Quote (AbDuCt @ Jun 6 2016 06:26pm)
Anti-virus software can only protect you from known threats.
That being said I suggest VTHash and VTzilla as two applications you should use on everything.
http://www.boredomsoft.org/vt-hash-check.bshttps://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/vtzilla/VTHash allows you to right click a file and generate a hash checksum to search Virustotal.com for. If it is found it will display the results, and if it is not found you can upload it to be scanned. Checking for results is pretty fast taking less than 10 seconds in most cases.
VTzilla is a firefox extension which allows you to upload files directly to Virustotal.com from the download menu in firefox so you can scan them before the files being saved to your computer.
These are both passive protections that you must run.
Another passive protection is malwarebytes anti malware.
As for active protection, since there are so many ways to bypass anti-virus protections there isn't really a need to run one. They take up memory and they are only good for finding threats that people already know about, or that are not a new variant of an older malware. If you use the first two applications on all files you download you will be better off rather than running one single active application.
Quote (AbDuCt @ Jun 7 2016 12:28am)
If it was posted on pcgamer it must be the best.
Just to further instantiate my post above bitdefender, although not having a public exploit released since like 2009, has around 6 known public exploits (which have been patched, but that is not the point).
Anti-virus software is just another stepping stone for attackers to gain access to the system. Like wise with many other vendors of software. If you want to stay secure you want to minimize your footprint, not broaden it.
https://www.exploit-db.com/search/?action=search&description=bitdefenderhttps://www.exploit-db.com/search/?action=search&description=avasthttps://www.exploit-db.com/search/?action=search&description=avghttps://www.exploit-db.com/search/?action=search&description=pandahttps://www.exploit-db.com/search/?action=search&description=trend%20microNot to mention any malware a gamer will download will likely be produced by other gamers or "wanna be" hackers to incorporate FUD (fully un-detectable) techniques such as file encryption and memory injection (which can be purchased for as little as $1 per binary) to bypass the scanning techniques and fingerprints that an Anti-virus scans with. This results with undetectable malware being ran and installed with or without an Anti-virus product installed anyways.
As said before, Anti-virus products can only stop the threats that they are programmed to search for.
Although having access to something that has a database for known threats can be an asset. For instance most web based exploit packages which attempt to attack you with multiple exploits at once to infect you are commonly shared between attackers. This allows Anti-virus software to create a definition and attempt to protect you from that specific threat.
There is a trade off.
Too lazy to retype all that.
Up to you if you want to run them. I personally don't and just is VTHash, and if I need to test something I really don't trust I inspect in a virtual environment.
This post was edited by AbDuCt on Jun 14 2016 06:14pm