Spyware Blaster focuses on preventing attacks from happening in the first place. Unlike other spyware programs that may need to be run all the time, the program only needs to be run when the protection needs to be updated, and of course initially to configure the spyware protection for the first time.

Here is how it works. Once you have downloaded, installed and started Spyware Blaster you’ll see the main application window for the first time. Here you enable protections, create a system snapshot, update the program or use various tools that ship with the program that may help protect or recover the system.

Protection Status displays a summary of the system’s protection. Users can enable or disable protections for specific web browsers. The software is compatible with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and all browsers that use the IE rendering engine, Mozilla Firefox, Seamonkey and variants. The software did not detect my Firefox profile folder during tests. This may have been caused by me running Firefox Aurora and not Firefox Stable on the system. There is unfortunately no option to point the software to the profile folder manually (it is likely caused by a version check).

Internet Explorer users can protect their browser in three different ways: They can restrict access to sites that are known to spread spyware, block known spyware that uses ActiveX and prevent ad or tracking cookies. The program uses native functions of Windows or Internet Explorer to protect the browser and system from these threats. Blocked sites are for instance added to Internet Explorer’s restricted sites list.

Users can enable or disable items on the block list individually. Can for instance be handy if you want a cookie to be written on your system.

The Tools section lists five additional tools that can be used to take back control. The IE Browser Pages tool lists for instance the browser’s start, search and local page as well as the search bar, making it easy to change the values here directly without opening the browser.

The other tools allow a user to create a backup of the hosts file, disable Flash completely in Internet Explorer and to block ActiveX controls that Spyware Blaster does not block automatically.

Spyware Blaster will not scan the system for spyware or remove it when discovered. It only blocks known threats, and that’s why it needs to be updated regularly. The free version of the program can be updated manually from within.

The program may be especially useful for Internet Explorer users. It blocks thousands of known spyware threats automatically, and without running in the background all the time. Once you have installed the software you should run an update check regularly to add new protections to the PC.

Should you install Spyware Blaster? That depends on your browsing habits. Internet Explorer users can benefit from the program the most. If you use other browser’s you probably won’t benefit at all, or only marginally.

Windows users can download the latest version of the software from its developer site. The program is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Microsoft Windows.

Microsoft yesterday has opened registrations for the next version of Microsoft Security Essentials. Users who sign up early enough will get a chance to test the beta version of the security software before anyone else can do. Beta spots are limited according to the announcement on the Technet site and served on a first in first out (fifo) basis.

The beta will be released soon, considering that it will be made publicly available at the end of the year. More interesting to a wider audience, especially those who run Microsoft Security Essentials, are the planned improvements and new features that Microsoft is currently working on.

The new version of Microsoft Security Essentials comes with a new protection engine offering enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities. One of the improvements in this regard is automatic malware remediation, which basically means that the security application can clean “high-impact malware infections automatically” without user interaction.

Add to that better performance to avoid negativ performance impacts on PCs running Microsoft Security Essentials and a simplified user interface. It will be interesting to see how the simplified UI looks like, considering that many consider the current MSE interface bare-bones.

The improvements all make sense, especially the new protection engine with its updated detection and cleanup capabilities could improve the application significantly.

Users who want to sign up for the beta program need to have a Windows Live account. It is possible to create one on the sign up page or use an existing one.

It does not make much sense for most Windows users to sign up for the beta, considering that it will be available later this year for the general public.

Regardless of that, it is good to see that Microsoft is improving the free security software continuously. (via)

Free File Wiper is one of those tools that make sure that deleted files or folders cannot be recovered anymore. The program overwrites the occupied disk space with random characters so that files and contents cannot be recovered anymore.

The program on start up displays a trashcan icon on the desktop. You can move around the icon freely. Files and folders that you want to delete securely on the system need to be dragged and dropped onto the icon. A prompt is then displayed that warns you that the data won’t be recoverable after the operation. If you proceed, the file contents get deleted and overwritten. You can disable the confirmation window in the program options to delete data automatically without confirmation prompt.

The program supports four different modes. A quick erase mode that overwrites the data once, and three additional modes that use different patterns and overwrite the date multiple times on the hard drive.

The file eraser integrates into the Send To menu of Windows Explorer as well by default. You can use it to send files directly to the program for safe deletion.

Free File Wiper is a handy program for Windows users who want to make sure that data that they delete cannot be recovered. Handy to carry around on a portable drive or tool DVD.

The program runs on 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Vista and windows 7. It requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Downloads are provided at the developer website.

Windows users who are interested in participating in the beta to get their hands on the security software early, need to head over to the new Avira Beta Center where they need to register an account before they can do so.

Avira promises increased usability, reliability and stability in the new versions. This begins with the installation process which has now been streamlined so that for example Free Antivirus can be installed with just two clicks in express mode.

The programs will furthermore scan for potentially incompatible software like other security software automatically, giving the user the choice to remove the product or keep it installed regardless of the situation.

