What is your security setup these days?

I couldn't tell you definitively as I've not done any formal testing or in fact done any comparative research. I can tell you it's picked up trojans that other of my softwares have not but it's also picked up false positives, like a product license key inside a zip file for instance, which I had to create an exception rule for. Beyond that, I would hope someone else can answer your question to the level you'd appreciate. Mischel Internet Security's forum would be another place to ask or research that question.

Do you see a blank spot in my coverage that would prompt your question?

 

I believe in a couple of publicised tests it performed quite badly compared to the competition.

A few years (5-6) back , TDS was king, followed closely by TH and Eweido. back then, most AVs would miss trojans and similar nasties as they focused on viri, so these sacnners were useful.

In more recent times, AVs have developed to cover a wider range of nasties, including spyware, adware, trojans etc, so there is a good argument that you dont need a seperate scanner anymore.

Most modern equivalents of TDS , TH etc such as the now popular MBAM and SAS etc detect more than just trojns - they will detect various malware, such as spyware, adware, rogue apps, rootkits etc - whereas i believe TH, still mainly focuses on trojans as it has not been updated in a long, long time.

Personally, I dont think aditional AM scanners such as SAS and MBAM are needed with any modern decent AV (but this said, there may be rare occasions where they help when your AV will fail) - and I think that an app such as TH is not needed today at all. (I have a license, but have not used it in years as there is no realistic chance that it could detect anything that my Avira could not)

Adding aditional scanners / security apps can become like a hobby (I toy with them myself), but you can end up with a system that grinds to a halt.

My advice would be select an AV like Norton, KAV, F-Secure or particuarly Avira and run a sandbox or virtual system - and have a secure system image with backups of your docs, pics etc.

If however, you do want an aditional scanner, go for A-Squared - as the new version is the best AM out there and the paid version has a HIPS. If not A2, try PrevX.

Anyway, just my opinion...

MZ

 

And much appreciated as I am here to get up to date - a life-long learner, I am.

 

Active/Realtime
Look'n'Stop
DefenseWall
Malware Defender

On Demand
CureIt
MBAM
SAS
A-Squared

Hardning
Seconfig Xp

Hardware Firewall
AlphaShield

Opera
Open DNS

Sandboxie for the known nasty sites.


EDIT: Removed SAS and A-Squared

 

You sure it's fine?

I hear people use
GESwall,
Defensewall,
Shadow Defender,
Malware Defender,
Mamutu
and others...

Any of those or others (not listed) ... that anybody can recommend me?

 

Maybe some of those, probably all great, overlap somewhat? I notice LoneWolf (and others) breaks his/hers into categories: Active/RealTime, On Demand, Hard(e)ning, and Hardware Firewall. I probably should spend some time thinking about what those categories (and others - HIPS, etc, etc) really mean and what they are intended to catch so I can sort out those overlaps.

Heh, on to about 1,001 other threads I guess!

 

You have lots of good programs but you have too much good programs! You know what I mean! If I were you Id just stay with 2 or 3 of those programs!


Note: The less programs you have the faster your computer goes!

 

Thank You GES/POR

Now update in signature

 

Mine? Is back to what it was 2 years ago when I first came here. Avira, your folks have proven their total dedication to their customers and all I can say is the future looks, damn good.

 

In General:
XP Pro SP3 w/automatic updates
Auto updates enabled on all my applications, including Firefox, OpenOffice, Adobe Flash player, Acrobat Reader, Sun Java, iTunes, Safari, Windows Media Player, as well as on all my security software (below).

Antivirus:
NOD32 3.0

Firewalls:
Netgear network firewall
ZoneAlarm Pro 8 personal firewall

Anti-spyware:
Webroot SpySweeper 6.0
(ZoneAlarm Pro's antispyware enabled)
(NOD32 also sweeps for spyware)

Web browser:
Firefox 3.0, with Web Of Trust, NoScript, and Adblock Plus.

