Should I believe Consumer Reports when............

[dkryan]

ThreatExpert and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, and the Sophos Anti-Rootkit: three I've never heard of!

I confess: I'm not an IT expert and as I've always said, I know enough to get me into trouble (sometimes) with PCs, but not enough to get me out of trouble.

I consider myself well-read, but strangely enough, as much as I'm in front of a PC, I rarely, if ever, touch a copy of the major PC magazines that are in circulation.

Hence, my reliance (reluctantly) on CR and more importantly, the feedback I receive at BITOG's computer forum.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Mystic]

Consumer Reports probably contracts out to some company for testing of anti-virus software, computers, etc. They probably do little or no testing themselves.

You definitely do not want to download some malware that is supposed to be a free malware scan of your computer or whatever. There are a lot of fake antivirus and antispyware programs floating around.

And when you do download some program make sure you are at a legit website. If you are unsure about anything, it is best just to use the antivirus and antispyware program you buy at a computer store.

But if you do have a few programs instead of just one antivirus, it improves your chances of actually detecting malware. I like to use the best antivirus I can find and then use programs that do not run in real time and therefore do not interfere with the A/V. I like ThreatExpert, SuperAntispyware, Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, and the Sophos anti-rootkit. Even with these programs if you are attacked the best thing might be just to re-install your operating system. So always have backups of all of your important stuff saved to an external hard drive. I doubt if any malware can survive a re-install of the operating system (with a format of the hard drive before the re-install).

Again, however, if you are not confident about any free programs like Threatfire or Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, that is no problem. Use the best anti-virus you can find at a computer store, don't fall for any scams like a fake antivirus scan on the internet, backup your stuff, and if anything bad happens as long as your stuff is backed up all you have to do is re-install your operating system. And common sense on the internet. There is good stuff on the internet, but there is also evil.

 

[Mystic]

Just one more thing-those PC Magazines are often on the internet. You don't have to buy one-you can often find the articles in those magazines right on the internet.

 

[SLCraig]

I prefer TrendMicro products, although I think they are more an enterprise type of software. I dont know what they offer for home use...

I usually just run Housecall every now and again (free internet based scan) and leave A/V off my computer entirely. As for firewall, I use my router for that.

 

[Mystic]

TrendMicro claims that there needs to be new, more realistic testing of antivirus programs-and I agree with that. There was some testing by some lab called NSS Labs or something like that and TrendMicro actually scored number one against online threats. And in the CR testing TrendMicro did the best against online threats. I know of some testing that was paid for by Symantec (yes, Symantec paid for it) with the testing done by an independent lab. They tested ten antivirus programs. And three of those programs tested above all the rest. The three were Norton, Kaspersky, and TrendMicro.

I like TrendMicro in some ways and it sure is cheaper than Kaspersky. But I think they need to develop a new, better UI and reduce startup time, and how much computer resources are required by the antivirus. And they need to improve scan time. I have serious doubts about McAfee but they did develop a better UI and reduce scan time. And they actually tested better than Norton in testing done by MaximumPC.

Something I have noticed is that some specialized programs can actually detect stuff that these antivirus programs cannot. For example, ThreatExpert can often detect stuff in heap memory. And MBAM can sometimes detect stuff that a typical A/V will not detect. Same with the Sophos anti-rookit. If thest programs can detect the stuff there is no reason why the A/V programs cannot. I do think there are quality differences between A/V programs. But ALL of these A/V programs need better detection.

If these A/V programs could detect everything as well as some other specialized programs can do maybe a person could just get a good A/V and good firewall and be in pretty good shape.

 

[dkryan]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Just one more thing-those PC Magazines are often on the internet. You don't have to buy one-you can often find the articles in those magazines right on the internet.


Thanks!


Originally Posted By: SLCraig

As for firewall, I use my router for that.


Yeah, OverK1ll educated me on the fact my wireless router WAS a firewall.

Originally Posted By: Mystic
If these A/V programs could detect everything as well as some other specialized programs can do maybe a person could just get a good A/V and good firewall and be in pretty good shape.


The biggest attraction with I/S for folks (justified or not) is: a) they are not aware of all of the latest (free or not) protection programs that exist, and b) we are likely concerned with one or more "protection" programs "conflicting" with one another, beyond just running two A/Vs on the same PC.

This, coming from a guy who has no idea what "heap memory" is! Is that an offspring of Uriah Heep?

 

[Mystic]

Never run two A/V programs at the same time, or two software firewalls. You can run a hardware firewall, like in a moden/router, and a software firewall.

G-Data is an antivirus program that actually somehow runs two antivirus engines. But it is one program.

The programs I talked about above do not run in 'real time,' or to put it into proper English-they don't run all the time. So they don't interfere with your antivirus program.

Be careful what programs you do download from the internet. There are a lot of phoney security programs. If in doubt, don't download. As long as you exercise common sense on the internet you should be safe with your antivirus and your firewall. And don't forget to back up your data! As long as you have backups you can defeat any of these fancy malware programs. It will cost you some time and effort but as long as you have backups you can just erase the hard drive and re-install. With Windows 7 you can create a system image and backup all of your files.

