Double Anti-spy - maybe the first multi-engine AS ever made

Code:

http://www.avanquest.com/USA/software/double-antispy-professional-121961?meta=pc-utilities&cat=pc-security-software&sub=anti-spyware-software

About two days ago I found this one. I didn't notice the word "double" till I tried to install it and do an update in VM, the update window did freak me out.

After some searches on Google based on the builds and definitions number, I believe Double Anti-spy is using CounterSpy's and Spyware Doctor's engines.

Double Anti-spy is a real resource hog (as many other Avanquest's softwares), but still I like the concept of a "multi-engine spyware", since Hitman Pro 2.6 it's been hard to find another similar one.

It was quite funny that I ran a "full scan" which took about 20 min and when it finished the "time elapsed" is 9 min.

 

I'd not heard of this one before,not at all sure how necessary it is given that the majority of AV's now cover spyware.What's the resource usage like with this?

Also that interface could do with some work,it looks more rogue-like than many rogues.

 

This is rogue i think. I don't trust too.

Source:
Matt's blog. Said "avoid this"
http://remove-malware.com/antimalware/avoid-this/double-antispy-–-rated-1/

 

If they would make MalwareBytes and AntiVir engines together that would be interesting.

 

No Thanks

 

Just giving themselves false ratings qualifies it as a rogue.

Quote from the posted link:

 

Me too. But it's quite easy to understand, since Double Anti-spy is a "NEW" product on Avanquest.

If you like to talk about the UI I feel that Kaspersky looks more like a rogue Since it's in beta stage I've had that feeling.

I'd prefer a-squared antimalware's (free version, and without Ikarus) engine combined with that of MalwareBytes

I don't think so. Matt might be right about the misleading advertising though.

I uninstalled it right after the test too. If it were a free on-demmand AS scanner I would keep it though. I only post it here to discuss about the concept of a multi-engine AS

Tell you what, they didn't say "Double Anti-Spy is rated No.1 on blah blah blah". What they said is about the technology. And since it's an OEM of Spyware Doctor and CounterSpy, it's ok for them to say they are using the best antispyware technologies available, right?

I don't like Avanquest, their products were always hogging, sometime crashed my PC (till I discovered what a VM is). But at least they don't publish rogue products. Their products might be a little bit useless, or totally failures, but they're not rogues. If they are making a new product I'd like to test it, just like what I did with Symantec's Norton years ago.

 

its funny to post rogue security software in the wilders..... we are security experts here.... someone close this post with the stupid title multi antispyware engine... wake up we are in the year of antimalware hips and sanboxing......

 

Have you read my post above? I've explained everything.

 

Double Anti-spy is overhyped. But a rogue? I dunno.
The twin engine idea is nice, but who wants something that hogs resources?
I'll pass on this one.

 

Most interesting to see how easily FUD can spread.
I won't even bother asking what metrics can be derived from a user interface that can determine if a product is rogue.

Avanquest has been around for many years, and is the vendor of the Powerdesk file manager and Fix-It Utilities utility suite, two very well known products having significantly large user bases.
They also have several other product lines in different genres, such as Perfect Image, a disk imaging product which is currently at Version 12.

 

Avanquest Anti-Virus / Anti-Spyware products ..

Contact..

 

You quoted me out of context there,it was clear to anyone from my post that I wasn't accusing this product of being a rogue,merely commenting upon it's garish interface.

 

I did not state that you, specifically, were accusing the product of being rogue.

The rationale for juxtaposing both comments was to point out how easily a careless remark with no basis in reality can develop into something that smothers the truth.

Person A gives an opinion, Person B shares that opinion and then gives a link to someone else of the same opinion, and eventually the myth becomes fact.

 

I don't trust it.

A product having both the Spyware Doctor and the Counterspy engine ?

First: the Spyware Doctor is a bad product. There is nothing good about it.

Counterspy ?
Why would Sunbelt Software allow a third party to use their engine ? They are trying to get a share of the market with VIPRE (Counterspy is said to be a subset of VIPRE).

I googled it, and on the first two pages I noticed the words 'torrrent' and 'rapidshare' at least twice on the first two pages.

If anyone wants to play around, I suggest uploading the downloaded file to Virustotal, Jotti, and http://anubis.iseclab.org/ .

I'm curious what they say ...

I wouldn't touch that software.

 

With multi-engine AV's like GDATA and A-Squared Anti-malware,
not really fling off the shelves,despite there high detection rates,
With the trend to move away from running real-time anti-spyware,
With cloud based solutions offering multi-engine scanning (though probably not as deep),I really wonder if there is a market for this.

 

A perfectly valid opinion.

I cannot think of anything that has "nothing good about it".

Why did Kaspersky allow F-Secure to use their engine?
Why is Hitman Pro allowed access to so many different engines?

I assume that the words, "torrent" and "rapidshare", to you suggest "rogue".
Those words suggest to me, "warez", and it is fact that The Scene doesn't bother with mediocre products.

I would try it, but I wouldn't expect to be blown away.

Avanquest products are generally second tier, and their history of responding to end-user requests to fix bugs is poor.

 

Probably for a licensing fee.And it potentially gets their engine some exposure.

 

Counterspy has had a lot of exposure. Certainly more than this product.

I'm not convinced. I did some searching for this product and Counterspy, but I only found some websites that I'd rather not visit. I prefer to keep my computer clean...

But feel free to test it, uploading it to Virustotal/Jotti and Anubis before executing it would seem a good idea.
I'm curious about the test results.

 

matt from Remove-malware.com said this on this website

view website
http://remove-malware.com/

 

@Brocke: Please read post #3, Onur has already mentioned it And I've given my opinion in post #7, at Matt's page as well.

It's quite hard for to find since this is a new product. I only guess it is using CounterSpy's based on the build of "Engnine A" in the post above.

Also, I've tried to install Fix-It Utilities 9 Trial in my VM before. The first time my VM rebooted, a firewall notifications poped-out and mentioned something about "VIPRE allowed to connect to the internet", even I didn't have VIPRE installed in my VM. So I believed that Fix-It Utilities 9 was using VIPRE's engine for it's antivirus. And since they (Advanquest and Sunbelt) have already cooporated before, it's quite easy to understand why CounterSpy's engine is inclued in Advanquest's Double Anti-Spy.

By the way, the Engine B's build, however, didn't return any precise results. It might be either Trojan Remover, or Spyware Doctor, or even the old, discontinued ZoneAlarm Antispyware. I guess it's Spyware Doctor since 6.5.x is its latest build.

The setup size is 190MB, sorry I can't upload it due to my slow connection.

Btw, have you ever seen any rogue programs reach up to this size? I guess not. This is also why I believe that Double Anti-spy isn't a rogue program

 

Its engine is VIPRE.Great.I heard VIPRE is a good vendor.

I am still interested in its Active Protect.If it is multi-engine AS,how do it detect the file which is being used.Using all the engine at the same time?

 

I guess so. At least that's what it did with the on-demand scanner

Like G-DATA it allow you to disabled one of the active engine to optimize performance, the only different is that G-DATA do this job automatically right when you install the product, based on your PC's info (RAM, processor, etc.).

 

OK,it is a good to save computer's resource.But I wonder which engine it will act,while its Active Protect runs.

When it scans,if all the engines runs,maybe the computer will slow to crash .

 

(partial quote above, sorry I messed it up)

My curiousity got the better of me, I decided to download the product and to submit it to Virustotal, Jotti and Anubis.

But to my surprise, it seems there is no trial version ?

What's next ? Buying a rogue without a trial ?

Obviously I didn't buy it.

I'll start scanning my computer tomorrow.