Safe'N'Sec Review

Well so far it seems SNS covers most everything. I was pleasantly surprised to see it cover services, control panel, INI files and BHO's as well fairly recently. Theres no real data on exactly what it covers, but indeed, I found it blocking those as requested.

The main problem with PrevX over SNS is I feel SNS offers a bit more "AI" in terms of evaluating what is harmful. For example I can run application after application, installation after installation, and not get any popups. But the very second I run a malware, it warns me. For me, thats more than enough, I don't like to be pestered every second.

Lastly, SNS lockdown mode is in a class by itself. Suspect a bug? Lockdown your system, and you'll soon find out. NOTHING.. I mean NOTHING can execute unless you authorize it.

 

Peter--
I see what you are talking about now! (Sorry for the mis-understanding)! It does cover most everything except buffer-overflow. Like I said in my previous posting, it could use a history log with detailed info that tells the user what,how and why the application,service,event registry was allowed/blocked to happen. But, after last night, I decided to do some testing. I installed prevx along side of SNS and found a few things out that prevx didn't repond to. (besides Jason Ro's regtest.) One, was applications wanting to write to thier own (parent) or other services/applications cache. Or tmp files. Which could be form of attack. Even though some think they compliment each other, at the present time, prevx is a drain on system resources. Prevx does give you detailed info on what it is protecting and SNS doesn't. But SNS is doing it's job. Just doesn't give you the same details on what it is doing as apposed to Prevx... Which is fine by me! As long as it is working the way it should..

Take care
Jazzie

 

Hi Peter--

They do have good/friendly, customer support and are open to suggestions. I hope they get your ZA Issue/anomoly figured out soon! About the key issue, yeah, I am down from five to two. Have to e-mail them soon to get a new set. But am not in a hurry, because eveything is working great on my end. Unless of course, a new version is released...

Take Care,
Jazzie

 

Thanks for the discussion guys.

Peter explained my question very well. It looks to me like SnS may be more appropriate for users who can not interpret Prevx's feature list/switches and would not want to (possibly family members in the case of a home user). Prevx on the other hand, enumerates all of the things it is doing, so a more knowledgeable user knows exactly what he/she is getting and can make a better determination about the type of security that is place and what else may be needed. I really like the way ProcessGuard, RegDefend, and Prevx define their features so that I can judge for myself whether there is too much overlap or just the right amount. Of course, with Prevx, I can turn off features that I feel are redundant.

So all of these products look very good to me. The one reason I am not trying out SnS at this point is that I really don't want to deal with getting a new license over and over again, especially since there seems to be a unresolved issue with ZoneAlarm (I use ZA Pro). Just like other products in this category, it seems like there will be a waiting period of several months before SnS is stable enough - and even then I do not know if I want to deal with 24 hour turnaround for a new license key. There have been times, in emergency situations, where I needed to load a security product right away and couldn't (I remember such a situation with BOClean, where I had to wait 48 hours for a new key because I purchased BOClean with a third-party vendor), and found this to be unaccaptable for an critical security component.

Rich

 

I have read right through this interesting thread and have been bouncing from SnS to Prevx. Finally by the end I decided to go with Prevx, mainly being swung by the activation issues and the price. If they soften these issues then I might give it a try.

In the meantime I mentioned this elsewhere and was recommended SSM
http://maxcomputing.narod.ru/ssme.html?lang=en
(very slow site)

It is currently free on beta.
Anyone got any thoughts on this program.

 

Hi,

SSM was too unstable on my system when I tried it out several months ago. Recently, I tried downloading it again but lost patience.

Rich

 

I thought SSM was terrible. Oh, and why after 2 years is does his site STILL take 30 minutes to load? Does he host it on a 14.4 modem? I mean, you can get a highspeed host for $2.95 a month now, whats the deal?

That alone makes me not even bother to try it, how can I take anything seriously that can't even get a proper host?

 

Im still not fully clear in my mind whether Safensec is covering the same as Prevx .

 

Hi Solarpowered,

We know for sure that Prevx covers (or at least tries to cover), buffer overflow problems. Other than that, I have decided to wait until a clean version of SnS is available, and compare it with Prevx in real-life experiences, just as I am doing with RegDefend, ProcessGuard, and Prevx. As I go about my daily activities, it becomes clearer to me, what each of these products are covering. For example, RegDefend (I have added additional registry coverage a la RegRun), covers more of the registry than Prevx. On the otherhand, Prevx is covering key directories such as Program Files and System (this is a great strength of Prevx). ProcessGuard continues to do a superb job of monitoring program execution.

Maybe, other users, who have both Prevx and SnS installed, can relate their actual experiences with the products. I am sure there is overlap (e.g. registry coverage), but I am also sure there are different algorithms to cover other types of sitations. It may be that SnS has similar coverage, but is oriented toward a different type of user - e.g. one that would have trouble interpreting Prevx's messages. But whatever these products do, I think pairing one or the other with ProcessGuard (and RegDefend is one is so inclined) is a great way to go.