All program modules have been hardened to take into account new targeted malware attacks against security software. Avira notes that this includes the “ability to function without many registry keys, better protection against process termination and component deletion”.

A Fix Problem button has been added to the software to five users a one-click solution to issues that they encounter. That’s handy for inexperienced users in most cases as the software makes decisions for them.

Components have been updated in the 2012 releases. The firewall for instance is now able to filter IPv6 addresses on the adapter level, and mail and web protection are now able to work in IPv6 environments as well.

The Windows Hosts file will be protected in all Avira 2012 product versions against manipulation and tampering, a feature that was previously only available in Avira Internet Security.

Do the new features justify upgrading or installing the beta versions of the 2012 products? I personally would suggest to wait with the upgrade or installation in work environments, considering that beta products may still cause issues on a system.

AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 is, the name implies it already, the free basic version of the company’s security software line-up. The other two programs are AVG Anti-Virus 2012 and AVG Internet Security 2012. How do the programs differ from each other?

AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 comes with anti-virus and anti-spyware components, e-mail protection, a link scanner and identity protection.

Users who need more protection or better support need to look at the other two products which offer that. The Internet Security 2012 version for example comes with a firewall, anti-spam, anti-rootkit an online shield and free technical support.

The AVG Software Installer offers a custom or automatic installation. It is usually better to select the custom install options, as it can be used to disable modules like the LinkScanner that may not be needed by all users.

The installer furthermore tries to make AVG Secure Search the default search provider and to install the AVG Security Toolbar.

The interface looks very streamlined in this updated version of the software. Users find the available modules lined up in the main interface. Next to those are options to scan the system and update the program right from the main screen. The only other prominent link or button in that interface is the My Apps link which apparently links to a list of AVG Apps that are installed on the user’s system.

Additional tools and information are available in the menu at the top.

A click on a module in the main interface opens a new page with settings and information. Here it is possible to make changes to the configuration, for instance by including tracking cookies in the scan, managing exceptions or running a root-kit scan on the system.

The free version of AVG Anti-Virus comes with a PC Analyzer component that scans the PC for Registry errors, junk files, fragmentation or broken shortcuts. It has been a trend in recent years to add system maintenance tools to top of the line products.

One interesting tool that has been added in the new version is a monitoring tool that notifies the user if a web browser is consuming to much memory. It then offers to restart the web browser which often resolves the high memory situation.

Other tools that have seen improvements are AVG’s Linkscanner browser extension which now uses heuristics to react to threats that are not known yet and AVG Accelerator which is a tool to speed up the streaming of files on YouTube and the downloading at Download.com.

Existing AVG users can use the Tools > Update menu to update their version to the latest. Those who do not want to use the internal updater can download the latest version of AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 from the official AVG website.

Windows users who do not run a commercial security solution have now the option to win a copy of Outpost Internet Security Suite 7.5 here at Ghacks. Agnitum was nice enough to give us 20 1-year licenses for the giveaway.
Outpost Security Suite is Agnitum’s top of the line product. It is comparable to other Internet security suites feature wise. The program comes with all the security modules one would expect including antivirus and antispyware, a personal firewall, advanced monitoring tools that monitor system processes, files and the Windows Registry, as well as pro-active protection tools.

Outpost uses multi-layered protections that range from contact prevention over infection and resident prevention to data leak prevention. Each security module of the suite is part of at least one layout. The firewall for instance is part of the contact prevention module which the anti leak and application guard modules prevent the leaking of data and are therefor part of the data leak prevention layer.

The program ships with several modules that make it less intrusive. The entertainment mode for instance guarantees uninterrupted gaming and working with full screen applications while auto learning that the program will make decisions based on a user’s past decisions.

Other new features include clipboard and screen content protection, USB virus protection and improved performance over previous versions of the security program.

Outpost Internet Security Suite 7.5 is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

You can win a copy by leaving a comment about your current security setup below. Interested users can download a trial version of the software for their operating system and language from the Agnitum website.

Update: The winners of the licenses are: bennyjh, Bero, Dexter86, Ahmad, miftah, phase, EuroScept1C, Mike Daniel, Pawel, myimmortalize, Katja K, Johan Gustavsson, Dan, Corno, sizxb, RMR, Sujay, Maestro, Nathan, akert

When you look at the product comparison chart on the Bitdefender website, you will notice the following differences between the three security products:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012: Antivirus and Antispyware, Vulnerability Scanner, Social Networking Protection, Search Advisor, Personal Data Filter, Antiphishing and Scan Dispatcher
• Bitdefender Internet Security 2012: All of the above plus Antispam, Two-way Firewall and Parental Controls.
• Bitdefender Total Security 2012: All of the above plus File Shredder and Encryption. Tune-up and Online backup and file synchronization.

Bitdefender Total Security comes with all the security features one would expect from a top of the line product, as well as some features that have made their way in recent years into most security applications. This includes data backup, file synchronization or the system tune-up module.

