Advice Request Is Kaspersky trustable?

[KonradPL]

I have 10 devices. Five of them have Bitdefender Total Security (5 user cost me $19.99) and the other five have Kaspersky Total Security (5 user cost me $18.99) and both are excellent. Bitdefender does use more RAM and I notice CPU usage when idle to be about 2% and sometimes 1%. . Kaspersky uses less RAM and CPU usage when idle is 1% and as low as .15%.

On my main PC K uses ~130MB Ram and ~0.3% CPU. It`s very light, Full scan takes ~25 min

 

[Anthony Qian]

In terms of privacy protection, I do hope Kaspersky can show which files have been sent to KSN for analysis in the log, just as Norton (Norton Community Watch) and ESET (LiveGrid) do.

 

[MacDefender]

In terms of privacy protection, I do hope Kaspersky can show which files have been sent to KSN for analysis in the log, just as Norton (Norton Community Watch) and ESET (LiveGrid) do.

Not just files but a lot of other metadata too like hashes of all active processes, certain directory listings, etc. it looks like Kaspersky is purposely secretive about this as a way of preventing reverse engineering of their cloud protection component. I’ve tried a few techniques to intercept this data without much luck.

 

[Zorro]

Hello

I`m consider to choose between Bitdefender Total and Kaspersky Total but i`m afraid to trust them. (K)
I came from central europe (Poland) and as you probably know that Russian gov don`t like us.

For privacy and over security of data which one will be safer choice?

Regards

The trust question can be asked to any antivirus program. Earlier, there were already laid out tables about what information different antiviruses collect and send, and although Kaspersky collects a lot of information, there are antiviruses that collect even more than Kaspersky

 

[Jan Willy]

For privacy and over security of data which one will be safer choice?

Why don't you stay with MS Defender?

 

[dabluez98]

First, it may be that those claims, which are unfounded anyway, pertain more to its VPN.

However, if you believe that the russian gov is actively seeking you, maybe don't use, although, i am sure they have more ways to target and hack you than through kaspersky. I personally like kaspersky a lot. As always, I have echoed what others have said here - i am more fearful of software that is owned/connected to the government in the country which I live, than that which is from other government.

Need I also say if you have social media accounts, then I'd get rid of those too, because those are big holes themselves.

 

[dabluez98]

Personally, I never ever have believed in the hype about MS Security's improvements of MS Defender reaching the heights of a good internet security suite such as Kaspersky IS and others.

 

[MacDefender]

Personally, I never ever have believed in the hype about MS Security's improvements of MS Defender reaching the heights of a good internet security suite such as Kaspersky IS and others.

Why don't you stay with MS Defender?

I fully expect (and look forward to) @Andy Ful schooling me on this, but though MS Defender has excellent protection and keeps improving, I find Kaspersky has a longer track record and more of the kitchen sink. They have world class signatures, some of the most responsive zero day -> cloud propagation time, and one of the best behavior blockers on the market. On top of all of that, it’s paired with fairly good anti phishing and web filtering / IPS signatures.

Very few vendors bring all of that to the table at an acceptable performance.

 

[Jan Willy]

From the point of view of protection you can as home-user hardly make a wrong choise. But if you don't trust (rightly or wrongly) the company behind the AV don't even think about it.
Edit: as Windows-user you have already sold your soul to MS. So it's obvious to choose MS Defender.

 

[Sammo]

On my main PC K uses ~130MB Ram and ~0.3% CPU. It`s very light, Full scan takes ~25 min

Yup. And most of my CPU usage at idle is by the Task Manager, so KST is indeed actually very quiet.

 

[Anthony Qian]

Yup. And most of my CPU usage at idle is by the Task Manager, so KST is indeed actually very quiet.

But when browsing websites, KIS’s CPU usage increases to 10-20%. So I usually disable “inject script into web traffic to interact with web pages” function.

 

[Sammo]

But when browsing websites, KIS’s CPU usage increases to 10-20%. So I usually disable “inject script into web traffic to interact with web pages” function.

I don't see much CPU increase when browsing sites, just a small temporary spike of a few percentages.

 

[Andy Ful]

I fully expect (and look forward to) @Andy Ful schooling me on this, but though MS Defender has excellent protection and keeps improving, I find Kaspersky has a longer track record and more of the kitchen sink. They have world class signatures, some of the most responsive zero day -> cloud propagation time, and one of the best behavior blockers on the market. On top of all of that, it’s paired with fairly good anti phishing and web filtering / IPS signatures.

Very few vendors bring all of that to the table at an acceptable performance.

Comparing two security products is a very complex task.
So, let's limit ourselves to the protection of home users. I think that I could defend the below standpoint:

• When we compare free products, then there is no real difference (in protection) between Defender (with Edge) and Kaspersky.
• On Windows 10 (also Home editions), one can tweak Defender free (for example via ConfigureDefender HIGH or MAX settings) to get much of Kaspersky paid (KIS), but this will increase the number of false positives.
• One can tweak Kaspersky paid (KIS + @harlan4096 settings) to be stronger than Defender with ConfigureDefender MAX settings.
• Advanced home users can tweak Windows 10 and Defender free to get a similar level of protection as tweaked Kaspersky paid, with a similar false positives rate.

 

[KonradPL]

But when browsing websites, KIS’s CPU usage increases to 10-20%. So I usually disable “inject script into web traffic to interact with web pages” function.

Not in my case. On ma PC is about 1% with with web scanning

 

[KonradPL]

Comparing two security products is a very complex task.
So, let's limit ourselves to the protection of home users. I think that I could defend the below standpoint:

• When we compare free products, then there is no real difference (in protection) between Defender (with Edge) and Kaspersky.
• On Windows 10 (also Home editions), one can tweak Defender free (for example via ConfigureDefender HIGH or MAX settings) to get much of Kaspersky paid (KIS), but this will increase the number of false positives.
• One can tweak Kaspersky paid (KIS + @harlan4096 settings) to be stronger than Defender with ConfigureDefender MAX settings.
• Advanced home users can tweak Windows 10 and Defender free to get a similar level of protection as tweaked Kaspersky paid, with a similar false positives rate.

Yeas, I agree. But I wanted all in one, not only for windows but for android too for whole familly members.
With configurdefender with max setting I had some problems for example with WD My Cloud etc. In Kaspersky I better know what I change in options

 

[Andy Ful]

With configurdefender with max setting I had some problems for example with WD My Cloud etc.

Interesting. Could you describe the problem in the ConfigureDefender thread?
https://malwaretips.com/threads/configuredefender-utility-for-windows-10.79039/
This might help other users to solve the problem.