Anti-Virus Software: Not A Magic Solution

[kamesh]

Nowadays, we have so many antivirus/malware removal tools online.....this could be real help if we are updated on various trends of virus and malware in the internet world.

Javacool Spywareblaster, however, does some things that the others don't. Specifically, it disables malicious ActiveX controls before they're ever installed, effectively permanently banning them from the computer. It also has a restricted site list that it adds to the host file as 127.0.0.1, blocking ads, etc. Finally, it adds a list of tracking cookie sites to the "block cookies" lists in both IE and Mozilla-based browsers. On top of all this, it doesn't have to run 24/7 in the background, so it takes no resources. Just changes a few configuration items, which allows Windows to directly block the crap itself.

[ArticleBot]

Most people, these days, seem to have antivirus software on their computers. Partly, I suspect this is due to it being preinstalled by the shop they bought the computer from, but also, it is due in part to better education of users on how to prevent viruses. Of course, simply having antivirus software isn't enough; user education now needs to focus on how to use it.
Read the full article. (http://www.technibble.com/anti-virus-software-not-a-magic-solution/)

[Alden]

I like trend micro's house call. Seems pretty good and the price is right!

[Alden]

These folks claim to have "independent comparatives of Anti-Virus software". Who knows who is sponsoring them (or if someone is sponsoring them), but it seems like it could be genuine.
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Click on comparatives and then online results. I usually check the most recent one. When someone wants an anti-virus recomendation I find it's six to one and half a dozen to the other.

But in these folks test, they threw almost 500,000 viruses at some test machines and tallied up how many the various anti-virus softwares caught. They're providing a report on:

Avast! Professional Edition 4.7
AVG Anti-Malware 7.5
AVIRA AntiVir Personal Edition Premium 7.03
BitDefender Professional Plus 10
Dr.Web for Windows 95-XP 4.33.2
eScan Anti-Virus 8.0
ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus 2.70.23
Fortinet FortiClient 3.0
F-Prot for Windows 6.0.5.1
F-Secure Anti-Virus 7.01
G DATA AntiVirusKit (AVK) 17.0
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0.2
McAfee VirusScan 11.1
Microsoft OneCare 1.5
Norman Virus Control 5.82
Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 14.0
TrustPort Antivirus Workstation 2.5

So, I usually end up telling people that there's no 100% guarantee and they're better off purchasing the download that I get commission for from my website. They laugh and tend to apprecaite the honesty.

[tkrabec]

I was at my local ISSA (http://www.issa.org) chapter meeting South Florida Chapter of the ISSA (http://www.sfissa.org). While there about 2 months ago I learned that the virus threat is going to change. Some of the smarter virus makers have found ways of mutating their viruses several times, possibly hundreds, the day they are released. What's the big deal you say? The big deal is "standard" signature based anti virus will no longer be as effective in stopping this problem. I'm moving to products such as Blink and Prevx, which are more of a combined approach. I still run standard anti malware programs, but I've never really gotten viruses so it's hard for me personally to say if they are blocking well on that front. I am getting ready to start to deploy them in SOHO (Small Office Home Office) environments.

[gunslinger]

Been using Spywareblaster for over two years now, and i love it. Its one of the first programs that gets installed on a fresh copy of windows in my house or on any system i work on.As for antivirus software, in my mind less is more.Avast is good, but it picks up lots of things that are not viruses/malware. NOD32 and AVG are both really good, and we all know Norton sucks. I would say go light on the protection, be careful what you click on, and back up your stuff on a regular and you will be fine. Right now i'm running Kaspersky internet security and spywareblaster.