Regular readers may recall that, historically, I have not been a fan of Panda’s free offerings but have been well impressed with their retail products. Lets see if that will change this year…
The Good:
Runs well on older computers
Firewall included
Large range of features
The Bad:
Panda Safe Browser isn’t the nicest thing I’ve ever used
Interface: white text on a black background is a personal no-no
-
Installation and first impression
Installation of Panda Antivirus Pro 2012 is quick and straightforward and, once done, you will be presented with the program for the fist time, as seen in the screen shot below. I’m not a huge fan of white text on black backgrounds because I get headaches when looking at it for long times but I’m sure most people will not have such an issue.
As you can see in the image above, the program makes it clear that you need to run an update sharpish which really is a smart move as I’m sure you can appreciate. Once the update has processed you can start to play around with the program to see what it offers.
Panda Antivirus Pro 2012 update
Traditionally, an antivirus program is just that – an antivirus program. If you wanted more security features than that then you would buy an internet security suite. Panda Antivirus Pro 2012 may make you think twice about that though…
Features
As I alluded to above, Panda Antivirus Pro 2012 is more than just an antivirus program. It also offers up a firewall, parental control, anti-spam and other features such as the Panda Safe Browser which acts as a sandbox.
Then there is Panda’s USB Vaccine which can disable autorun on any devices that you attach to your computer. This makes it nigh on impossible for malware to spread to your system from USB drives and sticks which is a handy additional feature for sure.
Network management could also prove useful as it will display on the computers on your own network, noting which have Panda products installed on them and whether they are out of date or not. Additionally, a seperate feature through the firewall will identify all computers that have connected to the network by their name, IP address and MAC address. If you see something you don’t like in that list then you can easy blacklist it, thereby preventing it from accessing your PC.
When it comes to scanning there is the full range of usual options that you will see in any antivirus program these days. Panda adds another though with is a scan for vulnerabilities. This particular scan will assess the severity of any vulnerability that it finds and will identify any specific threats that exploit it. You can then click on a button to open up Windows Update to fix the problem but I would hope that you are fully up to date already!
For those of you who may be wondering, Panda Antivirus Pro 2012 does come with something that I think is obligatory these days – the gaming mode!
System Requirements
Panda Antivirus Pro 2012 has the following system requirements -
Windows operating system Windows XP (32-bit), Vista (32 and 64 bit) and 7 (32 bit and 64 bit)
A Pentium processor running at 300 Mhz or faster
128 MB RAM or 512 MB RAM with TruPrevent (though 1 GB RAM is recommended)
265 MB of available hard drive space
Internet Explorer 6 or higher (if you have IE 6 change it now!) / Firefox 2 or newer / Google Chrome
Effectiveness
Running a scan with the latest offering from Panda was a quick affair – a full scan of my drives took about 20 minutes and a quick scan seemed to take mere seconds. That seems impressive and would seem to suggest that anyone with the low spec required to run the program may well be ok with it.
When testing the program against my list of naughty links it fared well, identifying all as threats and blocking them (I need to use a much bigger list in the future to test these programs with though methinks).
+ Plus Points
Low spec machine required to run it
Quick scans
Effective detection of threats
Includes firewall, anti-spam, USB vaccine, vulnerability scan and gaming mode
Collective Intelligence provides quick response to new threats as they are discovered
16 Aralık 2011 Cuma
Kaspersky Antivirus 2012.
Installation and first impression
Installation of the files needed to run Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 was just as quick as it was with their internet security program that I looked at last week. Likewise, at the beginning of the installation process the program looked for any conflicting security programs that were already on my system but didn’t find any this time :) . Once installed I simply activated the product and it was good to go.
The first thing I did was to update the database. This was a download of around 80 MB which came through an awful lot quicker than the 100 MB one I needed for Kasperksy Internet Security 2012 so that was a pleasant surprise.
Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 looks very much like their internet security program, just with less features accessible so, needless to say, I am equally impressed with the layout and the ease with which I could find all the features that this program has to offer.
Features
It goes without saying that an antivirus program is not as feature packed as an internet security package but Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 still contains a good number of features as evidenced by the list below -
antivirus protection for files, mail, instant messaging and the web
network port monitoring
quick response to new threats via the cloud protection
privacy cleaner
gaming profile
virtual keyboard which is a great defense against keyloggers (use for entering online banking details for example)
System Requirements
Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 has the following system requirements -
Windows XP Service Pack 2 /Vista /7 (both 32 bit and 64 bit)
a minimum of 480 MB free hard drive space
an internet connection
a processor rated at 800Mhz or better for Windows XP / 1Ghz or above for Vista and 7
512 MB RAM for Windows XP users / I GB RAM for 32 bit Vista and 7 / 2 GB RAM for 64 bit Vista and 7 users
Additionally, the program will run on the majority of current line netbooks assuming they can match or exceed the following specs
Effectiveness
As per the internet security program I looked at last week, I tested Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 against some dodgy links found on malwaredomainlist.com. The program performed admirably, detecting the 20 or so links I tested it against, identifying each of them as a threat.
A small test such as that isn’t going to be conclusive of course but it does seem to indicate that Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 is certainly an effective security program.
Installation of the files needed to run Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 was just as quick as it was with their internet security program that I looked at last week. Likewise, at the beginning of the installation process the program looked for any conflicting security programs that were already on my system but didn’t find any this time :) . Once installed I simply activated the product and it was good to go.
The first thing I did was to update the database. This was a download of around 80 MB which came through an awful lot quicker than the 100 MB one I needed for Kasperksy Internet Security 2012 so that was a pleasant surprise.
Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 looks very much like their internet security program, just with less features accessible so, needless to say, I am equally impressed with the layout and the ease with which I could find all the features that this program has to offer.
Features
It goes without saying that an antivirus program is not as feature packed as an internet security package but Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 still contains a good number of features as evidenced by the list below -
antivirus protection for files, mail, instant messaging and the web
network port monitoring
quick response to new threats via the cloud protection
privacy cleaner
gaming profile
virtual keyboard which is a great defense against keyloggers (use for entering online banking details for example)
System Requirements
Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 has the following system requirements -
Windows XP Service Pack 2 /Vista /7 (both 32 bit and 64 bit)
a minimum of 480 MB free hard drive space
an internet connection
a processor rated at 800Mhz or better for Windows XP / 1Ghz or above for Vista and 7
512 MB RAM for Windows XP users / I GB RAM for 32 bit Vista and 7 / 2 GB RAM for 64 bit Vista and 7 users
Additionally, the program will run on the majority of current line netbooks assuming they can match or exceed the following specs
Effectiveness
As per the internet security program I looked at last week, I tested Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 against some dodgy links found on malwaredomainlist.com. The program performed admirably, detecting the 20 or so links I tested it against, identifying each of them as a threat.
A small test such as that isn’t going to be conclusive of course but it does seem to indicate that Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 is certainly an effective security program.
1 Aralık 2011 Perşembe
Antivirus Tips
Use common sense. It's always better to err on the side of safety. If you're unsure about an attachment, delete it. Especially if it's from a source you don't recognize. If there are tempting animations on a site that look highly unprofessional, don't download them.
Y8,Y8,Y8,Y3
Scan floppies before using them. This is always important, but especially if you are using the disk to carry information between one computer and another. You could easily pick up a virus from an insecure network and introduce it into your system. Running a virus scan before launching any of the programs on the disk will prevent infection.
Don't share floppies. Even a well-meaning friend may unknowingly pass along a virus, Trojan horse, or worm. Label your floppies clearly so you know they're yours and don't loan them out. If a friend passes you a foreign floppy, suggest an alternative method of file sharing.
Don't boot from a floppy disk. Floppies are one of the most common ways viruses are transmitted. If you are using a floppy while working on your computer, remove it when you shut the machine off or the computer will automatically try to boot from the floppy, perhaps launching any viruses on the disk.
Y8,Y8,Y8,Y3
Scan floppies before using them. This is always important, but especially if you are using the disk to carry information between one computer and another. You could easily pick up a virus from an insecure network and introduce it into your system. Running a virus scan before launching any of the programs on the disk will prevent infection.
Don't share floppies. Even a well-meaning friend may unknowingly pass along a virus, Trojan horse, or worm. Label your floppies clearly so you know they're yours and don't loan them out. If a friend passes you a foreign floppy, suggest an alternative method of file sharing.
Don't boot from a floppy disk. Floppies are one of the most common ways viruses are transmitted. If you are using a floppy while working on your computer, remove it when you shut the machine off or the computer will automatically try to boot from the floppy, perhaps launching any viruses on the disk.
18 Kasım 2011 Cuma
AVG Anti-Virus 2012
AVG Technologies began in 1991 and is now one of the biggest players in the antivirus software market with corporate offices in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. AVG Anti-Virus is one of a handful of the best-performing antivirus software products in the world.
One of the most respected and objective independent IT-security institutes, AV-Test, torture tested AVG Anti-Virus and scored it for its ability to protect and repair. AV-Test also tested AVG for usability. The test results show that AVG is one of the very best-performing antivirus software products and makes it into the top handful of products in its category.
Features Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
AVG Anti-Virus software uses layers of protection. The first layer is traditional antivirus, which recognizes threats by matching them to a database of known threats. It also defends against spyware and adware in order to protect personal information. Another layer, AVG Resident Shield, prevents you from opening infected files. Every day there are new threats that aren’t in any antivirus software vendor’s database. AVG collects data on fast-breaking infections from the installed base of users who opt to share zero-day data and then updates customer PCs automatically. This security product monitors your protection level and reports back to the AVG lab if it finds a problem. The alert will pop up an Auto-Fix button, and if you press it, AVG will make the correction and set itself back to the best protection mode.
AVG does not intrude on you unnecessarily. It watches for idle time before it tries to scan. And it is intelligent enough to ignore any files that it has already scanned. It has a game mode so that you can concentrate on a multiplayer game without enduring scheduled updates and scans. AVG also guards your digital gaming profiles against hackers who crawl the web to steal your World of Warcraft pets and sell them for real money.
AVG Anti-Virus software protects against internet evils in quite a few other ways as well. Whenever you exchange links within Facebook, mySpace or Twitter, AVG checks them. The AVG Social Networking Protection feature activates upon installation. As you surf the internet, AVG will prevent you from landing on a site that looks suspicious. And it places a safety rating for any link returned by a search engine.
Help & Support Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
AVG helps users with any problems with the antivirus software. In-program help is available with a user manual and links to additional resources online. The online support center has a FAQs section and a knowledgebase. AVG offers email support for specific inquiries, but no phone support. More options and professional assistance with virus removal are available by paying for premium support.
Summary
AVG Anti-Virus software is an effective performer with well-considered features. It scores highly in tests conducted at independent software testing labs. It maintains a database of known threats so that it can block them, and it uses cloud technology to quickly deploy defenses against zero-day threats almost as quickly as the hackers can hatch them. It understands how to protect you and warn you against internet attacks. And it protects you in social networking contexts. Support is excellent, and AVG goes the extra mile by providing live chat.
One of the most respected and objective independent IT-security institutes, AV-Test, torture tested AVG Anti-Virus and scored it for its ability to protect and repair. AV-Test also tested AVG for usability. The test results show that AVG is one of the very best-performing antivirus software products and makes it into the top handful of products in its category.
Features Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
AVG Anti-Virus software uses layers of protection. The first layer is traditional antivirus, which recognizes threats by matching them to a database of known threats. It also defends against spyware and adware in order to protect personal information. Another layer, AVG Resident Shield, prevents you from opening infected files. Every day there are new threats that aren’t in any antivirus software vendor’s database. AVG collects data on fast-breaking infections from the installed base of users who opt to share zero-day data and then updates customer PCs automatically. This security product monitors your protection level and reports back to the AVG lab if it finds a problem. The alert will pop up an Auto-Fix button, and if you press it, AVG will make the correction and set itself back to the best protection mode.
AVG does not intrude on you unnecessarily. It watches for idle time before it tries to scan. And it is intelligent enough to ignore any files that it has already scanned. It has a game mode so that you can concentrate on a multiplayer game without enduring scheduled updates and scans. AVG also guards your digital gaming profiles against hackers who crawl the web to steal your World of Warcraft pets and sell them for real money.
AVG Anti-Virus software protects against internet evils in quite a few other ways as well. Whenever you exchange links within Facebook, mySpace or Twitter, AVG checks them. The AVG Social Networking Protection feature activates upon installation. As you surf the internet, AVG will prevent you from landing on a site that looks suspicious. And it places a safety rating for any link returned by a search engine.
Help & Support Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
AVG helps users with any problems with the antivirus software. In-program help is available with a user manual and links to additional resources online. The online support center has a FAQs section and a knowledgebase. AVG offers email support for specific inquiries, but no phone support. More options and professional assistance with virus removal are available by paying for premium support.
Summary
AVG Anti-Virus software is an effective performer with well-considered features. It scores highly in tests conducted at independent software testing labs. It maintains a database of known threats so that it can block them, and it uses cloud technology to quickly deploy defenses against zero-day threats almost as quickly as the hackers can hatch them. It understands how to protect you and warn you against internet attacks. And it protects you in social networking contexts. Support is excellent, and AVG goes the extra mile by providing live chat.
F-Secure Anti-Virus 2012
F-Secure Anti-Virus is among the best antivirus software programs. It is streamlined, fast and effective. With advanced protection technology and additional integrated security features, F-Secure protects against viruses, spyware, worms and Trojans. F-Secure can also locate and eliminate rootkits. This antivirus software also protects against viruses spread through emails, cookies or malware that attempts to infiltrate the PC registry.
AV-Test out of Germany places F-Secure among the leaders when it comes to performance. F-Secure is also among the handful of antivirus software products to win an Advanced A+ rating from AV Comparatives. The Virus Bulletin found F-Secure right on par with most of the best antivirus software competitors.
Features Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
Taking F-Secure Anti-Virus from start to scanning is straightforward. The installer automatically removes any other antivirus software you have installed (as they interfere with each other). The software is a fairly resource-conscious program and protects without sacrificing resources.
Anti-Virus from F-Secure accommodates simple navigation and makes it easy to schedule specific scans or adjust settings. The main dashboard features quick access to the essentials (scan, update, statistics) and is visually striking. Most of the time you won’t even have F-Secure open since the updates and scans run automatically. The easy-to-understand icon in the lower-right taskbar will help you comprehend the status of your security. F-Secure uses a protection network, DeepGuard 2.0, that collects new threats in the cloud and pushes out updates to the entire user community.
F-Secure Anti-Virus uses heuristics, proactive protection against zero-hour threats that go undetected by the current virus signatures. All files accessed or opened on your computer are scanned by F-Secure’s on-access scanning. But you can always perform a manual scan. If you want to scan a specific file or folder, simply right-click on it and scan it immediately. F-Secure can scan compressed files and files on removable drives.
You can configure the software to clean the files (if possible) automatically, or they will be placed in the quarantine. The quarantine is where potentially dangerous files are kept where they can’t cause damage until you decide what action (restore, delete) to take. Updates are scheduled by default with F-Secure to renew (if needed) every two hours, completely automatically and in the background.
Help & Support Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
F-Secure Anti-Virus has a number of useful resources available online for additional product support. You can contact technical support 24/7 by phone, email live chat. Online they feature several help articles and a knowledgebase. Direct in-product help is in the form of a user manual.
Summary
F-Secure Anti-Virus is great antivirus software. Delivering excellence in technology and implementation, F-Secure is a solid solution. Complete with proactive protection, cloud security and simple usability, F-Secure Anti-Virus is a compelling piece of software.
AV-Test out of Germany places F-Secure among the leaders when it comes to performance. F-Secure is also among the handful of antivirus software products to win an Advanced A+ rating from AV Comparatives. The Virus Bulletin found F-Secure right on par with most of the best antivirus software competitors.
Features Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
Taking F-Secure Anti-Virus from start to scanning is straightforward. The installer automatically removes any other antivirus software you have installed (as they interfere with each other). The software is a fairly resource-conscious program and protects without sacrificing resources.
Anti-Virus from F-Secure accommodates simple navigation and makes it easy to schedule specific scans or adjust settings. The main dashboard features quick access to the essentials (scan, update, statistics) and is visually striking. Most of the time you won’t even have F-Secure open since the updates and scans run automatically. The easy-to-understand icon in the lower-right taskbar will help you comprehend the status of your security. F-Secure uses a protection network, DeepGuard 2.0, that collects new threats in the cloud and pushes out updates to the entire user community.
