I live in Canada. Been using Kaspersky for years. Really enjoy the “secure browser” feature that ties to particular URLs.
The government of Canada recently banned Kaspersky on government devices, and to prevent any issues I figured I’d let my Kaspersky just expire and I’ll just finally switch. I’ve heard Sophos and Bitdefender recommended to me, but which one is better and why? I see a lot of conflicting information online including from this subreddit. And do either have that secure browser option?
(P.S. do not tell me Windows AV is all I need, because I am not the only user of the AV and I, unlike many, do go on shady sites sometimes. And frankly you don’t gotta click anything at all for it to attack you.)
Bitdefender has a similar performance with Kaspersky in Antivirus tests. Of course you can’t always rely on av tests, because you’ll need to use your common sense as well. I suggest you to use their free trial first before switching.
Bitdefender is better than Sophos. The secure browser is mainly just to prevent spyware on your device from viewing the contents of the browser. I think Bitdefender might have something similar, but instead of the browser, the virtualization is like an entire operating system session. So, files you download from the secure browser will still be isolated from any spyware, but at the same time, it may also mean they will be isolated from the rest of your system for legitimate purposes.
Switch to Bitdefender free but if you want to pay for antivirus I recommend Emsisoft it uses Dual detection engines, Emsisoft own engine (a) detects mainstream threads torjans that’s very known adware/spyware/scareware and their second engine is Bitdefender (b) which detects unknown threads ransomware/Trojans that’s unknown
Sophos is great. However, it’s main focus is in it’s endpoint security/suite which if you are familiar with are mostly used by enterprises or companies.
Bitdefender on the other hand specializes in consumer AV and on the affordability side of things, it’s much more amenable than Sophos pricing.
Though I do really like sophos advanced features (The XG firewall, Intercept X), I think for a plug and run AV - Bitdefender is better at that.
It’s ok, it honestly reminds me of bit defender, but I feel like bit defenders UI it’s much more consumer/business facing in the way that they are plug and play - install, scan, profit; like other users said, most AVs are just tools to be able to root out problems. Any dedicated attacker will necessitate vigilance and common sense.
What I do see recommended often is to have two programs you trust, with one being an online scanner for quick scans.
Then you can use your installed AV for more serious searches like a boot scan, or offline scans.