I got an interesting e-mail this morning from McAfee, which you can see below.... So, after reading the e-mail I decided to start searching and found this.... Source: http://www.zdnet.com/passing-the-red-shield-intel-security-to-replace-mcafee-brand-7000024869/
Anyone ever actually see "McAfee"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg The top AVs in my opinion are ESET (Nod32 or Smart Security), Kaspersky and Malwarebytes. I use ESET's stuff for 24/7, it doesn't bombard me with messages and does a nice job of only bothering me when I'd want it to.
The damage done under prior leadership was irreversible.... You can't go from being among the top to having multiple, consecutive years of being among the worst (in every regard) and keep your reputation in tact.... It's a bit different for BitDefender and TrendMicro.... They started out at the bottom and got progressively better. McAfee, at some point, just fell off a damn cliff in detection, removal, FP and stability..... They are getting better though. The last detection test results from av-comparatives were pretty positive. They just faltered on FP results (and unfortunately, stability according to user reviews). Seems being under the control of Intel is doing wonders for McAfee. If they can get the usability and FP issues under control without hampering effectiveness, they may be able to compete with BitDefender, Kaspersky and TrendMicro. I have no hope for Norton at this point though. Their last detection test results were dismal (actually scoring WORSE than MSE/Defender for the first time)... Looks like a repeat of pre-2008 (which is when Norton finally became viable again after a decade of garbage)... Personally, I use Kaspersky Antivirus on all but my work laptop. My work laptop runs the free version of Panda Cloud Antivirus. I have a license for Avast Internet Security 2014, but the resource usage is more than my poor laptop can deal with. (It's only a Haswell based Celeron ULV processor)
Lol .. Norton is another joke. It destroyed my install of XP back in the day when I tried upgrading from the 2000 version of their product. Intel is a good company, I think they can make something out of McAfee. Maybe even a nice freeware version for home use?
Doubt they'll go free for home use....but they are going to be offering some of their mobile products free for some undisclosed period of time.... Supposedly their mobile products are better than their desktop products. Norton had a pretty bad streak from the late 90's until the release of their 2008 products. Towards the end of 2012, they started going downhill again....
NOD32 in particular has fallen by the wayside in recent years, at least according to the main AV testing sites.
So has Avira's AntiVir.... At one time, they were running neck and neck with BitDefender and Kaspersky. Now AntiVir is hardly worth using....
Not in my real world testing with fresh virus samples and adware I've uploaded to VirusTotal. ESET and Kaspersky are always the first ones to pick up stuff in the wild.
In my "real world" testing, Malwarebyte's is more effective than any antivirus.... We can go around about this all day, but it doesn't change the fact that not every antivirus works well for everyone. Quite honestly, ESET's file detection rate is mediocre at best. Same goes for AntiVir and most other antivirus software. BitDefender, Kaspersky and TrendMicro seem to turn in consistantly high file detection numbers with reasonable FP rates. As of late Avast, Panda and McAfee have been hanging in there with high detection numbers but suffer from high FP rates. Of course, AV-comparatives gives you the FP list anyway so as long as you're not running anything on that list, you should be fine. AV-Comparatives doesn't take usability into account so you're still on your own as far as whether or not the antivirus is going to take out Windows if/when you change settings.....
Most AVs learn of new threats from sources that simply share the wild samples to any AVs that'd want them. Sure, they also have their own methods and honey pots for gathering samples, but. When cleaning out PCs though it's best to use a arsenal of scanners. And I just came across this which uses 68 AVs: http://www.herdprotect.com/downloads.aspx It's in beta I guess.
In the end of the day none of the AVs in the Top 10 are 100% AV Proof. Everyone of them has a gap somewhere, no matter how good they claim to be thruout tests. I'm using paid NOD32 for about 6 years now. (one of the things beside my OS i don't want to be cheap on)
I used to use Avast but after formatting my computer it would delete or block any .exe file from being downloaded to my computer so I switched to F-Secure. When I was cleaning up viruses on other computers I would use the Ultimate Boot cd/dvd which is a handful of scanners that run within a Live Windows environment. As far as McAfee antivirus goes nah I will pass.
No antivirus is idiot proof. Doesn't matter if they're rated #1 by independent labs, or dead last. They all have flaws in them. There's no possible way to test every possible scenario or every possible virus either. File detection tests are simply a method to determine which is most effective against the presented virus batch. Just because an antivirus scores 100% in a file detection test, doesn't mean it's actually the best on the market for file detection. It just means that it did the best at detecting that particular batch of viruses... This is why each lab recommends choosing the antivirus that best fits your needs out of those certified. The certification requirements are easy enough that failure to obtain certification shows a major fault in the product.
As an avid gamer, you do everything to make your connection as seamless to the other players as possible. With that being said, who even uses antivirus or a firewall for home use these days? Chances are your ISP has a good enough nat for its entire network and unless you like clicking on those fake download buttons, you're probably knowledgeable enough of what is unsafe to download or use. I'm just saying for reference I have been 3 years free of firewall and antivirus. Nothing has affected my PC. In the workplace its a given to have antivirus and a firewall, but even as IPv6 with IPsec grows it will see less of a need for an extra program of security. It will just be implied.