Symantec claims anti-virus is "dead"

I agree that you need more than antivirus. There are some things that antivirus just doesn't catch. I have AVG and Malwarebytes on my laptop. I've recently ran into issues with my DVD drive and I was wondering if I had an infection. Ran my antivirus, nothing showed up. Ran malwarebytes, came up with 8 incidents of malicious activity on my computer. (didn't fix the issue...-.-) But I know you need more than AV...


Yes, I feel AV isn't the issue. It's the human controlling the computer that is the weakest link.

If people just learned a little about security, much of this malware would be dead-in-the-water because it would be less likely to spread.
 
You guys can note that they say this because their product sucks all you want. The fact is, more and more people are bring in laptops/desktops for repairs/cleaning due to malware that most of the AV suites can't fend off. It is not just Norton, but AVG, Vipre, Comodo, Kaspersky, McaFee, Panda, and other well know AVs and AV suites. More and more people are needing other applications to keep them safe, such at MalwareBytes, Superantispyware, Adaware, Spybot, etc...

I have the perfect all in one solution, Linux.
 
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A few clean scans per year is not sufficient to claim a computer system is malware-free.
If and when you scan your PC and it produces a clean report, then yes you can claim a clean PC. I get tired of people with bad habits claiming, "People with good habits, can't keep a clean PC without an anti-virus". I do have an AV installed and each and every time I was notified of Malware, I knew that what I was doing had potential for contamination. It has been over a year since I have felt a desire to test my luck. That's an entire year I've not been notified of contamination and an entire year I could have gone without an AV installed.
 
Have a hardware firewall, enable the software firewall, keep the OS and Apps patched and up to date, use an anti-virus software (even if it only stops X%, it's something, run Malwarebytes, backup your data, don't click/install toolbars and other apps, use Firefox (w/NoScript), be careful out there.
 
Yeah well, you know what? "Symantec", is trolling the public, with a bunch of lame "Semantics" .

Either they can write programs that protect against modern, "malware", or they can't. Who gives a flying crap what they choose to call their bloatware, it should work. This hasn't always been true in the past.

So, if they can't keep up with the harmful software in circulation on today's internet, then they should just padlock the office door, give up, and stop taking people's money, for a product that they themselves admit, doesn't work.

Yeah they screwed up. Yes AV is quite ineffective, but I bet you some people feel like they are protected by AV and therefore their PCs are invisible to attacks. Yeah it is known that AV is ineffective, but it doesnt need to be made public.
Are you really so naive as to believe that today's malware coders didn't already know that, before Symantec announced it, and you confirmed it?
 
The had something back in the 90's that was respectable. After that, their products were basically bloated shite, to be ignored and never used.
 
Yea, making an anti virus that takes up all your CPU time and slows your pc down is worse than a virus or malware imo,
 
I stopped using Antiviruses years ago. They just slow down everything and I've never noticed that Antivirus did something good to me. I had more OS reinstalls with AV than without it. Since then, I just install some AV maybe once in a couple of months to scan my PC which is somehow always clean.

Pure luck and you'll be sorry sooner or later.
 
It is kind of shocking to read this from Symantec, if they were going to say their Norton AV / 360 software or whatever it is now, the more, "for the everyday regular joe" AV, is a bit naff now, then that would be something. But they are talking across the board "business level" AV.

I agree with everyone, they should not dog their own products or try to take everyone else down the same " we suck route ". But in all honesty, I have known for years that AV's don't help much. But the reason is because 0day threats are more and more, and hackers who want on your pc, will get on your pc. So to those who say, " I have not used an AV in years and I scan every so often and it always comes up clean " ...

That kind of sentence sounds absolutely retarded. If you're lucky and if you have not been on any dodgy sites sure your PC may be clean. But Symantec and many others have just said it themselves that AV's are not that fabulous atm, and you think that scan you did once a month is accurate ? Are you sure ? The whole thing is, the software out there is not good enough so no you can not be sure 100%.

Every company is failing at the moment. Asus and other brands failing at the door with their buggy routers that are open to all, with AV to back you up with its flimsy thin paper of heuristics. And the internet explorer of M$ that every other month has a black hole in it that puts those in space to shame.
Follow that the Americans ruining SSL so no ones passwords and transactions have been secure in months or years. I say fudge it. Power down people. Its futile to go on.
 
Norton Internet Security and Malwarebytes are both great products. After reading all the responses I have learned that many of you guys are living in the past and not informed at all
 
Norton Internet Security and Malwarebytes are both great products. After reading all the responses I have learned that many of you guys are living in the past and not informed at all
Well now see, that's why the site allows guest posts. We enjoy someone stopping by from time to time explaining how we know nothing, and you know it all....:p

FWIW, I've never seen the freeware version of "Malwarebytes" find anything.

And, "Super Anti-Spyware", hangs if you don't allow it to run on startup.

As far as Norton AV goes, the first time my trial version of A/V 2005, encountered "Spyware Sheriff", it was killed, dead as a doornail.

So, as a matter of course, I'm abundantly unimpressed with your endorsement of either product.

A product gets one chance, ("trial"), with me. Particularly if they intend to start billing me for it.

So, now I'm using AVG Free. It may not do much, but they do maintain the product on a daily basis. But best of all, it's FREE!!
 
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Once Upon a Time long ago where there weren't any viruses. In the early 90's Norton Anti-Virus for DOS was born.

Today Symantec has such a foot-hold on new PC manufacturers to force us to install their entire Symantec Suite onto your brand new PC. Then you learn you have to pay for it after the trail is up. Such a racket I should have the choice not to install such software and don't like how PC companies allow such practices. But that's how they do it, just to get a kick back in revenue Symantec.