 

[sprintman]

And still I run MBAM every day to see if NIS has let anything through, and a bunch of others like Sophos anti rootkit on an ad-hoc basis, and still nothing. After NIS 2011 is a released product I will probably flick MBAM as well. Thank you Symantec!

 

[Mystic]

Sprintman I was pounded here for praising the Norton 2010 Antivirus. I was not even saying that it was necessarily good to run it by itself. But really the most important things are good common sense on the internet, a good antivirus program and firewall, and backups. As long as somebody has good backups they can easily reinstall their operating system if they are attacked. Sure, it will take some time and be unpleasant but as long as all data is backed up all it takes is some time.

If somebody has an Apple Computer in addition to their Windows Computer it does not hurt to run an Apple Computer on the internet. For whatever reason there are still fewer threats to the Apple.

 

[Hermann]

Microsoft's Security Essentials is just fine IMO, uses very little system resources and produces results. It questions me about software it is not familiar with, and in 6 months has caught 5 suspicious items, two from links on BITOG.

 

[sprintman]

It's an OK product but it is just a point product.

 

[Mystic]

I am glad that Microsoft did come out with an antivirus program but I think Norton 2010 is much better than Microsoft Security Essentials.

An antivirus like Microsoft's MSEs is badly needed throughout the world by people who either cannot afford an A/V program or simply will not pay for one. A lot of the computers owned by people like that are controlled by bots. MSEs might reduce the spread of all of this terrible malware. Of course there are some other free A/V programs as well-like Avira.

 

[sprintman]

NIS 2011 beta is free till September, and them there are keys on the web to keep it going. Why wouldn't anybody use that to keep the nasties out?

 

[Mystic]

Any problems with the beta? I kind of hesitate to use a beta program until it is ready to go.

I think Norton 2010 could still be improved in a lot of ways, but Norton is completely different from where it was a few years ago. And yet you still see people saying that it is bloated software. Just as some people never stop the hate for Microsoft and Windows. I did stop using Norton a few years back and I went to Kaspersky and Nod32. I had been ready to give up on Norton. But time goes by and things change. A person does not need a PhD to see that Norton has great scanning speed and does not drag down a computer like it did in the past. Sure, some use even less system resources and/or have better scanning speed. But Norton does pretty dang well. I am not going to hate Norton for the rest of time just because it was bloated software in the past.

Heck, even McAfee has improved in some ways-better UI and better scanning speed. But I think Norton is better.

I need to add here some things so that I do not get attacked: 1) Everybody needs to use common sense on the internet; 2) Everybody should have good backups of their data so that if anything happens they could reinstall their software.

I still like having other programs like MBAM and the Sophos anti-rootkit just to be safe. One negative I did hear about Norton (I will bring up any negatives also to be fair) was that if stuff got by it somehow Norton was not able to deal with all of the malware that got through. At least in the testing MaximumPC did that was the case. And I wonder if some malware could just shut off the antivirus (and perhaps make it seem like it was still working). This is where MBAM could come in handy perhaps. Or an occasional online scan by another antivirus program. And supposedly the bad guys test their malware against the major antivirus programs.

 

[sprintman]

A pretty well used/tested beta updated regularly. I trialled it on my work PC and it was seamless and just never knew it was installed.

 

[dkryan]

So, hypothetically, if I were to load NIS 2010 onto my new ASUS laptop, would I not want to load MBAM (?) to possibly backstop any malware that might slip through?

 

[DragRace]

Originally Posted By: dkryan
So, hypothetically, if I were to load NIS 2010 onto my new ASUS laptop, would I not want to load MBAM (?) to possibly backstop any malware that might slip through?


Dont just rely on a antivirus. Just not good enough anymore.Install Sandboxie,which is FREE http://www.sandboxie.com/

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?HelpTopics Read here how to set it up and you wont have any malware issues.

 

[sprintman]

Standalone AV is useless these days. I run standalone MBAM as a bi daily backup check but after 9 months of nothing I will just run it weekly after NIS 2011 proper is released. Getting sick of updating so many products (CCLeaner, SpywareBlaster, MyDefrag, Adobe, Recuva, et al)

 

[dkryan]

Sprintman,

You are running NIS 2010 and MBAM? And the MBAM is for malware protection?

And, yeah, I do not want to be burdened down with too many "protection" products.

Cheers.

 

[sprintman]

Yes MBAM standalone as a backup check. Don't run the realtime version as well as NIS, it causes confusion. If you don't already have NIS 2010, then I'd forget it and run NIS 2011 beta which is very solid and better. A lot of performance for such a resource light product, I don't know how they do it, and IT is my occupation. My colleagues and I still have trouble thinking of it as a Norton product as it makes the Panda platinum Internet Security it replaced look so very ordinary. let us know what you decide. KIS 2010/2011 would be another good choice, but they fall away badly after that imo.