Security software suites complete with bells and whistles

[kendall]

Both MC and Johnny have said it much better than I could have (or tried to).

One thing--MC, check out that link you posted about A2. Somewhere (Wilder's maybe), I read that the group who did that testing is in someway directly connected to the makers of A2.....

Originally Posted by kendall

Both MC and Johnny have said it much better than I could have (or tried to).

One thing--MC, check out that link you posted about A2. Somewhere (Wilder's maybe), I read that the group who did that testing is in someway directly connected to the makers of A2.....

Your talking about MRG aren't you? Yeah I didn't want to bring that up over here, but it was discussed pretty thoroughly over at Wilders.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showt...research+group

[26Dolphins]

Hi there,

I hope it's ok I jump into this thread.

Midnight, if you don't mind me saying this, I think the above youtube link leads to the Panda Cloud Antivirus testing (at least that's the video I got when clicked on it).

Anyway, I watched the video for A2 and I'd like to say this:
From what I could see, A2 caught the Registry entry, just couldn't deal with it - could read the reason though (not that this is any sort of a good defense). And the video doesn't show if Malwarebytes' did deal with it (probably did).

I'm just trying to say that it's not just A2 "privilege" to miss one or two things; I guess that's where other on-demand scanners come into play, among them the very effective Malwarebytes' as well as the points made by JohnnyDollar.

Cheers.

[Sope]

Yup, I think MC must have meant to post this link

A2 actually missed a worm as well as one registry key.
Doesn't mean to say other AV's would have stopped it either though, just underlines the point that no one solution can be accepted as 100% reliable.

[wdhpr]

I have really tried to pay attention to security not only for me but my 11 year old is on my routers network. I have him firmly clamped down using MS family safety but if there is a weak link it will be there. I also have team viewer installed but hidden on his computer and I can time to time check up on him (hehe)

After all the security suites that have come on scene its enough to make ones eyes glaze over. I have tried more than my share. I guess I also like playing with new toys and gadgets (yes I'm the kid that took grandmas can opener apart). The security software industry is keenly aware of peoples computing habits and take full advantage of it.

I have a single core amd64 processor and 2 gigs of ram, so what doesn't quite work for me will fly on a newer more powerful machine. One has to find what fits. After much experimenting, what works for me is a multi layer approach. Avira, Sunbelt firewall (behind a router) and I---t360 play well together and super antispyware for on demand scan. I can honestly say I tried other approaches and have settled with these.

I also believe one can provide themselves with excellent protection and still not give up performance. (and lets not forget common sense) Again protection has to be tailor made to ones machine.

PS: I love that avatar Kendall

Cheers
Wdhpr

[WES]

The problem with some security vendors is that they are seemingly eager to provide problems rather than solutions to the end user. It will always be a virus out there or whatever to cover their ...

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by kendall

Both MC and Johnny have said it much better than I could have (or tried to).

One thing--MC, check out that link you posted about A2. Somewhere (Wilder's maybe), I read that the group who did that testing is in someway directly connected to the makers of A2.....

I've no doubt there are many other industry associations between the various groups and vendors which we know nothing about. In this particular case I'm not sure and it would be very difficult to confirm one way or the other. In many respects this is only to be expected and by no means a bad thing because if the testers and vendors don't share data then neither can improve their existing abilities to their best potential. I see this as a completely different ball game to unbalanced favorable media reviews targeting major advertisers of the publication concerned. In truth, I trust AV_Comparatives and the Which? people from the UK. Otherwise I see the type of tests like the YouTube videos linked and feel happy with what I'm watching. There are of course other factors to do with how the operating system itself might have been set up but they are at least a guide as to what we might expect to encounter ourselves in the real world.

I've said many times that all information has value, even the bad stuff, but it's up to individuals to assess how this might fit in with their own requirements and whether they trust it or not.

Sope hits the nail in that what we saw reproduced doesn't necessarily make A2 a failure, far from it, and highlights perfectly the need for a layered solution. The problem is that for some people running Avira and Avast together is perceived as being the answer, and it's not.

Added to this is the fact that we continue to witness a decline in the ability of traditional signature scanners to be effective, yet no one wants the inevitable false positives generated by heuristic and other behavioral technologies.

Thanks for the comments about the YouTube link I posted. For some strange reason I couldn't get this particular one to copy over correctly. In the end I left it as it was because from the page you can access the others too and in my opinion it makes sense to watch 'em all to get a balanced view.

[Sope]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

Thanks for the comments about the YouTube link I posted. For some strange reason I couldn't get this particular one to copy over correctly. In the end I left it as it was because from the page you can access the others too and in my opinion it makes sense to watch 'em all to get a balanced view.

Both YouTube channels you mentioned are definitely useful to get a feel for the individual security apps reviewed without the need to install them on your own system - very helpful and also strangely entertaining!

mrizos (Remove-Malware.com)
languy99

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Sope

Both YouTube channels you mentioned are definitely useful to get a feel for the individual security apps reviewed without the need to install them on your own system - very helpful and also strangely entertaining!

Yeah, something almost voyeuristic about watching someone load malware into a perfectly good PC As a psychologist I can understand the attraction of this type of presentation but I find his narrative about as interesting as most Brazilian football commentators!

[Sope]

I'm amazed to hear Brazilian football commentators are that boring! I imagined their commentary, if anything, would be too passionate!