I had written a interesting article based off of another post on lifehacker about the best Malware removal tools and I thought I would give my thoughts on these tools. As for the software discussed they are Spybot, SuperAntiSpyware, ComboFix, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, and HijackThis. In my article I gave much praise to the first two and Anti-Malware because of their user friendliness for all users, while I went a bit critical on Combofix and Hijack being used for more advance computer users.
Now I know there is a topic about Anti-virus software and stuff like that and so this topic is more about how do users fair against these 5 program, of course I doubt too many people have heard of ComboFix though.
I've worked with a handful of the listed softwares, and I can vouch for some of them.
Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware is probably the best out of the bunch and is relatively easy to use. (Just opt for a Full Scan and let the computer sit for a long time.) Same goes for SuperAntiSpyware, although MBAM did catch a few things that SAS missed. (Then again, I think this is the case for just about every anti-malware software, because not one catches them all.) Spybot Search and Destroy would be another dummy-friendly app, but as far as its effectiveness... I'm not sure about it, since it reminds me of Norton AV 2007, where it would repeatedly catch the "threats" the real threat generates and doesn't fully eliminate the problem. (It does house a lot of useful tools and versatility, though.)
ComboFix and HijackThis would be two tools that I would leave to the more tech-savvy. I haven't used either of them, personally, but from what I'm seeing, HT produces a log that would seem like gibberish to the average user (but useful to geeks) and ComboFix seems like a last resort... fix, short of wiping everything out and starting all over again with a fresh [Windows] OS reinstallation.
In summary, I would recommend MBAM and SAS in conjunction, installed and run from safe mode to catch most if not all threats, and to follow any guidance found on the Internet in removing specific threats that seem to recur. (I use Norton's database for a step-by-step instruction on how to kill even the most stubborn of Trojans.) I would leave CF and HT to people who actually are very comfortable with computers and how to work them.
I use Spybot Search and destroy, and if Spybot can't remove something, I then use Hijack this, this combination seems to work great, i used to use ad-aware but spybot seems to be sufficent. imo. just my 2 cents
IMHO a decent antivirus and stopping porn browsing does a lot. Articles about security are mostly overkill, it will just bog down your computer.
They do bog your machine down, some more than others. I actually hate using my antivirus's auto-protect feature and opt in manually scanning anything that I deem suspicious, and leaving the Internet security up so that I prevent most crap from happening. However, browsing for porn isn't the only way to pick up a virus.
Not one program will catch them all. That's why you have multiple scanners, but if you're like me and just have one, and if that one fails to catch something or human error lets something through (like approving a svchost service), you have your tools to fix the havoc you allowed onto your machine. And most of these tools listed will do the trick if you're not too keen on the whole wipe-and-reinstall.
Surfing for porn- wow, that's getting old! You don't need to surf porn to get infections, just surf around MSN's link for an hour or two and sooner or later you'll get infected. There are no "safe sites" anymore. Even surfing clean, wholesome sites can wreak havoc on your machine by an infected webmaster's machine who just uploaded a new file to his site, without knowing it!
Both Malwarebytes and Superantispyware are superb products, right here right in October, 2009. Unfortunately, many new infections are well aware of MWB's presence and will not allow it to run after the fact. Renaming the mbam.Exe will sometimes work, sometimes not.
Haven't used Ad-Aware or Spybot for a few years, they seem to find infections but seldom remove the new, heavy-duty infections- this may not be a fair assessment.
For my money, Malwarebytes (licen$ed, running resident) and PrevX 3.0 (licen$ed, running resident) are the two best solutions on the market right now. PrevX has a little leg up on MWB as it is quicker and lighter and lets nothing by when run resident (installed, running in the system tray).
Reading some other posts, some people feel PrevX is a ripoff, as it will scan for free and find infections. Then they charge you for removal. I feel they are 100% within their right to charge for a superior product. Sooner or later, all the other freebie AV solutions will need to charge to keep their business alive or go under. Are you willing to work for free with nothing in return? Didn't think so!
On the other hand, there are genuine ripoff products like Norton, Symantec, whatever you want to call it. I call it crap because it does nothing, provides no value. All of the current slime side right past Normantec.
If you run either Malwarebytes or PrevX, the paid version, installed, there's a good chance you will not have to worry about getting infected in the first place.
Well a new Trojan is out called Backdoor.Win32.Delf.ctk, but this time it has a nasty surprise.
Once the trojan is in your system it will lock you out and display a message about paying a ransom
to unlock the system by phone. Of course this is a brand new version to ransomware if someone of
you may have remembered that the other version consisting of sending a email or something telling
you to electronically send money in order to decrypt your computer. Of course the catch is with
that is the extortionist could keep on making you pay money until either your broke, the....
