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Coming Soon - An Extra Layer of Malware/Virus Protection (Please Read)
Last week I inadvertently published a story about a program, ReadPal, which flagged up a warning on Web Of Trust to those who downloaded it.
The warning was, in all probability, a false alarm. There are no reports on the web of this program causing problems. I did a full scan of my PC, having used the program, with both an anti-malware tool and an antivirus scanner. No problems were found. So if you downloaded the program you have nothing to worry about.
Obviously I want to ensure that any programs or sites that I recommend on these pages are safe. Or at least, as safe as I can reasonably guarantee them to be. So, for all freeware utilities that I write about in future:
1. I'll check that there's no problem with Web Of Trust. I normally do that anyway. Not sure why it failed this time, but I'll try extra hard in future!
2. I'll pass all recommended programs through VirusTotal before I recommend them. This system scans the program with not just one antivirus tool, but more than 40. I'll make a point of saying, each time, that I've done this, and include a link to their report wherever feasible.
3. Some freeware programs are only free because the site from which you download them is full of misleading links to toolbars, pay sites, etc. Which is a shame, because the free products themselves are generally very good indeed. In the past, I've tried to spell out precisely which links to click on, and which to avoid, on those sites. In the future I'll try to make it even clearer, and perhaps include a screen shot of the correct link if need be. We have a policy on Gizmo's of not linking directly to downloadable files, and that won't change, but hopefully the pages we link to will be more clearly flagged.
I hope that's OK with you.
Robert
Hot Finds Editor and User Contributions Manager
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Comments
Greetings all.
I agree with most of what TheNomadSoul said, but;
I find that hot finds usually gives me great tips on Free software, if you get it within a certain time frame. I have missed a few great giveaways, too. Please continue to suggest what you guys consider Hot Finds, because I consider them hot finds, too.
This is a great guide: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-tell-if-file-malicious.htm
Also, I would use URLVoid instead of WOT, the same reason for choosing VirusTotal over one AV.
Hi, Robert I appreciate what you do for the site and wouldn't put much stock into what WOT says. It has become so popular and it crowd sourced rating which isn't always the best way to do things on the net due to technically inexperienced users flagging a site when it is perfectly safe.
I do have a criticism of the hot find section that I hope you will not take offense to, I only criticize because I think this site is a great resource and have a great respect for people like yourself who go out of there way to contribute to such a great community resource.
I do find that the "Hot Finds" section generally links to programs that are only free for a short while and not thus are not really freeware. This type of thing is intentional by the developers of the software in order to get you hooked and be willing to buy the new version or recommend it to other technically inclined people. While I don't have a problem with any software company getting paid I feel like turning people on to temporarily "free" software can be very detrimental to completely free freeware which may perform the same actions. This was recently seen the the article you posted about the $60.00 repair disk that is free this week. It is essentially a bartPE disk with proprietary tools that perform the same function as well established free and open source tools like clonezilla, testdisk, UBCD, etc...
Since this is a freeware site that focuses on community and donation supported free and open source software it seems counter-intuitive to recommend commercial software for the job. I would prefer to see hot finds only for commercial software that specifically does something for which there is not a free alternative in the interest of supporting independent community produced software as well as community supported tech support resources like Gizmo's.
Again, I appreciate your time and consideration and applaud your efforts at improving and expanding this site, as it is a great resource to us all :)
Bleh... sorry for all the spelling errors, its been a long day.
Sorry, correction to typo in my previous entry:
"If the program isnt available/been checked on one of the THREE of the following websites"
Hi Robert, thanks for your great work
My personal technique for checking any program, which I recommend for the average user
If the program isnt available/been checked on one of the four of the following, then it is either too new or no safe to be sure about spyware
Thus Google the program name and each of these very safe/established websites in turn
1)Softpedia
2)Fileforum
3)Download.com
If the application hasnt been accepted by one or more of these sites, steer clear is my recommendation. These sites also give good reviews of just how reliable the software is, and also which versions have the worst bugs (Fileforum).
Thank you, Robert. That works for me! I appreciate what you find here for us.
WOT and Virustotal are two of my trusted tools.
I also browse in a sandbox (sandboxie.com)and use openDNS.
Recently, one of those fake malware finders opened
shop on my computer. I was able to run a scan in my real system which found nothing. Then I ran another scan, but this time in the sandobx. It found the infection within minutes. After I realized it was
in my sandbox, I deleted the contents, killed the sandbox and it was gone in minutes.
Thanks for your diligence - we can't be too careful.
An excellent strategy although Open DNS protects against phishing sites only, not malware unless you use their paid option. Since the demise of ClearCloud for free, Norton DNS is the next best option as Comodo still returns pretty poor results.
Folks not liking the permanent use of a sandbox might like to consider Returnil System Safe 2011 (free) as an alternative. It also has an effective real time antivirus which will run alongside most other programs (see their FAQ) although you can disable this if you don't want it.
http://www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/products#compare
I don't keep mine in Virtual Mode permanently, but engage it only when I'm trying out new software. Anything you don't like, then a simple reboot returns your system to it's "before" state with no risk of infection or legacies from stuff like unwanted toolbars. The only downside with the free version is if you want to keep a program installed using Virtual Mode, you'll need to reboot, disengage and then install it again for real. IMO worth the effort though.
Thanks for the time you put in Robert.
Thanks Robert for all the time, effort and care put into TSA, this great and indispensable place and community.
Thanks Robert. A very positive response to this incident. Much appreciated.
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