Bitdefender Total Security 2012 Installation

Installation does not pose a problem to Windows users. It is pretty straightforward. Some files, signature updates for instance, are automatically downloaded during installation. Bitdefender asks the user to close all supported browser windows as it tries to install a root certificate. The software does not really explain why it is doing that, and users may be puzzled after installation when they notice that no extension or new feature seems to be installed in the browser. This may have something to do with the beta version of Firefox and the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer 9 installed on the test system but I’m not sure about that either. The installation dialog mentions only Firefox, Opera and Thunderbird.

Bitdefender Total Security 2012 requires no reboot after installation which is great. The program offers its full feature set immediately after the installation finishes.

The Total Security 2012 interface

The redesigned black interface looks professional. It displays critical issues and events at the top. The events are indicated with a red color to catch the user’s attention, and the various security modules below.

One element that I personally dislike is the horizontal scroll bar below the security modules. I accidentally stumbled upon it and discovered that it could be used to scroll to the left or right to display additional modules in the interface. It probably would be more intuitive if arrows would indicate the functionality.

Another option that is missing is the ability to display the interface in full screen which would be an excellent option to display more than just four of the modules on the screen at the same time.

The security notifications on the other hand are top notch. A number in the main interface indicates the number of notifications. A click loads the overview page where all security modules and their notifications are listed. Here it is possible to get detailed information about an event. An example event would be a detected malicious file on the system. The report not only lists the file location, but also the action taken, the date the action was performed and information about the virus that was discovered.

An option to access the quarantine right from that menu is missing however.

What I really like is the ability to click on a module in the main interface to load its settings straight away, or to use the menu buttons to run scans, manage spam or update the software right from the main interface. This speeds up the configuration of the program considerably.

One interesting option that needs to be mentioned is the ability to re-order the modules. This way, you could drag and drop the four modules that you use most often to the frontpage, and move those that you do not use regularly to the back.

Update for instance is not really necessary on the frontpage as Bitdefender is configured to update the program automatically.

Functionality

At first glance, users find all the security they need. It is however the little things that make a difference. The antivirus module for instance will not only scan for known malware, but also for critical system vulnerabilities with suggestions to update the system immediately to protect it from exploits.

Bitdefender Total Security 2012 checks for issues, Windows updates, application updates and weak passwords automatically which in itself is incredibly useful.

Users who are not that experienced when it comes to security related issues can enable Auto Pilot mode which is a silent mode. The program will basically make all decisions based on the current rule set and internal information. Automatic actions can always be displayed in the event log.

The configuration screen is mainly switch based, which means that users can press a button to enable or disable a particular feature or module. Some modules however link to advanced options. It is for instance possible to configure advanced rules in the advanced firewall settings, or file and process exclusions in the antivirus settings.

Advanced users find all the tools and configuration menus they need. Inexperienced users might dislike the fact that they need to activate the help overlays with a click on the help icon first, and that help is not available for all options in the program.

Besides the auto pilot mode, Bitdefender Total Security comes with two additional modes. First a game mode which surpresses all notifications on the screen to avoid interruptions while gaming, and a laptop mode which seems to help save battery power.

Interested users can download a trial version from the Bitdefender website.

Bitdefender Total Security 2012 Tests

I thought it would be handy to link and display test results from other magazines, websites and organizations. Lets start with a BitDefender Total Security 2012 Prevention Test I found on YouTube.

A PC Magazine test came to the following conlusion:

• Pros: Excellent lab test results. Best antiphishing. Facebook protection. Silent, intelligent firewall. Antispam blocked no valid mail. Decent parental controls. Online backup. File encryption and shredding. System tune-up.
• Cons: Low to average scores in PCMag malware blocking and removal tests. Some awkward elements in parental control system. Antispam let a quarter of undeniable spam into the Inbox.

Total Security 2012 Verdict

Bitdefender’s Total Security 2012 has a lot going for it. It comes with an impressive set of features and uses an intelligent interface that is both suitable for inexperienced and advanced users. A few things could be better, like the previously mentioned link to the quarantine from the event log or a full screen mode that is missing.

Giveaway

We have 12 licenses for Bitdefender Total Security 2012 that we would like to give away. Let us know what you think of Bitdefender, or their software, for a chance to win one of the licenses. The giveaway will run for seven days, and I will announce the winners here in this post.

Update: The winners of a Bitdefender Total Security 2012 license are: Nathan, Azmi, Aleksandar, Try, Rodken, Swapnil, Zac, Rahul Jain, Anson, SRally, malkhaz and Rover 3500

Security Software Downloader 2 has just been released by its developers. The program itself is still Open Source and compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 operating system.

The first change that users will notice is the new and improved user interface which now separates security software in groups like free antivirus, malware removal or firewalls.

That’s better than the all on one page approach of the program’s predecessors.

The program is set to auto detect the operating system and version of the operating system. Users can make the changes manually which is helpful if the auto detection did not detect the correct OS and version.

