One Note on the Kaspersky Debacle

[dualstow]

You may have read that popular Russian antivirus software Kaspersky has been exposed as modified to become a tool to search for state secrets on the PCs of American government employees. If you haven't, google it. there are interesting details, like how Kaspersky has probably known for years that the Israelis penetrated them and discovered the above.

Anyway, as a counterpoint to the Young People Can't Operate a Radio thread, I have to mention that my dad, soon to become an octogenarian, just resubscribed to Kaspersky. He knows about the article above, and he did try to switch to another firm's software suite, but it was "too much trouble. A pain." Ok, then.

File this under the same thread in which WiseOne was trying to convince her mom that document files don't physically live inside Word for Windows, nor spreadsheet files in Excel.

[Libertarian666]

You may have read that popular Russian antivirus software Kaspersky has been exposed as modified to become a tool to search for state secrets on the PCs of American government employees. If you haven't, google it. there are interesting details, like how Kaspersky has probably known for years that the Israelis penetrated them and discovered the above.

Anyway, as a counterpoint to the Young People Can't Operate a Radio thread, I have to mention that my dad, soon to become an octogenarian, just resubscribed to Kaspersky. He knows about the article above, and he did try to switch to another firm's software suite, but it was "too much trouble. A pain." Ok, then.

File this under the same thread in which WiseOne was trying to convince her mom that document files don't physically live inside Word for Windows, nor spreadsheet files in Excel.

Now you tell us!

[WiseOne]

Ha dualstow, you remembered that?

My mom is STILL convinced that files live inside Word and Excel. I finally just kludged her computer so that the "Documents" folder lives inside Dropbox.

If your dad is anything like my mom, you'll need to switch the antivirus programs yourself. Remote desktop is your friend if you can't get to your dad's house in person.

Which one do you use? They're all terrible. My university provides Sophos so I use that but it doesn't update reliably. I used to use Norton but it practically qualifies as malware, with the effect it has on your computer.

[dualstow]

I occasionally use Sophos on my Mac but often just ride bareback these days.

I used Avast on PCs, mostly. Tried to get my dad into Avast. A friend of mine lives AVG. Both free, I think.

[Libertarian666]

Ha dualstow, you remembered that?

My mom is STILL convinced that files live inside Word and Excel. I finally just kludged her computer so that the "Documents" folder lives inside Dropbox.

If your dad is anything like my mom, you'll need to switch the antivirus programs yourself. Remote desktop is your friend if you can't get to your dad's house in person.

Which one do you use? They're all terrible. My university provides Sophos so I use that but it doesn't update reliably. I used to use Norton but it practically qualifies as malware, with the effect it has on your computer.

I use Windows Defender, which comes with Windows 10. It seems to work pretty well, and it is free.

[dualstow]

Windows Defender is a good start. I make sure my dad keeps that on.

[boglerdude]

Windows defender + noscript