Effective Malware Protection

[greengoose1]

How much does a computer user have to know to have a well protected computer from malicious software of any type?

A huge industry has been built on Malware threats and infections.

Has anyone thought about creating a generic flexible system to defend against this that anyone could use. Especially those that don't have alot of training or computer knowledge.

Let's see a few concepts to grasp and the method along with the mechanics of operation and we could have something.

What do you all think?

[Train]

On all popups, close them using the x in the upper right corner.
Select any other and expect to see something you do not want installed.

[HAN]

Like it or not, Uncle Bill's Windows OneCare is heading that way. They have Giant's AntiSpyware and RAV's antivirus technology in it. Plus, as I understand it, a good 2-way firewall. Add IE 7 to the mix and things would go quite a ways toward safer surfing.

BTW, all that said, I'm not beta testing OneCare and at this point in time, don't plan to run it when it's in general release. I see excellent value and protection in other products and am glad to pass my money over to someone else besides Bill and Steve Balmer...

[greengoose1]

Good points.

And I agree Han. We need to have the independence of choice. And all these big people have not solved the current problems of the little computer users with regards to malware.

But I believe we could indeed help us little people with the resources there are available to us. All that needs to be done is utilize the ones we need and string them together to form a method that will help to fight malware. A step by step if you will.

[bistro]

Who are you calling little??

I'm still working on a program that sends a 50,000 volt power surge back to the person who made the virus in the first place....

Zone Alarm, AdAware, SpyBot and Norton AV's Auto-Protect's are a good "daisy-chain" line of defense. I add to that Webroot's Spysweeper and keeping my (defensive) Hosts file up to date. Seems to work pretty good. I also make sure I keep those Microsoft After-The-Fact Windows/IE Security Updates current on my machine.

[Believeitornot]

Very nice bistro but I would not like to be in your shoes if it was bounced back..


AdAware, SpyBot and Norton AV's Auto-Protect's are more than reasonable though the latter is getting bloated..

[greengoose1]

If the shoe fits ------------

[usil]

I have come up with my own "security suite" that I believe does the job well. Its been tested on my own system and I have a clean bill of health. I must add though, that there is quite a bit of maintanence that is needed, which is mostly keeping the programs up to date.

Anti-Virus
Avast – Anti Virus with good protection against all types of viruses

I offer Avast to customers because it is free and it has a good record of catching viruses. Generally, I don't trust free AV's (especially AVG after reading of the poor results it gets on a regular basis). Having said that, I would suggest that everyone go out and buy a good, highly rated AV. Its worth every penny!

Anti-Spware
Microsoft Anti-Spyware –Realtime protection and removal of spyware
Ad-aware – Scanner for removing Spyware
Spybot S&D - Scanner for removing Spyware & real time protection
SpywareBlaster – Real time protection against popular spyware and drive-by installations
CWShredder – Detects and removes stubborn Cool Web Shredder spyware

Firewall
Sygate – Keeps unwanted visitors and viruses out of your computer

Browser
Firefox – Recommended for safe surfing. Will keep you virtually spyware free

Rootkit
F-Secure Blacklight – Detects and removes hidden spyware (rootkits)

Other
Unlocker – Will unlock any "undeletable" files and erase them.

Out of all of these, I want to point out that Firefox probably takes the biggest responsibility in keeping spyware out. Its a must IMO.

[SpywareDr]

Rootkit
F-Secure Blacklight – Detects and removes hidden spyware (rootkits)

Quick question ... When I just now ran F-Secure Blacklight (Beta) and clicked SCAN, ProcessGuard (registered version) immediately popped up an Alert stating that "blbeta.exe was blocked from modifying explorer.exe". (!?) Why in the world would blbeta.exe be attempting to modify one of the most important program files in Windows XP?

[usil]

Well, it will "uncover" hidden processes. I guess that somehow effects explorer.exe.

[Nix]

Didn't we cover this in a thread in feedback a while ago ?

Maybe that was more about our personal experiences fighting back the evil forces of the dark side

[bistro]

Quick question ... When I just now ran F-Secure Blacklight (Beta) and clicked SCAN, ProcessGuard (registered version) immediately popped up an Alert stating that "blbeta.exe was blocked from modifying explorer.exe". (!?) Why in the world would blbeta.exe be attempting to modify one of the most important program files in Windows XP?

From their Help page:

Your anti-virus software or personal firewall might display a warning that says Blacklight (blbeta.exe) is trying to manipulate the Windows Explorer process (explorer.exe). If you want to continue the scan, you should allow BlackLight to do this.

Not very reassuring, but I am assuming that if they want to stay in business, then this manipulation is not harmful.