Security Set Up For 2011

2011? I might try some different things out. I haven't had to pay for security software in a long time. Between giveaways and 90 day/180 day trials. Comodo, avast, avira, safe online. Free, free, free. I'm going to see how long I can keep this trend going.

 

agree free is better

 

i am very serious maybe about just getting only 1 software and see how i will do with out layer ofcourse with an ondemand scaner as a second opinion

 

Shadow defender and Hitman Pro... Appguard or some light weight hips like winpatrol plus or spy shelter..and keyscrambler which i cant live without..

 

yes with stuff you mentioned man i will feel like the mother of tarzan very secure

 

hahahah

 

I plan on improving my knowledge of features present in win7 and implementing those along with only Sandboxie as my only 3rd party security tool, as has been the case for some time now.

Sul.

 

Sully dont you forget about your in home tool

 

Refresh my memory. LOL, you could be meaning one of many tools

Sul.

 

yes PGS

 

I've never been infected by anything as far as i know unless it went undetected. I don't change my security setup often. I have a layered security approach. Its easy, simple, and light on resources. I see a lot of people these days keep adding, and adding security apps to their machines until they do the one thing they hoped to achieve with the security apps. That is the user damages their machine, and user ends up being the virus lol I have several different setups that I use to prevent infection or data loss. I feel pretty safe short of a natural disaster. Here's what i suggest for anyone.
1. Use a good NAT router with SPI, and IPS.
2. Use a virtulization software like Shadow Defender, Returnil, Shadow User or Deepfreeze. Password protect these programs if you allow others to use your PC. Create exceptions if any are needed for your work, and only disable virtulization mode to update the OS or other software. I rarely ever disable virtulization mode. I have 2 exceptions on most of my machines. Places.sqlite for Firefox so i can commit my bookmarks, and my downloads folder under my documents. Anything else i need to save is saved to an external drive which i have on all my machines.
3. Use a good Firewall, and AV. Never use more than 1 firewall (not including your router). Do not use more than 1 AV unless the AV can be installed without the resident shield, and on-access shield. You can sometimes install 2 AV's on your machine if you first disable the on-access, and resident shield on one of them, but i highly recommend not doing so. You might get away with it for a while, but you will eventually have problems at some point.
4. Use something like Prevx, Malwarbytes or SpySweeper for rogues, and other malware that AV's are more prone to miss. I prefer Prevx.
5. If you want to be really secure then use a HIPS or Anti-executable program if it is compatible with your AV, and firewall. I myself like to use OA's HIPS, or PG from Blue Ridge Networks. If your running 64bit then you are limited on your options since software companies are still playing catchup for 64bit. You can also use a behavior blocker, but i personally have never had much use for them since i prefer HIPS or anti-executable programs. I only run one or the other on a machine. If i run HIPS then i don't run Anti-executables or BB (Behavior Blocker) or Vise versus though it can be done if they are compatible. If you run them together then you will take a hit on performance. The question is how much is acceptable to the user. Never use more than 1 HIPS, 1 Anti-executable or 1 BB. The downside with HIPS, and BB's are the average user does not know wither to allow or deny when prompted by the program, and can just as easily allow themselves to be infected. You can judge for yourself if your knowledgeable enough to use these programs.
6. You can have several on-demand scanners like Malwarebytes, SAS, Hitman Pro, and Emsisoft Emergency kit as long as they don't have a resident shield or on access shield enabled.
7. You can also use LUA (Limited User Account) though i have never had to since i'm always running in a virtual environment, and feel safe in not using one. I do use UAC (User Account Control) on W7 64bit when i'm not running a HIPS or Anti-executable. I don't feel any need to run UAC when running HIPS or AE programs, but you can if you choose to do so. I'm really not sure what the benefit would be in running both. I'm not really sure how much protection UAC offer's Vs a good HIPS or AE. I will start a new thread on this. I've kinda wondered myself.
8. Keep backups of your machine on an external drive with something like Acronis, Shadow Protect or a program of your choice as long as it allows backups to be saved to an external source. Never depend on backups saved on the same drive that your OS is located on. No matter how bad your OS is corrupted or infected you can do a restore from an external drive with the right knowledge. The worse case senario is that you have to reformat with you OS disk first or use the disk that came with your drive. You can then recover from you external drive. That is unless your residence was damaged by fire or natural disaster. In that case no amount of software is going to help you there. You can look at online or off site backup. It's cheap these days so that maybe be an option depending on your budget.
9. If you want to forget everything i just said, and use Linux then that's fine too. The only problem is most of the programs i use are not compatible using Linux. Though i can use some of them using a program called Wine. Then again, i'm not very Linux savy

 

indeed prevx is very good

 

i really prefer much more to buy lifetime licenses if they're available.
So, I got a 24 months deal with Sunbelt for a home site license of Vipre valid thru 09/07/2012 for $79 bucks. I also own 3 MBAM licenses (lifetime as u know). one ShadowDefender license (lifetime aswell). my ShadowProtect Desktop expires on 08/08/2011, and i'll b more than happy to renew it. i'll also renew my Rollback Rx licenses.
Deep Freeze may have a chance to replace my SD license if no news arise about Tony and his project.

