Category: Spyware Prevention

SUPERAntiSpyware My Review

Paul

Ok I have been using SUPERAntiSpyware for quite some time, I used the free version for about a year now.  Ever since I found a link on Computer America website.   Now let’s face it, in Anti-Virus software there are many different ones.   I talked about [intlink id=”3851″ type=”post”]Malwarebytes[/intlink] a few days ago now I want to talk about why you Should Buy SUPERAntiSpyware Pro.

Now let’s be fair about this, I was given a free lifetime version of the Pro version from Mike Duncan the Director of Business Development.  So I might be a little Biased but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t suggest to anyone who isn’t looking for a cheap alternative to buy a Anti-virus Software.

So with that said now we can talk about it a little more.  The Free Version is great don’t get me wrong but there are some key differences from the Free to the Pro Version.  Some of the things that I think are the most crucial points  for buying SUPERAntivirus Pro are:

  • System Diagnostics — Lets face it there are more and more virus, Trojans, and Malware being created each day and being used.  This is a great way to explore your system in even more details and find those really hidden viruses.

  • Auto Scanning — Very Important instead of just scanning when you think you have a virus.  You can schedule on a weekly or nightly basis when to do the scan and make sure your system keeps clean from infection.

  • Automatic Updates — With the free Version you can only update manually but with the Pro version, you can have it check for updates  every 8 hours.  After all there are viruses being discovered every hour in one part of the world!!

  • Registry Blocking and Real Time Protection — These two Go hand in  hand.  I have seen viruses come in many shapes and forms that will install without your knowledge these to help prevent this.   Although other Anti-Virus software does this to they cost more and have to pay on a yearly basis.

  • Supported Languages —  Danish, English, Spanish, Estonian, German, Hungarian,  Italian, Macedonian,  Norwegian, Polish,  Portuguese,  and Swedish.

My review :

[rating:5/5]

Ease of Use

No Technical experience needed to use this software

No Long term Commitment by buying a lifetime subscription.

Here are what some peoples are saying about SuperAntispyware:

I think SuperAntiSpyware is a excellent program better then other AntiSpyware programs out there, gets rid of the nasties that other programs can’t get rid of, so having a Pro version would add a nice addition to my tool kit. [Scott]

For the most part, I subscribe to the MajorGeeks.com methodology of malware removal for my Windows-using clients (including my wife). This is one very awesome program. I recommend it to all using Windows, even those who aren’t in immediate need.   [Technoslick]

A LIFETIME license of SUPERAntiSpyware Professional would be an invaluable asset for any serious PC technician’s toolkit!  [C6Gunner]

[They seem to think this is a great tool and I do too]

Download the 15 day trial

As you can see by looking at those pictures you can have SUPERAntiSpyware work side by side other free Antivirus.   I suggest if you have the free versions of Antivirus to invest in the SuperAntiSpyware Pro.   It is a Cheaper Alternative then to buying one one those Major Brands and yet It helps protect your system from those nasty viruses, Spyware, or Trojans.   With SuperAntiSpyware Pro, You get real time protection and the ability to automatically update your definitions and program and Real-Time Blocking.  If your like me and have AVG or Some other Free Antivirus software.   As you know some Antivirus Software doesn’t pick up a virus but others do.   This will add another layer of protect and help protect your System.  All in all, SUPERAntiSpyware Pro is the cheapest Alternative to buying one from the Major Brands.  If you buy it right now, you can get a Lifetime Membership for a limited time  and pay only $39.90.  You would never have to pay for another yearly subscription.

SUPERAntiSpyware also has a great tool you can download to submit a file you have a question about.   If it is a virus or Trojan,  it will help them identify and send out an update to get rid of that Virus.  You can help them find and eliminate even more Malware by using this Submit tool.

Why you can’t run Antivirus or Taskmanager!

Paul

Photo by : Kristi Evans Photo by : Kristi Evans

As you know there has been more and more virus writers and scammers who don’t want you to interfere with the ultimate plan.   You see the two major plans these people have are:

  1. [intlink id=”2811″ type=”post”]To use your computer as a Botnet[/intlink] —  This is most common because the Command and Control server is where they tell these other computers what to do weather send spam or do a denial of Service attack on a website.  Although this is the most common it isn’t however the easiest to get rid of rid.   Far be it from being easy these virus writers want to keep a foot hold on your system.   This is like the SG-1 the “Foothold” Situation, they try to look like there is nothing wrong.

  2. [intlink id=”3805″ type=”post”]Fake Antivirus software[/intlink] — This is the other common reason why you can’t load up Taskmanager or SUPERantispyware/Malwarebytes.   It could even prevent AVG,  Norton Antivirus, and Other Antivirus software from being loaded at boot up.  Because most Antivirus software can detect this type of scareware.   The scammers want to make as much money as they can so they don’t want the End user to be able to stop the program from scaring you into buying the fake product.  It could also have a [intlink id=”3872″ type=”post”]Scareware Adviser[/intlink] trying to get you to buy the fake product!

As you can see these are what I call the Prime “2” reasons why you can’t run your Antivirus software, although there is a way around this.   I have found loading up in Safe Mode to be the easiest way to run antivirus scans on an infected system.   Although this can be difficult to do it, however it helps prevent these programs from loading up in more ways then one.  If you can go download the Antivirus programs from another computer and have them to install once you load up in safe mode.   You should also think about installing other software like a [intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]Firewall even the Free firewalls[/intlink] are the better than Microsoft’s Firewall.

