Lightest AT

The lightest AT is no AT, which means I use my antivirus as also my AT.
I use AVG 7.0 Free, it detected all the trojans that I this computer has ever become infected with.

 

Found a very good 2004 AT test. Basically the testers used a P2P program to download hundreds of .exe files. They found about 1/3 of them infected (some with multiple trojans worms and viruses). They then narrowed down the field through a number of methods, one of them included 'anything not detected by Nortons AV'.....this narrowed the list to ''''''''''41'''''''''' TROJANS <that number has ALWAYS stuck in my head...scary>. They then narrowed the field further to just 16 trojans...then ran a test on a some well known AT's, including TDS3, TH, Edwido, and A2.

TDS-3 found 9
TH found 9
Edwido found 8
A2 found 6
BoClean found 4

Scary that for the most potent Trojans out there, even TDS-3 only scored 9/16.


Also worthy of note was that each AT needed a combination of both Real Time Scanning and Full Scan to be achieve the best results.

Also from reading many sites is that the heuristics of AV RTscanners are NOT effective against trojans, as they search for virus behaviour, not trojan behaviours. However, depending on the signature database, AV's will of course pick up signatured Trojans.

ah, found the link http://www.anti-trojan-software-reviews.com/trojan-detection-test.htm
Also in relation to AV vs AT http://castlecops.com/t120429-Sober_Worm_Hides_From_AV_Scanners.html AT's have memory scanners.

It was after reading this test, and a few other sites, that I started looking at AT engines, and then for more proactive solutions, like PG, PrevX, Safe-n-Sec, RegDefend etc (I do use TH)

 

You have made an assumption. I hope that it is a correct one.

AVG is not noted for effectiveness in spotting trojans. Please go to THIS site > click "Comparatives > on line "On-demand comparative" dated February 2005, click "Online results" {OR optionally click "Report" to download it}.

On the report, see data recorded in column headed "AVG" on the line labelled "Trojans." You might not want to trust your computer's security to an AV with such a low detection rate.

 

Shocking! Shocking indeed... only 45%...
But I have Prevx and ProcessGuard combined as last resort. So no trojan can get through anyway... I never download .exe from MSN, IRC or from anywhere that I cannot be sure of the contents.

 

Funnily enough, I have my AT and AS for just in case anything gets through PG and PrevX, not the other way around.