Does Anyone Else Here Have Bitdefender Antivirus? If So, Do You Use The VPN?

[Drummond]

I recently tried purchasing the full (premium) version of Malwarebytes, having just used their trial version, which I was pleased with. The payment I attempted never reached them (I've no idea why). So ... I have been considering alternatives, and Bitdefender seemed the ideal one.

If my second attempt to pay for the premium Malwarebytes also fails, I'm going to go with Bitdefender.

Kaspersky looks good, and sells, apparently, at a cut price. HOWEVER ... the British Government was given advice, a warning, not to install Kaspersky on any of their computers.

See this:

https://news.sky.com/story/british-g...tware-11152445

The Government has been warned by Britain's main cyber security agency not to use Russian anti-virus software.

Moscow-based security software maker Kaspersky Lab is the largest Russian software agency operating in the UK.

Director of the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Ciaran Martin, said Russia has the intent "to target UK central Government and the UK's critical national infrastructure".

In a letter to Whitehall chiefs, he said Russian software should be avoided in systems containing information concerning national security.

Calling Russia a "highly capable cyber threat actor", he said the country uses cyberspace for "espionage, disruption and influence operations".

[No doubt some passing Russian contributor (Balu ?) will come on here to complain about supposed anti-Russian propaganda ... ?]

By the way, on VPN's .. I see no good reason to use them, not if anti-virus & anti-malware software is up to its promised spec. Except for one, that is. If you wanted to use a foreign media outlet's services, VPN's should be a good way of gaining access. For example - if (however improbably !) someone in the US wanted to open an access account to the BBC's 'iPlayer' video service, it locks out all attempts if they seemingly originate from beyond the UK. With a VPN set up to use a UK-based server ... 'iPlayer', so I've read, can be fooled into thinking that's where you're from. Therefore, you get access.