F-Secure Anti-Virus uses heuristics, proactive protection against zero-hour threats that go undetected by the current virus signatures. All files accessed or opened on your computer are scanned by F-Secure’s on-access scanning. But you can always perform a manual scan. If you want to scan a specific file or folder, simply right-click on it and scan it immediately. F-Secure can scan compressed files and files on removable drives.
You can configure the software to clean the files (if possible) automatically, or they will be placed in the quarantine. The quarantine is where potentially dangerous files are kept where they can’t cause damage until you decide what action (restore, delete) to take. Updates are scheduled by default with F-Secure to renew (if needed) every two hours, completely automatically and in the background.
Help & Support Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
F-Secure Anti-Virus has a number of useful resources available online for additional product support. You can contact technical support 24/7 by phone, email live chat. Online they feature several help articles and a knowledgebase. Direct in-product help is in the form of a user manual.
Summary
F-Secure Anti-Virus is great antivirus software. Delivering excellence in technology and implementation, F-Secure is a solid solution. Complete with proactive protection, cloud security and simple usability, F-Secure Anti-Virus is a compelling piece of software.
3 Kasım 2011 Perşembe
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete
Pros
Excellent protection from malware; very good malware cleanup. Online backup and file-sharing. Powerful password management. Android support. Online console manages protection, backup, and passwords. Cleans up useless files.
Cons
Less effective phishing protection. Firewall doesn't identify exploits. Some features of online console not yet available. No antispam or parental control.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete is the smallest and lightest security suite ever. It does lack parental control and antispam, but not everyone needs those and its antivirus protection is superb. Its third-party licensed online backup and password management are also very good.
The installer for Webroot's 2012 antivirus is so small it would fit on a 3.5" diskette with plenty of room to spare. I was amazed to learn that feeding a different activation code into this same installer causes it to install Webroot's full security suite, Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete ($79.95 direct for three PC and three mobile licenses).
The core components of the installed suite occupy less than 600KB of disk space. The backup and password management components are licensed from SugarSync and LastPass respectively, and they haven't been painstakingly rewritten for small size the way Webroot itself has. Together these components take a bit over 50 MB.
Even with the third-party add-ons this suite is still tiny. The last ten suites I reviewed averaged about 450MB apiece. Bitdefender Total Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while very nice, set a size record with over 1 GB of disk space needed.
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
View Slideshow See all (20) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Totally New
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Antimalware Tools
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Protection Statistics
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Firewall Helper
More
Impressive Antivirus Protection
The suite's antivirus protection is the same as what's found in the standalone Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95 direct, 4.5 stars). Please read the antivirus review for full details; I'll summarize the good news here.
Webroot runs a scan immediately after its lightning-fast installation. After any scan that finds threats, it runs another scan to clean up remaining traces, continuing until it finds no more. Each scan takes just a few minutes.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats infesting my test systems and scored 6.9 points for removal. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many but did a better job removing what it did find. With 7.1 points Norton is the only product tested using the current malware collection with an overall malware removal score higher than Webroot's. Webroot also scored well at removing rootkits and scareware. For an explanation of how I test malware removal, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware removal chart
The way Webroot handles protecting a clean system from malware attack is a bit different from most. Its heuristic analysis detects some threats the moment they load into memory. A program that makes it past this initial check will be watched closely. The moment Webroot's behavioral analysis recognizes a threat it wipes it out and rolls back all changes made by the program. After detection it runs a quick scan to clean up remaining traces.
This unusual system definitely works. Webroot detected 100 percent of the sample threats and scored a perfect 10 of 10 points for overall malware blocking, rootkit blocking, and scareware blocking. see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware blocking chart
If there's no Internet connection Webroot can't communicate with its online database to evaluate the behaviors it detects. Since the vast majority of malware attacks enter your system via the Internet that's not such a big problem. Even when offline, Webroot tracks and record the behavior of all running processes. When the connection is restored it checks recorded behaviors against the cloud database and wipes out any it deems malicious.
I re-tested the product by cutting the Internet connection, launching malware samples, and then restoring the connection. Even with one arm metaphorically tied behind its back Webroot still managed better than average malware blocking.
Normally I would also check with the independent antivirus testing labs, to see how the product fared in their tests. However, this totally new product has not yet been tested by any of the labs.
Other Shared Features
Webroot's suite and antivirus both work to steer users away from fraudulent (phishing) sites. Webroot protects Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and Chrome, but rather than waste space on a plug-in for each it filters out frauds before they reach the browser.
In my antiphishing test, Webroot's detection rate was 55 percentage points behind Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars). It did manage to beat Internet Explorer's built-in Smart Screen Filter by 9 percentage points, but only because Internet Explorer had a very bad week for phishing detection. The article How We Test Antiphishing explains exactly how I derive these scores.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete antiphishing chart
Despite their tiny size, both the suite and the antivirus pack along a surprising number of security tools for expert users. You can view all active processes and kill or monitor specific ones, run a suspect process in the "SafeStart Sandbox," where it can't do any harm, and even leverage Webroot's behavioral records to remove a program along with its Registry traces. An average user shouldn't touch these or the other advanced tools unless advised to do so by tech support.
Excellent protection from malware; very good malware cleanup. Online backup and file-sharing. Powerful password management. Android support. Online console manages protection, backup, and passwords. Cleans up useless files.
Cons
Less effective phishing protection. Firewall doesn't identify exploits. Some features of online console not yet available. No antispam or parental control.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete is the smallest and lightest security suite ever. It does lack parental control and antispam, but not everyone needs those and its antivirus protection is superb. Its third-party licensed online backup and password management are also very good.
The installer for Webroot's 2012 antivirus is so small it would fit on a 3.5" diskette with plenty of room to spare. I was amazed to learn that feeding a different activation code into this same installer causes it to install Webroot's full security suite, Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete ($79.95 direct for three PC and three mobile licenses).
The core components of the installed suite occupy less than 600KB of disk space. The backup and password management components are licensed from SugarSync and LastPass respectively, and they haven't been painstakingly rewritten for small size the way Webroot itself has. Together these components take a bit over 50 MB.
Even with the third-party add-ons this suite is still tiny. The last ten suites I reviewed averaged about 450MB apiece. Bitdefender Total Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while very nice, set a size record with over 1 GB of disk space needed.
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
View Slideshow See all (20) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Totally New
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Antimalware Tools
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Protection Statistics
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Firewall Helper
More
Impressive Antivirus Protection
The suite's antivirus protection is the same as what's found in the standalone Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95 direct, 4.5 stars). Please read the antivirus review for full details; I'll summarize the good news here.
Webroot runs a scan immediately after its lightning-fast installation. After any scan that finds threats, it runs another scan to clean up remaining traces, continuing until it finds no more. Each scan takes just a few minutes.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats infesting my test systems and scored 6.9 points for removal. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many but did a better job removing what it did find. With 7.1 points Norton is the only product tested using the current malware collection with an overall malware removal score higher than Webroot's. Webroot also scored well at removing rootkits and scareware. For an explanation of how I test malware removal, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware removal chart
The way Webroot handles protecting a clean system from malware attack is a bit different from most. Its heuristic analysis detects some threats the moment they load into memory. A program that makes it past this initial check will be watched closely. The moment Webroot's behavioral analysis recognizes a threat it wipes it out and rolls back all changes made by the program. After detection it runs a quick scan to clean up remaining traces.
This unusual system definitely works. Webroot detected 100 percent of the sample threats and scored a perfect 10 of 10 points for overall malware blocking, rootkit blocking, and scareware blocking. see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware blocking chart
If there's no Internet connection Webroot can't communicate with its online database to evaluate the behaviors it detects. Since the vast majority of malware attacks enter your system via the Internet that's not such a big problem. Even when offline, Webroot tracks and record the behavior of all running processes. When the connection is restored it checks recorded behaviors against the cloud database and wipes out any it deems malicious.
I re-tested the product by cutting the Internet connection, launching malware samples, and then restoring the connection. Even with one arm metaphorically tied behind its back Webroot still managed better than average malware blocking.
Normally I would also check with the independent antivirus testing labs, to see how the product fared in their tests. However, this totally new product has not yet been tested by any of the labs.
Other Shared Features
Webroot's suite and antivirus both work to steer users away from fraudulent (phishing) sites. Webroot protects Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and Chrome, but rather than waste space on a plug-in for each it filters out frauds before they reach the browser.
In my antiphishing test, Webroot's detection rate was 55 percentage points behind Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars). It did manage to beat Internet Explorer's built-in Smart Screen Filter by 9 percentage points, but only because Internet Explorer had a very bad week for phishing detection. The article How We Test Antiphishing explains exactly how I derive these scores.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete antiphishing chart
Despite their tiny size, both the suite and the antivirus pack along a surprising number of security tools for expert users. You can view all active processes and kill or monitor specific ones, run a suspect process in the "SafeStart Sandbox," where it can't do any harm, and even leverage Webroot's behavioral records to remove a program along with its Registry traces. An average user shouldn't touch these or the other advanced tools unless advised to do so by tech support.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus
Pros
Installer and program are incredibly tiny. Very fast scan. Perfect score in my malware-blocking test. Very good score in my malware removal test.
Cons
Bonus antiphishing protection less effective. Bonus security tools too advanced for the average user.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is tiny beyond belief, yet it achieved perfect scores across the board in my malware-blocking tests. It also did a very good job cleaning up malware-infested systems. This impressive product shares our Editor's Choice honor with Norton AntiVirus 2012.
When did you last see a 3.5" diskette? Those dinosaurs of storage are rare now, replaced by the ubiquitous USB thumb drive. But if you can find a 3.5" diskette (and a drive to read it) you can copy Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95, Direct) onto it and have plenty of room to spare. The installer takes less than 600 KB on disk, as does the installed program.
Antivirus installers typically run from 50 to 100 megabytes and install dozens of files that occupy perhaps twice that much space on disk. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012 ($39.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while quite effective, took nearly a gigabyte of disk space, so much that I had to delete programs from my virtual machine test systems to make room for it.
View Slideshow See all (17) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : You Are Protected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Installation
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Threats Detected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Initial Scan
More
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
How can Webroot be so tiny? The answer is twofold. First, its handling of malware is almost entirely cloud-based. It uses only the tiniest local database of especially virulent threats. Second, the product was totally rewritten using the most economical coding practices possible.
Origins
The cloud-based behavioral detection featured in this product came from Webroot's acquisition of Prevx last year. In an impressive show of confidence, the company discarded the existing Webroot antivirus engine, relying strictly on the Prevx code.
Principals from Prevx moved over to Webroot along with the acquisition, including the company's senior software engineer Joe Jaroch. Jaroch's team wrote the entire user interface and local client using the unadorned C language. No libraries, no objects, not even any resources like button and checkbox controls. Everything you see is rendered directly to the screen. As Jaroch likes to point out, a bitmap screenshot of the main window occupies more space on disk than the program itself.
Because this product is brand-new, the independent labs haven't had a chance to test it. There's no point in reporting on existing lab results, as they refer to a completely different product.
Lightning-fast Installation
This tiny program installs very quickly. As you might imagine, installing this compact program takes just seconds. Enter your registration code, click "Agree & Install," and in seconds it's installed and running a scan. On my infested test systems the initial scan finished in about five to fifteen minutes, depending on how badly infested the system was. On a totally clean system, it finished that scan in less than two minutes.
I asked the Webroot representatives whether the next step would be to launch what they call a "deep scan." They responded that the initial scan was the deep scan, that no further scanning is needed. Needless to say, I was impressed.
I started my testing before Webroot's back-end virus-cleanup server was active. That didn't matter for most of the test systems, but two of them really needed the cleanup server to remove widespread virus infestations. I put those on hold until the back-end systems were entirely ready, at which time Webroot scanned and cleaned them without incident.
Very Good Cleanup
After running all the full scans I happened to leave one of the test systems running. Coming back to it, I noticed it had run another scan and found more traces to remove. It turns out that the product's behavior-based detection catches some threats immediately, but may need to monitor others for a little while before it detects the behaviors that let it flag them as malicious.
To better emulate a real-world scenario I gave all of the infested systems a little more time, rebooting each and letting it sit for an hour or so. Webroot found a number of additional items to clean up and noticeably improved its scores.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats, the best detection rate among products tested with the current sample collection. Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars) previously held that record with 91 percent. Webroot scored 6.9 points for overall malware removal, quite a bit better than Panda's 5.9 points. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many threats, but better removal earned it 7.1 points, the only score higher than Webroot's.
Webroot detected 100 percent of the threats that use rootkit techniques to hide from antivirus, as did about half of the 2012 products. Its score of 7.3 points is beaten only by Norton's 8.9.
Like most current products, Webroot detected 100 percent of the scareware threats. Norton and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) removed all the scareware completely and earned a perfect 10 points. Webroot scored a decent 8.8 points for scareware removal; AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars) and several others beat that with 9.5 points.
For an explanation of where these numbers come from, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus malware removal chart
It's important to remember that Webroot works differently from almost all of its competition. Except for a very tiny collection of signatures for specific problem viruses, it relies totally on monitoring process behavior and correlating that behavior with data from its immense cloud database. That same behavior monitoring lets it identify which other files are owned by the threat. I'm quite impressed that it can manage a top-notch cleanup job without the baggage of a signature database.
Installer and program are incredibly tiny. Very fast scan. Perfect score in my malware-blocking test. Very good score in my malware removal test.
Cons
Bonus antiphishing protection less effective. Bonus security tools too advanced for the average user.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is tiny beyond belief, yet it achieved perfect scores across the board in my malware-blocking tests. It also did a very good job cleaning up malware-infested systems. This impressive product shares our Editor's Choice honor with Norton AntiVirus 2012.
When did you last see a 3.5" diskette? Those dinosaurs of storage are rare now, replaced by the ubiquitous USB thumb drive. But if you can find a 3.5" diskette (and a drive to read it) you can copy Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95, Direct) onto it and have plenty of room to spare. The installer takes less than 600 KB on disk, as does the installed program.
Antivirus installers typically run from 50 to 100 megabytes and install dozens of files that occupy perhaps twice that much space on disk. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012 ($39.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while quite effective, took nearly a gigabyte of disk space, so much that I had to delete programs from my virtual machine test systems to make room for it.
View Slideshow See all (17) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : You Are Protected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Installation
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Threats Detected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Initial Scan
More
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
How can Webroot be so tiny? The answer is twofold. First, its handling of malware is almost entirely cloud-based. It uses only the tiniest local database of especially virulent threats. Second, the product was totally rewritten using the most economical coding practices possible.
Origins
The cloud-based behavioral detection featured in this product came from Webroot's acquisition of Prevx last year. In an impressive show of confidence, the company discarded the existing Webroot antivirus engine, relying strictly on the Prevx code.
Principals from Prevx moved over to Webroot along with the acquisition, including the company's senior software engineer Joe Jaroch. Jaroch's team wrote the entire user interface and local client using the unadorned C language. No libraries, no objects, not even any resources like button and checkbox controls. Everything you see is rendered directly to the screen. As Jaroch likes to point out, a bitmap screenshot of the main window occupies more space on disk than the program itself.
Because this product is brand-new, the independent labs haven't had a chance to test it. There's no point in reporting on existing lab results, as they refer to a completely different product.
Lightning-fast Installation
This tiny program installs very quickly. As you might imagine, installing this compact program takes just seconds. Enter your registration code, click "Agree & Install," and in seconds it's installed and running a scan. On my infested test systems the initial scan finished in about five to fifteen minutes, depending on how badly infested the system was. On a totally clean system, it finished that scan in less than two minutes.
I asked the Webroot representatives whether the next step would be to launch what they call a "deep scan." They responded that the initial scan was the deep scan, that no further scanning is needed. Needless to say, I was impressed.
I started my testing before Webroot's back-end virus-cleanup server was active. That didn't matter for most of the test systems, but two of them really needed the cleanup server to remove widespread virus infestations. I put those on hold until the back-end systems were entirely ready, at which time Webroot scanned and cleaned them without incident.
Very Good Cleanup
After running all the full scans I happened to leave one of the test systems running. Coming back to it, I noticed it had run another scan and found more traces to remove. It turns out that the product's behavior-based detection catches some threats immediately, but may need to monitor others for a little while before it detects the behaviors that let it flag them as malicious.
