[Ham-Computers] Anti Virus - the age-old debate

[nn6o]

Hi all, it's been a while...

The problem lies in the fact that virii, malware, and spyware are treated
differently by security app vendors.  For years, some vendors refused to add
spyware detection as spyware itself (at the time) was non-destructive and not
considered a "virus".  They've since added more malicious spyware and malware
to their detection engines, but are still cautious to add anything that's
non-destructive or not bot-forming - they leave that up to dedicated malware
scanners.  Makes sense from a marketing standpoint as most vendors have worked
hard on making their security suites smaller and faster and don't want to be
seen again as being slow blowtware.  It doesn't matter if end-users need two
or three products to fully protect their systems, our product runs fast and
does what it's designed to do - catch virii and malicious malware.

With that said, no one product catches everything anyway, so full protection
still requires more than one product.  Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is
a quite good, esp since it's free.  It's now what I recommend.  I previously
recommended AVG Free, but it's now a bit bloated and the annual version update
causes some headaches (esp since the version changes are basically
look-and-feel things, not engine changes).  So far, computers I've installed
MSE on have been problem free - except for one where the user "allowed" a
trojan to run (and it was one of the nasty ones - Sirefef.B).  I also tell
people to supplement MSE with a weekly Malwarebytes (MBAM) scan.

As for paid products, I switched back to NAV (Norton Anti-Virus) a couple
years ago (after a 8-year departure from NAV).  Prior to their 2010 re-write,
NAV was a slow, bloated mess.  But Symantec focused on re-writing the whole
thing and it's actually quite light on resources now.  I'd prefer a more
"traditional" user interface (e.g. pull-down menus and check-boxes), and more
granular options, but it does what it's supposed to.  Even the installer is
simple (a bit *too* simplistic, if you ask me), but that's OK for most users.
I'm not the only one who's switched back - the upated NAV has received many
favorable reviews.  The reason I went back to NAV?  It's often *free* after
rebates from some retailers (such as Fry's Electronics).  If you want network
security too, then get NIS (Norton Internet Security) - it's NAV with added
network firewall and internet security features.  The past 3-years, I've paid
a total of $1.50 or for NIS 2010, 2011, and 2012 (the cost of the stamps for
the rebates).

But even with NIS, I still run an MBAM scan once or twice a month - so far,
MBAM hasn't picked-up anything that NIS hasn't.  When fixing computers, I use
AVG's Boot CD to do off-line scans, followed by MBAM and MSE (if no other AV
product is installed).  Some things do escape all three and that's where
things like ComboFix (use with caution!) and "scraping by hand" come into
play.

So there's my 2 cents.  MSE for free products, NAV or NIS for paid products
(almost free with rebates), and a MBAM (free) scan every few weeks or so.

73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O
    {nn6o}@arrl.net
    . -..- - .-. .-   ".... . .- ...- -.--"