Avast user forum Hacked

avast! blog » AVAST forum offline due to attack

Avast support forum hack snags usernames, passwords - CNET

 

LOL! a security compay being hacked just lovely

 

exactly what i thought

wonder how many millions they will lose after this.

 

I stopped using them after the latest avast got heavier and slowed down my browser even opening tabs was slow/jerky.


but after reading this, they are scrubbed off my list for good

 

ive still got 19 months to go on my subscription

what would you recommend next then? as long as its not norton, avg, mc crappy, windows internet security

 

Man the irony just kills me.

The last true AV I used was AVG, and it got dropped once it got too bloaty for my liking. Now I use only MalwareBytes Pro and MSE, supplemented with regular backup and imaging, and a healthy dose of common sense.

 

you will get many answers, each one chooses the one that suits his system best. I've tried them all, have a license for most paid ones, I finally found the perfect balance between security and performance: Emsisoft Anti-Malware

AV Comparatives latest real world test results

MSE? really? you really consider that an AV and you're a NBR pro?

check its results which hasn't changed month after month after month...0 protection level. you might as well not have an AV than use MSE (AKA Windows Defender)

Click this link, then select Home users, and see MSE's results at the bottom then think again:

Home: AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute

 

Yes I'm well aware of how crappy MSE supposedly is, but for what I do it is enough. I've been running the MalwareBytes Pro + MSE for 3 years now and haven't had a single infection. But that's more to do with me not doing risky stuff like torrenting or downloading questionable stuff from questionable sites. To be fair I do give credit to Malwarebytes Pro for stopping a few drive-by downloads over the years.

Also, ever since I made a clone SSD and got into the habit of imaging regularly, I stopped worrying about the AV aspect of it. Figured if I ever got an infection, I'd just secure erase the SSD and load a good image in. Probably much faster and cleaner than trying to disinfect the system. This is not to say I don't care about being protected, just that I no longer lose sleep over what AV to get or if it's good enough for what I do.

EDIT: I should probably add that I'm not advocating that MSE is good enough or that people don't need a decent AV for protection. All I'm saying is that for my own needs, the MalwareBytes + MSE combo is good enough that I've had 0 problems in 3 years. If you torrent a lot you should probably invest in more protection. Same goes for the average Joe that reads every email and opens every attachment without even looking at the subject or filename.

 

I understand, the first line of defense is usually the user himself. With your workflow, and not using cracks or visiting shady sites, your setup is fine

I on the other hand am like you, I don't visit shady sites, all my software is licenses, no cracks at all. but, I just keep a light AV such as EAM to have the extra bit of security, it's only 20 USD a year. Why waste my time imaging and stuff

PLUS, most importantly, when you do get a virus, do you think you will get a popup saying "hi, I am a virus and I am now uploading your system data, keystrokes, etc, to a server?" you wouldn't know it even

but at theend of the day, it's your system and noone can tell you how to use it. as long as you're happy

 

Honestly it depends on which approach you want to take regarding system security. You can take the defense heavy approach and try to block an infection from happening in the first place as much as you can, or you can go the contingency plan route where you keep good backups and know exactly what to do after an infection. The two are not mutually exclusive of course, and having good protection and good backups will afford the best protection.

Yeah I understand the point about silent viruses, which is why I regularly scan my system with MalwareBytes, and use an on-demand online scanner if the need arises. A good firewall and traffic monitor would also help detect any suspicios network activity. If I ever did start to use an AV again, I would probably only utilize the on-demand scanner and nothing else.

At the end of the day, every use is different, and you should tailor your protection to suit your workflow and usage habits.

And call me pessimistic, but given how fast malware pops up and spreads these days, I don't think there's such a thing as 100% secure anymore. Not to mention who knows how many 0 day exploits are out there. This is partly why I went the way of keeping good backups and knowing what to do after the fact, so I can swiftly and cleanly deal with 95% of the infections I may come across.

Also, friendly bump for anyone what might be affected.

 

very true, with one exception, the 0 day exploits, that's where Emsisoft Anti-Malware shines, 3 layers of protection:

Emsisoft Engine
Bitdefender Engine
Behavioral Blockers

from the test I've done, it's almost impossible to go past the behavioral blocker even for a 0 day exploit.

How well is your PC protected? | Emsisoft Blog

 

Are you sure you don't work for Emsisoft? Are you secretly the CEO?

Sounds like something I might be interested in installing on my parent's computer.

 

bro, I was desperately trying to find a good AV in vain installing AVs left and right...

I have a 3 year license for Kaspersky Internet Security, Bitdefender AV, BullGuard AV, Webroot SecureAnwhere

each one has its quirks until I finally stumbled upon Emsisoft Anti-Malware and gave it a shot! Finally, a light AV with excellent detection rates that doesn't have any quirks or slows down your system.