To better emulate a real-world scenario I gave all of the infested systems a little more time, rebooting each and letting it sit for an hour or so. Webroot found a number of additional items to clean up and noticeably improved its scores.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats, the best detection rate among products tested with the current sample collection. Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars) previously held that record with 91 percent. Webroot scored 6.9 points for overall malware removal, quite a bit better than Panda's 5.9 points. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many threats, but better removal earned it 7.1 points, the only score higher than Webroot's.
Webroot detected 100 percent of the threats that use rootkit techniques to hide from antivirus, as did about half of the 2012 products. Its score of 7.3 points is beaten only by Norton's 8.9.
Like most current products, Webroot detected 100 percent of the scareware threats. Norton and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) removed all the scareware completely and earned a perfect 10 points. Webroot scored a decent 8.8 points for scareware removal; AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars) and several others beat that with 9.5 points.
For an explanation of where these numbers come from, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus malware removal chart
It's important to remember that Webroot works differently from almost all of its competition. Except for a very tiny collection of signatures for specific problem viruses, it relies totally on monitoring process behavior and correlating that behavior with data from its immense cloud database. That same behavior monitoring lets it identify which other files are owned by the threat. I'm quite impressed that it can manage a top-notch cleanup job without the baggage of a signature database.
20 Ekim 2011 Perşembe
BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2012
BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012
BitDefender does it again this year with another excellent antivirus software. BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012 continues to be a top-notch contender with great antivirus protection and an improved user interface.
How well does BitDefender Antivirus stack up against the competition?
When tested by the top testing labs around the world, including ours, BitDefender scored excellent in real-time antivirus protection, virus removal, and resource usage. As we always do, we hit BitDefender hard: viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits, keyloggers, and it did well.
During our resource testing, BitDefender did well with light scanning and light idle usage. There was no significant system drain.
The new user interface is clean and easy to navigate. You can find any option or setting you need.
BitDefender's customer service remains is biggest weakness again this year. As with previous versions, there's no phone or chat support, which is a real shame; however, their help articles and video tutorials are good, so they should be enough for most people.
Overall, BitDefender remains one of our top choices this year because of their light resource usage, easy to use interface, and most importantly, strong virus, spyware, and malware protection.
Since we began testing antivirus software, BitDefender has been among the most consistent at detecting and removing viruses and spyware.
On top of that it's also equally good at removing viruses, too.
All of the top antivirus testing labs in the world, including ours, have given BitDefender excellent scores again this year.
BitDefender has received certifications from:
AV-Comparatives
AV-Test
ICSA Labs
Virus Bulletin
West Coast Labs
Like each of the above antivirus software testing labs, we tested BitDefender for:
Real-time virus protection - BitDefender scored at the top for scanning and blocking real-time threats before they can do any harm. These threats include viruses, rootkits, keyloggers, trojans, and spyware that target your computer while you're surfing the web.
Virus and malware removal rates - These tests determine how well BitDefender can scan, detect, and remove viruses that have infiltrated your system. BitDefender Antivirus Plus scored well above the competition for virus and malware removal.
Phishing site blocking - These tests see how well BitDefender can block phishing sites that try to steal your personal information. While most browsers already do a good job in blocking phishing sites on their own, BitDefender does exceptionally well with anti-phishing. Not surprisingly, BitDefender proved to be more effective against phishing sites than Internet Explorer alone.
Performance rates - These tests show how much system resources BitDefender uses. We found BitDefender to be light and average while sitting idle as well as when scanning.
Putting it all together, BitDefender did excellently in our real-world tests. Viruses and other malware were easily blocked or removed. Their anti-phishing filter was exceptional, and their system resource performance was good.
Having seen BitDefender evolve each year as we have, we weren't surprised to see how good BitDefender's resource usage was.
On average, we saw around 3% of CPU was used while running idle and about 61% during a manual scan.
Generally, BitDefender Antivirus is light on resources both when idle and while running a full-system scan.
User Interface: 100%
BitDefender has simplified their user interface from last year's 3-level approach. This year, the UI (user interface) is clean and easy to use.
The main overview screen has a large scrollbar showing all of the antivirus tools available: Scanning, Antispam, etc. Switches turn each feature on and off, or you can push the main button for more options.
Inside the settings window, all of the main features are listed on the left in standard navigation. Clicking on each section opens that set of tools and options in the main screen.
There's a handy "Events" tab for each section that logs all actions taken. For instance, when you run a system scan, that event will be logged in the Antivirus Event section. This is useful so you can keep track of what you did and when.
The color scheme is black and white with color indicators. Red indicates something needs attention, while green indicates everything's fine.
Overall, the user interface for BitDefender Antivirus Plus is an improvement from last year. We like the simplicity mixed with advanced options that are still easy enough for even the novice user.
Technical Support: 78%
Ah, technical support.
It's hard to for most companies to do and even harder to get right, and it's one of the few weaknesses in BitDefender this year.
There's a "Help and Support" link in the user interface that launches their support window. Inside that window are three options to browse BitDefender's documentation, help files, or support contact info.
If you click the "Contact Support" link, BitDefender launches a diagnostics tool that gathers important information about your system that BitDefender needs.
Once completed, the diagnostics information is sent and they're contact you shortly with an answer to your problem.
Support for: BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012
General Support
Support Email
Support Forums
Or, you can always go directly to their website for support. There you'll find video tutorials, documentation, help articles, and forums. Each section is easy to access and understand.
You can email BitDefender directly if you can't find the answer to your question. However, there's no indication as to what extent BitDefender will help you.
There aren't any premium services (paid support), so if you have a serious infection, it's unknown as to how deep a BitDefender representative will go with you to solve the problem.
We couldn't find any contact phone numbers either. So far, BitDefender still doesn't have any one-on-one, phone-based support of any kind. Fortunately, BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012 is a great product that seldom needs support. But somewhere down the line, a lot of folks need a little support.
Without any phone or chat support, we can't give BitDefender a higher score in this department. While their help articles are useful, nothing can replace direct, person-to-person contact with a knowledgeable representative. Hopefully BitDefender will add some phone support soon.
Antivirus Updates: 97%
You don't need to worry about manually downloading your updates with BitDefender. Updates are set to automatically download and install by default. BitDefender will check for new updates each time you start your computer, then every hour after that.
However, you can set updates to prompt you before downloading or installing.
BitDefender gets a high score in this department because they give you the option for updates to run silently in the background, or to manually control them.
BitDefender does it again this year with another excellent antivirus software. BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012 continues to be a top-notch contender with great antivirus protection and an improved user interface.
How well does BitDefender Antivirus stack up against the competition?
When tested by the top testing labs around the world, including ours, BitDefender scored excellent in real-time antivirus protection, virus removal, and resource usage. As we always do, we hit BitDefender hard: viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits, keyloggers, and it did well.
During our resource testing, BitDefender did well with light scanning and light idle usage. There was no significant system drain.
The new user interface is clean and easy to navigate. You can find any option or setting you need.
BitDefender's customer service remains is biggest weakness again this year. As with previous versions, there's no phone or chat support, which is a real shame; however, their help articles and video tutorials are good, so they should be enough for most people.
Overall, BitDefender remains one of our top choices this year because of their light resource usage, easy to use interface, and most importantly, strong virus, spyware, and malware protection.
Since we began testing antivirus software, BitDefender has been among the most consistent at detecting and removing viruses and spyware.
On top of that it's also equally good at removing viruses, too.
All of the top antivirus testing labs in the world, including ours, have given BitDefender excellent scores again this year.
BitDefender has received certifications from:
AV-Comparatives
AV-Test
ICSA Labs
Virus Bulletin
West Coast Labs
Like each of the above antivirus software testing labs, we tested BitDefender for:
Real-time virus protection - BitDefender scored at the top for scanning and blocking real-time threats before they can do any harm. These threats include viruses, rootkits, keyloggers, trojans, and spyware that target your computer while you're surfing the web.
Virus and malware removal rates - These tests determine how well BitDefender can scan, detect, and remove viruses that have infiltrated your system. BitDefender Antivirus Plus scored well above the competition for virus and malware removal.
Phishing site blocking - These tests see how well BitDefender can block phishing sites that try to steal your personal information. While most browsers already do a good job in blocking phishing sites on their own, BitDefender does exceptionally well with anti-phishing. Not surprisingly, BitDefender proved to be more effective against phishing sites than Internet Explorer alone.
Performance rates - These tests show how much system resources BitDefender uses. We found BitDefender to be light and average while sitting idle as well as when scanning.
Putting it all together, BitDefender did excellently in our real-world tests. Viruses and other malware were easily blocked or removed. Their anti-phishing filter was exceptional, and their system resource performance was good.
Having seen BitDefender evolve each year as we have, we weren't surprised to see how good BitDefender's resource usage was.
On average, we saw around 3% of CPU was used while running idle and about 61% during a manual scan.
Generally, BitDefender Antivirus is light on resources both when idle and while running a full-system scan.
User Interface: 100%
BitDefender has simplified their user interface from last year's 3-level approach. This year, the UI (user interface) is clean and easy to use.
The main overview screen has a large scrollbar showing all of the antivirus tools available: Scanning, Antispam, etc. Switches turn each feature on and off, or you can push the main button for more options.
Inside the settings window, all of the main features are listed on the left in standard navigation. Clicking on each section opens that set of tools and options in the main screen.
There's a handy "Events" tab for each section that logs all actions taken. For instance, when you run a system scan, that event will be logged in the Antivirus Event section. This is useful so you can keep track of what you did and when.
The color scheme is black and white with color indicators. Red indicates something needs attention, while green indicates everything's fine.
Overall, the user interface for BitDefender Antivirus Plus is an improvement from last year. We like the simplicity mixed with advanced options that are still easy enough for even the novice user.
Technical Support: 78%
Ah, technical support.
It's hard to for most companies to do and even harder to get right, and it's one of the few weaknesses in BitDefender this year.
There's a "Help and Support" link in the user interface that launches their support window. Inside that window are three options to browse BitDefender's documentation, help files, or support contact info.
If you click the "Contact Support" link, BitDefender launches a diagnostics tool that gathers important information about your system that BitDefender needs.
Once completed, the diagnostics information is sent and they're contact you shortly with an answer to your problem.
Support for: BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012
General Support
Support Email
Support Forums
Or, you can always go directly to their website for support. There you'll find video tutorials, documentation, help articles, and forums. Each section is easy to access and understand.
You can email BitDefender directly if you can't find the answer to your question. However, there's no indication as to what extent BitDefender will help you.
There aren't any premium services (paid support), so if you have a serious infection, it's unknown as to how deep a BitDefender representative will go with you to solve the problem.
We couldn't find any contact phone numbers either. So far, BitDefender still doesn't have any one-on-one, phone-based support of any kind. Fortunately, BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2012 is a great product that seldom needs support. But somewhere down the line, a lot of folks need a little support.
Without any phone or chat support, we can't give BitDefender a higher score in this department. While their help articles are useful, nothing can replace direct, person-to-person contact with a knowledgeable representative. Hopefully BitDefender will add some phone support soon.
Antivirus Updates: 97%
You don't need to worry about manually downloading your updates with BitDefender. Updates are set to automatically download and install by default. BitDefender will check for new updates each time you start your computer, then every hour after that.
However, you can set updates to prompt you before downloading or installing.
BitDefender gets a high score in this department because they give you the option for updates to run silently in the background, or to manually control them.
VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware 2012
Even though a couple of competitors gained ground on VIPRE for 2012 by improving their resource usage, VIPRE still managed to earn first place overall again this year.
VIPRE Antivirus may not be the most well known antivirus software brand, but in our tests it's consistently proving itself to be one of the best. That's not to say that it's not without its flaws, but all things considered, VIPRE Antivirus stood out again this year.
We were impressed when this newcomer came out just a few years back, and we're impressed again this year. Then, and now, they passed our rigorous tests and came out as the best antivirus software overall.
And while no antivirus software is perfect, VIPRE does the most things right of any software in our antivirus comparison.
As for things that aren't ideal: for one thing, there's no pre-installation scan. For users who know their machines are infected, a pre-install scan can sometimes be a good step to help ensure the antivirus software is properly installed.
Rather than a pre-install scan, VIPRE Antivirus instead launches a full-system scan immediately after the install, which is exactly what we like to see and is a close second-best option.
TOP FEATURES
Excellent Antivirus Protection
Low Resource Usage
Free Malware Removal
Unlike the competitors who've each gone their own way, making user interfaces that are "modern" and unique, VIPRE has taken the opposite approach. We like it.
The end result is software that looks like it's supposed to look. Once you open it, everything is where you'd expect it to be, and you're not forced to learn a new system just to manage your antivirus. Sure, some people might, especially at first glance, say the VIPRE interface looks "dated," but the fact is, it's easier to use than anything else--especially given how highly flexible the software can be.
As for core antivirus protection, our tests showed VIPRE Antivirus to come out at or near the top in every category we tested. Real-time protection was excellent. Manual scanning was thorough, detailed, and accurate.
And, USB scanning was accurate, too, with VIPRE one of the few antivirus programs to automatically detect USB devices and offer to scan them. This is a big deal that nearly every other antivirus company is completely overlooking.
And, then there's GFI's praiseworthy customer support. It's 100% free. Free customer support. Free tech support. Free phone support. No strings. No fees. Nice.
VIPRE was up against some stiff competition this year, and we're glad to see they're not resting on their laurels and are still taking things seriously.
Antivirus & Antispyware Protection
Real-time Antivirus Protection:
99%
VIPRE Antivirus's real-time antivirus protection is one of the best in the industry. Even though not every single threat was detected (no antivirus software can ever be 100% effective), VIPRE still performed really well during this part of our tests.
The few threats that happened to escape VIPRE's real-time antivirus protection were usually malicious files that were initially dormant. When these files became "active" (dangerous), VIPRE kicked in and blocked or cleaned these items.
VIPRE's defenses react to threats with either a warning, a download block, or an entire site block. These were all extremely effective leaving no room for miscommunication that a threat had been detected and thwarted.
Overall, VIPRE Antivirus still has one of the best real-time antivirus protection features we've seen this year.
Manual Virus Scanning:
97%
While there's still room for improvement, VIPRE Antivirus did quite well in our manual scan tests. The majority of malicious files on our testing computer were identified and cleaned with very few missed.
Interestingly, we found all of the most dangerous and active files were all correctly identified and either deleted or quarantined. As we saw with other top-performing software, it was most often some less dangerous and dormant malware files that VIPRE missed when it did.
This is why VIPRE earned a 99% in this category. In all, its manual scanning did better than every other software in this category but BitDefender, which only edged VIPRE out in this category by .02%.
Virus Removal:
95%
[Buy VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware 2012]
$29.95
Many people have existing infections on their computers before they ever buy antivirus software, so it's important to test how an antivirus software will perform on a pre-infected PC.
After infecting our testing PC with various threats including trojans, viruses, spyware, and more, we installed VIPRE Antivirus to see how well it would perform.
You'll need to run a full-system scan after installation since VIPRE doesn't do a pre-install scan. Once the scan was complete, VIPRE caught about 95% of the threats on our testing computer.
We'd like to see VIPRE Antivirus include a pre-installation scan in future versions, but we can still give it high marks because the majority of threats were successfully detected during the manual scan that happened immediately after installation.
USB Virus Scanning:
97%
USB-related threats are more and more common these days. All of us have multiple devices that we plug into our computer's USB ports every day: cameras, memory drives, mp3 players, etc.
Even though these may seem perfectly safe and free from malware, you'd be surprised at how often a sneaky virus or trojan can slip onto your USB device without you knowing. That's why USB device scanning is more important than ever before.
During our testing, we loaded up fresh USB keychain/thumb drives with all types of virus and malware files then plugged them in to see how VIPRE Antivirus would deal with it. VIPRE was one of the only antivirus software to automatically detect our USB drive and prompt us for a scan.
The results were excellent. VIPRE accurately and immediately detected and cleaned the vast majority of virus threats on the USB thumbdrives.
Spyware Detection:
94%
[Buy VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware 2012]
$29.95
Spyware is a more dangerous threat than ever; adware can be intrusive and annoying. Both can bring your PC to a halt. Spyware can range from simple PC monitoring to more devious activities such as identity theft. Therefore, good spyware/adware protection is vital.
VIPRE did better than most other antivirus suites we tested this year. The majority of attempts to install adware or spyware on our testing PC were blocked. None of the more dangerous types of spyware got past VIPRE. And of the spyware and adware that did slip through, most were harmless, questionable, or just annoying.
And, our manual scan promptly picked up any pieces that slip through VIPRE's initial detection net.
