Is MAE worth the money?

[bitconcerned]

My renewal of MAE is due in the next couple of weeks, and according to the bumph, 90% of threats nowadays are through exploits. In the past year my MAE software has reported nothing blocked, not even one exploit or any type of warning. My question to fellow subscribers is - do you think it is worth renewing and paying money for a piece of software that appears to do nothing? I would have expected to have had a warning or two that something got blocked if you were to believe the hype.

[LDTate]

I'll assume you're talking about MBAE.

It's always the customers choice for our products to use the free versions or paid for.

The main thing is 'Real-Time Protection"

MBAE is like $25.00 for 1 year.

If it would prevent 1 exploit like ransomware, it would be well worth the price to me.

I have had auto insurance for over 40 yrs without ever filing a claim.

Should I cancel my auto insurance?

[hake]

Damned right it is if you support your wife's two sisters' Windows laptops.  There is nothing to match a sound night's sleep secure in the knowledge that MBAE is at work.

[gonzo]

@bitconcerned,

 

Look at it this way.  If you didn't have it, you would likely spend 100 times the cost in time, money and lost productivity trying to get everything back in order.  If you're like most people, your weekly beer and pizza costs more than that license, and you'd be doing a lot of beer and pizza while trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

[AdvancedSetup]

Generally speaking I'd say that "most" people don't run into threats unless they  are on new sites daily and or clicking on links for various advertising to things like on ebay or similar sites. If you visit say a dozen or less of the same sites over and over then chances are pretty low that you're going to. Myself I visit a LOT of different sites and my logs don't show any type of threat activity either. Normally I have to go seek out malware on purpose and go to sites rife with threats before I get hits. When you consider that we have millions of users and the other antivirus firms have millions of users - if everyone was getting attacked often then the support and help desks for all of us wouldn't be able to handle the amount of calls.

 

As they've said above - it only takes one good attack (one of the many encrypting attacks) to make you wish you'd done something more. I have a friend that was only running outdated antivirus on his computer that got hit with one. All his photos for many years were encrypted and lost baby photos, family outings, etc. You can imagine how upset his wife was (an unhappy wife is a .... fill in the blanks) but unfortunately he initially chose not to pay and thought he could do something but there is nothing one can do except to pay or have backups.

 

Some more reading for you on the subject.

 

The complexity of finding, preventing, and cleanup from malware
 

Backup Software
 

Have a read and decide for yourself.

 

Thanks

 

[glssr60]

To LDTATE,

      Your analogy is inappropriate.  If you cancel your car insurance in Missouri then you are breaking the law.  Missouri (and none of the other states, that I know of) do not have any laws against cancelling Malwarebytes.

      

[Tarnak]

It is worth it to me, since I have a lifetime license.