Viruses, spyware, malware, adware, and all that extraneous bull that we have to deal with nowadays
are becoming more frequent. Obviously we don't want this crap on our computers so I advise you
take precautions. * Avoid downloading anything from sites or people you don't know. Duh. *
Don't even bother looking at attachments in spam. Duh. * If you receive an e-mail from someone
you don't know, don't click on any of the links. Duh. * Anything other than a multimedia
file or a text file is able to harbor extra crap you're not going to want. This ....
I was going through my usual Yahoo security news and I though I post this up and hopefully shed some
new light on protecting yourself from malware QUOTE Don't mind me--I'm only here to
break your PC: It's like sending in a different scout each time to open the gate for the rest
of the invaders. The "Glieder Trojan" and many others use a multistage infection process whose first
step is a tiny program that the crooks can change constantly so your antivirus watchdog is less
likely to recognize it. Once it gets in, the downloader tries to disable your sec....
I found this to be a very interesting security news story and a very interesting worm, due to the
fact it only goes after MP3 files, which is the file type use to compress music into small files.
Anyways security expert claim this to be a low level threat, however, even a computer noob that a
low level worm, virus, or trojan can become a high level threat just like that. Of course the way
this worm gets passed around is even more interesting, it uses flash drives to set up the infection
and then kicks in when auto run kicks in when you play a cd or anything that uses t....
I have picked up 13,856 adware infections on my computer, and I got them from erm... Downloading
photoshop off limewire. At first, I got pop-upss like mad. Then I uninstalled the adware with the
tool they gave ne. I am still getting popups. I need help badly, what should I do.....
Hey guys all of a sudden in the last two days my computer has just been attacked by all types of
malicous software! and im not even kidding when almost instantly it went from running with out a
hitch to so much slow down and so many pop ups i had to run avg. 648 virus and trojans! All deleted
or moved to the vault, thought i was out of the woods than i ran adaware 202 Critical and malicous
objects I deleted them then i ran adaware again got over a hundred bad things again after the
restart and then ran adaware as well and after deleting over 1000 bad things I was still ....
Recently, I don't know when, I realized that my browser was opening some weird pages. It would
either open to what it seemed to be a valid webpage but it always looked the same. But the contents
will be text only but always with adult related links... so I was curious but never paid any
attention since these pages were coming up only when I mistyped an URL address. But the pages
popped up were always the same and it got me curious. So I started to click on refersh and see how
far it will lead. At the end, it led to a site called "SearchAtHand.com" After few minutes ....
Hi, I've posted some security tools and links in my last posts,I preferd to post new topic and
send he extra here : Network Sniffers # DSniff http://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/ #
Ethereal - full network protocol sniffer/analyzer http://www.ethereal.com/ # IPTraf - curses based
IP LAN monitor http://iptraf.seul.org/ # TcpDump - network monitor and data acquisition
http://www.tcpdump.org/ # KISMET - 802.11 wireless network detector, sniffer and intrusion
detection system http://www.kismetwireless.net/ Online Tools # AutomatedScanning.com - commer....
QUOTE PhishGuard is a FREE service that detects and rapidly disables Internet "phishing" or
"spoofing" attacks designed to steal critical financial data. Phishing attacks use fraudulent
websites and emails that mimic well-known organizations in order to trick unsuspecting Internet
users. A simple login or account number entry screen becomes a sophisticated trap. By assuming you
are dealing with a trusted party, you can reveal financial information including credit card
numbers, bank accounts, passwords, and social security numbers to the "bad guys". This type of att....
Hey, I just saw "Top 75 Security Tools" page and it has lots of security tools wif description ,
hope to enjoy /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />
http://www.insecure.org/tools.html ....
Part 1 , useful command line tools for network security. Info.txt: A handy collection of command
line tools cpuinfo.exe - gets the processor type and CPU clocking speed (mhz) fport.exe - shows open
ports and the process that owns the port iplist.exe - enumerates the ip's of the computer
md5.exe - gets the md5 hash of a file pw2kget.exe - for win2k gets the password of the currently
logged on user pwreveal.exe - gets the passwords of any window that has a ****** editbox
regshell.exe - a commandline registry explorer/editor resolve.exe - a commandline URL resolver se....
On this topic: http://www.trap17.com/forums/Help-Running-...mize-t8569.html I was told that I
have a Trojan. I downloaded a program called ScanSpyware and am scanning for Trojans. Is this a
good program for me to keep, or is there something better?....