I don't work for them, but if a product stands out from the crowd, I will definitely praise it everywhere I go

 

I try to use linux for the majority of my web browsing and only game in windows. It's gotten to the point no matter how many programs I have to protect myself and how many scans I run I can never really trust windows to be secure.

 

I wish I could use Linux as my full time OS but for most laptops, you cannot find the right drives especially the ones which make the keyboard shortcuts work.

That is probably the reason why Linux never took off as a major competing OS, lack of driver support.

I don't mean the generic stuff that is the same for all laptops such as nVIDIA graphics drivers, I mean those other drivers that are unique to each laptop such as webcam, bluetooth, card reader, keyboard, etc.

I wish laptop manufacturers would offer the user both Windows and Linux drivers

 

im certainly going to have a good read up on Emsisoft tonight.
3 years ago i was on paid avg and it was just a power hog on everything.
then started using paid avast and have done for the last 3 years. think weve had 3 major false positives in that time but once the forum got flooded with complaints they rectified it quite quickly.
ive never had a problem with avast slowing anything down as my ssd sure does speed things up.

also in the last week avast has added another layer of protection called grunge i think but of course that comes at a price. you pay for antivirus and firewall and now they want you to pay another £19.99 for this grunge protection.

has avast finally got too big for its boots and is more interested in scraping in as much money as it can.
only time will tell.

 

avast was awesome and light until recently.

maybe you don't notice its slowdown because any system with an SSD is fast. but to someone who compares AVs all the time, I know avast! and NOD32 have become the heaviest AVs out there when they were previously the lightest. Strange even Kaspersky is much lighter than NOD32 and I made so many complaints on their forums. its just the way NOD32's on access scanner works is so resource hogging.

Now, avast! a security company that was recently hacked, how ironic + resource hog + interface that looks like lego Metro interface + occasional ads = NO THANK YOU for meh

 

No, he's not the CEO. (He wishes) :rolleyes2:

He has EMSISOFT sponsor his Tweakarena site. Tweak Arena | Your #1 Tweaking Site

His current name on that site is MaXimus, but you may know him best around here as BerryRacer, Notebook Forumer, Lenovodude, Y570, ibbi1337, or even as Matrix Leader.

Stay tuned for his next reincarnation.

Hey DNA, how about MaX HeadRoom? :laugh:

 

Dragonak is right, we've confirmed that it's the same guy. Usually we don't explain bans, but in this case, I'll make an exception. If anyone's wondering, this guy has been known to spam members through pms among other things on top of being rude and breaking other forum rules.

 

Unfortunately that will probably happen, even though their product had nothing to do with the free forum software they were using.

 

Yep got one of those PMs alright.

OT (sort of): I know it's not a good strategy, but I've basically given up on the "active defense" approach. Like I explained earlier malware just pops up and spreads too fast these days, plus with all the 0 day exploits out there it's virtually impossible to be 100% secure. I guess having a solid contingency plan just seemed more foolproof -- secure erase to ensure every last bit is wiped clean; clean image for disaster recovery; a clone SSD for the worst of the worst situations, and finally a second laptop for when I throw in the towel LOL

He does have a point about stealthy viruses (keyloggers and the like) that steal your information without any (overt) indication, so regular system scans would still be a good idea I suppose. That and just keeping an eye out on your credit/debit card usage. I'm paranoid so I've set a ton of alerts for both, and basically unless you only buy $100 worth of things at a time, I'll know. :laugh: (plus BoA is super anal about their credit card, even pre-emptively issued me a new one after the Target hack, even though I was never affected)

Though to be honest, if you don't do cracks/torrents and don't venture (too far) into questionable sites, and have some common sense regarding strange emails, I think it's safe to say you're very unlikely to encounter any malware issues.

 

Sorry for double posting, but saw some comments on a lifehacker article on MSE and they sum up my sentiments perfectly:

 

It's all about trust and perception - I'm sure that many people will feel uncomfortable if the company they get their AV from can't even secure its own systems.

 

Looks like Eset forum has been hacked now.

https://forum.eset.com/topic/2590-security-incident-on-forumesetcom/

 

Well bad guys will be bad and good guys will be good.

When it comes to A/V for my clients I make sure they are running some Enterprise class protection such as Symantec or Eset. Strict firewall rules, locked down AD, etc. But a virus is only an Outlook attachment away. You can't fix stupid.

When it comes to home A/V I personally use Malware Bytes and MSE. Yeah, yeah I know. But I don't pirate stuff, I don't visit shady sites and I perform regular backups. If my laptop got infected, I could be back up and running in less than an hour. I wouldn't even try to troubleshoot it. Just reload my clean image and move on.

What really helps is I no longer do IT for family or friends. Nothing worse than wasting an evening removing viruses ore re-loading shady software they got from a friend. I stopped all this by charging $100 an evening plus dinner and beer. Took about a year for them to stop calling me when things broke.

 

Amen brother.

And if you have a clone drive lying around, you could literally be up and running again in a few minutes.