Antivirus Updates:
97%
Virus definition updates can be set as frequently as one hour or as infrequently as every 24 hours. You can also manually update VIPRE's definition database anytime you choose with one click.
Up-to-date virus definitions are the tools your antivirus software needs to fight global threats as they emerge. Without current definitions, your PC is vulnerable to viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, and all other nasty malware the bad guys come up with.
If you're a regular computer user, you should set VIPRE Antivirus to the most frequent one hour interval; if you only use your PC once and a while, any setting up to 24 hours should be fine. However, there's no reason why you shouldn't keep your definition updates set to download more frequently, even if you're on a dial-up Internet connection.
Additional Security Features
Email Protection:
93%
VIPRE Antivirus's email protection is simple with no special settings. There's no toolbar attachment - which can be a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it.
On one hand, an embedded toolbar in Outlook or Thunderbird can make things easier. But on the other hand, without one, you have fewer settings to deal with. Either way, VIPRE Antivirus is actively protecting your email by default with its real-time antivirus protection.
Email protection can be turned on or off in the UI and there are a few advanced settings for POP3 and SMTP port settings.
We'd like to see support for IMAP, which after POP3 is the most popular method of retrieving email from a server. Perhaps the next version will include support for IMAP.
VIPRE Antivirus supports Outlook 2000+, Outlook Express 5.0+, Windows Mail on Vista, and SMTP and POP3 on Thunderbird, IncrediMail, Eudora, and other similar email clients. SSL, unfortuately, is supported only in Outlook Express and Outlook. This, too, we're hopeful will be included in future versions.
As for real-time email protection, VIPRE Antivirus did quite well. VIPRE detected and blocked the majority of malware emails we sent through during our email testing phase. The emails included innocuous ones plus ones laden with malicious links and malware attachments.
Chat/IM Protection:
94%
VIPRE uses its real-time antivirus protection for all Instant Messaging (IM) clients.
Even though there are no special settings for IM protection in the VIPRE UI, we still give it high marks thanks to its overall real-time malware protection.
We tested the two most popular Instant Messaging clients: MSN Messenger (now known as Windows Live Messenger) and Yahoo Messenger.
Both Windows and Yahoo have their own IM safeguards built in to their software; each has various ways of dealing with malicious links and file transfers.
However, if a dangerous link is let through, VIPRE scans links when they hit the browser. VIPRE will then either warn you or block any threats that may be present. The same goes for any malicious files that attempt to transfer through your IM window.
With VIPRE Antivirus's active real-time protection running, IM threats were successfully identified and blocked.
VIPRE Antivirus may not be the most well known antivirus software brand, but in our tests it's consistently proving itself to be one of the best. That's not to say that it's not without its flaws, but all things considered, VIPRE Antivirus stood out again this year.
We were impressed when this newcomer came out just a few years back, and we're impressed again this year. Then, and now, they passed our rigorous tests and came out as the best antivirus software overall.
And while no antivirus software is perfect, VIPRE does the most things right of any software in our antivirus comparison.
As for things that aren't ideal: for one thing, there's no pre-installation scan. For users who know their machines are infected, a pre-install scan can sometimes be a good step to help ensure the antivirus software is properly installed.
Rather than a pre-install scan, VIPRE Antivirus instead launches a full-system scan immediately after the install, which is exactly what we like to see and is a close second-best option.
TOP FEATURES
Excellent Antivirus Protection
Low Resource Usage
Free Malware Removal
Unlike the competitors who've each gone their own way, making user interfaces that are "modern" and unique, VIPRE has taken the opposite approach. We like it.
The end result is software that looks like it's supposed to look. Once you open it, everything is where you'd expect it to be, and you're not forced to learn a new system just to manage your antivirus. Sure, some people might, especially at first glance, say the VIPRE interface looks "dated," but the fact is, it's easier to use than anything else--especially given how highly flexible the software can be.
As for core antivirus protection, our tests showed VIPRE Antivirus to come out at or near the top in every category we tested. Real-time protection was excellent. Manual scanning was thorough, detailed, and accurate.
And, USB scanning was accurate, too, with VIPRE one of the few antivirus programs to automatically detect USB devices and offer to scan them. This is a big deal that nearly every other antivirus company is completely overlooking.
And, then there's GFI's praiseworthy customer support. It's 100% free. Free customer support. Free tech support. Free phone support. No strings. No fees. Nice.
VIPRE was up against some stiff competition this year, and we're glad to see they're not resting on their laurels and are still taking things seriously.
Antivirus & Antispyware Protection
Real-time Antivirus Protection:
99%
VIPRE Antivirus's real-time antivirus protection is one of the best in the industry. Even though not every single threat was detected (no antivirus software can ever be 100% effective), VIPRE still performed really well during this part of our tests.
The few threats that happened to escape VIPRE's real-time antivirus protection were usually malicious files that were initially dormant. When these files became "active" (dangerous), VIPRE kicked in and blocked or cleaned these items.
VIPRE's defenses react to threats with either a warning, a download block, or an entire site block. These were all extremely effective leaving no room for miscommunication that a threat had been detected and thwarted.
Overall, VIPRE Antivirus still has one of the best real-time antivirus protection features we've seen this year.
Manual Virus Scanning:
97%
While there's still room for improvement, VIPRE Antivirus did quite well in our manual scan tests. The majority of malicious files on our testing computer were identified and cleaned with very few missed.
Interestingly, we found all of the most dangerous and active files were all correctly identified and either deleted or quarantined. As we saw with other top-performing software, it was most often some less dangerous and dormant malware files that VIPRE missed when it did.
This is why VIPRE earned a 99% in this category. In all, its manual scanning did better than every other software in this category but BitDefender, which only edged VIPRE out in this category by .02%.
Virus Removal:
95%
[Buy VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware 2012]
$29.95
Many people have existing infections on their computers before they ever buy antivirus software, so it's important to test how an antivirus software will perform on a pre-infected PC.
After infecting our testing PC with various threats including trojans, viruses, spyware, and more, we installed VIPRE Antivirus to see how well it would perform.
You'll need to run a full-system scan after installation since VIPRE doesn't do a pre-install scan. Once the scan was complete, VIPRE caught about 95% of the threats on our testing computer.
We'd like to see VIPRE Antivirus include a pre-installation scan in future versions, but we can still give it high marks because the majority of threats were successfully detected during the manual scan that happened immediately after installation.
USB Virus Scanning:
97%
USB-related threats are more and more common these days. All of us have multiple devices that we plug into our computer's USB ports every day: cameras, memory drives, mp3 players, etc.
Even though these may seem perfectly safe and free from malware, you'd be surprised at how often a sneaky virus or trojan can slip onto your USB device without you knowing. That's why USB device scanning is more important than ever before.
During our testing, we loaded up fresh USB keychain/thumb drives with all types of virus and malware files then plugged them in to see how VIPRE Antivirus would deal with it. VIPRE was one of the only antivirus software to automatically detect our USB drive and prompt us for a scan.
The results were excellent. VIPRE accurately and immediately detected and cleaned the vast majority of virus threats on the USB thumbdrives.
Spyware Detection:
94%
[Buy VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware 2012]
$29.95
Spyware is a more dangerous threat than ever; adware can be intrusive and annoying. Both can bring your PC to a halt. Spyware can range from simple PC monitoring to more devious activities such as identity theft. Therefore, good spyware/adware protection is vital.
VIPRE did better than most other antivirus suites we tested this year. The majority of attempts to install adware or spyware on our testing PC were blocked. None of the more dangerous types of spyware got past VIPRE. And of the spyware and adware that did slip through, most were harmless, questionable, or just annoying.
And, our manual scan promptly picked up any pieces that slip through VIPRE's initial detection net.
Antivirus Updates:
97%
Virus definition updates can be set as frequently as one hour or as infrequently as every 24 hours. You can also manually update VIPRE's definition database anytime you choose with one click.
Up-to-date virus definitions are the tools your antivirus software needs to fight global threats as they emerge. Without current definitions, your PC is vulnerable to viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, and all other nasty malware the bad guys come up with.
If you're a regular computer user, you should set VIPRE Antivirus to the most frequent one hour interval; if you only use your PC once and a while, any setting up to 24 hours should be fine. However, there's no reason why you shouldn't keep your definition updates set to download more frequently, even if you're on a dial-up Internet connection.
Additional Security Features
Email Protection:
93%
VIPRE Antivirus's email protection is simple with no special settings. There's no toolbar attachment - which can be a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it.
On one hand, an embedded toolbar in Outlook or Thunderbird can make things easier. But on the other hand, without one, you have fewer settings to deal with. Either way, VIPRE Antivirus is actively protecting your email by default with its real-time antivirus protection.
Email protection can be turned on or off in the UI and there are a few advanced settings for POP3 and SMTP port settings.
We'd like to see support for IMAP, which after POP3 is the most popular method of retrieving email from a server. Perhaps the next version will include support for IMAP.
VIPRE Antivirus supports Outlook 2000+, Outlook Express 5.0+, Windows Mail on Vista, and SMTP and POP3 on Thunderbird, IncrediMail, Eudora, and other similar email clients. SSL, unfortuately, is supported only in Outlook Express and Outlook. This, too, we're hopeful will be included in future versions.
As for real-time email protection, VIPRE Antivirus did quite well. VIPRE detected and blocked the majority of malware emails we sent through during our email testing phase. The emails included innocuous ones plus ones laden with malicious links and malware attachments.
Chat/IM Protection:
94%
VIPRE uses its real-time antivirus protection for all Instant Messaging (IM) clients.
Even though there are no special settings for IM protection in the VIPRE UI, we still give it high marks thanks to its overall real-time malware protection.
We tested the two most popular Instant Messaging clients: MSN Messenger (now known as Windows Live Messenger) and Yahoo Messenger.
Both Windows and Yahoo have their own IM safeguards built in to their software; each has various ways of dealing with malicious links and file transfers.
However, if a dangerous link is let through, VIPRE scans links when they hit the browser. VIPRE will then either warn you or block any threats that may be present. The same goes for any malicious files that attempt to transfer through your IM window.
With VIPRE Antivirus's active real-time protection running, IM threats were successfully identified and blocked.
14 Ekim 2011 Cuma
Sophos Anti-Virus
Compared to other companies that sell antivirus software programs, Sophos focuses a lot on both big and small business applications. Most of their products are created specifically to work with their antivirus engine and needs little hands-on functioning. It delivers everything that is needed for business virus protection, but does not offer a lot in options related to controlling and reporting for administrators.
The company sets itself apart from other antivirus software manufacturers by providing a monthly CD to their clients with the most current virus definitions as well as the latest product updates. You will find a lot of provisional updates and software programs from their website. The company offers free telephone support and consultation services at an additional cost. Their documentation far supersedes those of its competitors. Each of its products has a detailed booklet. The software application automatically configures itself and does the best when a performance degradation test was done.
Its features
Sophos has many important features to keep the resources of your business well protected. AutoUpdate and the heuristic detection are some of the advanced features.
Sophos Anti-Virus uses a technology called Behavioral Genotype. This proactively identifies and guards your computer system from being attacked and infected by. You can do a computer scan manually, but also automatically on demand or through scheduling.
Another technology that the software application uses is Decision Caching. This allows the user to quickly scan the computer and it does it more effectively and efficiently. However, you can only access and change files that are rescanned.
Its effectiveness
The Small Business Edition of this software is very effective for small business owners to provide solutions that leave your business safe and secure. The virus scanning kernel is completely certified by ICSA labs and West Coast Labs. At the server level, this software application works well to accommodate the business owner with its corporate needs. One of the ideal and persuasive features of this software application is that it works with both a personal computer and the Mac computer. So, if you have a few Mac computers in your business, this software application is ideal. You can now protect all of your business computers from viruses.
Sophos Antivirus software application has a control center that is centralized for installing, configuring, updating and managing your computer system. It is user-friendly, simple to use, easy to understand and very adaptable. You will be able to read the threat summaries and easily figure out what they mean. With this information, you will be able to evaluate the complete security of your system and find the threats that are impending.
Improved and new features
Allows non-technical users to protect their Windows and Mac quickly and easily
Controls applications like P2P file sharing
Encrypts information and allows secure data exchange with SafeGuard® Encryption technology
Blocks new and targeted threats before they cause damage, with Behavioral Genotype Protection®
Detects and removes viruses, spyware, adware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs)
Updates:
Updates automatically with the latest protection, direct from Sophos.
Support:
Includes 24×7 technical support by Sophos experts for the duration of the license.
The company sets itself apart from other antivirus software manufacturers by providing a monthly CD to their clients with the most current virus definitions as well as the latest product updates. You will find a lot of provisional updates and software programs from their website. The company offers free telephone support and consultation services at an additional cost. Their documentation far supersedes those of its competitors. Each of its products has a detailed booklet. The software application automatically configures itself and does the best when a performance degradation test was done.
Its features
Sophos has many important features to keep the resources of your business well protected. AutoUpdate and the heuristic detection are some of the advanced features.
Sophos Anti-Virus uses a technology called Behavioral Genotype. This proactively identifies and guards your computer system from being attacked and infected by. You can do a computer scan manually, but also automatically on demand or through scheduling.
Another technology that the software application uses is Decision Caching. This allows the user to quickly scan the computer and it does it more effectively and efficiently. However, you can only access and change files that are rescanned.
Its effectiveness
The Small Business Edition of this software is very effective for small business owners to provide solutions that leave your business safe and secure. The virus scanning kernel is completely certified by ICSA labs and West Coast Labs. At the server level, this software application works well to accommodate the business owner with its corporate needs. One of the ideal and persuasive features of this software application is that it works with both a personal computer and the Mac computer. So, if you have a few Mac computers in your business, this software application is ideal. You can now protect all of your business computers from viruses.
Sophos Antivirus software application has a control center that is centralized for installing, configuring, updating and managing your computer system. It is user-friendly, simple to use, easy to understand and very adaptable. You will be able to read the threat summaries and easily figure out what they mean. With this information, you will be able to evaluate the complete security of your system and find the threats that are impending.
Improved and new features
Allows non-technical users to protect their Windows and Mac quickly and easily
Controls applications like P2P file sharing
Encrypts information and allows secure data exchange with SafeGuard® Encryption technology
Blocks new and targeted threats before they cause damage, with Behavioral Genotype Protection®
Detects and removes viruses, spyware, adware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs)
Updates:
Updates automatically with the latest protection, direct from Sophos.
Support:
Includes 24×7 technical support by Sophos experts for the duration of the license.
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security
Ad-Aware Total Security has been developed as an internet security suite. It is maintained and managed by Lavasoft. This is a product that is considered award-winning and has numerous features that are professionally adminstered. The implemented features ensure that you receive the appropriate security measures necessary for a home computer as well as a business computer.
Having all the necessary and vital features for ease of use, this software program is a comprehensive response to the majority of security threats that normally affect so many computers today. It has real time defense and protection against malware and viruses. Due to the parental control feature; even your kids can use it. You will be able to back up your online data as well as conduct recovery of data. It has a file shredder to get rid of information that you don’t want anyone to get a hold of.
When you buy the product, it comes with a scanning engine that is powerful and has the ability to immediately become aware of viruses and spyware. In addition, it provides the user with a shield against rootkits and other malware forms. This program comes with a firewall as well and capabilities for local backup.
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security has a number of significant features that are not found in the free version. In addition to the standard internet security features, this program has both localized and online backup potential.
With the program, you will receive download guard, auto start manager, tool to remove malware, scanner for your network drive; hosts file editor and free technical support.
You can setup and organize Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security quite easily. It is easily accessible to any PC user; no matter what their computer skills are. So whether you are experienced or not, this product is user friendly and easy to adjust to. The reason for this is that the interface is very organized and easy to access. It runs at optimal levels of performance; even in the default settings and subsequent to a new installation. When you buy this product, it will come backed with professional support, documentation and helpful staff that are always ready to provide remote technical support at any time during the day or night.
Improved and new features
Ad-Watch Live! Expert Real-time Protection
Multi-layered detection technology
Expert level rootkit removal system
Complete Malware Protection, including Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
Instant messaging protection
Updates:
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security has automatic, continuous, pulse threat updates.
Support:
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security has great online support for customers! You can use a few options of help:
FAQ for quick answers
Forum to find interesting discussions
Blog to be in latest news
Product manuals and video tutorials
Live Supportof certified expert
Having all the necessary and vital features for ease of use, this software program is a comprehensive response to the majority of security threats that normally affect so many computers today. It has real time defense and protection against malware and viruses. Due to the parental control feature; even your kids can use it. You will be able to back up your online data as well as conduct recovery of data. It has a file shredder to get rid of information that you don’t want anyone to get a hold of.