I am not looking for one program to do it all. I am quite willing to pay for multiple licenses as I have been doing. Even a certain amount of redundancy is OK (I will be purchasing UnHackMe when my trial is over), because I enjoy supporting these companies who are doing so much to give me peace-of-mind.

Rich

 

Hi Spanner,

In fairness to all, a person on this forum asked for a frank opinion of the SSM product. I game mine and other member gave his. There are many products out there and simply saying that they are all wonderful does not really help a member make a decision. If someone has a positive experience with SSM (as I am sure many have), I am sure that the questioner would be very interested in that as well.

This is a very competitive market, and it will get even more competitive over the next year - especially as companies such as Kaspersky (their 6.0 release looks extremely strong) branch out into the proactive security defense area. I wish all companies well, but some companies may have great ideas and people but do not have the resources to pull off what they want to do.

For now, I am putting my dollars to work on new products that have afforded me great value. This includes RegDefend, ProcessGuard, Prevx, and UnHackMe, and a host of other traditional AV, AT, and AS programs (I have more than I need, but I do not regret for one second purchasing these licenses, since they have all paid for themselves many-times over). But it would not make sense for me to give money to every company out there. I have chosen to support the companies with products that work on my machine(s). I hope this make sense.

Rich

 

Hi,

I agree. That if someone is using a product and benefiting from it, then it deserves support.

Cya,

Rich

 

Found some tests on Safe'n'Sec here; http://kareldjag.over-blog.com/archive-04-10-2005.html

Overall conclusion was;

"as a registry/application firewall, SafenSec is one of the most impressive among all tested products (total mode).It provides really a powerful activity control on the system,
-efficient self-protection (the service can't be terminated),
-efficient protection during the boot,
-works as a service,
-easy configuration of programs, applications, actions (three zones: trusted, restricted, partially trusted/restricted),
-answers to the alerts: "current action'on this session" are already checked and then we just have to click on "allow" or "block" (it's important to answer quickly in case of a suspect event).
-process termination utility,
-exellent support and reactive team,
-nice graphic interface,
-exhaustive informations for the user: pdf on the web site and help file in the set up package".

I have been running SnS for a couple of days and it seems very stable so far. Further, I have had only a few pop-ups with the 'Strict' setting and the memory usage is relatively low.

Can any one confirm whether the purchase price is a one-off payment or an annual subscription? And whether the license covers only one Home Computer?

I can see that the version with the BitDefender AV, which needs constant updating, needs an annual fee. But if you compare the Standard SnS with other comparable programs, price may be a considerable factor in choice, particularly if you have several Home computers.

 

Although the Company states that SnS can protect against "New threats and vulnerabilities", the present version appears not to have a defense against;

DLL injection, manipulation and access of physical memory, and buffer overflow.

 

Nice link and tests. Thanks Blackcat.

Rich

 

A reading of the license agreement, or going through the start of a purchase, indicates the license is 1 year/1 PC subscription model for both versions. This applies to both the home and business licenses. According to the license agreement

This has a certain "Borland" like flavor, so I'm not sure of the context with respect to desktop/laptop for a single user. I'm sure Star Force will be able to answer that.

The issue of renewal costs haven't come up due to the age of this application. I'd assume some sort of discount to renewing users.

I do think it would be to their benefit to have a home LAN style license structure, similar to Agnitum for example (BOClean's type would be nice, but that might be asking too much..) It is a serious business issue you raise - pricing is a difficult art.

Blue

 

Blackcat-

Like Blue said, it is a one year/one pc license. I purchased the version+antivirus... It has been working well so far. Have put it through a few tests myself. Needs some tweaks and a few extra features. But, all and all it is a good product..

CU
Jazzie

 

Hi,

*Blackcat, it seems that the link has traveled from Russia .

But there is no problem: i will link all the test when they'll be definitively official.

Regarding advanced threats and attacks, the SafenSec team email me that new features will be add in the future (against dll injection and process hijacking).

*Jazzi1: Right: it's really a good product.

*Tks for BlueZanneti: i've forgotten to read the license and i've miissed this info.

Regards

 

Safe'n'sec does have a "small business" license available. It's U.S. $99 for one year on up to 5 computers.

 

New license options for SNS:

http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=104

Also, SNS has worked out a bundle deal with Outpost Firewall folks, it will be added soon.

http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=83&id=467

 

I purchased the standard SnS a couple of weeks ago and together with your serial number you still needed to activate the program over the Internet. 5 activations are still the norm at present.

 

I have asked Agnitum about this - this will apply to Russian and ex-USSR markets only (see the Russian page http://www.agnitum.com/ru/news/snsandoutpost.html for details).