360 Internet Security: FREE Triple antivirus engine, BitDefender included

Qihoo Alleged Privacy Issues Fun Facts:

1). An article appeared in the (China) National Business Daily in Feb 2013 quoting an ANONYMOUS source alleging that the (Chinese) Qihoo Web Browser (version 5, which was discontinued in April 2012) "mysteriously" called home.

2). Qihoo explained the next day that the "mysterious" connections to their servers was the browser update function.

3). This was NEVER disputed by any other source.

4). Qihoo has sued the newspaper involved for Libel (and damages), the case to begin next month.


On another topic, note to rock_man- you do know that neither dep.exe nor calc.exe have anything to do with either Qihoo or any other Security application, correct?

 

Here it is the report, please comment
-http://www.valleytalk.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Independent-Report-on-Alledged-Hidden-Backdoor-in-Qihoo-360-Secure-Browser-v1.4.pdf-

 

I posted the wrong file, sorry. 360dep.exe, not dep.exe. I was going from memory.

D:\Program Files\360\360 Internet Security\calc.exe
D:\Program Files\360\360 Internet Security\dep360.exe

Both of those phone home.

 

According to this page:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/antivirus-partners#AVtabs=win7

Microsoft even lists Qihoo 360 as to "provide safe consumer security software that is compatible with Windows."

I'm not trying to spin FUD about backdoors or privacy issues with Qihoo 360 Internet Security. Just voicing my findings and issues with the software.

I have contacted Qihoo directly with my feedback, but not yet had a response regarding the UAC prompt issues.

I like what I have seen with 360 IS. On my system, it ran smooth with no drag. The built-in sandboxing is quite nice, too. I just hope they keep it simple as it is and not add bloat such as a firewall...

 

Dep360 is part of Qihoo's crash reporting routine. Obviously other Qihoo modules will connect with their servers as is expected in a Cloud based product.

How you have a calc.exe in the Qihoo directory is a total mystery to me. It is obviously not a valid part of Qihoo, and I've never seen any malware that would spawn a daughter into the Qihoo director. Perhaps this is a first. I'm curious as to what a VT scan would show.

 

cruelsister - you seem to have intimate knowledge of this product. Do you use it? Have you experienced the UAC prompts if you are on Windows? I've never disabled UAC and I find the "workaround" to disable UAC to use a security product undesirable.

thx

 

Which reminds me - why does Opera dial home every third page, even with Fraud-Check/Sitecheck disabled? Note - they've now removed the ability to disable Fraud Check entirely!

I'm starting to really not trust Opera.

 

I was wondering....this product is just too good to be free so why are the scores at av testing organizations so low for this fantastic program!!??

 

I am not aware of this doing badly in testing. In any case, nothing is too good to be free.

 

What are you talking about? It scores great on just about every major testing organization. Remember that the difference between the top performers and the middle of the pack ones is only a few percentage points.

 

Latest AV-Test.org results:
http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-8/novdec-2013/

However, I disagree with the usability score. That score should be much lower due to the issues with Windows least-privileged user account (LUA) and User Access Control (UAC) and fast-user switching. If the usability score was lowered, perhaps Qihoo would be more motivated to respond to feedback and improve the software?

That said, if I was running Win7 64-bit, single Administrator user account with UAC disabled - 360IS is very good. I would use Windows Firewall Control from Binisoft instead of needing Qihoo to add one to 360IS. But that is another debate, I guess.

I think Qihoo 360 Internet Security has a chance of upsetting the revered Comodo Internet Security...

I know they have visibility to this thread. It has also been cross-linked from a LinkedIn discussion with some Qihoo 360 management.

 

I have no trouble with 360 when using an Admin account with UAC turned on (Win 8 x64).

 

That's good news. I'll wait for Windows 8.1 Update 1 to RTM and perhaps try to make the switch... again.

http://www.techspot.com/news/55615-desktop-friendly-tweaks-in-windows-81-update-1-leak.html

 

Guys look AV-C real world test..it didnt do that well either.

 

I guess it's because its web filter can't use its great engines effectively and it lacks some other complementary technologies like exploit shields.

 

In my book a 95% detection rate is very good. Also, if you look at the latest AV-Test results, Qihoo got a 5.5 protection rate (100 100 100 97 % detection rate).

http://www.av-test.org/no_cache/en/tests/test-reports/?tx_avtestreports_pi1[report_no]=134927

In the latest VirusBulletin test, for what it's worth, Qihoo ranks close to Avira, Avast, and Kaspersky:
http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/RAP/RAP-quadrant-Apr-Oct13-1200.jpg

So while it doesn't get stellar results in all tests, I would still say it's among the best nonetheless, especially given the fact that it's free.

I do think that there's room for improvement though. Perhaps adding the Avira engine would help, and I feel that the proactive protection is not quite up to par with the likes of Comodo or other HIPS' (which I'm fine with them expanding just as long as they add a silent/low-alert mode for the less paranoid).

 

Btw,Love the black theme....had a crash while updating.It was related to the BD engine so I sent the dump to their support.

 

I like the blank theme too. I'd hope they would add the avira engine. But won't hold my breathe Lol.

 

I am not bothered about the protection rate in terms of percentage. I have Comodo firewall along with it, and that's a killer combo. I have more than enough trust in CF.

 

Very nice choice with the addition of Comodo Firewall. It has been noticed recently that a number of PUP downloaders (not malicious per se, although quite annoying and a pain to uninstall) will get past Qihoo but will be contained in their entirety in the Comodo Sandbox and deleted upon sandbox flush.

 

I suggest to use 360 is sandbox to sandbox your browser and set it to auto clean the andbox on restart or do manualy after you finish your browsing. This way you will never ever get infected. I test it this chrome based browser and also IE and firefox (chrome type browser and chrome works best in 360 sandbox) and tried to infect everything from zero-days to tdss, etc. and nothing passed its sandbox and after cemptying the sandbox and scanned no infection. It works better then sandboxie in my openion as it si much more smoother for browsers to run and issue free. But it does not have folder or drive sndboxing ability like sandboxie and olny file level sandboxing.

 

View attachment 241383 Anytime I download a genuine malware file besides EICAR it crashes Chrome completely, I haven't tried this in any other browser yet but here's a pictures of the popup it shows. Is there anyway to stop this? maybe disable the download protection?

 

Sorry, had to edit that picture because I left some personal info. Here's a pic of the popup after it's crashed Chrome (say that 5 times real fast )

 

It was the Proactive defense causing chrome to crash. Oh well, I don't really need it anyways.

I just saw a video review of 5.0 beta under IE and the web filter was quite amazing.

Now they just need to get it working with Chrome and FF

 

Hmm. I do not use chrome and use chrome based browsers. Speiclay one called coolnovo that has both chrme and IE engine and you can switch and you can add chrome extension.

So I never faced the issue or crashes with chrome based browsers like baid spark, torch, epic, comodo dragon and coolnovo running in sandbox or otherwise.