When you buy the product, it comes with a scanning engine that is powerful and has the ability to immediately become aware of viruses and spyware. In addition, it provides the user with a shield against rootkits and other malware forms. This program comes with a firewall as well and capabilities for local backup.
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security has a number of significant features that are not found in the free version. In addition to the standard internet security features, this program has both localized and online backup potential.
With the program, you will receive download guard, auto start manager, tool to remove malware, scanner for your network drive; hosts file editor and free technical support.
You can setup and organize Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security quite easily. It is easily accessible to any PC user; no matter what their computer skills are. So whether you are experienced or not, this product is user friendly and easy to adjust to. The reason for this is that the interface is very organized and easy to access. It runs at optimal levels of performance; even in the default settings and subsequent to a new installation. When you buy this product, it will come backed with professional support, documentation and helpful staff that are always ready to provide remote technical support at any time during the day or night.
Improved and new features
Ad-Watch Live! Expert Real-time Protection
Multi-layered detection technology
Expert level rootkit removal system
Complete Malware Protection, including Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
Instant messaging protection
Updates:
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security has automatic, continuous, pulse threat updates.
Support:
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Total Security has great online support for customers! You can use a few options of help:
FAQ for quick answers
Forum to find interesting discussions
Blog to be in latest news
Product manuals and video tutorials
Live Supportof certified expert
Bitdefender Total Security 2012
On July 29, 2011, Bitdefender Total Security 2010 was released. The software program comes with some new and innovative features. The features are divided into ten panels. This means that you can get through them very fast by the click of an arrow button or by using the new slider found below these panels. You are able to drag all of these panels and put the most significant ones in the front for easy use. You can view your security status on the left side above the top menu. On the right side of the top menu, you can view your events, the settings and the auto pilot button. The program is user friendly, even after you have done the initial installation. You are able to easily and quickly browse through each of the functions.
Newly added features
The newly added features include the auto pilot function. You don’t have to run a security check. You can just continue to work on your PC without getting any security alerts. Most antivirus software programs will interrupt your work and ask you to make decisions about deleting malwares and viruses. Bitdefender 2012 does not do this. This software program makes all the decisions instead for you. For those who are computer novices, this is an exciting feature. You don’t have to customize the software nor do you have to deal with pop-up notifications.
The software program scans links that you may receive from social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. It monitors and manages all of your privacy settings. There is a quick scan feature that runs for about two minutes; in comparison to the full scan that last for more than three hours. The vulnerability scan will check your system for software updates and to be sure that your PC is always protected. There is a feature called Rescue mode, which is a great tool that removes immovable malware. It removes these malwares by rebooting your PC in rescue mode.
BitDefender Total Security 2012 has tools that will optimize your PC. Some of those tools include the PC cleaner, disk defragmenter, and the duplicate finder, which looks for files that are duplicated and allows you to add folders. The registry cleaner does a repair on your system and fixes all errors.
BitDefender Total Security 2012 will do an excellent job to protect your privacy. It is cost effective and you will receive periodic software updates.
Improved and new features
Active Virus Control – Monitors processes behavior while they are running to detect new & unknown viruses
Rescue mode – Reboots your computer in a trusted environment, which is used for cleanup and restoration
Vulnerability Scanner – Checks for missing or outdated security software as well as potentially unsafe system settings
Antispam – Stops unwanted e-mail from reaching your Inbox
Two-way Firewall – Monitors your Internet connections and keeps strangers from accessing your Wi-Fi connection
Personal Data Filter – Prevents critical data, such as your social security number, from ever leaving your computer
Updates:
Bitdefender Total Security 2012 has automatic hourly updates or you may performe An Update By User Request at any time. You can configure the update and/or proxy settings using The Settings Tab.
Support:
Bitdefender Total Security 2012 has good online support for customers! You can use a few options of help:
Email Support
Free Phone Support not 24/7 in every countries
Forum to find interesting discussions
Knowledgebase with categorized list of questions
Live Chat Support available 24 x 7
In-Product Support to get answers to the most common product-related questions or contact technical support directly from the product
Video Tutorials takes you step by step through the actions required to configure BitDefender
Newly added features
The newly added features include the auto pilot function. You don’t have to run a security check. You can just continue to work on your PC without getting any security alerts. Most antivirus software programs will interrupt your work and ask you to make decisions about deleting malwares and viruses. Bitdefender 2012 does not do this. This software program makes all the decisions instead for you. For those who are computer novices, this is an exciting feature. You don’t have to customize the software nor do you have to deal with pop-up notifications.
The software program scans links that you may receive from social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. It monitors and manages all of your privacy settings. There is a quick scan feature that runs for about two minutes; in comparison to the full scan that last for more than three hours. The vulnerability scan will check your system for software updates and to be sure that your PC is always protected. There is a feature called Rescue mode, which is a great tool that removes immovable malware. It removes these malwares by rebooting your PC in rescue mode.
BitDefender Total Security 2012 has tools that will optimize your PC. Some of those tools include the PC cleaner, disk defragmenter, and the duplicate finder, which looks for files that are duplicated and allows you to add folders. The registry cleaner does a repair on your system and fixes all errors.
BitDefender Total Security 2012 will do an excellent job to protect your privacy. It is cost effective and you will receive periodic software updates.
Improved and new features
Active Virus Control – Monitors processes behavior while they are running to detect new & unknown viruses
Rescue mode – Reboots your computer in a trusted environment, which is used for cleanup and restoration
Vulnerability Scanner – Checks for missing or outdated security software as well as potentially unsafe system settings
Antispam – Stops unwanted e-mail from reaching your Inbox
Two-way Firewall – Monitors your Internet connections and keeps strangers from accessing your Wi-Fi connection
Personal Data Filter – Prevents critical data, such as your social security number, from ever leaving your computer
Updates:
Bitdefender Total Security 2012 has automatic hourly updates or you may performe An Update By User Request at any time. You can configure the update and/or proxy settings using The Settings Tab.
Support:
Bitdefender Total Security 2012 has good online support for customers! You can use a few options of help:
Email Support
Free Phone Support not 24/7 in every countries
Forum to find interesting discussions
Knowledgebase with categorized list of questions
Live Chat Support available 24 x 7
In-Product Support to get answers to the most common product-related questions or contact technical support directly from the product
Video Tutorials takes you step by step through the actions required to configure BitDefender
6 Ekim 2011 Perşembe
Avast Pro Antivirus Review
Avast Pro Antivirus is the security product sold by AVAST Software a.s. (formerly ALWIL Software a.s.). The product provides complete virus protection for customer computers, thanks to an antivirus engine that is working in parallel with a comprehensive anti-spyware detection system. Avast Pro Antivirus is considered an overall better security solution, compared to the free version of Avast Antivirus, with a fully customizable set of features and overall increased protection for web surfing.
Avast Pro Antivirus Features
This antivirus software is equipped with industry leading technologies developed with the purpose of ensuring proper security of the protected computers. For this reason, Avast Pro Antivirus has always been considered one of the most feature-rich antivirus products available on the market.
What is included in Avast Pro Antivirus
Antivirus and anti-spyware engine
Avast! Sandbox
Code emulator
Heuristics engine
Boot-time scanner
Command-line scanner
Wake-up for scan
Scheduled scanning
Behavior Shield
Silent/Gaming Mode
For the list of features and protection mechanisms not included in Avast Pro Antivirus, it is recommended you purchase a security suite, such as Avast Internet Security or a specialized PC cleaning and tune-up software product.
Avast Pro Antivirus Effectiveness
According to some of the world’s leading 3rd party software quality and antivirus efficiency certification providers, Avast Pro Antivirus has managed to obtain the following rankings:
Virus Bulletin – Avast Antivirus, the main antivirus engine of Avast Pro Antivirus, has earned the VB100 award by demonstrating that it is able to detect all in the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning, while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
AV Comparatives – Avast Antivirus, the main antivirus engine of Avast Pro Antivirus, according to the on-demand detection test dating from August 2010, has earned the Advanced+ AV Comparatives ranking.
West Coast Labs –Avast Software a.s. has been awarded with the Westcoast Labs Checkmark Certification & Platinum Product Award.
Avast Pro Antivirus Ease of Installation
According to user experience, Avast Pro Antivirus is easy to setup and install, especially when, prior to a complete installation, the software creates a restore point to which users can rollback, in case something went wrong during the setup time. After the setup has been completed, it is recommended you run a preemptive scan with the purpose of detecting any malicious software that may be already present in the system, prior to when the antivirus software had been installed.
Avast Pro Antivirus Amount of System Resources
This antivirus product is one of the most light-weight security solutions when it comes to the amount of system resources required. For this reason, Avast Pro Antivirus only requires an average of 256 MB of RAM and occupies only 250 MB of hard disk space when installed with the full amount of features.
Avast Pro Antivirus Ease of Use
The software is designed to do most of the tasks without user interaction, however, when it comes to choosing one or several options that can affect its functionality, the user will find that the product’s interface is intuitive and easy to use. Even if the product offers a high level of customization, all options and settings are well organized and easy to access.
Avast Pro Antivirus Compatibility System Requirements
Avast Pro Antivirus is compatible with the following Operating Systems:
Windows 7 (Any Edition, excluding Starter Edition)
Windows Vista (Any Edition, excluding Starter Edition)
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher
Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4
Avast Pro Antivirus minimum hardware requirements:
Processor Pentium 3
256 MB RAM
250 MB of free hard disk space
On top of the basic system requirements, it is important to know that Avast! Antivirus Pro will not run properly if there are additional antivirus solutions installed on the same PC.
Avast Pro Antivirus can be purchased for $39.95 per year and the license offers protection for 1 household PC.
Avast Pro Antivirus Features
This antivirus software is equipped with industry leading technologies developed with the purpose of ensuring proper security of the protected computers. For this reason, Avast Pro Antivirus has always been considered one of the most feature-rich antivirus products available on the market.
What is included in Avast Pro Antivirus
Antivirus and anti-spyware engine
Avast! Sandbox
Code emulator
Heuristics engine
Boot-time scanner
Command-line scanner
Wake-up for scan
Scheduled scanning
Behavior Shield
Silent/Gaming Mode
For the list of features and protection mechanisms not included in Avast Pro Antivirus, it is recommended you purchase a security suite, such as Avast Internet Security or a specialized PC cleaning and tune-up software product.
Avast Pro Antivirus Effectiveness
According to some of the world’s leading 3rd party software quality and antivirus efficiency certification providers, Avast Pro Antivirus has managed to obtain the following rankings:
Virus Bulletin – Avast Antivirus, the main antivirus engine of Avast Pro Antivirus, has earned the VB100 award by demonstrating that it is able to detect all in the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning, while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
AV Comparatives – Avast Antivirus, the main antivirus engine of Avast Pro Antivirus, according to the on-demand detection test dating from August 2010, has earned the Advanced+ AV Comparatives ranking.
West Coast Labs –Avast Software a.s. has been awarded with the Westcoast Labs Checkmark Certification & Platinum Product Award.
Avast Pro Antivirus Ease of Installation
According to user experience, Avast Pro Antivirus is easy to setup and install, especially when, prior to a complete installation, the software creates a restore point to which users can rollback, in case something went wrong during the setup time. After the setup has been completed, it is recommended you run a preemptive scan with the purpose of detecting any malicious software that may be already present in the system, prior to when the antivirus software had been installed.
Avast Pro Antivirus Amount of System Resources
This antivirus product is one of the most light-weight security solutions when it comes to the amount of system resources required. For this reason, Avast Pro Antivirus only requires an average of 256 MB of RAM and occupies only 250 MB of hard disk space when installed with the full amount of features.
Avast Pro Antivirus Ease of Use
The software is designed to do most of the tasks without user interaction, however, when it comes to choosing one or several options that can affect its functionality, the user will find that the product’s interface is intuitive and easy to use. Even if the product offers a high level of customization, all options and settings are well organized and easy to access.
Avast Pro Antivirus Compatibility System Requirements
Avast Pro Antivirus is compatible with the following Operating Systems:
Windows 7 (Any Edition, excluding Starter Edition)
Windows Vista (Any Edition, excluding Starter Edition)
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher
Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4
Avast Pro Antivirus minimum hardware requirements:
Processor Pentium 3
256 MB RAM
250 MB of free hard disk space
On top of the basic system requirements, it is important to know that Avast! Antivirus Pro will not run properly if there are additional antivirus solutions installed on the same PC.
Avast Pro Antivirus can be purchased for $39.95 per year and the license offers protection for 1 household PC.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Review
Norton Antivirus 2011 Scope of Protection
Norton Antivirus 2011 offers protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits, Trojans, worms and other forms of malicious software. Thanks to its Bot protection mechanisms and with the help of the SONAR 3 behavior protection system, Norton Antivirus 2011 manages to deliver a truly reliable defense against both new and common threats.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Features
Norton Antivirus 2011 offers reliable antivirus protection as well as other tools and features that turn it into a comprehensive security solution for generic purpose PC maintenance. Some of the main services that are available to every Norton Antivirus 2011 user are Norton Reputation Service, Norton Pulse Updates and Norton Bootable Recovery Tool.
What is included in Norton Antivirus 2011
Bot detection
Worm protection
Rootkit detection
Proactive performance alerts
Norton Insight file scanning mechanism
Silent mode
Smart scheduler
Email and Instant Messenger monitoring
Vulnerability protection
Norton Antivirus 2011 Effectiveness
According to some of the world’s leading 3rd party software quality and antivirus efficiency certification providers, Norton Antivirus 2011 has managed to obtain the following rankings:
Virus Bulletin – Norton Antivirus 2011 has earned the VB100 award by demonstrating that it is able to detect all in the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning, while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
AV Comparatives – According to the on-demand detection test dating from August 2010, Norton Antivirus 2011 has earned the Advanced+ AV Comparatives ranking
West Coast Labs – Symantec Corporation has been awarded with the Westcoast Labs Checkmark Certification & Platinum Product Award
Norton Antivirus 2011 Ease of Installation
Norton Antivirus is a product that has always been designed to offer a fast and straightforward antivirus solution in a record amount of time, from the moment that it has been downloaded. Due to the fact that this product is available as direct download from the producer’s website, Norton Antivirus 2011 is a good choice as it can deliver antivirus protection without keeping end-users waiting for a boxed version.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Amount of System Resources
Unfortunately Norton Antivirus 2011 is a little bit heavy on computing resource requirements, especially on the Windows Vista and Windows 7 platforms, requiring up to 1 Ghz of dedicated processing power and a recommended volume of 512 MB of RAM.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Ease of Use
Norton Antivirus 2011 is completely easy to use, as well as easy to understand and configure by even non-technical PC users. Thanks to the straightforward user interface with which it is equipped, Norton Antivirus leaves the impression of a streamlined and intuitive software product.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Compatibility System Requirements
Norton Antivirus 2011 is compatible with the following Operating Systems:
Microsoft Window XP Service Pack 2 or later
Microsoft Windows Vista (32 bit and 64 bit)
Microsoft Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit)
Norton Antivirus 2011 offers protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits, Trojans, worms and other forms of malicious software. Thanks to its Bot protection mechanisms and with the help of the SONAR 3 behavior protection system, Norton Antivirus 2011 manages to deliver a truly reliable defense against both new and common threats.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Features
Norton Antivirus 2011 offers reliable antivirus protection as well as other tools and features that turn it into a comprehensive security solution for generic purpose PC maintenance. Some of the main services that are available to every Norton Antivirus 2011 user are Norton Reputation Service, Norton Pulse Updates and Norton Bootable Recovery Tool.
