Spyware Warrior

Daveski17 · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 6:14 pm Post subject: Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware?

I have been told that Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is better than SUPERAntiSpy or Spybot S & D. Is it worth uninstalling SUPERAntiSpy & downloading Malwarebytes? Or could I run them together. I have a bit of anti-spyware; Defender, Yahoo, Prevx csi (as a scanner only).

Or is this just a bit of overkill. My laptop is beginning to look like something out of Q's workshop in a Bond movie!

roger_m · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject:

No they will all run fine together.

But it's best to have real-time protection enabled in only one program.

Daveski17 · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:17 pm Post subject:

You are probably right, I was just wondering how much better is the freeware Malwarebytes anti-malware than what I have got?

roger_m · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:24 pm Post subject:

Well it depends on how often you get infected really.

Personally I use no real-time protection or blocking of any kind and just use Windoze bult in firewall and never get and spyware of viruses.

However if you do reguarly get infected it is worthwhile running muriple antispyware apps, because no single program will catch everything.

I personally don't like PrevX CSI, and not too sure about Yahoo, but all the other are definately worth keeping.

Daveski17 · Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:32 pm Post subject:

Well, apart from tracking cookies I have never been infected with anything.

If you don't mind me asking, why don't you like Prevx CSI? It is a reputable firm (based in Derby UK). I only use their freeware deep-root scanner. You can run it when you want & it doesn't take much time.

Is there anything I should know about it?

roger_m · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 3:11 am Post subject:

I consider it to act like a rogue antispyware program.

Take a look at this thread and you'll see why I don't like it: http://www.spywarewarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=29447

Daveski17 · Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 8:22 am Post subject:

I don't think it is rogue anti-spyware. I don't know how well known it is inside the continental USA, but Prevx is an English company & as far as I can ascertain they are not 'rogue'. The scanner is freeware & if you buy it there is an anti-spy capability.

I am interested to know on what grounds that you consider it 'rogue'.

I doubt whether they would give me a false positive as an inducement to buy it.

I have spoken to a few people online & none of them think that there is anything 'suspect' about Prevx.

Have they had a reputation for this in the past?

All the reviews I have seen seem to indicate that they are an honest company. I really want to know what makes you think that they are a dishonest or rogue company.

http://netsecurity.about.com/od/readproductreviews/fr/aapr091904.htm

http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2007/02/14/prevx-review/

http://www.prweb.com/releases/rootkits/prevxcsi/prweb576142.htm

roger_m · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:26 pm Post subject:

Prevx CSI is not free - the free version is just a trial which does not remove all found malware.

As I posted in the other thread you are reguarly told via popup windows that malware has been found, and you need to buy the full version in order to remove it. This is the same behaviour used by a lot of rogue antispyware apps.

roger_m · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject:

I just installed the most recent version of PrevX CSI, and ran a scan. The first time I ran a scan it crashed before completing, it did this a second time too when it automatically ran a scan in the background. Howver the third time it did actually complete.

It identified cd burning software BurnAware as being a banking info stealer - which it is not.

It also identified two files which are part of Disk Checker which a progrsm which checks for problems with your harddrive as being Claoked Malware for noe, and Malicious Software for the other.

Another file - windrv.sys idenitifed as adware. I scanned it at virscan.org - which scans file with 39 different malware scanners, and they all identified it is as being clean.

In all PrevX found 10 infections which were mostly false posatives, and would only remove one of these infections unless I purchased it.

Now can you understand why I consider this to be a rogue?

Anyway I'm about to run revo Uninstaller and remove this garbage from my computer.

By the way, you can right click on a found infection and there is an option to report it as a false posative, however with so many false posative surely it would be better to just avoid this and use reputable software.

Daveski17 · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject:

Well, I can see you have had some problems with it. I haven't ...yet. I will keep an eye on it though.

Daveski17 · Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 6:06 pm Post subject:

Well, guess what? I tried to scan with Prevx csi & it crashed! I had this once before when I tried to run it right after switching the computer on, it just would not open & I had to shut down my PC. I have uninstalled it just in case it does it again. I downloaded Spybot S & D (this time the proper one) so I have 2 good anti-spyware programs now that I can run on demand. Spybot looks good.

wyrmrider · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:58 am Post subject:

Back to the first question on on demand scanners
My recent experience is that all of the major scanners will find things the others do not and this changes every few weeks.

The Malwarebytes forum recommends Spybot as an alternative scanner

One reason may be that Spybot does not just search through every file on your hard drive but searches by each malware/ spyware and then goes and looks where it might be lurking

Other scanners such as A-squared, Super Anti Spy and even Ad-Aware and Windows Live One Care Scanners have found infestations that the others have missed.

If you find more than one thing or different things found with multiple scanners then re-run an A-V scan

Root kit check
and get on over to a Malware removal site such as the one here at Spywarewarrior and post up that Hijack This

Be aware that malware writers are writing to make it hard for hjt to easily find bad things so even if it shows clean you may not be.

Watch for false positives with all programs
quarantine do not delete/ remove

run secunia software inspector and get updated

best to surf safe but be prepared if one of these infectors gets to you

firewall?

Daveski17 · Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject:

Well, I think I am fairly well covered to be honest. I actually have a hub firewall & a software one in my computer. They seem to work well together. It is interesting what you say about Spybot though.

wyrmrider · Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:39 am Post subject:

Actually even if you do not use the spybot scanner the Immunize feature and the tools are worth the price of admission

I do recommend for surfers ONE real time anti malware/spyware program in addition to the firewall and AV
Those with very limited resources can at lest run WinPatrol- not exactly real time but close

I am sure you are aware that this latest round of exploits (iframe, clickthrough, etc) bypass any protection that is not well integrated and up to date
layered protection is a must unless you are in a whitelist environment

Daveski17 · Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject:

I always keep everything up to date.