 

Updated Dec 23, 2008

Vista Home Premium SP1 (UAC OFF\WD OFF)

Resident
Online Armor AV+ v3.1 (Beta)*
Sandboxie 3.33 (Beta)*
Avira Antivir Personal v8
SUPERAntispyware 4.23

On-Demand
Shadow Defender 1.1
VMWare Workstation 6.51

*Newest Beta Installed and Updated

dja2k

 

Avira AntiVir Premium, A-Squared Full, Returnill, Vista UAC on IE protected mode on, Windoes firewall and NAT router.

 

All systems behind Netgear Router and have Spywareblaster installed with weekly Root Repeal on-demand scans. All systems backed up using Drive Snapshot (with the fantastic DriveSnap frontend).

Desktop: nLited Windows XP SP3

Avira Antivir Premium 8
Outpost Firewall Pro 2009
Defensewall 2.45
FD-ISR 3.31.233
Firefox 3.05 (with Adblock and NoScript)

Desktop: vLited Windows Vista SP1 (UAC and Windows Defender Disabled)

NIS 2009
SAS Pro 4.23

Laptop: vLited Windows Vista SP1 (UAC and Windows Defender Disabled)

KIS 2009
SandboxIE 3.32 (Paid)
Firefox 3.05 (with Adblock and NoScript)

All systems running very light and are secure enough for their uses.

 

Hey, LoneWolf .. are you using your AlphaShield in conjunction with a router?

I too have one, but I took it out-of-service when I added the wireless router. I'd assumed there might be some conflict.

 

Now testing SuRun 1.2.0.5 Running as Standard User apart from the limited number of programs that I have given elevated rights. I'm sure that some will disagree but this approach is starting to look more and more interesting, making AV/AS seem even less useful.

 

No wireless router here, just the modem from my ISP.
One pc here so no need for the wireless.

 

Main Computer:

Norton AntiVirus 2009
Firefox
Windows XP =P

MS VPC:

Windows 7 Build 6956
Norton AntiVirus 2009 =)
Internet Explorer 8 beta 2

 

So, you are a legal beta tester of Windows 7 or you just found it on the web

 

"Legal" beta testing is starting at early january..this many alpha-prebeta builds have leaked to torrent sites though(only M$ partners had those till now).

setup(vista buisiness 32bit):
-NAT+SPI router with UPnP off
-LUA+SRP(additional file types added to SRP)
-sbie for firefox(for the dreaded javascripts/xss )
-trialing defensewall (so far darn impressed)
-OA with H.I.P.S uninstalled (because my whole house is on LAN-3 pc's - one of which is used by my mother and sister and the other by mo father,so yea i am afraid of them when it comes to security ;p )

At a rate of say..once/month i run :
-KL online scanner just to check myself out
-AVZ
-Let a monthly scheduled image incremental run.

 

LAPTOP
AVG AV PRO
ZA FW AS PRO
KEY SCRAMBLER FREE
SAS FREE
RETURNIL PAID


DESKTOP
AVG free
DR Web free
SAS free
windows fw
cccleaner

 

Desktop:
KIS 2009
SAS on demand
Firefox NoScript

Laptop:
NIS 2009
SpyBot SD on demand
Firefox NoScript

 

VMWare ThinApp'd most of my apps using locally or across the home network tied down with active directory.
Admin and Limited on XP Pro, policies, SRP and AVZ Guard.
Small Business Server 2003 & Server 2008 Hyper-V.
Vista x64
WHS
OS X
BSD
Mandriva
many VMs
all behind UTM.

Fx NoScript, IE protected mode, Safari.

 

Upgrade from Windows XP ----> Windows Vista

Real-time:

- Avira PE Premium
- DriveSentry
- Rollback Rx

On-Demand:

- SAS
- MBAM
- SpywareBlaster

 

Why no vista 64 bits, Firzen?

 

Changed a few things