Do I need a Spyware scanner?

Hi,

My current setup is NIS2009, PrevX 3.0 and Spyware Doctor (W/O AV). I do find SD quite resource heavy, especially compared with the other two. In recent months the only thing SD has detected before the others is a "bogus/unsafe" website (using their web blocker).

Is there much need for a dedicated Spyware scanner and if so which one uses the least resources but does the same as SD? I have previously tried SAS but it missed a Vundo variant leaving me to restore my PC using Acronis, so that one is struck off my list!

Any help?

Neil

 

You could do without SD, and run either something like malwarebytes anti-malware (free) every now and then.

Or you could run a-squared's free web scan (detect and remove - is a dedicated spyware and virus program) through IE once in awhile - or say every week.

Or download a-squared free which runs only on-demand.

 

if you think SD is heavy maybe you can try to use another aplication or leave NIS and Prevx do the work i dont want to make A vs B but you can watch my signature

 

There are no good AS applications for real-time protection left.

They are history.

A couple of years ago AVs were mostly ignoring spyware, perhaps with a few exceptions.

AS applications had their market, and some were pretty good.

Now, viruses and spyware have blended into malware. From what I understand, some things that are technically viruses can act like spyware.

AS vendors have difficulty collecting malware samples (AV vendors have better established procedures for exchanging malware samples, unlike AS vendors). How would an AS vendor deal with a virus that acts like spyware, or a trojan (traditionally, some were handled by AVs, others by AS apps) ?
I'm also not aware of any AS application that can handle malicious scripts.
And for as far as I know, AV vendors have more experience and more resources to deal with the HUGE number of daily malware variants than AS vendors.

I can think of two (possibly) good AS apps with real-time protection, but they will likely clash with your AV sooner or later. AS software has a tendency to move towards doing what AVs do, which complicates things.

There may be a few products that could technically be classified as AS apps with real-time protection, but they are more of an add-on, nothing like the Spyware Doctor or the Spy Sweeper.

Of course it's possible to use AS or antimalware apps for on demand scans.

 

The short answer, depends. Certain AV's have spyware definitions and heuristic logic to stop these type of threats. So if your current AV has this you should be ok.

Ice