Need opinions on a reliable bundle package. This will be used with Mac and PC
Thank you all
Is there a reason that you feel you need something more than what’s built in? Windows Defender is all most users and frankly even enterprises use. Mac just let it do its thing, if it’s portable I’d turn on firewall in the network settings page.
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Have to agree with @AndrewMC. As long as you’re keeping your OS up to date, you don’t need any third party antivirus or firewall software.
What’s your use case for a VPN? I’d say give Cloudflare’s Warp product a try - https://cloudflarewarp.com. It’s built on the newer Wireguard VPN protocol and is reasonably fast for basic internet browsing. There are alternative providers I would recommend if you’re looking for geolocation feigning or P2P connections however.
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I wouldn’t buy vpn from anyone who isn’t a VPN specialist, same for firewall and same for Malware detection.
That said, Firewall and anti-malware in the OS are usually good enough these days.
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That’s why I came here and will take your advice because you and everyone else know better than I do.
Thank you
I personally don’t agree with the thought of not needing an AV. But I’m old school. Most of the products today will cover an AV and Firewall.
I also don’t see the need for a VPN. I’m not paranoid enough to worry about it. I just make sure I only connect to networks I trust.
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Everything is behind TLS today anyway. I don’t typically tell people to use a VPN out of any security concern, but rather to prevent your ISP from monetizing your traffic metadata. Although most browsers are doing encrypted DNS so even that’s becoming less of a thing anymore.
Some sites still don’t use TLS. Either because they haven’t been updated in a while, or because the hosting provider doesn’t offer it for free.
So the VPN provider can monetize the traffic metadata instead?
If you’re submitting sensitive data to a site that doesn’t utilize TLS, you should stop. There’s no longer any reason aside from incompetence for anyone to not secure their web property with TLS. It’s technically simple, and there are free options.
True, you’re just punting your traffic down the line. However there are market forces which discourage VPN operators from engaging in this shady behavior. I have hundreds of choices available to me for VPN services, and it’s trivial to switch providers if it becomes apparent that they’re engaging in such behavior.
Compare that to the state of the ISP market (at least in the US) where I have precisely one choice for symmetrical fiber optic service. And Verizon knows this - they’re shameless with the fact that they’re snooping on their customers because they know I can’t switch. So yea, I’d rather roll the dice with a VPN provider.
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Report in c’t magazine this month, they looked at a bunch of smart TVs, LG was the worst offender, it downloads an security certificate over an http connection!
But:
- Amazon Omni FireTV - 40 http connections, 6 unsafe TLS
- LG - 210 http connections, 11 unsafe TLS
- Metz/Roku TV - 25 http connections, 0 unsafe TLS
- Philips - 18 http connections, 3 unsafe TLS
- Samsung - 30 http connections, 0 unsafe TLS
- Sony - 13 http connections, 8 unsafe TLS
That is during first installation. “unsafe TLS” means using old, vulnerable SSL or TLS protocols.
And those are brand new, current model 65" smart TVs currently for sale.
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Reason #371 to eschew smart TVs
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Just a note, that all public CRLs, root certs, etc need to be available via HTTP. That’s how the device knows it’s OK to encrypt the connection.
This wasn’t doing a handshake, this was actually downloading a certificate to add as a trust authority. That means any man-in-the-middle could swap it out for their own and thereafter have anything they send trusted.