For sure I'll acquire a DefenseWall HIPS and SpyShelter Premium licenses. I also find GesWall very appealing.

I'd really love to get a Nod32 and Emsi's Anti-Malware licenses but will do it only if my wallet allows me to. Im also thinking about a lifetime license for SAS but that will happen only if no new releases appear for MBAM throughout the rest of the year.

 

Atomomega, what do you mean with Tony, and his project? Is he possibly stopping the development of SD? That's one of my favorite programs. Can't do without it

 

I haven't decided anything yet ... You guys suggest me what should i use for the YEAR 2011 ..

 

Well to cover this IKARUS base, you can use Emsisoft Anti-Malware too for a full AV/Malware suite.

My setup for now and probably 2011:

Emsisoft Anti-Malware
Comodo Firewall
KeyScrambler
Hitman Pro (On Demand)
Malwarebytes (On Demand)
Avira (On Demand)

Slackware 13.1 x86 on my laptop.

Honestly jmonge with experience you don't need much at all.

1. A simple/nice hardware firewall/router
2. One AV application running real time

1&2 that's all...

Then besides 1&2 you use some On Demand scanners when you need, like SAS, Malwarebytes, Hitman, etc...

Most of my Windows computing has been with just a small hardware firewall and just an av app running and I've stayed safe for over 10 years.

I'm only messing and running all these apps now to learn them well and see how well they work and then to consider them to clients, since I'm an IT Tech it's my business to play with these things and learn, not that I need all of them.

 

The dude hasn't appeared anywhere for quite a while. There's even a thread @ SD's forum regarding this: -http://www.shadowdefender.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=373-
Very sad... I find SD a superb piece of software, almost a masterpiece in every aspect, of course there's always room for improvement.
So... unless something pops-up during the rest of 2010 as far as SD's developement goes, by the end of this year i'll be turning into a Faronics customer... so far Deep Freeze has proven to be quite effective on my personal tests that almost makes me forget about SD... my 30-day trial expires on 06/10/2010...

 

I am much satisfied with my current security setup. Still need opinions and suggestion from experts.

 

I use to use returnil until they started incorporating all kinds of other features in it. I don't like the AV in it so I decided to use SD on all of my machines to save on resources, and I found SD to be more stable than the newer versions of Returnil. I guess i'm lucky i've never needed support for SD, and SD seems to be perfect just the way it is Returnil does offer options now that SD doesn't; like saving all changes while running in a virtualized state. I really liked the dependability of Returnil 2008, and the only thing i felt it was lacking was the ability to enter a virtualized state without a reboot. I was really disappointed to find out that i had to buy a new license every year to keep using it even without upgrading. I thought that was bad business since it doesn't require signature updates or any other type of updates. I still use Shadow User from Storage craft on 2 of my XP machines because of its ability to carry over changes while in Shadow Mode. It allows me to test software requiring a reboot for installation. It was faster, and more easy to use than Vmware for simple testing purposes. Some people were saying they didn't like it because of its annoying wallpaper informing you when running in shadow mode, but there was an option to disable the wall paper. I guess they over looked the option. Too bad it's development was not continued so it would be compatible for Vista, and W7.

 

If it isn't broken don't fix it.
Probably this will be another year with my (const.) security trio from my sig

 

I dont change much,but I plan on buying a NEW PC,so that might be my only change

 

Linux

 

+1
When I get a new HD for my laptop, I'll dual boot win 7 and some linux distro. I liked ubuntu and mint. Fedora was ok but kinda slow. Right now I only have 28 gb left of a 80gb HD. I'm waiting to get a WD 250gb 7400 RPM. Maybe even a 500 gb. Then I'll have enough room. I like to use linux because it seems a little bit faster than windows and it just looks damn good.

 

I am not planning changes to my setup at this time. I alternate between these two:

OA++
Sandboxie
Shadow Protect

OR

DefenseWall
ShadowDefender
ShadowProtect
Avira Premium (on demand only)

 

looking very good