Windows 10 security programs help and first run setup help

[corvairbob]

ok today i was trying to get the fingerprint scanner to work and it messed up my pc so i had to do a complete restore. i one time i had a bunch of security programs installed and i'm thinking they made the pc sluggish. so a few weeks ago i took everything off and installed norton antivirus from comcast for free. that gave me fits for a bit until some windows guys helped me figure it out. anyway for now i think i may want to go back the avast free, i have installed it for now just to have some protection.

one thing i did not like with norton is it made me redo all my passwords. i use the chrome browser and i have passwords set to fill in the un and pw fields. this may be good or it may be bad.

anyway at this time with a brand new program and not one file but for what windows installed i figure it will be a good time to add the security, i have windows security running, and avast now running, plus windows defender is running and the firewall is on for both private and public networks. but the pc thinks it is on a public network, so i have to get that back on a private network. so i just set it to private networks.

so because i have norton for free available should i go back to it or stay with the free sites? and if i stay with the free sites what ones do i really need.

and another question. before i restored it i noticed i had something called bitdefender installed. i do not remember getting that free before so is that a program that encrypts the hard drive or just the internet traffic? i was doing the fingerprint for pc security but then a win ten guy said to use hard drive encryption, i do not know woh to set that up. he said if my pc got stolen having the hard drive encrypted would make it impossible for anyone to get my data off the drive. so maybe i can get that going as well now that it is in brand new start up mode.

 

[Neemobeer]

For me the option of going free vs paid always ends the same, paid. The free products often only offer bare minimum protect, no technical support and limited features. If you look at any company you will almost never see free products in use. Now I'm not saying all of the free ones don't work but I'd rather go with a paid product. For good independent end point protection product reviews you can go here AV-Comparatives | Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software.

Security experts will preach "security in depth" which means you should have multiple DIFFERENT layers of protection on your system and not multiple similar layers to protect your system. In short running multiple end-point products Norton, Avast, Windows Defender, Bit defender (yeah that's endpoint protection or AV too) may offer a little more protection, but more often than not will cause a lot of performance and other issues as these product will often fight over scanning files etc and cause more harm than good.

Defense in Depth means

• Run end point protection (EPP)
• Run a firewall (may be included in EPP)
• Operating System Patch Management (Windows Updates)
• Regular software updates (especially the OS (see above), web browsers and any application you receive outside data from (office applications, PDF viewer, etc)
• Host intrusion Detection System (HIDS)
• Network firewall
• Safe browsing habits
• Email phishing training
• and more...

Fingerprint scanners are OK, but are not infallible and can be bypassed or based on how they map finger prints you could possible have a hit on someone else's finger. Plus if you have a password as a backup authentication option an attacker could easily bypass that in ignore the bio-metric authentication. Requiring both a password and the fingerprint reader would be much more secure.

Full disk encryption can also be useful for securing your data when the system is powered off. Of course it doesn't do much good if your computer is on and unlocked as data is decrypted on the fly and the encryption key is generally held in memory and can be retrieved for later use. Some attacks against encryption have even gone after system via offline attacks or through brute force methods.

 

[corvairbob]

so it sounds like your in favor of the free comcast program. and then i have defender from windows and windows security going now. plus bitdefender. i had that before also.

before i put avast on the machine it was fast, now it is a bit slower so maybe avast is boxing with defender or windows security programs. and now that your telling me i will go and get the updates from windows if they have not yet been installed with the new setup. thanks

 

[Neemobeer]

No not in favor of Norton. Avast would be better but not an overly good product either.

 

[JandN2639]

We noticed that Norton--the paid version of Norton 360--has an excellent rating from several sources, including PC World magazine.

We have not had to replace any passwords because of Norton. It simply asks if we want to add current passwords to it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[corvairbob]

i had norton until a few hours ago. i tried to set up the fp scanner and after a restart i got the fp and then was prompted for a password. i used the password tha hp security program had me set up and i got locked out of my pc. so now i used a thumb stick to format the drive and i'm now starting over. so i will go back as soon as win is done with the updates and reinstall norton from comcast. but it did not like my chrome passwords. it saw them but made me re enter them again. what a job. plus i think it had a backup drive for me and if so it may restore my pc to i hoe yesterday's setting.

i tried ti do a recovery but that made it worse. so i'm now worried that if i recover my programs from norton i may get all this junk back and then have to go thru this all again. because i use chrome it gave me back most all i use anyway. norton made me use some of chrome's extensions for security, and some on this site told me the chrome browser is a good one for security, kind of like the chromebook is. thanks

 

[corvairbob]

what it did to me was make me re enter my passwords.

so how do i set up the hard drive encryption? or is that what i see when i'm in the hd utilities for disk repairs? i see something about encryption but then a beware as then i can view my data? or is that turn on bitlocker?

 

[Neemobeer]

Depends on what edition of Windows you have. Bitlocker is only available on Pro and Enterprise. You could look at veracrypt. If you don't have really sensitive data you probably should forgo disk encryption.

 

[corvairbob]

bitlocker shows up in my system i have the pro version. so if i turn that on will the encrypt my drive good enough to help protect it for hackers? or if someone was to take my pc hard drive. if someone took my pc and was able to get into it that bitlocker is not much good but for online hackers will that do a good job of protecting my data? thanks

 

[Neemobeer]

No disk encryption only protects data at rest. It's not a trivial attack to retrieve the key from memory. They would require skills most people don't possess to gain access to the data and really only if the system is on and logged in

 

[corvairbob]

No disk encryption only protects data at rest.

ok thanks when my pc got locked up yesterday i noticed some type of bitlocker was installed. so that may have been aftermarket protection. so what might be better to install or turn on the window bitlocker ot an aftermarket program? i have a bitlocker program but i do not want to add some much to the norton program that it starts to bog down. i now see when i want to download a program it takes like 5 or 10 seconds now, i think norton is checking it out to make sure it is safe. or spybot may be also. thanks