Unease with Windows/AV's vulnerabilities

[sman]

Of late, becoming increasingly uneasy with the lot of noise on Windows, AV's vulnerabilities..

 

The recent discovery of 'Moker' malware by Ensilo, which seems to have all deceptive/remote unhindered access/damaging capabilties, particularly in Windows, makes me more wary of Windows..

 

Seriously weighing on abandoning Windows, if I can find ways to run my Windows apps / trading tools outside Windows?

 

I can do Trading in HTML and it's only the question of analytic tools (even on this, If stick with the tools in Trading Terminal, should do but as I look for further analysis, puts me on hold,)

 

Just my views..

 

 

[gonzo]

If you rely on anti-virus to protect you, you're always one step behind -- at best.  Unless you are an expert in your understanding of malware, how it attacks you and how you defend it against it, the world is full of fearful stories that will make you unplug everything electrical in your home.  One of the reasons that Windows is so widely used is because of the sheer number of apps that people want and need.  There are good apps on Mac, Linux, UNIX and other operating systems, but Windows is unrivaled.

 

Use good protection.  Know that many of the stories that you read are put out by people who are journalists and not malware experts, OR by people who have something to gain by getting you worked up.  Fear, uncertainty and doubt have always worked.  They likely always will.

[sman]

Gonzo, thanks for your views..

 

But, it's time to take notice, when the views are echoed all around, corroborated by experts.. A sort of 'Doomsday prophecy' on Windows is hanging around, popularity/no popularity..

 

I even came across Dell abandoning traditional AV's for it's latest product, signs of changing times/approach..

 

AV protection is unreliable and I intend to try out my options, seriously..

 

Just my views.. Thanks once again..

[gonzo]

Agreed that AV is unreliable.  That is exactly why Malwarebytes is doing as well as it is.  Companies are married to AV, and archaic PCI DSS standards (which are now getting updated) tell those companies they need to spend money on something that doesn't protect them well.  Most of those companies also use Malwarebytes for protection or for remediation.  I wonder why!

 

AV relies completely on signatures, which always are obsolete by the time they are delivered to the user.  The malware user will have already made all the money/data he's going to by the time AV's signatures are available, and that doesn't take into account how long it takes users to get them in place.  The future of protection is not about protecting against someTHING, its protection against how that something does its nasties to you.  We have Anti-Malware, Anti-Exploit, and Anti-Ransomware, and that's not so we can score more money from users.  Its because we are evolving with our protection and gaining market share while the AV vendors are going in the opposite direction and telling users to uninstall our software.

 

While you are considering your options, please remember that the belief that Linux and Mac are malware-free is a myth.  The ONLY reason they aren't getting hit as hard as Windows is because there is a lot more money to be made by attackers from a more widely-used operating system.  You can expect that to change in the future.  Sure, Windows makes it easier to hide malware in hidden files, hidden folders and registries.  Linux is open source, so the code is available for study by coders - the good guys and the bad guys.  Odds are you'll never check the hash of every file that you pull down to be part of your distro or your apps, and guess what happens then.

 

Yes, I'm a devil's advocate.  I do that at work too.  Sometimes I piss people off, but I don't like to see anyone make an important decision without all the knowledge available in front of them.

[sman]

Thanks! Gonzo, you could'nt have put it better.. I'll bear your views in mind.. Thank you..