Software can be selected with a click in the adjacent check box. It is possible to select multiple programs at once. A click on the download button downloads all selected security applications to the operating system. Windows users who do not want the programs to be downloaded to their desktop should click on the Change Download Dir button to change the save location.

The program is not providing any information about the security software in its interface. A website button next to each program links directly to the program homepage on the Internet.

So what is new in Security Software Downlader? The developer has added support for additional programs, raising the number of applications to over 50. Among the new tools are Panda Internet Security, the password manager LastPass, Spybot Search & Destroy and CyberGhost VPN.

Security Software Downloader is still a handy program for users who would like to download multiple security applications at once from the Internet. It can also be handy for users who want to discover and test new products.

SSDownloader can be downloaded from the project website over at Sourceforge.

That’s convenient if you know which malware has made its way on your computer, not so much if you do not know the name or characteristics. The BitDefender Removal Tool has been designed for exactly that reason. It basically combines the top 100 removal tools in one interface. It is by no means an alternative for regular antivirus protection, but a good option if you know that your computer is infected and that your default antivirus solution cannot disinfect the computer.

The Removal Tool is a portable security program for the Windows operating system that has been streamlined for ease of use. There is only one option available in the interface, and that is to start a system scan.

BitDefender’s Removal Tool will start to scan the system for traces of the top 100 viruses, worms, trojans and other malicious software. The scan itself takes some time and it is usually a good option to start it at a time where the PC is idle otherwise.

Malware that is found by the scan is displayed in the interface. BitDefender announced plans to update the Removal Tool monthly to take into account new malware that has made it into the top 100 list of malware of the previous month. For now, only June’s version of the Removal Tool is available. It remains to be seen if the July version will be released anytime soon.

BitDefender’s Removal Tool is available for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Both versions are portable and can be executed directly from any location.

If there is something to criticize it is the slow scanning speed of the system and the missing update option to update the program locally when a new version is pushed out by BitDefender.

Malicious code will exploit security holes in operating systems, programs and applications. These are security exploits which are unknown to the vendor of your existing anti-malware software. Certainly, these security exploits will be soon recognized and antivirus security software will be updated, but what do you have to defend against freshly-born threats meanwhile? By employing ActiveDefense technology using behavior analysis, Threatfire will catch potential threats before your anti-malware software has updated the signature database.

Threatfire is a simple installation and is offered free to home users. Again, there is no conflict with existing antivirus software, so you won’t need to bother with disabling applications or creating exceptions in most cases. The installation link is: http://www.threatfire.com/

Always create a restore point prior to the installation of any new software. Set the restore point before downloading Threatfire.

Click Next to proceed. Accept the License Agreement, choose destination folder for the installation. You can go with the default folder to keep things simple. Besides, you set your restore point, right? The program opens automatically, presenting the following screen:

Click Start Scan and ThreatFire will run a quick scan. The program detected that the Windows Firewall has not been active on the system. In addition, twelve minor threats (tracking cookies) were detected on the system.

After installation, Threatfire will be running in the background to detect potential threats. As this is the free version, it will often prompt you to buy other third party software. This can be annoying, but should you decide to purchase them, you may do so and upgrade to the full version. As long as you have good anti-malware software installed on your computer, there is no need to move to the full version.

An interesting feature with Threatfire is that it will display the World Wide Detection Map, indicating the most recently identified threats detected in the community. You get an alert screen when a threat is found.

Run a full Scan

From here, run a full scan by clicking Start Scan. The scan will, of course, take some time.

The color-coded alerts indicated various degrees of threats. A yellow alert is used for potentially malicious software threats, while a red alert indicates that a malware application has been disabled and quarantined.

Threatfire opens your default web browser and opens the ThreatExpert page which details the information about the threat that was disabled. This is an interesting feature. It is always good to be educated about malware threats.

This is like a first-alert system. It is easy to operate, though some using x64 systems have had problems with it. The problems have not been major, just that the program has not worked well for everyone. For many other users, this has come in handy. The user demonstrating this article has certainly found it to be a handy addition to a PC security line-up.

Verdict:

Threatfire is a free program. The developers are not shy to advertise upgrades in various locations. New users should take note that the installation tries to install the Google Toolbar on the system. The toolbar needs to be unselected during installation to avoid this from happening.

While it is possible to install and use SUPERAntiSpyware as the main defense against malicious software on a Windows PC, it is used by the majority of users as a second layer of defense against those threats. Unlike most security software, it can be run on the same system as traditional antivirus solutions without ill-effects like slowdowns, crashes or false positives.

That’s one of the factors for the application’s popularity. But it is not the only one. Two other core factors are the free version of the program and the fact that it is very effective when it comes to cleaning malware on a system.

The factors have not changed with the release of SUPERAntiSpyware 5. Users can still download the free or professional version from the developer website (The portable version will be updated soon). The core differences between the free and pro version of SUPERAntiSpyware is that the Pro version supports real-time blocking, scheduled scanning, automatic updates and free unlimited customer support. Users of the free version can get support on the forums only.

The following screen is displayed when you start the pro version of the program after installation.