What is included in Norton Antivirus 2011
Bot detection
Worm protection
Rootkit detection
Proactive performance alerts
Norton Insight file scanning mechanism
Silent mode
Smart scheduler
Email and Instant Messenger monitoring
Vulnerability protection
Norton Antivirus 2011 Effectiveness
According to some of the world’s leading 3rd party software quality and antivirus efficiency certification providers, Norton Antivirus 2011 has managed to obtain the following rankings:
Virus Bulletin – Norton Antivirus 2011 has earned the VB100 award by demonstrating that it is able to detect all in the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning, while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
AV Comparatives – According to the on-demand detection test dating from August 2010, Norton Antivirus 2011 has earned the Advanced+ AV Comparatives ranking
West Coast Labs – Symantec Corporation has been awarded with the Westcoast Labs Checkmark Certification & Platinum Product Award
Norton Antivirus 2011 Ease of Installation
Norton Antivirus is a product that has always been designed to offer a fast and straightforward antivirus solution in a record amount of time, from the moment that it has been downloaded. Due to the fact that this product is available as direct download from the producer’s website, Norton Antivirus 2011 is a good choice as it can deliver antivirus protection without keeping end-users waiting for a boxed version.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Amount of System Resources
Unfortunately Norton Antivirus 2011 is a little bit heavy on computing resource requirements, especially on the Windows Vista and Windows 7 platforms, requiring up to 1 Ghz of dedicated processing power and a recommended volume of 512 MB of RAM.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Ease of Use
Norton Antivirus 2011 is completely easy to use, as well as easy to understand and configure by even non-technical PC users. Thanks to the straightforward user interface with which it is equipped, Norton Antivirus leaves the impression of a streamlined and intuitive software product.
Norton Antivirus 2011 Compatibility System Requirements
Norton Antivirus 2011 is compatible with the following Operating Systems:
Microsoft Window XP Service Pack 2 or later
Microsoft Windows Vista (32 bit and 64 bit)
Microsoft Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit)
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Review
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Features
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 is a fully featured antivirus solution with an impressive background in the field of anti-malware detection. By stopping threats that are trying to infect the local PC via mobile devices, scanning and cleaning Internet traffic and email and protecting itself from malware based attacks, this security solution is indeed one that provides a full set of professional features, similarly to the top product on the market.
For the list of features and protection mechanisms not included in ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4, it is recommended you purchase a security suite, such as ESET Smart Security 4 or a specialized PC cleaning and tune-up software product.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Effectiveness
According to some of the world’s leading 3rd party software quality and antivirus efficiency certification providers, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 has managed to obtain the following rankings:
Virus Bulletin – ESET, the main antivirus engine of ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4, has earned the VB100 award by demonstrating that it is able to detect all in the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning, while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
AV Comparatives – ESET, the main antivirus engine of ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4, according to the on-demand detection test dating from August 2010, has earned the Advanced+ AV Comparatives ranking
West Coast Labs – ESET, LLC has been awarded with the Westcoast Labs Checkmark Certification & Platinum Product Award
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Ease of Installation
NOD32 Antivirus 4 is easy to install and configure. This software is recommended to even inexperienced PC users. While ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 is installed, users are being presented with the choice of creating a fail-safe USB boot disk using a portable flash memory stick or similar USB based storage media. This can be used in case the operating system has been damaged beyond repair. Below is an example screen of a custom install, so you can see what other options are available for you.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Ease of Use
NOD32 Antivirus is clearly easy to use, especially thanks to its new and improved graphical user interface. While most menus and vital configuration panels are easy to access, advanced features and expert dedicated reports are available in separate sections, making it easy for both beginner and advanced antivirus product users to operate this product without the need of third party consultancy or product manuals.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 minimum hardware requirements:
Memory: 44 MB of RAM recommended free memory
Disk Space (Download): 28 MB of free disk space required
Disk Space (Installation): 35 MB of free disk space required
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 is a fully featured antivirus solution with an impressive background in the field of anti-malware detection. By stopping threats that are trying to infect the local PC via mobile devices, scanning and cleaning Internet traffic and email and protecting itself from malware based attacks, this security solution is indeed one that provides a full set of professional features, similarly to the top product on the market.
For the list of features and protection mechanisms not included in ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4, it is recommended you purchase a security suite, such as ESET Smart Security 4 or a specialized PC cleaning and tune-up software product.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Effectiveness
According to some of the world’s leading 3rd party software quality and antivirus efficiency certification providers, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 has managed to obtain the following rankings:
Virus Bulletin – ESET, the main antivirus engine of ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4, has earned the VB100 award by demonstrating that it is able to detect all in the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning, while generating no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
AV Comparatives – ESET, the main antivirus engine of ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4, according to the on-demand detection test dating from August 2010, has earned the Advanced+ AV Comparatives ranking
West Coast Labs – ESET, LLC has been awarded with the Westcoast Labs Checkmark Certification & Platinum Product Award
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Ease of Installation
NOD32 Antivirus 4 is easy to install and configure. This software is recommended to even inexperienced PC users. While ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 is installed, users are being presented with the choice of creating a fail-safe USB boot disk using a portable flash memory stick or similar USB based storage media. This can be used in case the operating system has been damaged beyond repair. Below is an example screen of a custom install, so you can see what other options are available for you.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 Ease of Use
NOD32 Antivirus is clearly easy to use, especially thanks to its new and improved graphical user interface. While most menus and vital configuration panels are easy to access, advanced features and expert dedicated reports are available in separate sections, making it easy for both beginner and advanced antivirus product users to operate this product without the need of third party consultancy or product manuals.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 minimum hardware requirements:
Memory: 44 MB of RAM recommended free memory
Disk Space (Download): 28 MB of free disk space required
Disk Space (Installation): 35 MB of free disk space required
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 Review
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 Scope of Protection
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 is able to protect from all types of malware, being a complete antivirus solution with integrated anti-spyware capabilities. As a result, the product is able to efficiently detect and remove viruses, Trojans, worms and other malware, spyware and adware. The detection engine of this antivirus solution is also equipped with signatures matching rootkits, bootkits and other complex threats, and why Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 is also able to stop identity theft by detecting key loggers, botnets and other various illegal method of hijacking your PC.
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 Features
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 is a fully featured product, with many advanced technologies bundled into its software modules. While it is able to detect zero-day attacks and unknown threats, thanks to its advanced heuristics based detection methods, Kaspersky Antivirus is one of the most respected security solutions when it comes to high risk IT environments.
What is included in Kaspersky Antivirus 2011
Real time protection against viruses and spyware
Scanning of websites and emails for malicious components
Protection of user’s digital identity
Vulnerability scan and treatment advice
Desktop gadget
Rescue CD
Advanced antimalware technologies allow installation on infected PCs
Heuristics based antivirus monitoring
For the list of features and protection mechanisms not included in Kaspersky Antivirus 2011, it is recommended you purchase a security suite, such as Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 or a specialized PC cleaning and tune-up software product.
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 is able to protect from all types of malware, being a complete antivirus solution with integrated anti-spyware capabilities. As a result, the product is able to efficiently detect and remove viruses, Trojans, worms and other malware, spyware and adware. The detection engine of this antivirus solution is also equipped with signatures matching rootkits, bootkits and other complex threats, and why Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 is also able to stop identity theft by detecting key loggers, botnets and other various illegal method of hijacking your PC.
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 Features
Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 is a fully featured product, with many advanced technologies bundled into its software modules. While it is able to detect zero-day attacks and unknown threats, thanks to its advanced heuristics based detection methods, Kaspersky Antivirus is one of the most respected security solutions when it comes to high risk IT environments.
What is included in Kaspersky Antivirus 2011
Real time protection against viruses and spyware
Scanning of websites and emails for malicious components
Protection of user’s digital identity
Vulnerability scan and treatment advice
Desktop gadget
Rescue CD
Advanced antimalware technologies allow installation on infected PCs
Heuristics based antivirus monitoring
For the list of features and protection mechanisms not included in Kaspersky Antivirus 2011, it is recommended you purchase a security suite, such as Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 or a specialized PC cleaning and tune-up software product.
Spyware Doctor with Antivirus
Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011 Overview
If you thought the 2009 and 2010 edition of the PC ToolsSpyware Doctor with Antivirus was a great piece of software, prepare again to be impressed. The quality and performance of the recently released PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011, has set some tongues wagging. The 2011 edition sees some excellent new functions and the improvement of some of those features already included as part of this comprehensive internet security package. Improvements for 2011 include:
Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011 Features
ThreatFire, a next generation detection technology designed to work in conjunction with signature based detection, and which allows the software to scan for emerging and evolving threats based on patterns of suspicious code.
Extremely effective detection and removal of all malware.
Gaming Mode to ensure you are not interrupted when gaming or when watching tv or movies.
Password protection allowing you to protect settings and configurations, tasks and/or schedules so that unauthorized users or malware cannot change settings or disable your antivirus protection.
The user experience has been streamlined so there are fewer reboots and the Smart Update process is simpler too. You can also scan individual files and folder with the minimum of fuss, meaning that fewer full system scans are needed.
Very simple to use interface so non-technical people can use the software and understand what it going on. At the same time they have a settings section that will allow technical people the choices they want.
PC Tools have certainly lived up to promises made about improving both speed and detection. Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011 is faster than earlier editions. The past 2010 version scored impressively in PCMag's malware detection and removal tests. In fact, no other antivirus package scored as well, as consistently, as PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2010.
Virus Bulletin is the worlds leader in testing anti virus clients. Their last rating of Spyware Doctor in august 2010 showed that Spyware Doctor found 100% of in the wild viruses that that were thrown at it.
What is included with Spyware Doctor with Antivirus
Anti-virus Protection
Anti-spyware Protection
Browser Guard (Stops malicious files from downloading on your computer)
If you thought the 2009 and 2010 edition of the PC ToolsSpyware Doctor with Antivirus was a great piece of software, prepare again to be impressed. The quality and performance of the recently released PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011, has set some tongues wagging. The 2011 edition sees some excellent new functions and the improvement of some of those features already included as part of this comprehensive internet security package. Improvements for 2011 include:
Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011 Features
ThreatFire, a next generation detection technology designed to work in conjunction with signature based detection, and which allows the software to scan for emerging and evolving threats based on patterns of suspicious code.
Extremely effective detection and removal of all malware.
Gaming Mode to ensure you are not interrupted when gaming or when watching tv or movies.
Password protection allowing you to protect settings and configurations, tasks and/or schedules so that unauthorized users or malware cannot change settings or disable your antivirus protection.
The user experience has been streamlined so there are fewer reboots and the Smart Update process is simpler too. You can also scan individual files and folder with the minimum of fuss, meaning that fewer full system scans are needed.
Very simple to use interface so non-technical people can use the software and understand what it going on. At the same time they have a settings section that will allow technical people the choices they want.
PC Tools have certainly lived up to promises made about improving both speed and detection. Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2011 is faster than earlier editions. The past 2010 version scored impressively in PCMag's malware detection and removal tests. In fact, no other antivirus package scored as well, as consistently, as PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus 2010.
Virus Bulletin is the worlds leader in testing anti virus clients. Their last rating of Spyware Doctor in august 2010 showed that Spyware Doctor found 100% of in the wild viruses that that were thrown at it.
What is included with Spyware Doctor with Antivirus
Anti-virus Protection
Anti-spyware Protection
Browser Guard (Stops malicious files from downloading on your computer)
30 Eylül 2011 Cuma
AVG Internet Security 2012
In recent years, AVG has branched out a bit from its antivirus and security suiteorigins. The company now offers PC cleanup, top-notch parental control, and online backup. AVG designers also continue to tune and improve their core security technology, the latest example of which is AVG Internet Security 2012 ($54.99, direct; $68.99 for three licenses). Not all of the suite's components come up to the high standard of the antivirus component, however.
View Slideshow See all (20) slides
AVG Internet Security 2012 : Main Window
AVG Internet Security 2012 : Desktop Gadget
AVG Internet Security 2012 : Instant Messaging Protection
AVG Internet Security 2012 : LinkScanner
More
The main window of last year's AVG suite bulged with 14 security component icons. This year's redesign managed to represent all the same features with 8 icons. Three additional icons allow integration with AVG Family Safety ($19.95 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars), AVG PC Tuneup 2011 ($29.99/year direct, 4 stars), and AVG LiveKive online backup.
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
FAQ, forum, videos, email; free phone support in US, UK, Canada.
More
Under the Hood
Some of the 2012 improvements aren't visible. The new AVG Accelerator promises to significantly speed up downloads from YouTube and Download.com, with other sites to be added. YouTube videos did seem to load faster, though it's hard to measure for sure.
AVG Advice watches your system over time, checking for things you could do to speed it up. At present the main thing it does is warn you to close and restart your browser when it's using too much memory. I wasn't able to reproduce the problem that triggers this advice, but it seems like a good idea.
The LinkScanner feature, which detects malicious code on Web pages, now takes a wider view. In addition to analyzing Web page code it tracks what's running in the browser. This lets it handle modern dynamic threats whose code is spread over multiple Web pages.
Fake antivirus, also called scareware, was a top threat in AVG's second quarter threat report. The product now uses a patent-pending technique to detect scareware program strictly based on their actions and user prompts. This lets it detect brand-new scareware threats without requiring a file signature.
Powerful Malware Protection
AVG doesn't skimp on protection in their free antivirus product. It has exactly the same malware-fighting capabilities as the full suite. I'll summarize my findings here. For full details see my review of AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars).
All of the antivirus testing labs whose results I follow include AVG in their tests. When the test's constraints permit, AVG submits the free product for testing. AVG antivirus technology gets good marks overall, though not always the very highest. The chart below summarizes a collection of recent tests. For a full explanation see the article How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
Related Story
AVG Internet Security 2012 lab tests chart
In my own malware removal test AVG installed without incident and scanned faster than most products. Strangely, its rootkit scan is separate from the whole computer scan. On any test system with rootkit-based samples installed I ran the rootkit scan too.
AVG detected 88 percent of the threats, the second-highest detection rate of products tested with the current sample set. Its score of 6.5 points for malware removal is the highest among that group, and its 6.7 point score for rootkit removal ties for first place with ZoneAlarm Antivirus + Firewall 2012 ($59.95 direct for three licenses, 3 stars). Like Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars), Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars), and several others AVG scored 9.5 points for scareware removal.
For a full explanation of how I come up with these scores see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
AVG Internet Security 2012 malware removal chart
AVG also scored well in my malware blocking tests, though it didn't take as many top scores as in the malware removal tests. It detected 94 percent of the threats, the second-highest detection rate among products tested with this sample set. Its overall score of 8.4 points would have been higher, but a couple of the threats it detected managed to install and run anyway. AVG detected all of the rootkit and scareware samples scoring 8.3 for rootkit blocking and 9.1 for scareware blocking. For details on where these scores come from, see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Related Story
AVG Internet Security 2012 malware blocking chart
The LinkScanner component in the suite includes a feature called Online Shield that's not available in the free antivirus. When I tried re-downloading my malware collection it blocked 42 percent of the existing samples, compared with 33 for the free antivirus. That's better, but not great. TrustPort Total Protection 2012 ($89.95 direct for three licenses, 2.5 stars) blocked 93 percent of the samples either at the Web page level or during the download.
View Slideshow See all (20) slides
AVG Internet Security 2012 : Main Window
AVG Internet Security 2012 : Desktop Gadget
AVG Internet Security 2012 : Instant Messaging Protection
AVG Internet Security 2012 : LinkScanner
More
The main window of last year's AVG suite bulged with 14 security component icons. This year's redesign managed to represent all the same features with 8 icons. Three additional icons allow integration with AVG Family Safety ($19.95 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars), AVG PC Tuneup 2011 ($29.99/year direct, 4 stars), and AVG LiveKive online backup.
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
FAQ, forum, videos, email; free phone support in US, UK, Canada.
More
Under the Hood
Some of the 2012 improvements aren't visible. The new AVG Accelerator promises to significantly speed up downloads from YouTube and Download.com, with other sites to be added. YouTube videos did seem to load faster, though it's hard to measure for sure.
AVG Advice watches your system over time, checking for things you could do to speed it up. At present the main thing it does is warn you to close and restart your browser when it's using too much memory. I wasn't able to reproduce the problem that triggers this advice, but it seems like a good idea.
The LinkScanner feature, which detects malicious code on Web pages, now takes a wider view. In addition to analyzing Web page code it tracks what's running in the browser. This lets it handle modern dynamic threats whose code is spread over multiple Web pages.
Fake antivirus, also called scareware, was a top threat in AVG's second quarter threat report. The product now uses a patent-pending technique to detect scareware program strictly based on their actions and user prompts. This lets it detect brand-new scareware threats without requiring a file signature.
Powerful Malware Protection
AVG doesn't skimp on protection in their free antivirus product. It has exactly the same malware-fighting capabilities as the full suite. I'll summarize my findings here. For full details see my review of AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars).
