Where is Your Antivirus Made? - Comments Page 2

My AV Bitdefender is from Romania. Romania, like the Czech Republic and Slovakia, was formerly under the Soviet sphere of influence. But today those countries are democracies and members of NATO and the European Union. So no worse than anywhere else. Unfortunately there dont seem to be any good free US AVs. Bitdefender is highly rated. I like it because it is free and unobtrusive. It stays out of the way, doesnt use resources, and you dont even know it is there.

I would place no more trust in products developed in the USA than those developed elsewhere in the world. The USA might not hold guns to the heads as has been suggested may occur in some other countries, but they do have plenty of other weapons in the arsenal, such as government contracts, granting or withholding licences, tax incentives or rigorous auditing. Independent testing is a good guide. No-one and nothing is infallible. (Except Bob of course)

Considering that China has been making a strong push into hacking for corporate espionage and that nothing significant happens there without party approval, I wouldn't bet that they wouldn't allow "friendly" malware to stay.

Russia is currently being run by a former leader in the KGB. People there have some free will but not if you make Putin unhappy.

A pretty darn good AV, that I have used before, which was not mentioned is Lavasoft's Ad-Aware, a Canadian company. Its as good or better than many of the ones mentioned above I believe.

I suppose it's thought that using only USA made A/V products makes it trustworthy. Where do you draw a line? Smart phones, smart TV's, smart cars, tablets, PC's, this list is endless, and nearly all of these are foreign made. They could be spying on you, but so could Apple or Microsoft. After Ed Snowdon's revelations Ive got my doubts about US made computer products being 100% trustworthy but I'll continue to use them as they fulfill my needs. And I've nothing to hide anyway!

If you rule out Kapersky and Bitdefender (mine) you rule out the top 2 (US tested) rating defence programs in the world.

Of course, as an Aussie, I suspect everyone else !!

Seriously though, what are you going to do? If the sky has fallen, too late for umbrellas - just stay inside (away from the internet)?

You mention in your article QUOTE AVG is Dutch UNQUOTE. To the best of my knowledge, that quote is incorrect and the proper country that AVG (formerly Grisoft)comes from, is Czechoslovakia. IMHO, the best antivirus out there - F-PROT, comes from Iceland and I have been using it since it's inception in 1989. In my professional opinion as the owner of a small Computer Security business, F-Prot does not get the credit it has earned since 1989 when "FRISK" created it.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The company was founded in Czech Republic, but the original owner sold it in 2001. It is now headquartered in Amsterdam. Wanna go double dutch? :-)

Good article, good points. Like you, I am (and
have been for several years) using Avast. Free
and highly rated. I tend to depend on the "trees
in the forest" concept: I am not rich and have
no secrets worth stealing, meaning others are more
worth targeting. My AV and anti-malware solutions
are mostly to prevent unwanted issues.

I have been using Kaspersky for a long time now. As far as I know there have never been any "serious" doubts about their independence in all those years.

I don't trust this "submitted software". The tester should go out and buy it off the shelf much like Consumer Reports says it does. This way you have a better chance of getting an authentic product sample. I can see where there would be chance for the supplier to pull a switch.

I avoid Kaspersky for that reason. Just couldn't be comfortable, although I'm sure it's baseless. I go to the Czech Republic all the time, since it's less than an hour from home, our town's internet was set up by Czechs and lots of workers are from there. Hopefully, we can trust them. :-) Please do let us know if there is a problem more than just an uneasy feeling.

I use Avira, having switched from AVG a year ago. I did recently change backup software to EaseUS Todo, which is written in China. Being somewhat paranoid re: computer security, I'm almost having second thoughts after reading your article. But one can't paint all citizens of a country with the same brush as the bad guys.

Reading your articles are very informative as well as entertaining. Thanks for all your efforts,Bob. Reading this article made me pause and reflect on my computer usage and have come to the sad realization that my (internet) life has become so mundane that I have nothing on line that is worth protecting. Having said that, I dual boot my computer with Linux Mint and virtually eliminated my need for anti-virus protection. For those occasions I need to use Windows, I still use AVG.

I just installed 2015 Panda Free Anti-Virus which comes from Spain. It was PC Mag's recent #1 pick for free AV software. Have been a long time Avast user but recently my PC got infected so thought I would try something different. Just gotta be careful.

After reading this post, and seeing an AV comparo link in BillMullins blog, I had posted a comment at his neat WordPress blog about your article. I noticed today that he has provided a link to your page...

Has anyone heard of that mysterious organization called NSA? Can you really believe American-made software of any kind is more secure when the NSA apparently has extra-constitutional powers?

Well, I suppose that the USA and the UK would have just as much reason to keep on eye on their nationals, so made in the USA or made in the UK wouldn't mean a thing as far as who is spying on who is concerned. I have used Bullguard for many years and through many versions. And the reason? It was used by Waitrose when they were my internet service provider. Waitrose is a brand name I trust and so I stuck with the antivirus software they recommended.
Mind, if GCHQ and the FBI would find copies of our minister's Sunday Sermon interesting to read and copies of pictures of the trees coming into bud in Toronto interesting they are most welcome to that. They could email me and I will forward them copies saving the trouble of breaking into my computer.

Sophos - English / UK.

It is actually a fact that Kaspersky is very close to the Russian security services (FSB and SVR), and not for the very anecdotal reasons given in the Bloomberg article.

If I remember correctly (but do check this), its founder was himself a Russian spy, or at least went to the KGB school. At times, they have whole teams of FSB people working inside their facilities. Those facts, and others, have been published by an authoritative source which I don't remember right now, but you'll find it if you look for it.

Kaspersky does not deny that closeness. What they say is that it does not affect the reliability of their products. They point out that they advise several foreign governments about computer security, and that they would not be able to do that if they compromised their clients on behalf of Russia's secret services.

Of course, we do know on the other hand that Russia is a ruthless practicioner of cyberwar, electronic eavesdropping on foreign states and corporations, theft of industrial and economic secrets, and disinformation. Various fronts are used for such "active measures", the official Russian name for those activities. Strange as it may seem, it's still possible that Kaspersky sells safe products and has a very close relationship with FSB and SVR.

Paranoia much?