IMO, you're overthinking your security. Sophos Home alone would be fine, so would Kaspersky, so would most solutions. Pairing them with OSArmor or VoodooShield is the most you need, don't go overboard with an AV, anti-exe and Firewall w/ HIPS, overlapping web filtering, sandboxing and overlapping default-deny features.
I agree with this.
There's always a tendency to think that more is better when it comes to security, when it's actually the opposite.
If you want a free solution, I can vouch for Sophos Home and how dirt cheap it is for 10 Windows PCs and Macs. No BS, pure protection and like Emsisoft you can use the dashboard to configure settings across devices and remotely.
I agree!
Sophos Home/Premiums is an excellent product IMO. One area that it is weak in is scripts (so are many other programs), but if you pair it with something like OSA, Syshardener, H_C, or Voodooshield, you will pretty much have that covered. What I've come to hate about most 3rd party AV's/Suites is that I find they are too in your face, as they are always trying to prove themselves IMO. Whether it be AD's, "security reports," constant pop ups for this and that, saying that you are vulnerable if you don't renew, etc..., it's too much IMO. It's the reason as to why I've moved away from using most 3rd parties and switched to WD as it just works, it's protection has improved significantly and it's not in your face. Like you, when it comes to 3rd parties, if I had to choose it would be either Sophos, or Emsisoft, as they are also no nonsense, just work type of products. I don't need all they extra useless modules to make me feel safe, I just want something that works and only notifies me if something is wrong.
I agree with this as well. If you aren’t opening unknown attachments or downloading cracks or torrents and are a home user a lot of security software discussed here is overboard. There are definitely use cases for locking things down, but don’t drive yourself crazy looking for a perfect combo of multiple solutions.
Your habits are everything IMO.
We like to talk about and test various security programs/setups, which is totally fine, but I find there is too much emphasis put on security programs and not enough on educating proper security habits. If you have poor habits, no matter which security product/setup you use, it will fail at some point. I am not a huge fan of when people are asking for which program they should use and you have replies like: "well if you practice safe habits than you are ok to use x, however if you don't practice safe habits then you should use y." For the record I'm not saying anyone in this thread said that, it just a common reply I seen on various forums/websites on the internet. Using y product when practicing unsafe habits isn't going to make you invincible. If you don't change your habits, y product will fail you are some point.
I really don't like the excuse "oh average people don't want to learn, or don't care." In my honest experience, I have seen that to be quite the opposite. Every time I tell someone that they shouldn't do something on the internet, they don't do it. Sometimes I think what happens is that an assumption is made (average people don't want to learn), but no one really tries to teach them, they just assume they don't want to learn. Don't get me wrong there are people that no matter what you say, or do, they won't change what they do, but I don't agree with a blanket statement that is made to essentially say "all average users don't want to learn," that's far from the truth, all you have to do is try.
A proper security setup isn't just about which programs you like to use, it's also about ensuring you are practicing safe habits along side those security programs to keep yourself safe.