It contains options to scan the computer, enable or disable specific features of the professional version, run a manual update, view logs and quarantine, run repairs or open the help.

Pro users make automatic use of the updates feature which checks for updates every 8 hours. Some users might feel that the setting is a bit on the high side. There are options available to edit all scheduled task, so that it is possible to reduce the update interval check or change the time for scheduled scans of the system. It is furthermore possible to add new tasks, for instance a daily scan of a specific network folder.

First time users should open the program preferences to customize the program. Interesting features include automatic update installations, home page protection and a trusted items whitelist that are then excluded from all scans.

The Scan your Computer button runs the scan that’s been selected on its right side. Available for selection are quick scans, complete scans, critical point scans or custom scans. Windows users who know that their system is infected can enable a new feature called Rescue Scan which tries to reduce the impact of malware on the system that is causing a 100% cpu usage.

Scan results are displayed in real-time in the program interface. All harmful findings are divided into groups with options to expand the selection to get additional information about each finding. Here it is also possible to block items from being cleaned.

All items that are cleaned by SUPERAntiSpyware are moved to the quarantine where they can be deleted permanently or restored.

The repairs feature is an interesting addition. It can be used to correct some of the problems and issues that removed malware has left behind on the system. Repairs include enabling the task manager, reset the home page, repairs of broken network connections or resetting the Windows Internet Zone Maps.

SUPERAntiSpyware Pro 5 comes with the following new or improved features:

• More Efficient & Effective Scanning – New Scanning engine provides faster scanning while being able to detect even the most stubborn threats such as rootkits, rogues, and Trojans.
• All-new User Interface – Provides easy access to all important tools and features while presenting itself in an easy-to-use interface.
• Enhanced Real-time Protection – All new Real-Time Protection provides powerful first line defense against installation of new threats. With minimal performance impact, the Real-Time Protection provides immediate detection of threats before they can take hold of a system and gives instant notification allowing users to take action before malware does.
• Smaller & Faster Updates – Compression algorithm improvements provide smaller update files sizes and faster downloading than in previous versions. This makes it faster & easier to stay up-to-date with the latest malware definitions and reduces the load on the computer while the updates are being downloaded and applied.
• Powerful Scheduling – With the integration of Windows Task Scheduler, SUPERAntiSpyware offers maximum scheduling flexibility for both updates and scans. SUPERAntiSpyware now has the ability to ‘wake’ computers from sleep in order to run scheduled updates or scans allowing scans to be performed when the computer is not in use.
• Rescue Scan – When enabled, Rescue Scan allows SUPERAntiSpyware to recoup processing power from CPU hogging malware programs in order to put more power and resources behind the scanning engine.
• All-new Quarantine – Suspicious items detected by real-time protection or by scans are automatically placed in the redesigned Quarantine area. Once in Quarantine the item is ‘sandboxed’ from infecting files outside of quarantine, from there quarantined items can be deleted, removed or marked as safe.

The reception on security sites is positive. You find discussion about the new release on sites such as Wilders Security.

Both the free and paid version of SUPERAntiSypware 5 are great additions to a system’s defense. Existing users can upgrade their version either from within the program or by downloading the latest version from the official website.

SUPERAntiSypware Pro 5 Giveaway

We have 20 SUPERAntiSpyware Pro licenses to give away. All you need to do is let us know what you are currently using security wise on your system.

Update The winners will be drawn and notified tomorrow (Friday, 12.8.2011)

The license winners are: Ivan K., Prakash Pathak, Midnight, e1scd, techandlife, hlm, Gramps33, Bur, John, SRally, Charles, Pan Pikus, Peter 888, Rako Graham, Manuel, Al, Anson, numpayak, ISS and Art Clarke.

Here is how the deal works. You can trade-in your current antivirus solution for a one or two year license of Agnitum Outpost Security Suite. The current license needs to be valid for at least three months to get the free version. If it is valid for more than 12 months, you’d even get a two year license instead.

A total of 15 different vendors are accepted by Agnitum, including Avast, Symantec, McAfee, AVG and ZoneAlarm.

Agnitum wants you to provide evidence of the license. This is done by making a screenshot of the purchase confirmation email, in-application or the active account screen from the security vendor’s website.

I cannot really say what’s on the next page after you have clicked on the Send button. I have send an email to my contact at Agnitum to find out more about that part of the process.

Update: The next page displays information about the upcoming steps. It contains a download link to a trial version and information that it will take up to two days to get the product key by email.

You have submitted your license in exchange for an equivalent license for Outpost Security Suite Pro. While you’re waiting for confirmation of your eligibility, please DOWNLOAD a free 30-day full-functional trial version and get ready for up to 2 years of high-performance proactive security!

Within 2 business days, you will receive an email from Agnitum Technical Support with the registration code for your Outpost Security Suite Pro with one or two years of free updates, upgrades and support. This license will be valid for up to 3 or 5 PCs for personal and/or family members usage, depending on the competing license you provide.

