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Antivirus is a fucked approach, it basically scans files for what they call malware "signatures", which they accumulate over the years from malware found in the wild. Problems with that:
- False positives.
- False negatives.
- Slows down the computer.
- Malware developers can obviously see what the antivirus is doing, so they change their malware till it is no longer detected, and/or sabotage the antivirus once they're on the computer.
- You now have a privileged uberparser on your computer, that unpacks and parses all manner of file formats, and it is being run on everything. This increases attack surface a lot.
The whole idea is misguided, and only exists because these companies managed to scare people into buying their snake oil.
im guessing that's a "no" then?
Sooo... What is a good approach then?.. especially for us idiots who still use Windows?
Don't download random .exe's off the internet. This is pretty much the only thing that an antivirus has any chance of catching, since it's where you'll find "old" malware your antivirus knows about. If you do risky stuff like that (pirating PC games?) maybe don't use that computer for anything important or personal.
Then the usual stuff, which you want to do anyway, because antivirus doesn't help with that:
- Update your software.
- If you have any reason to believe your computer might be compromised, completely wipe the hard drive, start from scratch, and change all your passwords.
- Install an ublock origin to block ads. Ads are a common attack vector.
- Assume every link or attachment from an email or message is a scam unless you were expecting it or you can prove otherwise.