All of the antivirus testing labs whose results I follow include AVG in their tests. When the test's constraints permit, AVG submits the free product for testing. AVG antivirus technology gets good marks overall, though not always the very highest. The chart below summarizes a collection of recent tests. For a full explanation see the article How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
Related Story
AVG Internet Security 2012 lab tests chart
In my own malware removal test AVG installed without incident and scanned faster than most products. Strangely, its rootkit scan is separate from the whole computer scan. On any test system with rootkit-based samples installed I ran the rootkit scan too.
AVG detected 88 percent of the threats, the second-highest detection rate of products tested with the current sample set. Its score of 6.5 points for malware removal is the highest among that group, and its 6.7 point score for rootkit removal ties for first place with ZoneAlarm Antivirus + Firewall 2012 ($59.95 direct for three licenses, 3 stars). Like Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars), Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars), and several others AVG scored 9.5 points for scareware removal.
For a full explanation of how I come up with these scores see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
AVG Internet Security 2012 malware removal chart
AVG also scored well in my malware blocking tests, though it didn't take as many top scores as in the malware removal tests. It detected 94 percent of the threats, the second-highest detection rate among products tested with this sample set. Its overall score of 8.4 points would have been higher, but a couple of the threats it detected managed to install and run anyway. AVG detected all of the rootkit and scareware samples scoring 8.3 for rootkit blocking and 9.1 for scareware blocking. For details on where these scores come from, see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Related Story
AVG Internet Security 2012 malware blocking chart
The LinkScanner component in the suite includes a feature called Online Shield that's not available in the free antivirus. When I tried re-downloading my malware collection it blocked 42 percent of the existing samples, compared with 33 for the free antivirus. That's better, but not great. TrustPort Total Protection 2012 ($89.95 direct for three licenses, 2.5 stars) blocked 93 percent of the samples either at the Web page level or during the download.
ESET Smart Security 5
A lot has changed since I reviewed version 4 of ESET's security suite in early 2009. However, there aren't a lot of differences to note in ESET Smart Security 5 ($59.99, direct; $79.99 for three licenses). It does include a kind of parental control now, but its antivirus didn't do nearly as well at protecting a test system from attack by my current collection of threats.
In version 4, ESET offered a simple interface and an advanced interface, as well as a very complex advanced setup. Version 5 has removed the advanced interface and tamed the advanced setup, to a degree. Most users will only need to open advanced setup on advice from tech support.
Specifications
Type
Personal
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
Knowledge base; free phone and email support.
More
Uneven Antivirus
The suite's core antivirus protection is exactly the same as that provided by ESET's standalone antivirus. I'll summarize my findings here; for full details please read my review of ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 ($39.99 direct, 3 stars).
Some problems installing and scanning with the product were solved by running a full scan in Safe Mode. However, one persistent threat triggered a request to reboot for full cleanup over and over, endlessly. Tech support only managed to fix this problem by using a third-party cleanup tool.
Overall ESET detected 88 percent of the threats and scored 6.5 points for malware removal, the same as AVG Internet Security 2012 ($68.99 direct for three licenses, 3 stars). It detected all of the scareware and rootkit threats and scored 9.5 for scareware removal and 6.7 for rootkit removal. Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars) scored a perfect 10 for scareware removal and an impressive 8.9 points for rootkit removal.
For an explanation of where the score numbers come from, please read How We Test Malware Removal.
ESET Smart Security 5 malware removal chart
ESET turned in a poor performance in my malware blocking test. One identified threat managed to install and run despite repeated attempts by ESET to stop it. Its overall score for malware blocking and its breakout scores specifically for rootkit blocking and scareware blocking were all either the worst or second-worst among suites tested with my current malware collection. For an explanation of how I derive these scores, see How We Test Malware Blocking.
ESET Smart Security 5 malware blocking chart
ESET's technology rates better with the independent antivirus labs, especially those that use static tests of its ability to recognize thousands of inactive viruses and other malicious files. All of the labs I follow do test it, and its results overall are good. For an explanation of how I interpret the different types of tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
In version 4, ESET offered a simple interface and an advanced interface, as well as a very complex advanced setup. Version 5 has removed the advanced interface and tamed the advanced setup, to a degree. Most users will only need to open advanced setup on advice from tech support.
Specifications
Type
Personal
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
Knowledge base; free phone and email support.
More
Uneven Antivirus
The suite's core antivirus protection is exactly the same as that provided by ESET's standalone antivirus. I'll summarize my findings here; for full details please read my review of ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 ($39.99 direct, 3 stars).
Some problems installing and scanning with the product were solved by running a full scan in Safe Mode. However, one persistent threat triggered a request to reboot for full cleanup over and over, endlessly. Tech support only managed to fix this problem by using a third-party cleanup tool.
Overall ESET detected 88 percent of the threats and scored 6.5 points for malware removal, the same as AVG Internet Security 2012 ($68.99 direct for three licenses, 3 stars). It detected all of the scareware and rootkit threats and scored 9.5 for scareware removal and 6.7 for rootkit removal. Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars) scored a perfect 10 for scareware removal and an impressive 8.9 points for rootkit removal.
For an explanation of where the score numbers come from, please read How We Test Malware Removal.
ESET Smart Security 5 malware removal chart
ESET turned in a poor performance in my malware blocking test. One identified threat managed to install and run despite repeated attempts by ESET to stop it. Its overall score for malware blocking and its breakout scores specifically for rootkit blocking and scareware blocking were all either the worst or second-worst among suites tested with my current malware collection. For an explanation of how I derive these scores, see How We Test Malware Blocking.
ESET Smart Security 5 malware blocking chart
ESET's technology rates better with the independent antivirus labs, especially those that use static tests of its ability to recognize thousands of inactive viruses and other malicious files. All of the labs I follow do test it, and its results overall are good. For an explanation of how I interpret the different types of tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5
Many antivirus vendors have adopted a yearly update model, but ESET doesn't swing with that crowd. I reviewed ESET's version 4 in March of 2009, and ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 ($39.99, direct; $59.99 for three licenses) has just now turned up. This version hasn't changed much in appearance. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5’s user interface exposes just the information and controls you're likely to need, hiding more complex settings under advanced setup.
During installation you must actively choose whether to enable or disable detection of "potentially unwanted applications." There's no default; you must choose one or the other. Naturally I enabled this feature for testing.
View Slideshow See all (16) slides
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : Main Window
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : Simple Setup
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : Smart Scan
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : In-Depth Scan
More
Specifications
Type
Personal
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
Knowledge base; free phone and email support.
More
ESET's activation system is a bit awkward. It demands full contact information including physical mail address. Once you've entered a three-license key, you can't use that key again to protect two other PCs. Rather, you must locate the randomly-generated username and password emailed to you after that initial activation and use those for the other two.
Install Trouble, Scan Trouble
Getting ESET installed on my twelve malware-infested test systems was a bit of a challenge. On over half the systems the real-time protection module requested a reboot to finish cleaning up an active threat immediately after installation.
That initial reboot is no problem in itself, but one of those systems became unresponsive after rebooting. I got it working again by using Task Manager to kill and restart Windows Explorer. At that point a message from ESET appeared warning that Explorer was attempting to access a virus and requesting another reboot. I took this as a possible clue that ESET caused the hangup by suspending Windows Explorer, though I couldn't prove it.
I went around this circle five or six times, with a different file each time, before giving up. Fortunately scanning in Safe Mode solved the problem. Another system stuck in a similar fashion, and the icons vanished from ESET's display. Once again a Safe Mode scan solved the problem.
On a third system ESET asked for a reboot to finish wiping out a particular threat. After reboot it did the exact same thing again and again, without end. Something similar happened in my testing of Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2012 ($39.95 direct, 2.5 stars).
Tech support instructed me to gather logs and use ESET's built-in SysInspector tool. After evaluating the logs they supplied a script for a third-party tool called The Avenger. The script successfully wiped out this persistent threat, but I would have been more impressed had an in-house tool accomplished that feat.
Good Malware Cleanup
With those problems out of the way, testing went quickly. An in-depth scan of the hard drive and operating memory on my standard clean test system finished in 13 minutes. That's faster than Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) (14 minutes) and AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars) (16 minutes). However, a repeat scan with AVG took less than two minutes.
On finishing a scan, ESET reports statistics on what it did. You can click a link for the full scan log, but most users will find it much too detailed. I'd prefer a simple list of threats found, with the individual file and Registry traces hidden by default.
ESET detect 88 percent of the threats, the same as AVG, and scored 6.5 points for malware removal, also the same as AVG. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) had a slightly lower detection rate, but better cleanup earned it the top removal score of 7.1 points.
Like many of the current antivirus products, ESET detected 100 percent of the scareware (rogue antivirus) samples and scored 9.5 points for scareware removal. Norton and Malwarebytes both managed a perfect 10 on the scareware test.
Quite a few products tested with the current sample set also detected 100 percent of the threats that use rootkit technology. ESET detected 88 percent and scored a so-so 5.3 points for rootkit removal. For an explanation of how I boil down a product's behavior into a malware removal score see How We Test Malware Removal.
During installation you must actively choose whether to enable or disable detection of "potentially unwanted applications." There's no default; you must choose one or the other. Naturally I enabled this feature for testing.
View Slideshow See all (16) slides
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : Main Window
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : Simple Setup
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : Smart Scan
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 : In-Depth Scan
More
Specifications
Type
Personal
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
Knowledge base; free phone and email support.
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ESET's activation system is a bit awkward. It demands full contact information including physical mail address. Once you've entered a three-license key, you can't use that key again to protect two other PCs. Rather, you must locate the randomly-generated username and password emailed to you after that initial activation and use those for the other two.
Install Trouble, Scan Trouble
Getting ESET installed on my twelve malware-infested test systems was a bit of a challenge. On over half the systems the real-time protection module requested a reboot to finish cleaning up an active threat immediately after installation.
That initial reboot is no problem in itself, but one of those systems became unresponsive after rebooting. I got it working again by using Task Manager to kill and restart Windows Explorer. At that point a message from ESET appeared warning that Explorer was attempting to access a virus and requesting another reboot. I took this as a possible clue that ESET caused the hangup by suspending Windows Explorer, though I couldn't prove it.
I went around this circle five or six times, with a different file each time, before giving up. Fortunately scanning in Safe Mode solved the problem. Another system stuck in a similar fashion, and the icons vanished from ESET's display. Once again a Safe Mode scan solved the problem.
On a third system ESET asked for a reboot to finish wiping out a particular threat. After reboot it did the exact same thing again and again, without end. Something similar happened in my testing of Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2012 ($39.95 direct, 2.5 stars).
Tech support instructed me to gather logs and use ESET's built-in SysInspector tool. After evaluating the logs they supplied a script for a third-party tool called The Avenger. The script successfully wiped out this persistent threat, but I would have been more impressed had an in-house tool accomplished that feat.
Good Malware Cleanup
With those problems out of the way, testing went quickly. An in-depth scan of the hard drive and operating memory on my standard clean test system finished in 13 minutes. That's faster than Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) (14 minutes) and AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars) (16 minutes). However, a repeat scan with AVG took less than two minutes.
On finishing a scan, ESET reports statistics on what it did. You can click a link for the full scan log, but most users will find it much too detailed. I'd prefer a simple list of threats found, with the individual file and Registry traces hidden by default.
ESET detect 88 percent of the threats, the same as AVG, and scored 6.5 points for malware removal, also the same as AVG. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) had a slightly lower detection rate, but better cleanup earned it the top removal score of 7.1 points.
Like many of the current antivirus products, ESET detected 100 percent of the scareware (rogue antivirus) samples and scored 9.5 points for scareware removal. Norton and Malwarebytes both managed a perfect 10 on the scareware test.
Quite a few products tested with the current sample set also detected 100 percent of the threats that use rootkit technology. ESET detected 88 percent and scored a so-so 5.3 points for rootkit removal. For an explanation of how I boil down a product's behavior into a malware removal score see How We Test Malware Removal.
23 Eylül 2011 Cuma
Grey market business
Beyond student virus-writers and purely criminal business in the Internet there are “grey” businesses - activities existing on the brink of law. Imposing electronic advertisement, utilities, offering user to visit this or that paid web-resource and other types of unwanted software — they all also require technical support of hacker programmer. It is requires to secretly intrude into the system, repetitive renewal of components and various masking (to protect from deletion from the system), resist anti-virus programs — these aims almost fully coincide with the functional of different Trojans.
Adware
Special advertising components penetrate the system, download advertising information from special servers and show it to the user. In most cases (but not always) the intrusion into the system happens unknown for the user and pop-ups appear only when the Internet-browser is operating (as advertising systems are masked as advertisement banners of web-sites).
After several USA states passed anti-advertisement regulations, Adware developers actually turned out to be beyond law (and practically all of them are American companies). Finally some of them legalized their developments to the maximum: Adware is currently supplied with an installator, there is an icon on the systems panel and a deinstallator. However, hardly any person of sound mind will be willing to install an advertising system on his computer, therefore legal Adware is ‘hard-sold’ together with some free software.
Adware is installed together with this software: most users click “OK”, ignoring texts (appearing) on the screen — and get advertising programs together with the ones being installed. As often a half of the desktop and system panel are filled with various icons, the icon of the advertisement program becomes lost among them. Thus Adware, legal de jure, is installed secretly from the user and is not seen in the system.
It should be noted that in some cases it is impossible to delete legal advertising systems without affection of operation of the main software. Thus producers of Adware protect it from deinstallation.
Pornography and premium-pay resources
To attract users to paid web-sites often different programs are used which de jure are not categorized as malicious as they do not conceal their presence, and the user appears on the paid resource having positively answered а corresponding question. However, installation of such is not authorized by the user, and for instance when the user visits dubious web-sites. Then they obtrusively offer (the user) to visit this or that paid resource.
Rogue antivirus and anti-spyware programs
This is a relatively new type of cybercrime. The user is fobbed off with a small program, which informs that spyware or virus has been detected on the computer. The message appears in any case regardless of the actual situation - even if no other programs except ОС Windows are installed on the computer. At the same time the user is offered to purchase a “treatment” for a small sum of money which in fact does not cure anything.
Adware
Special advertising components penetrate the system, download advertising information from special servers and show it to the user. In most cases (but not always) the intrusion into the system happens unknown for the user and pop-ups appear only when the Internet-browser is operating (as advertising systems are masked as advertisement banners of web-sites).
After several USA states passed anti-advertisement regulations, Adware developers actually turned out to be beyond law (and practically all of them are American companies). Finally some of them legalized their developments to the maximum: Adware is currently supplied with an installator, there is an icon on the systems panel and a deinstallator. However, hardly any person of sound mind will be willing to install an advertising system on his computer, therefore legal Adware is ‘hard-sold’ together with some free software.
Adware is installed together with this software: most users click “OK”, ignoring texts (appearing) on the screen — and get advertising programs together with the ones being installed. As often a half of the desktop and system panel are filled with various icons, the icon of the advertisement program becomes lost among them. Thus Adware, legal de jure, is installed secretly from the user and is not seen in the system.
It should be noted that in some cases it is impossible to delete legal advertising systems without affection of operation of the main software. Thus producers of Adware protect it from deinstallation.
Pornography and premium-pay resources
To attract users to paid web-sites often different programs are used which de jure are not categorized as malicious as they do not conceal their presence, and the user appears on the paid resource having positively answered а corresponding question. However, installation of such is not authorized by the user, and for instance when the user visits dubious web-sites. Then they obtrusively offer (the user) to visit this or that paid resource.
Rogue antivirus and anti-spyware programs
This is a relatively new type of cybercrime. The user is fobbed off with a small program, which informs that spyware or virus has been detected on the computer. The message appears in any case regardless of the actual situation - even if no other programs except ОС Windows are installed on the computer. At the same time the user is offered to purchase a “treatment” for a small sum of money which in fact does not cure anything.
Distributed network attacks
Also referred to as DDoS-attacks (Distributed Denial of Service). Network resources (eg. web-servers) are limited in the number of requests serviced simultaneously — it is limited in capacities of the server as well as width of the channel used to connect it to the Internet. If the number of requests exceeds allowable, either operation of the server will become considerable slower, or users’ requests will be ignored at all.
Taking advantage if this, computer hackers initiate “garbage” requests to the attacked resource, with the number of such requests manifold exceeding potential of the victim resource. A “zombie-network” a mass DDoS-attack starts attacking one or several internet-resources entailing failure of attacked network nodes.
As a result, the attacked resource becomes inaccessible for common users. Usually Internet-stores, Internet-casinos and other businesses which are highly dependent on efficiency of Internet-services are affected. Most often distributed attacks are arranged either to discredit competitor’s business or request money for stop the attack — an Internet-racket of a sort.