I’m also not sure if you can only trade-in Internet Security suites, as mentioned on the page, or standalone antivirus solutions as well. Try to get an answer here as well for you guys.

You probably would like to know what Output Security Suite has to offer, and how it competes against comparable suites.

The product page at the Agnitum homepage links to a pdf datasheet with information about the product. Outpost Security Suite is an all-in one solution that combines antivirus protection with a software firewall and other security related modules like a system and application guard or an anti-spam module.

I found several test sites where the security software was tested. I cannot vouch for those sites.

• Proactive Security Challenge: Result Top 5 Listing
• 2 out of 5 from PC Mag
• 4 out of 5 from Softpedia

It needs to be noted that Agnitum is offering a free version of the Outpost Security Suite that anyone can download and use. The free suite comes with most of the features of the professional version. It offers the same antivirus and firewall protection. What it does not offer are unique ID theft prevention, priority updates and technical support.

The German computer magazine COM is currently running a giveaway of avast! Internet Security. The promotional web page is accessible by anyone. While only in German, it provides a license that works with English versions of Avast Internet Security as well.

Here is how you can get your free license of Avast Internet Security. Start by downloading the latest version of the security program from the official website. The link points to the English version of the software. I have not tested other language versions, they may work as well.

Go to the promo page and fill in your first name, last name and email address. You will receive a license download link in an email once you click on the send (Absenden) button.

The license file is zipped which means you need to unzip it first. Make sure you have Avast installed before you click on the License com! so geht´s.avastlic file. A click on the file registers the program. You can alternatively open Avast Internet Security and load the license under Registration Options from within the program interface.

The license itself expires April 2012, which means you get about nine months of free use from this marketing opportunity.

I have reviewed Avast 6 Antivirus Software back in February. I suggest you read that article as it covers the basic modules offered by Avast Internet Security. You can read up on the antivirus protection, sandbox or web reputation engine.

Avast Internet Security benefits from features that are not available in the free antivirus version. This includes more settings, faster program updates, boot-time scanning, game mode, firewall or keylogger protection. Plus it can be used commercially.

Interested users can read up on Avast Internet Security here on the Avast homepage. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system. (via)

Avira recently made two business decisions that may have a huge impact on the company’s public perception. The Ask Toolbar will be rolled out to all free users soon, the UniBlue promotion has already taken place for users in the United States.

Probably the biggest issue that users have with the Ask Toolbar is that Avira suggested to clean that toolbar if found on PCs in the past, according to information posted on DSL Reports. I cannot verify that claim and you should take it with a grain of salt.

Even worse, the toolbar is advertised as a new function called Safe Internet searching. It has been re-branded as the Avira SearchFree Toolbar and works with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Many inexperienced users may be inclined to install the toolbar, considering that it is supposed to make their Internet searching safer.

Free users get the web guard component activated in Avira if they install the Avira SearchFree Toolbar. The component will only be available as long as the toolbar is installed on the system.

Avira notes that the toolbar is installed in an opt-in process. Existing users get a notification about a new function eventually. This notification pops up at the bottom of the computer screen. Note that you can select Install Now or Install Later, but not to say no to the installation.

A click on Install Now opens the installation dialog. The toolbar is not selected by default. Users need to check the “I accept the terms of the Ask.com End User License Agreement” box to do so. If they click Next without enabling that feature nothing will change. If they do, they see the new AntiVir WebGuard module listed under installed components. It is not necessary to make Ask the default homepage to receive the WebGuard module.

There has already been some backlash from users, for example at the Web of Trust forum.

I can understand bundling with an installer to try to create revenue, however bundling with someone that you had once listed as malware… and then removing them from the database is just like saying “Yes, we are for sale… but trust us we won’t let anything bad happen to your systems.”

This happened to me this morning. I went to do my weekly scan & after doing the scan I did an update which must have been the service pack because it was quite large. Then this popup announced webguard & the Avira toolbar. There is no way to say no. All the popup says is “install now or install later”. No choice to install webguard without the toolbar. So I am simply closing the popup whenever it shows up.

Other sites where the issues are discussed are the DSL Reports forum and Wilders Security.

I personally do understand that companies want to make as much money as they can and that it can be very tempting to bundle software with free products to do so. What Avira may have neglected to consider is the negative perception of both partner companies on the Internet. It is usually the tech savvy users who get frustrated with a product and stop using it. This also means that they stop recommending it which could in the long run reduce Avira’s market share.

Are you currently using Avira products? If so, what is your take on the situation?

My thanks goes to Nico who submitted the news via email.

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper can be downloaded as a 32-bit or 64-bit version. Users who download the small executable need an active Internet connection to burn all contents to CD or DVD, or an USB stick with at least 250 Megabytes of space in case they want to copy the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper to USB instead.

Setup data is loaded from the Internet when the program is started. To use it, users need to boot from the disc or USB device which in turn loads the tool that gives you the options to scan the PC and recover it. It will load the Windows Preinstall Environment to run the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper application for scanning and remediation of virus and malware.

