1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 Microsoft said this week that Windows Defender is all you need. Craig's response is a memory: fifteen or twenty years ago he received a postcard from Microsoft telling him that if he had Windows and Office installed, he was covered. Same claim, same company, two decades apart. His own numbers are the most useful thing in the segment because they are specific and they are honest about where he sits in the picture. Windows Defender gets you roughly 70% of the way there. Add something like Bitdefender — the only third-party product he'll name — and you're at about 85%. The remaining ten or fifteen points are the expensive part, because that is where continuous monitoring and specialist tooling start, and that's the part he does for a living. He isn't claiming the free tier is worthless. He's telling you what it buys and what it doesn't. Which is why he wrote the thing he announces here: free software that looks at your Windows machine and reports indications of compromise. Is Defender actually installed? Is the antivirus you think you have doing what it should? The things you cannot see by looking. He decided to make it free outright after Microsoft's announcement. His observation about why people don't check is the honest one — some think they're fine, and some are afraid to look. Jeff asks the question everyone with a company laptop asks: what about the rest of us who can't just switch? Craig's practical answer is hardening — the settings that close gaps and improve privacy — and he holds up the Microsoft PDF he printed for it, over 1,200 pages, written before Copilot went into every corner of the operating system. Also in this segment: Why the antivirus that came with your computer is worth what you paid: manufacturers receive roughly $10 for pre-loading the bloatware you then spend hours removing An executive order signed around June 2 requiring federal systems and networks to actually be patched — and the part that matters commercially, that it pushes down to anyone holding a federal contract. Craig expects it to catch a lot of companies off guard Mint Linux for machines Windows 11 abandoned: free updates, kernel support for decades, and you can run it off a thumb drive to try it without touching what's on the disk European governments moving off Microsoft entirely to Linux and open-source office software Craig on why he's a Unix man — it was built with security in mind at AT&amp;amp;T, hardened further by California university students trying to change their own grades, and the internet was built on it. Apple's move to a Unix base uses code Craig himself wrote Free newsletter: CraigPeterson.com Craig Peterson - Secure Your Business, Your Privacy, and Save Your Sanity https://cptt.libsyn.com/podcast <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/42870685/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/item/42870685