====== Antivirus (AV) ======

Most of the time you do not need a third-party antivirus! Most people using Windows will be fine using [[.:windows:defender|Windows Defender]] in addition to blocking advertisements in their browsers. GNU/Linux users do not need an antivirus software at all most of the time.

===== reasons for not using 3rd party AV software =====

==== SSL stripping proxies ====
Some antivirus software installs a web proxy on your system which intercepts every download. While this is effective against malicious software, it can also be exploited when there is a bug in the proxy which enables drive-by downloads.

==== Articles ====
  * [[https://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Kasper-Spy-Kaspersky-Anti-Virus-puts-users-at-risk-4496138.html|Kasper-Spy: Kaspersky Anti-Virus puts users at risk]] (by injecting [[:dev:js|JavaScript]] into every page)

===== Best practices =====
  * Install an adblocker in your browser (e.g. uBlock Origin)
  * Advanced: block malicious ads and software with a Pi-Hole blocklist
  * Advanced: Use a package manager like [[:admin:windows:chocolatey]] on Windows
  * Linux: Only install software available in your [[:guide:linux:distributions|distribution]]'s package manager

===== Help! My AV found malicious software! =====
You can upload suspicious files to [[https://virustotal.com|virustotal.com]] to see the results from other virus scanning engines.

==== it has "Generic" in its name ====

The fact that the name contains "Generic" means the AV didn't detect anything, it just means it found some programming patterns in there that it also found in viruses.