Bitlocker Free AV

[Hermitkrab]

I recently installed Bitdefender Free AV to test it out and so far I'm pleased. It's already corralled two potentially malicious items.

( My setup: Toshiba laptop. Windows 10/64, Anniv edition)

Any comments from the Forum on this program?

 

[Neemobeer]

Bitlocker is a full disk encryption software, do you mean bit defender?

 

[Hermitkrab]

Yes, I meant Bitdefender. My bad. I may look into the paid version, though, because it supposedly offers anti-ransomware protection.

BTW, I edited the original post to read correctly. I couldn't edit the title, though.

 

[Neemobeer]

Bit Defender is a pretty highly rated production, I've never used it personally but it generally has very good reviews.

 

[Hermitkrab]

Yes,Neemobeer. I checked the reviews, too. As a matter of fact, I like it so much that I tried to install the Plus version, which offers antiransomeware protection, but could't uninstall my free version in order to allow the installation. I'm currently in touch with Bitdefender to see how I can accomplish this.

 

[Neemobeer]

You can install this for ransom ware works very well and it's free and won't interfere with other AV Link Removed

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

I get very few Customers running Bitdefender AV on their computers, but do see a few. To my recollection, those computers did have some of the usual suspect spyware viruses on them, but nothing that a good cleaning with CCleaner or a W10 reset or W10 reinstall and drive wipe wouldn't take care of. I also don't recall any of those infected computers getting hit by Ransomware and getting hit by the FBI virus, one of it's variants or something like encryption Ransomware a la NEMUCOD, or CRYPTOLOCKER. I do however recalling some Business Clients several years ago getting hit by a Trojan virus, company-wide and their IT people swore by Bitdefender--there goes that theory! That was also over 10 years ago; so perhaps their product has improved. Don't believe all the reviews on the Internet you read however, tech forums such as WF have practicing professionals who have seen every AV product on the market (as I have), and have tried all of them. Reviews from folks here are much more reliable. Ransomware is often launched by viruses smart enough to evade detection by traditional AV programs in the hidden portion of your hard drive through advanced methods such as Rookits and Bootkits; once on there, no AV or Antispyware programs have been able to touch those, and drive formats or even drive replacements are usually required to remove those!

However, the #1 rated antispyware virus scanner, MALWAREBYTES, has a new Beta version out; v3.06, that includes Rootkit protection. A few of us here are still testing it here in California and Pennsylvania. I haven't yet tried it as I just found out about it last week, but intend to do so later this month. Another product folks here like is Superantispyware; they don't have this capability yet, but rumors abound that they are getting it also to keep up with MALWAREBYTES, their biggest competitor.

I will add Bitdefender AV to my short list of AV's I need to retest; the ones that look promising that is, and report back to this thread and let you know what I think. I use AV's from Norton, Avast, and TrendMicro; antispyware from MALWAREBYTES, and anti-Rootkit defense from TrendMicro. Both MALWAREBYTES current version; v2.2.x and Avast seem to do a really good job on stopping Ransomware. I've used a configuration with 1 AV program and 4 backstop protection programs from the above vendors for the last 5 years on over 200 client's computers with a less than 2% return or infection rate; and 0% return on RANSOMWARE.

Lastly, I'd like to put a word in for EMSIsoft AV as they are often rated the top anti-Ransomware AV. I had a couple of other folks testify to this last week on a conference call; and I've used it. Their AV doesn't seem to be able to Clean off existing Ransomware infections that are truly nasty, such as NEMUCOD; but their removal tools you can download for free are completely awesome! I downloaded one of their tools last year to remove the NEMUCOD Ransomware virus; and no one else in the world has a tool to do this! It saved my Client who had it from losing 20 years worth of Business files as well as 20 years of family archive photos! I'm beginning to test their AV more now.

Other folks here like other tools; and neemo likes Webroot; which didn't do much for me in the past; but, he likes it so I will be adding to that Testing short list I mention; throw some viruses against it on my Test PC and see how it fares; will also report back on that.

Hope your Bitdefender AV keeps working for you. And you might add some backstop protection to it from someone like TrendMicro (RUBotted) if you find the current version does not check for Rootkits/Bootkits, as that's how Ransomware was able to defeat Bitdefender in the past.

Best of luck,
<<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>>