
Ask HN: Best Anti-Virus/Security Set Up for Seniors? - cascom
What security setup do your recommend for seniors on windows based systems? Without having a fully managed setup is there some combination of security settings or programs that alleviates most potential problems seniors are likely to encounter using a typical windows computer.
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DrScump
Microsoft Security Essentials. Free, auto-updating, and you forever avoid the
extortionist dinning renewal scare tactics of the commercial products.

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BeReADY
My 2 cents; ironically I can speak from a bit of experience as this question
is one I encounter daily. I am Co-Founder of a company which is owned and
influenced by a “senior” for “seniors” this exact topic was the main source of
our inspiration to start our company. The owner of the company we co-founded
6-7 years ago was our Mom Mrs. Burger – the sweetest, most caring, and moral
woman! No joke… she has a big influence on our company culture and moral
mission to help seniors, help themselves with antivirus security software and
overall technical maintenance of devices. Over the years we built a very loyal
customer base of mainly seniors and other age groups as well, it was a slow
and but steady process but once we built a foundation of about 1,000 customers
we realized that we had something special. I look back over the years and can
honestly say that by simply doing the right thing, by having a genuine
interest providing honest help to those who are willing to help themselves
with regards to antivirus software’s, cyber-security solutions and data
protection processes or just general maintenance, the KEY I recommend for
seniors using Windows based systems, without having a fully managed system or
semi-managed system for support services would be as follows without giving
away to much.

1.We made a conscious choice to invest our greatest asset our “time”, up-front
without expecting anything in return. We educate, empower and assist the
senior on exactly what they need to know to be safe. Most importantly above
all else you must have patience when dealing with seniors, I have found
seniors pay attention very well if they find it important or critical, that’s
why it’s best to start small and build action-by-action while guiding them
step-by-step over time, do not overwhelm them trying to complete everything
upfront. Mind your manners and be polite.

2\. We actually decided developed our own antivirus software. It was designed
to be very easy to use, keeping it super simple to operate without support,
the antivirus software provides complete security 365 days a year, In addition
our software was designed to work well with legacy technology and older models
of tech and the antivirus software will run/operate at the same time any other
antivirus software is running allowing the user a redundancy or secondary
solution to ensure nothing is missed. Also we find seniors really do NOT like
using "the cloud".

3.After running cyber-security antivirus software which is FREE for 14-days so
basically risk-free we begin the real practical application of our process.
This the data protection portion of the cyber-security process, we have
document processing tool that we show the senior how to use to complete either
fraud alert or security freeze depending on each of the 3 major credit
bureaus, depending on specific assessment questions we can determine what
actions need to be taken to ensure a seniors identity is protected. It is
super important to know the difference in the two types of alert that can be
added.

4.Then taking the time again after providing complete report logs of the deep
scans, defrags or system optimizations and carefully explaining the report log
to the senior and after taking action to secure your credit reports and data
with the 3 major credit bureaus, the next stage would be to secure your
password for all sites suchs as FB,gmails, online banking ect ect, using
systems and or tools such as LastPass which also comes with cool usb key from
yubico key. You can easily google them.

In short I suppose that no one solution is the BEST ANTIVIRUS/Security Set-up
for seniors as is the same with all other age groups or organizations. Cyber-
security and Data protection doesn’t just start and stop when you turn on and
off your online devices. It starts with people who are willing to take action
and personal responsibility for how they use internet, how they understand the
hardware being used and the best ways to stay safe and secure with your data
online. At the end of the day seniors who can delegate or collaborate simply
want peace-of-mind.

Check us out [https://www.ms365security.com/](https://www.ms365security.com/)
or [https://www.mainsource365.com/](https://www.mainsource365.com/)

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stevenbug88
Hey BeReADY, thanks for the awesome reply to this thread. I really appreciate
your efforts to write a detailed and helpful response to the question. You
guys are awesome and also your company. I must try to download your software
and possibly make a blog out of it. Thanks.