In 2002-2004 this kind of criminal activity was quite common. Later it recoiled, which seemed to be accounted for by successful police investigations (at least several tens of people all around the world have been arrested) and due to quite successful technical countermeasures (to such attacks).
Botnets
Special Trojans – ‘bots’ (from “robot”) are created for this kind of networks, centrally managed by the remote “master”. The Trojan intrudes into thousands, tens of thousands or even millions of computers. This enables the master of the “zombie network” (or “bot-network”) to access resources of all infected computers and use them to own benefits. Sometimes such networks of “zombie-machines” come into the black Internet-market where they are acquired by spammers or rented.
Calls to premium-pay numbers or sending paid SMS
Cybercriminals, or groups of cybercriminals, create and distribute a special program which illegally makes telephone calls or sends SMS messages from mobile phones, which is not authorized by the user. Before this or in parallel the same time the same people register the company on whose behalf a contract with the local mobile provider on paid service is made.
Naturally, the provider is not notified that these calls are not authorized by the user. Then a Trojan calls a paid telephone number, the mobile company выставляет accounts for the numbers which initiated the calls and pays the hacker the sum defined by the contract.
Stealing electronic currency
To be more precise, this includes creation, distribution and maintenance of Trojan spy programs aimed to steal funds from personal e-wallets (e.g. e-gold, WebMoney). Trojan programs of this kind collect information on access codes to accounts and send it to their “master”. Usually the information is collected by searching and decoding files which store personal data of the account’s owner.
Stealing banking information
This is currently one of the most common types of criminal activity on the Internet. In this case numbers of credit cards and access codes to Internet personal (sometimes even corporate) bank accounts ((“Internet-banking”) are at risk. In such attacks Trojan spies use a wide range of methods. For instance, they show a dialogue window or image which duplicates the web-page of the bank and request login and password from the user to access the account or a credit card number (similar methods are also typical of phishing — spam mailings with imitation text which reminds a message from the bank or other Internet-service).
In order to get the user to enter his/ her personal data, social engineering tricks are used. The user is informed about negative consequences if he does not enter the code (e.g. internet-bank will cease to serve the account) or that something very positive will not happen (“a lot of money will be deposited on your account — please, confirm your account details”).
Often a keylogger Trojan (“keyboard spies”) are waiting for the user to connect to his original banking web-page and capture symbols inserted from the keyboard (i.e. login and password). For this purpose they monitor launch and activity of applications and if user uses a browser, compare the name of the website with the list of banks registered in the Trojan’s code. If the web-site is found in the list, the keyboard spy is activated and the tapped information (the sequence of keys) sent to the hacker. Trojans of this type (unlike other bank Trojans) do not reveal themselves in the system.
Stealing other confidential information
Hackers may take an interest not only in financial, but any other valuable information — databases, technical documentation e.t.c. To access and steal this information specially developed Trojan spies intrude into victim computers.
Also legal network applications are known to be used for the attack. An FTP-server, for example, would secretly intrude into the system or file-exchange («Peer-to-Peer» — P2P) program software would also be secretly installed. As a result, computer’s files became accessible from the outside. Due to numerous incidents, connected with felonious use of P2P-networks, they were officially banned in France and Japan in 2006.
Cyber blackmail and cyber extortion
Cybercriminals create Trojans which can encrypt a user's personal files. The Trojan penetrates the system, searches for and encrypts the user data and then leaves a message that files are not subject to restoration and that the decryption program can be obtained by contacting the address given in the message.
Archiving user files encrypted with a long password is another notorious method of cyber blackmail. Once the original files have been archived, they are deleted followed by a request to transfer a certain amount of money in exchange for the password to the archive.
This type of cybercrime (data encryption) is critically dangerous from the technical perspective. In other cases it is possible to protect the computer from the Trojan, however in this case one has to deal with firm encoding algorithms. If such algorithms and keys (passwords) are long enough, it becomes technically impossible to restore files without getting the information from the hacker.
Evolving “delivery methods”
To commit the crimes described above, cybercriminals have created and distribute network worms which have caused numerous Internet epidemics. Their major aim is to install criminal Trojans on as many computers as possible in the global network. Mydoom and Bagle, notorious since 2004, and the Warezov mail worm, which emerged in 2006, are examples of such worms.
In some cases the aim is not that of “maximum coverage” — vice versa, the number of infected computers seems to be purposefully limited, not to attract too much attention of law enforcement agencies. In such cases victim computers are intruded not by the uncontrolled network worm, but, for instance, through infected web-page. Criminals can register the number of visitors to the page and the number of successful infecting — and develop the Trojan code when the required number of infected computer is reached.
Targeted attacks
Unlike mass attacks, aimed to infect as many computers as possible, targeted attacks have an altogether different purpose — to infect the network of a certain company or organization or implement a specially developed Trojan agent to the single node (server) of the network infrastructure. Companies in possession of valuable information, such as banks, billing companies (e.g. telephone companies) e. t. c. are at risk in this case.
The reason why bank servers or networks are attacked is obvious: criminals are trying to access bank information, illegally transfer funds (sometimes — in very considerable amounts) to the account(s) of the hacker. When billing companies are attacked, the aim is to access clients’ accounts. Targeted attacks are seeking any valuable information stored at the network servers, i.e. client databases, financial and technical documentation — everything that can be of interest for a potential hacker.
Usually large companies holding critical and valuable information are attacked. Their network infrastructure is quite well protected from external attacks and without any internal help it is not possible to intrude it. Therefore most frequently such attacks are arranged either by employees of attacked companies (insiders) or with their direct participation.
Other criminal activity
Other cybercrimes do exist, but are not yet widespread. These are the theft (collection) of e-mail addresses from infected computers and selling them to spammers, search of exposures in operating systems and applications and selling them to other computer criminals. These businesses also include development and selling of custom-made Trojans e. t. c. Most probably, as existing Internet-services develop and new ones emerge, new crimes in the cyber-space will also appear.
Taking advantage if this, computer hackers initiate “garbage” requests to the attacked resource, with the number of such requests manifold exceeding potential of the victim resource. A “zombie-network” a mass DDoS-attack starts attacking one or several internet-resources entailing failure of attacked network nodes.
As a result, the attacked resource becomes inaccessible for common users. Usually Internet-stores, Internet-casinos and other businesses which are highly dependent on efficiency of Internet-services are affected. Most often distributed attacks are arranged either to discredit competitor’s business or request money for stop the attack — an Internet-racket of a sort.
In 2002-2004 this kind of criminal activity was quite common. Later it recoiled, which seemed to be accounted for by successful police investigations (at least several tens of people all around the world have been arrested) and due to quite successful technical countermeasures (to such attacks).
Botnets
Special Trojans – ‘bots’ (from “robot”) are created for this kind of networks, centrally managed by the remote “master”. The Trojan intrudes into thousands, tens of thousands or even millions of computers. This enables the master of the “zombie network” (or “bot-network”) to access resources of all infected computers and use them to own benefits. Sometimes such networks of “zombie-machines” come into the black Internet-market where they are acquired by spammers or rented.
Calls to premium-pay numbers or sending paid SMS
Cybercriminals, or groups of cybercriminals, create and distribute a special program which illegally makes telephone calls or sends SMS messages from mobile phones, which is not authorized by the user. Before this or in parallel the same time the same people register the company on whose behalf a contract with the local mobile provider on paid service is made.
Naturally, the provider is not notified that these calls are not authorized by the user. Then a Trojan calls a paid telephone number, the mobile company выставляет accounts for the numbers which initiated the calls and pays the hacker the sum defined by the contract.
Stealing electronic currency
To be more precise, this includes creation, distribution and maintenance of Trojan spy programs aimed to steal funds from personal e-wallets (e.g. e-gold, WebMoney). Trojan programs of this kind collect information on access codes to accounts and send it to their “master”. Usually the information is collected by searching and decoding files which store personal data of the account’s owner.
Stealing banking information
This is currently one of the most common types of criminal activity on the Internet. In this case numbers of credit cards and access codes to Internet personal (sometimes even corporate) bank accounts ((“Internet-banking”) are at risk. In such attacks Trojan spies use a wide range of methods. For instance, they show a dialogue window or image which duplicates the web-page of the bank and request login and password from the user to access the account or a credit card number (similar methods are also typical of phishing — spam mailings with imitation text which reminds a message from the bank or other Internet-service).
In order to get the user to enter his/ her personal data, social engineering tricks are used. The user is informed about negative consequences if he does not enter the code (e.g. internet-bank will cease to serve the account) or that something very positive will not happen (“a lot of money will be deposited on your account — please, confirm your account details”).
Often a keylogger Trojan (“keyboard spies”) are waiting for the user to connect to his original banking web-page and capture symbols inserted from the keyboard (i.e. login and password). For this purpose they monitor launch and activity of applications and if user uses a browser, compare the name of the website with the list of banks registered in the Trojan’s code. If the web-site is found in the list, the keyboard spy is activated and the tapped information (the sequence of keys) sent to the hacker. Trojans of this type (unlike other bank Trojans) do not reveal themselves in the system.
Stealing other confidential information
Hackers may take an interest not only in financial, but any other valuable information — databases, technical documentation e.t.c. To access and steal this information specially developed Trojan spies intrude into victim computers.
Also legal network applications are known to be used for the attack. An FTP-server, for example, would secretly intrude into the system or file-exchange («Peer-to-Peer» — P2P) program software would also be secretly installed. As a result, computer’s files became accessible from the outside. Due to numerous incidents, connected with felonious use of P2P-networks, they were officially banned in France and Japan in 2006.
Cyber blackmail and cyber extortion
Cybercriminals create Trojans which can encrypt a user's personal files. The Trojan penetrates the system, searches for and encrypts the user data and then leaves a message that files are not subject to restoration and that the decryption program can be obtained by contacting the address given in the message.
Archiving user files encrypted with a long password is another notorious method of cyber blackmail. Once the original files have been archived, they are deleted followed by a request to transfer a certain amount of money in exchange for the password to the archive.
This type of cybercrime (data encryption) is critically dangerous from the technical perspective. In other cases it is possible to protect the computer from the Trojan, however in this case one has to deal with firm encoding algorithms. If such algorithms and keys (passwords) are long enough, it becomes technically impossible to restore files without getting the information from the hacker.
Evolving “delivery methods”
To commit the crimes described above, cybercriminals have created and distribute network worms which have caused numerous Internet epidemics. Their major aim is to install criminal Trojans on as many computers as possible in the global network. Mydoom and Bagle, notorious since 2004, and the Warezov mail worm, which emerged in 2006, are examples of such worms.
In some cases the aim is not that of “maximum coverage” — vice versa, the number of infected computers seems to be purposefully limited, not to attract too much attention of law enforcement agencies. In such cases victim computers are intruded not by the uncontrolled network worm, but, for instance, through infected web-page. Criminals can register the number of visitors to the page and the number of successful infecting — and develop the Trojan code when the required number of infected computer is reached.
Targeted attacks
Unlike mass attacks, aimed to infect as many computers as possible, targeted attacks have an altogether different purpose — to infect the network of a certain company or organization or implement a specially developed Trojan agent to the single node (server) of the network infrastructure. Companies in possession of valuable information, such as banks, billing companies (e.g. telephone companies) e. t. c. are at risk in this case.
The reason why bank servers or networks are attacked is obvious: criminals are trying to access bank information, illegally transfer funds (sometimes — in very considerable amounts) to the account(s) of the hacker. When billing companies are attacked, the aim is to access clients’ accounts. Targeted attacks are seeking any valuable information stored at the network servers, i.e. client databases, financial and technical documentation — everything that can be of interest for a potential hacker.
Usually large companies holding critical and valuable information are attacked. Their network infrastructure is quite well protected from external attacks and without any internal help it is not possible to intrude it. Therefore most frequently such attacks are arranged either by employees of attacked companies (insiders) or with their direct participation.
Other criminal activity
Other cybercrimes do exist, but are not yet widespread. These are the theft (collection) of e-mail addresses from infected computers and selling them to spammers, search of exposures in operating systems and applications and selling them to other computer criminals. These businesses also include development and selling of custom-made Trojans e. t. c. Most probably, as existing Internet-services develop and new ones emerge, new crimes in the cyber-space will also appear.
Petty theft
Following emergence and promotion of paid internet-services (mail, web, hosting) computer underground members start to take a interest to how to access to network at somebody else’s expense, i.e. by stealing somebody’s login and password (or several logins and passwords from different infected computers) by using specially developed Trojans.
1997 brought the emergence and spread of Trojans designed to steal AOL passwords. In 1998 with further spread of Internet services, Trojans of this kind start to affect other Internet-services as well. Such Trojans, as viruses themselves, are usually written by young people who cannot pay for Internet-services. (It is noteworthy), as the cost of Internet-services gets lower the proportion number of such Trojans decreases accordingly. However, Trojans stealing passwords to dial-up, AOL, ICQ and access codes to other services constitute a considerable part of everyday “inflows’ to labs of anti-virus companies all around the globe.
Petty thieves also create other types of Trojans which steal account information and key files of various program products and resources of infected computers for the benefit of their “master” e. t. c.
In recent years there has been a constant increase in the number of Trojans, stealing personal information from network games (gaming virtual property) for unauthorized use or resale. Such Trojans are especially widely spread in Asian countries, especially China, Korea and Japan.
Cybercrime
The most dangerous group of virus writers is hackers or groups of hackers who intentionally create malicious programs in their own interests. They create such virus and Trojan programs which steal access codes to bank accounts, obtrusively advertise products or services, illegally use resources of the infected computer (for the purpose of getting money again – to develop spam-business or arrange distributed network attacks further aiming at blackmailing). Activities of this kind (of individuals) are multifarious. Let us look at major types of criminal business in the network in more detail.
Support for spammers
Trojan proxy-servers and multipurpose Trojans functioning as proxy servers make up “zombie-networks” (proxy server — utility used for anonymous work in the network, usually installed on a dedicated computer) (designed) to mass-mail spam. Further Trojan proxy-servers get a spam sample and addresses to mail this spam from their “master”.
In sending spam from thousands (or tens of thousands) of infected computers spammers achieve several aims:
distribution is anonymous — message headings and other service information in the letter do not allow to discover the real address of the spammer;
spam-mailing is very fast, as it involves many “zombie-computers”;
“black list” technologies of tracing addresses of infected machines are ineffective in this case — it does not seem possible to trace all spam-mailing computers as there are too many of them.
1997 brought the emergence and spread of Trojans designed to steal AOL passwords. In 1998 with further spread of Internet services, Trojans of this kind start to affect other Internet-services as well. Such Trojans, as viruses themselves, are usually written by young people who cannot pay for Internet-services. (It is noteworthy), as the cost of Internet-services gets lower the proportion number of such Trojans decreases accordingly. However, Trojans stealing passwords to dial-up, AOL, ICQ and access codes to other services constitute a considerable part of everyday “inflows’ to labs of anti-virus companies all around the globe.
Petty thieves also create other types of Trojans which steal account information and key files of various program products and resources of infected computers for the benefit of their “master” e. t. c.
In recent years there has been a constant increase in the number of Trojans, stealing personal information from network games (gaming virtual property) for unauthorized use or resale. Such Trojans are especially widely spread in Asian countries, especially China, Korea and Japan.
Cybercrime
The most dangerous group of virus writers is hackers or groups of hackers who intentionally create malicious programs in their own interests. They create such virus and Trojan programs which steal access codes to bank accounts, obtrusively advertise products or services, illegally use resources of the infected computer (for the purpose of getting money again – to develop spam-business or arrange distributed network attacks further aiming at blackmailing). Activities of this kind (of individuals) are multifarious. Let us look at major types of criminal business in the network in more detail.
Support for spammers
Trojan proxy-servers and multipurpose Trojans functioning as proxy servers make up “zombie-networks” (proxy server — utility used for anonymous work in the network, usually installed on a dedicated computer) (designed) to mass-mail spam. Further Trojan proxy-servers get a spam sample and addresses to mail this spam from their “master”.
In sending spam from thousands (or tens of thousands) of infected computers spammers achieve several aims:
distribution is anonymous — message headings and other service information in the letter do not allow to discover the real address of the spammer;
spam-mailing is very fast, as it involves many “zombie-computers”;
“black list” technologies of tracing addresses of infected machines are ineffective in this case — it does not seem possible to trace all spam-mailing computers as there are too many of them.
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