My mini Ask HN:
Do you trust makers of security software?
Do you trust makers of security software?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/31/trend_micro_patches_...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3020327/antivirus-software-co...
But in the context of ransomware, the advice presented here is game-theoretically sound (and proven by thousands of years of experience in dealing with criminals demanding ransom), so I do trust it.
Identifying good vendors and products is generally harder. I've heard good things about canary.tools and bromium, for example. Both explain what they do in terms that don't make a techie roll their eyes (too much at least): https://canary.tools/#how-it-works and https://www.bromium.com/advanced-endpoint-security/our-techn...
A good (but not exhaustive) test is to look at what the vendors promise. If they promise you full protection of your machine or network, you know they are full of shit. If they talk only about one aspect (identifying attackers, reducing the attack surface on a browser), things start to look better.
I don't trust them to make good quality software which works quietly and efficiently in my interest.
They basically sell a security theatre product where their motivations are to popup "PROTECTED BY ____" at all times so I don't forget it exists, and to look busy - typically by scanning the same files over and over even though they haven't changed in months - and to hook into everything to add more sales buzzwords to their product.