Anyway Windows 8 has it's own built-in AV so that's about it there. Why would you need Symantec AV Bundle for? Windows 7 PCs have to pull down MES from Microsoft free AV. Does work very well.
 
Symantec claims anti-virus is dead.. indeed, as long as you use any symantec's products :D

oh, come on, everyone already knows that.. since antivirus alone itself won't enough, you need another layer of protections such anti-malware, firewall, sandbox, upgrading your free AV into premium suite etc etc.. and the most important thing is: be careful when you are going online
 
Guest: Norton n Malwarebytes is fine ? All of us living in the past confirmed by posts ? Did he read the Article about how Nortons and most AV's suck.

If you knew how easy it was to change the information in the virus to slip past your AV, you wouldnt be as cocky as Nobi is, with his, I don't use an AV.

There was a TDS3 program I bought, typically like a month b4 they decided to can it. Trojan Defense Suite 3. At the time, apparently, amazing, could find your grannys teeth in field of hay. But what with AV's improving they canned it. Are AVs thinking, Malware scanners are taking over ? AV's incorporating Malware scanners, while Malware incorporates AV heuristics?

In the OLD days. And yes, I mean like somewhere between 7 - 10 years ago my friends n I were having this discussion about whats the best AV as you do when you think which one shall I download and install on my pc for maximum protection. Well Nortons was never one of them. Symantec corporate was there, with Esets Nod32, and Kaspersky. And some people had decided that no pron sites, not cliking email links, and just good ol common sense would be good enough to not make the system laggy with an AV as 2gbs would soon max out.

Well now we are in the world of several cores, and sevreral gigs of ram. And I do get that there are some sites, that contain flash, and can hang up even the best rigs, and you have to wonder how crap their coding is for that site or is it flash itself ? And I guess therefore a program like an AV could still find its way to being a resource hog, but I havent really seen my PC lag. Maybe my free copy of avast really is dormant and doing sweet FA ? No doubt right ?! LOL

Its better to have something that nothing unless something is really nothing. The Emperors new clothes springs to mind. There was a point that MS essentials was considered a great thing, and then within a year, it loses all recognition with AV standards. Maybe one of the previous posts is right, they all get cushty jobs with fat wages, and settle down to watch re runs of macguyver, but do FA to keep their product top of its game .
 
Antivirus in not dead. I'm still using it although not from symantec product. We should have antivirus installed in pc or laptop or cellphone. Update virus database regularly and everything will be allright. :cool:
 
I Run MS-SE AV/SPY-W on all Windows 7 (32-bit / 64-bit). I've tried all what's out there, and have settled for MS-SE. Everyone has their favorite AV/SPY-W and to wrap this up just be glad you have something you can brag about being free and working. Symantec doesn't like it, but they can't push AV product on Windows 8.1 Update 1 since it has it's own internally instead of externally like All versions of Windows Client OS thru 7.
 
I primarily use the free stuff until I fix my computer. I bought Webroot. It's like $20 and it does as good a job as Norton. I've had my laptop going on two years and I've had hardly any malicious activity. (And I work in IT, so I've been extensively trained on what to look out for and how to browse safely.)
 
I thought MS SE had lost its AV status after not being able to catch any virii or malware.

When it first came out people hailed it as a great thing, and MS had finally done something right, the thought that a third party software would be unnecessary with MS having their own fix. But then it got slammed for being an absolute POS.

Currently my set up is Comodo Firewall, Avast AV, Malwarebytes and all Free. But I may have to agree with someones earlier post that Malwarebytes free might not both alerting my of dodgy files.
 
tragicallyhip said:
Guest said:
You guys can note that they say this because their product sucks all you want. The fact is, more and more people are bring in laptops/desktops for repairs/cleaning due to malware that most of the AV suites can't fend off. It is not just Norton, but AVG, Vipre, Comodo, Kaspersky, McaFee, Panda, and other well know AVs and AV suites. More and more people are needing other applications to keep them safe, such at MalwareBytes, Superantispyware, Adaware, Spybot, etc...
I have the perfect all in one solution, Linux.
That's a poor solution since Linux is not malware-proof. You can still get malware with it albeit less frequently.
 
All there products are bad! all I use is Webroot the best thing out there trust me*nerd*
 
Unless your downloading share files and going to unsavory parts of the web when is the last time your antivirus declared it contained a virus? Exactly.... whats out their is undetectable at this point in time by anyone. Do you feel safer with an anti virus product sure...but the reality is ...

So what are your options? Do you do banking online? Do you purchase things online giving out your credit card number? Odds are at some point in a 4 yr cycle your credit card will be compromised.

Best stand your ground practices in my opinion is multiple formatted drives (windows allow all the multiple formatted drive installation you want if it is the same PC.) that remain unconnected to pc until used - that are used expressly for and connected to pc for direct site to banking or purchasing from a reputable on line site then disconnected. Other then that a master formatted drive that is copied (duplicated) via off line hardware to boot drives you go anywhere you want but never save files or transfer the files. Once you invest in the expense of this you can recoup it after a few yrs of not buying av software. About every 3 months switch out your go every where drive erase- via again off line hardware not connected to pc. Your pc will remain boot fast odds are you did not get a ram memory malware virus or a boot code virus.
 
It is a wrong concept try other solutions as 360 internet security by bitdefender and a chinece company after that talk me.
You guys can note that they say this because their product sucks all you want. The fact is, more and more people are bring in laptops/desktops for repairs/cleaning due to malware that most of the AV suites can't fend off. It is not just Norton, but AVG, Vipre, Comodo, Kaspersky, McaFee, Panda, and other well know AVs and AV suites. More and more people are needing other applications to keep them safe, such at MalwareBytes, Superantispyware, Adaware, Spybot, etc...
 
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