Introducing Total Defense Antivirus - v10 Beta

Beta is Open - Free for 1 Year for UNLIMITED devices.

Who is behind it? The team behind Untangle UTM. I think you guys will really like this... It's very light on the system, and uses less than 110Mb of ram. It installs fast, and clean, and has multiple engine architecture. The core signature engine is Bit Defender, but it employs a very potent reputation engine - put it on a VM and go visit CleanMX to give that aspect a try. It also employs a Cloud Engine, secondary to Bit Defender - this is optional for those that mistrust the cloud. (during install, select advanced install options, turn on Cloud) Firewall wise, it's a booster to Windows FW. There is also an integrated application blacklist/whitelist, and other features the geeks will like. One of the things I really like is you can setup exactly what is displayed on detection, customizing the notification screen. I have found the reputation engine to be as potent, possibly even more than Norton, and it uses a DNA technology.

Total Defense Unlimited version 10 beta is now available for FREE download! This newest version provides best in class protection with dual scanning engine technology along with integrated backup and tuneup features. Some Other Key Improvements in this release include:

• Enhanced Usability
  • Unified Dashboard that integrated all product features into one easy to use screen
• Z-Day Defender
• New Reputation engine blocks unknown and malicious software
• New malware scanning engine that provides industry leading protection as cited by independent testing labs.
• Reduced Footprint provides negligible system impact
• Blocks tracking cookies and erases files left behind by webpages
• New Mac Anti-Virus support in addition to Windows and Android.
• Improved Malware Detection
• Improved product performance
• Privacy Guard
• More Platform Coverage

To register for the Beta Program, please visit: http://stage.totaldefense.com/betaregistration

 

=
https://www.untangle.com/press-releases/total-defense

-------------------
hxxps://wxx.linkedin.com/company/total-defense-inc-

CA...............

 

CA was bought out by Untangle, and is now exclusively, a division of Untangle. They stress FORMER when they refer to CA. I personally think Untangle should relaunch it as Untangle-AV when the beta is over, to distance themselves from any association with CA.

v10 is basically a re-launch, with completely new technology. Try it out and see, it's actually pretty potent from what I have seen (of a very limited test run). It's stable enough where I could run it on my systems in beta. (which I am considering)

 

I've download the beta version of the antivirus, and may install it soon. It looks interesting, but my 365 day trial of AVG IS 2015 is being suprisingly light so I was no planning to ditch it so soon.

 

I purchased a copy of CA antivirus years ago and I'm anxious to see how this evolves.

 

one more AV based on Bitdefender

 

and one more integrated suite........
Prefer best of breed like a lot of wilders members

 

I've reached out to the developer. It's not a simple license of the BD engine, this is what I gather so far;

1) Dual Engine (BD and CA's VET) - however the VET has been improved with new technologies, and machine learning aspects.
2) Cloud Engine (Enhanced VET backend)
3) Reputation Based Engine (Apparently they licensed several different world class RBL's to create a fairly robust reputation classifier)
4) HIPS (Undisclosed HIPS technology - apparent under NDA from where it was licensed.)

So far the reputation aspects seem to trump Bit Defender itself, and I feel reputation/insight is crucial in my products - I like that. Also this seems more stable, and lighter than Bit Defender itself, and I like the secondary enhanced VET for boosted detections. We will see how the beta pans out.. I would complain about the integrated suite, but it's so light I cannot really argue with it. Functionally the base version appears to work the same without the other bundled tools so I would just run that if you don't want a suite. So far it seems fairly strong on a test VM, dare I say 'excellent'? With some interface improvements, and possibly a better malware website blocker I'd deploy it. I hope the beta progresses nicely.

 

I'm not into security suites, but I think I will test this one in a VM. I like the snappy GUI.

 

I remember when CA bought out VET, an Australian company, and then gave us the free Inoculate IT. It was pretty good in it's day.

 

Great the basic one, not the Ultimate. I'm not a fan of the Ultimate one so far, so I am rolling back test VM's to the Basic AV+Firewallbooster. Same RBL in it so that's good. I don't like how Cloud has to be turned on during installation, and I can't find where the setting is AFTER it's installed. Otherwise, my other issues are noted. So far it is very snappy, I agree.