Interested users can download Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper from the official project website. It is basically a recovery CD or USB application that Windows users can use to remove malware from a system.

The program requires a recent Windows operating system, from Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7. Users need to make sure to download the right program version. If they have a 32-bit operating system, they need to download and install the 32-bit version of System Sweeper, if they run a 64-bit operating system they need to download the 64-bit version.

An Internet connection is required to download the latest virus and spyware definitions for Standalone System Sweeper. Supported web browsers are Internet Explorer 6 or higher, or Mozilla Firefox 2 or higher.

Update: To clarify the 32-bit and 64-bit version choice. You need to download the corresponding setup file that matches that target’s computer architecture. If you want to clean a 64-bit system you need to download the 64-bit version, and vice versa.

Modern USB devices on the other hand do not ship with write protection switches anymore, which means that other solutions need to be discovered that work equally well.

What if you’d fill the storage on the USB device to the brim? That’s what USB Dummy Protect does. The idea is simple. You create a fake file that takes up all free space on the device. With no space left on the drive, viruses cannot write on it which means that they are blocked and cannot replicate.

The software is fully portable and needs to be placed on the USB device. You can run the program on any computer system that runs the Windows operating system.

USB Dummy Protect detects the free size on the device directly after it has been started, and begins to write a dummy file of the same size to the drive. The filename is always dummy.file.

If you need space to store files on the drive, you need to remove the dummy file first, copy or move the new files to the drive, and run USB Dummy Protect again to fill the remaining free space again with a dummy file.

The protection is basic, and advanced viruses may be able to circumvent it, for instance by deleting files on the stick to free up space before writing to the stick.

Still, USB Dummy Protect is relatively comfortable to use, especially since it is always located on the USB drive so that it can be used to write a new file whenever that is necessary.

The software worked fine on a 64-bit Windows 7 Pro test system. The developer notes that it only works on USB devices of up to 4 Gigabytes if they use the FAT file system.

You can download USB Dummy Protect from the project homepage at Google Code.

You will notice right away that the Spybot application has turned into a heavyweight over the years. The 66 Megabyte download indicates this already, and it is later confirmed during installation. The sheer amount of tools and services that you can install, or will if you do not select the custom installation option, is confirming this impression. The average Spybot-Search & Destroy 2.0 installation will take up more than 120 Megabytes of space on the system.

You can select the custom installation option to enable or disable some of the tools and services that are offered in addition to the core program files and functionality.

Among those are browser plugins, background services, for instance to perform program updates, or a tool to create a bootable CD to scan and repair the PC.

The program asks you to restart the PC after installation. Some functionality is however directly available without restart. You can for instance run the program without restart, or perform update checks and file scans.

The options in the interface are displayed on a scrolling page, which makes orientation a lot harder. An option to switch to a list view is missing. You should run an update check on first startup, to make sure that the program libraries and database are up to date.

The available selection on the main page depends partially on the type of installation. Some options may not be there if you have customized the installation.

A full scan of the system, or a scan of individually selected files or folders can be started under Basic Tools. Spybot-Search & Destroy scans the system for installed spyware. Especially the full system scan takes a while to complete. It took more than 25 minutes on a fast test system with fast cpu, lots of RAM and speedy Solid State Drives.

Scanning is only one thing that you can do with the Spybot program. You can use it to manage Windows autostart entries, scan for rootkits, shred files or scan mobile phones that are connected to the PC at that time.

Here are a few screenshots of some of the program’s tools:

Some users may think that this is overkill, while others will love the extended tools sections that they can use to manage other parts of their operating system.

Spybot feels bloated just like the burning software Nero does nowadays. Users who only want the spyware scanning should use a custom installation to remove all additional tools that are installed otherwise with the program.

Keep in mind that it is a beta release, which means that things may change and that bugs may exist. You can download Spybot-Search & Destroy 2.0 Beta from the official website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

Autorun attacks, like that by the Stuxnet worm, have become a common attack form. That common, that Microsoft has started to patch the autorun functionality in Windows.

Panda Security released USB Vaccine a while ago which offered to vaccinate a computer or USB drive to protect the computer from autorun based attacks.

Bitdefender, another popular security developer, has now released a similar program called Bitdefender Immunizer.

The program offers the same functionality as Panda USB Vaccine. Users can either immunize the computer as a whole, or immunize a connected removable drive.

The product page describes what happens if you immunize an USB drive:

The Immunize option allows you to immunize your USB storage device or SD card against infections with autorun-based malware. Even if your storage device has been plugged into an infected computer, the piece of malware will be unable to create its autorun.inf file, thus annihilating any chance of auto-launching itself.

This basically blocks the creation of autorun.inf files on immunized USB devices.

The computer immunization has the following effect:

The Immunize Computer slider allows you to toggle the autorun feature On or Off for any removable media (except for CD/DVD-ROM devices). If you accidentally plug in an infected USB drive that has not been immunized, the computer will not auto-execute the piece of malware located on the USB storage device.

