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Community Support

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6.7K Messages

Monday, April 10th, 2017 7:48 PM

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Hack Attack: Internet & Email Security - Knowledge Share Wednesday, 04/26/17, 1-4pm ET

Hack Attack Int and Email.jpg

 

Long gone are the days that each of us feel comfortable leaving our front door open to our home. That applies even more so to our virtual home and identity on the internet. Join the conversation as we discuss and share knowledge on a topic that affects us all: Internet & Email Security.

 

Learn more about internet and email security here. Think your email was hacked? - Learn how to secure your email here.

*I am an AT&T employee, and the postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent AT&T's position, strategies or opinions.

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Tutor

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8 Messages

7 years ago

I've been using McAfee and the latest version seems to be a real resource hog.  When I first boot up, and running pretty much idle, it can take up to 20 min before my disk activity drops below 90%.  I didn't have this issue before the last release.

Former Employee

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4.9K Messages

7 years ago

@Tigereyze209, @Dah333, @RhodesMan:

Thanks for your questions! Our team is working on getting the answers for you.

Master

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

Yeah, @Dah333, I've never had great success with McAfee myself (although it generally does okay in reviews).

Did you check out what's using the processing, with all that disk activity?  If you look at the TaskManager (ctrl-shift-esc), you can sort by disk, cpu, memory, etc.  

My bet is that it's indexing, but if it's your AV (McAfee), I'd be uninstall/reinstalling first, and maybe trying Defender (hey, it's free, and consistently gets good reviews, maybe not not top-notch, but pretty darn good).

Community Support

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6.7K Messages

7 years ago

Hi @RhodesMan,

 

Want Safer Passwords? Don’t Change Them So Often.

There are many things to ensure a secure password, but here are some helpful tips:

  • Create a longer password to make it harder to hack.
  • Avoid common words that could be easy to guess.
  • Avoid obvious series like 123456, abcdef, or qwerty.
  • Avoid personal information that’s easy to find on the Internet (your name, Social Security number, date of birth, or pet’s name, for example).
  • Avoid re-using passwords.

-ATTU-verseCare

Professor

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2.2K Messages

7 years ago

Passwords:

Having strong unique passwords for email and websites is extremely important but impossible to manage. I would highly recommend using a 'password manager'. I personally use a password manager that keeps an encrypted password file on each of my devices and synchronizes that file between my devices. Choose a password that has good ratings, has been around for several years, and meets your requirements.

 

Antivirus:

When I was a Windows user, an antivirus was a must though I hated the performance hit. Now that I am an Apple person, antivirus is not as important as long as you are not in the habit of installing apps from non-major brand sites.

Tutor

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8 Messages

7 years ago

I was watching task manager and was just sorting on disk, but it seems to be
spread across several programs. I'll have to look closer at that the next
time I boot.



Thanks

Master

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

Yep, @ApexRon, on the manager, definitely key to keeping at least a "unique set" of passwords (I tend to separate mine into levels of "sensitivity"), the sync'd manager makes it MANAGEABLE ;-]

I would say that Defender (on a bad day) uses 1-5% of load, unless of course you're doing a full-disk scan or something.  It's probably the "least invasive", yet highly-effective, in most scenarios, and the signatures are usually very current.

ACE - Guru

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986 Messages

7 years ago

The first thing I do on any new machine that comes bundled with McAfee is uninstall it.

I have always find it and others hogs.

As pgrey said, if you don't visit questionable sites and are disciplined about opening questionable emails then Windows Defender should work just fine.

I have run my whole families machines like this with never an issue.

 

Former Employee

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408 Messages

7 years ago


@RhodesMan wrote:

So to get the ball rolling here are a couple of topics that I have researched in the past.

Want Safer Passwords? Don’t Change Them So Often.

What’s the Best Antivirus for Windows 10? (Is Windows Defender Good Enough?)



@pgrey wrote:

Sure, you could add "write 'em down, in a safe place", my #1 recommendation to people regarding passwords (okay, outside of the obvious, "don't use "1234""), and consider a reputable password "vault".

I could probably write volumes about the Defender issue, being a former Windows dev, mostly hardware and driver/plugin stuff though, but security is always a big part...  I think it's "good enough" for most people, but for those visiting a lot of "questionable" sites, or unknown, I sometimes recommend running a separate malware app (excluding each other, of course).


 

Hey @RhodesMan,

 

The best Antivirus is always going to be subjective. For some heavy PC users who want incredible customization, they might consider Nod32 to be the best. For the casual user with a stock PC, Webroot or McAfee might be the best in their case.

 

Overall, I think Windows Defender does a great job of protecting PCs. Couple that with User Account Control (the popup that stops you from installing anything without your permission), you’re pretty much set.

 

Having some common sense will go a long way. If something is too good to be true, it probably is. Be careful when clicking download links; a lot of “Start Download Now” buttons lead you down a path that is not where you generally want to go.

 

One cool feature from AT&T is that we provide McAfee as part of your account. For more details, check out this page.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Master

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

Yeah, @Dah333, take a look and make a "short list" in order of use, both for disk and CPU, and see if they're the same.  Sometimes, the disk/CPU use will manifest in a Windows system service(s) too, so the list can be great at diagnosing things (the cross-section of both) in this area.

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