Antivirus

I think its a good idea to have variety when using computer security software... Microsoft did suffer from the fake certificate hack... In that case the Flame virus did indeed hijack Microsoft updates to spread Malware!! This would in my opinion render MSE useless... Trusting all your IT security software to the one vendor is asking for trouble... I mean most people on here use the windows 7 firewall and MSE! What happens next time when kaspersky or some other vendor find some other exploit from with in the windows environment that has been lying dormant for years and has made Microsoft's security updates and software useless!

Just my thoughts and I do expect some interesting feedback on this!

I use two different products and they are very good.... Avast Free and COMODO firewall....if they fail... the Windows firewall and my router should keep the rubbish out until I find something better.. I like Microsoft, but security wise they are 3rd party options for me.

Yes the Flame was a very bad one.
Microsoft Security Advisory (2718704): Unauthorized Digital Certificates Could Allow Spoofing
But Microsoft did make corrections or what one might call a fix.
To understand how bad Flame is here is a good read.
The Flame: Questions and Answers - Securelist
I do agree that a layered protection method is best. No program stops everything 100% of the time. I also judge the maker of a security program on the time it takes to create, test and get the fix out to millions of computers. I do think Microsoft and MSE are getting very good marks on doing just that.

Layback Bear said:

Yes the Flame was a very bad one.
Microsoft Security Advisory (2718704): Unauthorized Digital Certificates Could Allow Spoofing
But Microsoft did make corrections or what one might call a fix.
To understand how bad Flame is here is a good read.
The Flame: Questions and Answers - Securelist
I do agree that a layered protection method is best. No program stops everything 100% of the time. I also judge the maker of a security program on the time it takes to create, test and get the fix out to millions of computers. I do think Microsoft and MSE are getting very good marks on doing just that.

Yes Flame was a bad one... I read a book called worm about conficker...this was also a bad one for targeting MS products... I have no doubt MS are getting better! I trust them to keep my OS patched..but thats it...firewalls and AV a big no no for me.... I'll stick with 3rd party products for such things


I had a play with backtrack on VMware I've ran exploits against (vista, Win 7, XP) using the metasploit feature...all this was in a VMware environment so it was safe (nothing Illegal) But this has educated me and you'd be very shocked to see the exploits you can get and run against MS operating systems with the firewall turned on.... not to mention other things you don't think about... really worth a look....very interesting