Returnil was the "upper balcony" for me

I really thought Returnil was the "end all be all" in system protection.

Then I saw that my system had been compromised. I naively chose Returnil and Zone Alarm as my only defense.

So I did a little reading and I found the following article.

http://www.prevx.com/blog/134/A-puzz...d-SafeSys.html

I am not sure this is the write place to ask my question but here goes.

Is it possible to have a blank/raw system that rebuilds itself every time you reboot without a total reformatting? Then possible using flash-drive to tweak or install your preferences.

The thinking behind this would be that you can't hack what doesn't exist and if my system rebuilds itself through the use of virtualization software and flash-drives and what ever else is available then it would be "impossible" to hack.

Thanks for your thoughts

 

If Returnil was the "Upper Balcony" for you,
it is now the "VIP Box",because protection has only gotten stronger in the 2010 version.
To be honest,at no time has Returnil or any other maker of light virtualization software indicated it is to be viewed as the only software needed for security.

I feel safe with two levels of virtualization,,browser and system.
(Not 100%,as that only applies to death and taxes.)

 

The easiest way if you can afford external USB drive is to use a software that makes an image of your system disc. It would also make a CD you can boot with the restore program that has USB support. You boot the CD, plug in the USB drive with the saved image, and run the restore.

The big fly in the ointment is you have to make certain the boot CD can see both your USB external drive, and your HD (say if you have RAID or some unusual disk controller.)

The other approach is to make a slipstream CD or DVD with the OS and a few programs on it. This was much easier for XP. Vista and W7 if you have a machine with the OS preinstalled, it's kind of tough because they don't give you the install CD/DVD you need to make the slipstream disc. Slipstream is more work and needs many tries to get it right. Backup image is easy and done with wizards. Many of the free backup image programs are actually pretty good. Just make sure the boot CD will work on your system(make a backup and pretend to restore or actually do a restore and see if everything works.)

Some of the nastier malware attacks the booting mechanism of your PC. Erases the MBR or entire partitions or puts faulty info in the partition table.. so anything that restores on reboot you have to guard against the really clever malware that keeps you from rebooting. Don't rely on just one safety.

Something like Returnil and an image backup you should be in pretty good shape. I prefer the selectivity of Sandboxie but since it absolutely won't work on 64 bit I'm checking out Returnil. I'm kind of waiting for the shoe to drop because my system is running really well now. I don't want to fix it if it ain't broken. I'm relying on image backup until I see how the new Returnil releases fare.