Who really needs AntiSpyware ?

It all depends on the definition of Spyware of course, i realise that.

I used to think i might benefit in some way/s from having such an App/s, but now i don't ! Why, well because i have my PC and IE very securely tighted up, and therefore any potential sites with driveby installs and bad click buttons etc, can't dump their nasties on me.

I don't often open unknown emails etc either, the exceptions are to test some crappy Phish etc. Also i'm very careful to test any App/File etc i might DL/Import with my AV/AT, and online too. These precautions have all proved time and time again to be worth the effort in doing so, not that it takes a long time to do. Other Apps and settings i have in place further restrict the possibility of intrusions as well.

A really good AT/AV combination, together with what i have decribed above, have constantly provided me with an Adware/SpyWare/Worm/Virus/Trojan/KL/Bot/Rootkit etc free PC. I have only once had a minor scurmish through not scanning something, but on checking the install etc, i realised something was wrong and was able to eliminate it. A valuable lesson learnt, which was very worthwhile !

I do accept that AS can also include Trojans etc in their databases, and some have other methods inbuilt for prevention too.

For the majority of people out there i feel that Anti Spyware/Adware can indeed be very useful as part of a total package in defense. That's because most of them are not locked down properly, if at all. And they also choose to surf to unsafe sites, and also practice insecure computing in all sorts of ways, both old and young.

Having AS in your PC won't do any harm, FP's excluded, but it is an extra resource stealer, and i for one don't feel i need it anymore really. I still have 2 such Apps that i do update, but they never ever find a single thing, apart from the occasional FP and MRU type stuff, but i have something to deal with MRU's already. I suppose i keep them out of habit, and a sense of gratitude to the vendors for providing them for free. Because when i first went online they did find a few things, not much but they did, but i learnt how to avoid ever getting even those.

AntiSpyware, yes a good idea for a lot of people, but learning how to not get crapped out in the first place is a much better solution.

There are a lot of very nice AS Apps around though if that's what you want, including some new ones.


StevieO

 

Hmm, interesting, but I can see one situation where resident anti-spyware/anti-trojan can prove handy : when you download program X or Y, you can scan it with several scanners and it's appearing clear. Now, once the program is installed - or during installation, AS/AT will detect it as spyware...

Something I've noticed two years ago, as downloading the infamous Messenger Plus spyware : I could scan it with everything available, it was clean, as a file, for every scanners I used. I guess it would happen differently if you install it (I did stop installation when reading the EULA, lol )...

Then it seems a lot of scanners can't detect spyware embedded in setup files , they'll only detect installing (hopefully!)/installed spyware.

Just a shade to your statement .

Cheers,
nicM

 

1) Those who are not confident that their security setup can prevent the inadvertent installation/running of malware that downloads spyware.

2) Those who are not confident that the programs they download are free of spyware.

 

With programs like Deep Freeze, ShadowUser, ShadowSurfer(it was free for a while), First Defense ISR, Rollback Rx, Drive Vaccine to name a few, Antispyware programs will eventually disappear as stand alone applications. Considering that some Antivirus and Firewalls programs are already protecting from spyware and adware (same thing could be said about Antitrojan apps), I really think Antispyware programs are almost obsolete.

I'm even thinking of disactivating my antispyware plug-in within Outpost as it increases considerably my boot time...

 

I'm more 2) then 1), I guess a lot of people here are too.