 

As noted, if you want the base product with the protections, but not the extra 'stuff' you can download that and beta test it - same link.

 

so before i even bother trying this does it work like so many of the "new" av's? does it auto delete or allow me to decide (for both real time and on demand scans) or does it auto quarantine and auto delete? can you actually add exceptions for files and folders etc etc??

 

1) You can add all of the exceptions you want.
2) You can set the 'Options' you want presented on detections (as seen in my screenshot).
3) It lets you decide - if you have that as part of the options.

 

I decided to try it, so I've just installed the beta of the antivirus, and removed AVG. Installation went smoothly, and I liked that although it suggested I did not install it while AVG was installed, it did let me continue the install anyway (I was uninstalling AVG as the same time as installing Total Defense).

Total Defense reported that a product update had failed, with an option to view more information. This took me to an update page which reported that Total Defense had succesfully updated its definitions twice.

I don't like the user interface much. I'm doing a context menu scan of my Downloads folder now, and there is no progress inidication. The CPU usage for the scan process is fluctating greatly, going as low as 5% and at times reaching 93% which is much too high for my liking.

Total Defense just reported that it needed to reboot to install a product update, so I just cancelled the scan and am about to reboot.

 

Several cardinal rules for handling kernal level products was violated.

Problem 1: You were uninstalling one kernal level product (without reboot) while installing another.
Problem 2: You weren't patient to let the updates post, and reboot.
Problem 3: You didn't let the first-scan run.

Also, a reboot is required because a new version was released today (and this is Beta), everyone will get reboot notices. Patience is a virtue when working with kernal level applications, why didn't you just wait for AVG to uninstall and reboot before laying another product over it?

 

@Mayahana I was being a bit impatient with regards to installing Total Defense at the same time as uninstalling AVG. As for the updates, I did wait for it to finish the initial update before starting a scan. Total Defense said it had updated its definitions. When the message about requring a reboot to install the product update appeared, I cancelled the scan and rebooted.

After rebooting, the real time protection component had high CPU use, reaching as high as 96% at times, and understandably slowing down my computer a lot. For example if I opened Task Manager, then clicked on the Details tab, the list of running tasks and their details would be completely blank for several seconds.

I know that some antiviruses need time to adjust to the system and settle in and then their CPU usage will drop. I am wondering if it is worth perservering with Total Defense, bearing in mind I have a slow processor in my laptop, and I need any antivirus to be very light indeed to not cause a noticable performance drop. Also, I'm running Windows 10 which may be an issue. In comparison Norton Security was light right from when I first installed it.

 

Roger, now I am seeing spikes - especially since last patch (today).

Right now with no scans, and nothing much going on it's taking 12.1% of my CPU and 200MB of Ram. Machine Specs;

Quad Core 3.63Ghz
16Gb DDR3
GTX 760-OC Graphics
250GB SSD + 1TB HDD (data)

When I open task manager it spikes to 40% of the CPU briefly, then settles back down, but settles in the range of 4-12% of the CPU at all times. Something seems very wrong with that to me.

 

@Mayahana Also, I recently got a message saying that Bitdefender component had crashed.

For the moment I am going to uninstall Total Defenser as it is causing too much of a performance hit. However, I will keep an eye on it and will try it again before too long, as it looks like a promising product.

 

Agreed. Unless I can figure out why it's spiking CPU, I can't recommend it on a production machine (given it's clearly beta). Something to watch for sure.

 

Just to be clear, Computer Associates wasn't bought out by anyone (although they did change their corporate name to CA, Inc a number of years ago). The AV business was sold to a Technology Investment firm, Updata Partners about 5 years ago, which in turn spun it off as a product of a new division of theirs, Total Defense, Inc. This was then sold ("merged") to Untangle (a startup from California) early last year.

So no relationship exists with CA at all.

 

VET was horrible towards the end though.

 

I was still playing with dolls when Vet was decent.

 

True, very weak. It was used in ZoneAlarm AV related products before they moved to Kaspersky.

 

testing this out. will report back with my thoughts.