly I've had enough of the constant you need to buy this as well messages, so its time to change.

At the moment I'm leaning towards switching over to Kaspersky as I don't mind the Russians looking at my information (if it's true) as they won't share it with the UK! Nortons & McAfee are way too much in bed with the US for me to wont to use them (as they would pass over information if asked) and AVG is owned by Avast (so more you should buy this messages I would assume).

Does anyone have any other recommendations I should look at? I already use a VPN so that side of things isn't needed, just really good antivirus and malware protection. I appreciate that there are free options out there, but I don't mind paying for a software that just does its job without pestering me to buy something.

Yep fully paid-up member of tin foil hat brigade :laugh:
 
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I'm a very happy LastPass customer. Their product integration on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS is second to none and it's very convenient and easy to use. You have to be comfortable with their technology and understand that your password vault is encrypted and stored 'in the cloud'. If you aren't happy with this concept, then you'll need a different solution where you manage and store the master password file locally - but you'll lose lots of convenience doing so.

The LastPass password generator is a great feature and will ensure your passwords have very high levels of entropy.

As for paid Anti-Virus - Sophos Home Premium is my personal favourite. It supports Windows & Mac and the web dashboard feature provides administration on up to 10 PCs (Windows / Mac / Both). It does a lot more than anti-virus / anti-malware and has active website blocking capabilities and shares advanced technologies with their business products (which are also very good and provide effective enterprise management capabilities). With Sophos, I can manage all my Windows and Mac computers effectively.

Personally, I wouldn't go for Kaspersky, and previous (bad) business experience with Symantec / Norton totally rules them out for me. The complexities of managing McAfee AV using ePO would put me off any of their products - not even sure they do a home product?

AVAST and their AVG acquisition have recently been found to be collecting very excessive end-user data and selling it. Mozilla have ceased allowing them to distribute their FireFox extension because of this practice.

The anti-malware engine built into Windows 10 isn't terrible - it's a lot better than many of the 'free' products.


Regards,
James.
 
The anti-malware engine built into Windows 10 isn't terrible - it's a lot better than many of the 'free' products.
Agree. No need to pay more than £0. Supplement with occasional manual scans using MalWareBytes free edition for extra peace of mind.
 
Thanks for the replies :smashin:

I'm happy for the password system to be cloud-based so thanks for the heads up on LastPass

Sophos I have never heard of, so I'll check the out as I will MalWareBytes :)

Edit
I'm happy to pay for the protection as I literally want a setup and forget protection unless there's an issue. Besides I've had paid protection since 1994, not sure I could handle a free setup now :rotfl:
Windows defender seems to get mixed reviews and for the sake of £20 to £40 odds it just doesn't seem worth the risk to me. Appreciate I'm likely wasting money, so call it a peace of mind payment over Malware software :)
 
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If you're paranoid ditch last pass, they are USA based, been compromised before, so say no more.
bitwarden is highly regarded and is open source. As good as it gets.
 
Thanks :)
I would rather not have an USA based country software as I really don’t trust the country when it comes to such things.
Happy with European, not sure about uk given the requirement for Internet providers needing to store your activity for 6 months and the “close” relationship
 
Damage limitation really. NSA and GCHQ know no bounds..... That's even before China, Russia ect
 
Damage limitation really. NSA and GCHQ know no bounds..... That's even before China, Russia ect
Agreed, that’s the appeal of Russian and China companies.
Whoever you use, some government agency will get hold of it. What China can do with my information is limited which makes it of limited worth, to the uk government the information is far more useful.

now I’m a long way of being of any great interest to anyone and for any government to want to check me out. Still I would prefer to make any such request as difficult as possible
 
China is more interested in the infrastructure side of things. If they control that though back doors, the west is at their mercy.
 
Here is one comparitive test:
There are likely others.
I'd say - don't be put off simply because it doesn't come with a fee or subscription.
 
Thanks folks, bitdefender seems to tick all the boxes (Romania, good reviews) so that's me sorted on that side of things.

Just need to decide on the password manager now, as far as I can so far tell it seems to come down to Bitwarden or KeePass
 
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Simply defender that is gratis and build in works for me. And for password management I much prefer 1Password.
 
As @LV426 points out, there are lots of great free options. The built-in Windows Defender is genuinely outstanding, costs nothing and will always work well with Windows 10.

As for a password manager, LastPass is great, but has a clunky UI. I'm a big fan of Dashlane. It's free unless you want to have it sync your passwords across devices (which is a valuable albeit pricey option). Good luck and hope that helps.
 
Thought I would resurrect this rather than start a new one.
So thoughts on a password manager. Seems LastPass has been compromised and is US based, so a no-no. 1Password and Dashlane seem good but can be pricey. Anything specific to consider or look at?
 
Thought I would resurrect this rather than start a new one.
So thoughts on a password manager. Seems LastPass has been compromised and is US based, so a no-no. 1Password and Dashlane seem good but can be pricey. Anything specific to consider or look at?

Bitwarden, it's open source.
 
Nortons & McAfee are way too much in bed with the US for me to wont to use them (

I was just mucking about, being worried about the Apps being in bed with the US when using a Mac or windows PC made me smile.
 
I was just mucking about, being worried about the Apps being in bed with the US when using a Mac or windows PC made me smile.
That comment, I’m sure, was made in context where the data at rest is held. And thus who has access to it by corresponding laws. That is not the same as using the operating system where you choose where you keep your data. It’s very different actually.
 
Fair enough, its not something I really worry about. If the UK gov want your enough data they will have it, they wont be relying on some 3rd party application.
 
Fair enough, its not something I really worry about. If the UK gov want your enough data they will have it, they wont be relying on some 3rd party application.
No, they won't, and the legal situation in the UK is very different compared to the US. It just is the way it is.
 
I have been using Bitdefender for many years, virus free. Wouldn't go near a password manager personally, I just use different passwords for ebay, email, PayPal so that if one is compromosed, they don't get everything.
 

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