The security patch linked above seems to have the same effect as the Immunize Computer option.

It has to be noted that immunizing removable devices or computers does not protect the system if the user executes malicious software on the device or computer manually. It only protects against autorun-based attack forms that require no user interaction.

Interested users can download USB Immunizer from the Bitdefender Labs website.

Update: Bastik has posted his findings in the comments, they are important and need to be mentioned in the article. Thanks Bastik for the helpful insight.

The tool does not offer to remove the protection from drives that it has immunized. To unprotect a drive you need to display hidden files in Windows and hidden system files. This can be done via Tools > Folder Options > View in Windows Explorer. You then need to delete the folder autorun.ini on the drive.

The tool displays an email prompt on exit with no apparent option to close it. Just click the ok button without entering an email address to close the program for good.

Most users will probably use the on-demand scanner to verify that their operating system is clean of viruses and other forms of malware. The major benefit of this approach is twofold. First, they can run Microsoft Safety Scanner next to any installed antivirus or security software on the system. This is obviously better than having to uninstall one antivirus program to run another, as there are often incompatibilities or problems involved when running multiple virus scanners on a system.

The second is the ability to scan the system for malicious software without thinking about configuration of the program, or making sure that it is up to date. The software is using virus information from Microsoft’s Malware Protection center.

Microsoft Safety Scanner has been designed with simplicity in mind. The program can be started right after downloading or transferring it to a Windows PC. Only the depths of the scan needs to be selected, everything else is handled automatically by the application.

You can run a quick scan, full scan or customized scan. A quick scan will check the most likely areas on the system for malicious code like viruses, spyware or computer worms. A full scan on the other hand will scan every single file plus the memory and the Registry. A custom scan finally scans a user selected folder or drive.

There are a few things that you need to know before you download and run the application.

Microsoft Safety Scanner is an on-demand scanner, which means that it is no replacement for active virus protection on the system. It’s aim is to provide additional means to scan a system, nothing more, nothing less.

The scanner has a size of about 70 Megabytes which includes all definition files. It is not auto-updating and will automatically expire after ten days. That’s a serious restriction that makes the program more or less unsuitable for tech support purposes as it would have to be downloaded every ten days anew.

The program does not seem to require the Microsoft .NET Framework, nothing’s mentioned about that on the system requirements page.

You can download Microsoft’s Safety Scanner from the official website over at Microsoft.com.

MultiScan offers in many regards a similar functionality when compared to those two programs. The portable application can be configured to scan local files in up to ten different antivirus engines. The configuration is unfortunately not as comfortable as that of Avert, since it is necessary to download and add the antivirus programs and command line options manually. To make matters worse, there is no list of supported or recommended command line antivirus scanners on the developer’s site.

Links to free antivirus programs that support command line scanning would make the process a lot easier.

Below is a selection of free options:

AVG
Avira Command Line Scanner
ClamWin
Panda Antivirus Command-Line Scanner (2009 last update)
VIPRE Rescue

Many commercial antivirus solutions offer command line scanners as well. Check the documentation or look in the program directory.

Downloading the different engines is just the first part of the setup as they need to be added to MultiScan before the program can utilize their antivirus engine in scans.

New commands are added in the main program interface.

MultiScan configuration

Run Order and Friendly Name are the easiest to explain. The first determines the order in which the commands are run by MultiScan, the latter is a name that describes the command to make it easier identifiable.

The command field finally contains the command that you want to run. This requires research on the antivirus developer homepage or readme file to get the scanning syntax right. An example of a config line would be the following:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /K C:\PROGRA~2\ClamWin\bin\clamscan.exe --database
=E:\SYSTEM\ClamWin\db --recursive=yes %FILES%

The code runs the Windows command line, and then clamscan.exe with several parameters. The %Files% variable is replaced by the selected files and folders for the scan.

MultiScan is not limited to scanning files with antivirus engines. It is for instance possible to configure the program to run a database update for a specific antivirus engine before it is used to scan the files. Other options include deleting old log files or displaying alerts, provided the correct programs or commands are added to the command field.

Configurations can be saved at any time. Saved configurations are then selectable via a pulldown menu in the main interface. This opens new possibilities like running commands for specific situations.

But it is not only configurations that can be saved. File listings can be saved as well so that it becomes possible to scan previously saved files and folders with saved configurations. This makes the process very comfortable once the initial setup has been completed and thoroughly tested.

Files and folders can be scanned by adding items to the queue from within the program interface, by selecting them in Windows Explorer after enabling Windows Explorer integration in the options or by selecting previously saved file listings.

Verdict

MultiScan has lots of potential and several interesting features. The ability to save commands, their run order and file listings is excellent. The downside is the complicated configuration, which the developer should work on. A good start would be to integrate links to command line antivirus scanners and their documentation on the program site. Example configurations for those programs would be the next step, and eventually the integration of those information in the program itself.

MultiScan is a portable software for Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It tested fine on a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit system, and should run fine on other systems as well.