[ad]The other options for those tech savy people who know what a hard drive is and how to remove it, is to mount it onto another system as a slave and then run your antivirus software on the hard drive in question.   This however shouldn’t be done unless two conditions are met:

  1. You Know what you doing —  Again if you don’t know what your doing please don’t try this.  It could hurt your system far more than you can know.   If you don’t know how to do this you should take it to a professional and let them do the work for you.

  2. Out of Warranty — Yep that is right if this has a 2 year or longer warranty and you open up the hardware you automatically void the warranty on anything to do with your system.  So it is best to have someone who is qualified warranty specialist to open it up.  This way you still have your warranty on the system and if something does go wrong in the shop, they can fix it easier than a novice.

If you know what your doing this can be an easy process or it can be a hard process it only depends on how knowledgeable you are and how far you are willing to go.   Although there are [intlink id=”2955″ type=”post”]some viruses that require you to just start over[/intlink].  This is because they have embedded so deeplyinto the system that removing them will ruin your Windows system and prevent it from booting in the first place.  This is the last option, if you have a system who has been overrun with virus and spyware it might be time to reinstall the Operating system.  This is what I call the end all way to get rid of the Virus, Trojan, Or spyware on your system.   If you do this you will need to make sure to install all the Microsoft updates before you do anything else.  Also you will need to [intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]re-install any Firewalls and Antivirus[/intlink] software to better protect your system from having the virus in the first place.

A-Squared Emergency USB Stick – Portable Antivirus Kit

Paul

IT Security warfare is an interesting domain. It is a never ending race between the security software developers and malware writers. And since the security software always act after the development of the malware, they are always behind in this race.

But this fact poses a serious threat to the security of your system as a user. If you are not careful and regularly updating your antivirus applications, you might be late, and if the malware might get a chance to get the entry to your system, it can play havoc there.

Today’s Intelligent Malware…

Today’s malware are much more intelligent than their predecessors. They not only do the damage intended by their developers, but also make it difficult for security software to identify them. They try to disable your antivirus applications, they modify your system files so that you are not able to access the security software websites and forums, they hijack your browser homepages, they disable the update procedure of your security software and use all such tricks, which make their detection difficult.

What is the Solution?

In a such a situation, you need a security tool, which remains aloof from your system and can be used as and when required. A-Squared Emergency USB Stick is one such portable tool, which can be used in such a situation.
A-Squared Emergency USB Stick is a combination of two free security tools from the reputed security vendor EMSI. These tools are…

A-squared Free:

[ad]With a-squared Free you have got the powerful a-squared Scanner including graphical user interface. Search the infected PC for Trojans, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Dialers, Keyloggers and other malign programs.

a-squared Command line Scanner:

This scanner contains the same functionality as a-squared Free but without a graphical user interface. The command line tool is made for professional users and can be used perfectly for batch jobs

You can download this and save it in your USB Flash Drive. In some unfortunate instance, when the security software installed in your system is not able to detect any malware, and the malware damages your system files, then there are chances that this USB stick remains protected, because it may not have been inserted in your computer at the time when the malware has been doing its job.

Once you are aware about the presence of the malware, you can try to use this portable antivirus kit to clean your system. The command line tool coming with this portable antivirus toolkit is especially useful because many of the present day malware can potentially disable the GUI interface of the popular security software.

[Download A-Squared Emergency USB Stick]

[This is a Guest Post from Silki Garg, who enjoys writing about Internet and PC Security Issues. Check out her latest articles on ClamWin Portable Virus Remover and Windows Security Options Tool WinPatrol.]

Do you want a copy of SuperAntiSpyware software?

Paul

superantispyware1Bryce over at Technibble is giving away 10 licenses for this software and I couldn’t resist to talk about it here.  The Rules are simple and I will walk you through them one by one:

  1. Make a Comment on His post, anything just as long as it adds to the community.  No name calling, No harassing them, and try to not cuss.   I would appreciate it if you would reference back to this site so he knows who sent you to him.  You see I would love a lifetime Copy of this software my self. (Hint hint Bryce)

  2. Subscribe to his updates via Email — This one is really simple, just sign up to receive to his updates and you will be all set.   And your all set, for that one.

  3. Follow @Technibble and tweet:
    Just entered the SUPERAntiSpyware Pro License giveaway. http://bit.ly/tnsas You can win by following @Technibble and retweet. @Laforge129

If you do all three of these you can could win also.   The more you do the more chances you have to win.  I know people want to receive lifetime licenses for this product and I am one of them(Hint Hint).  Everyone who enters will be in the running to get a copy of these from Bryce.  He will pick the winners by email or twitter on July 3, 2009.  So you have all week to do this.   If you want to check the website out, here is the link.   I know if I get a copy, I will review this for my users and let them know how well this works.

Thank you Bryce, Good luck to all who enter.

Stop botnets in its tracks With a Firewall!

Paul3 Replies

According to PC World and I’ll quote:

According to FireEye chief scientist Stuart Staniford, detection rates are so poor that, on average, only around 40 percent of security software can detect binaries during the period of greatest infectivity and danger, namely the first few days after a particular variant starts being used by botnet builders.

[via PC World]

[ad#ad2-left]Now let’s talk about this, having been seeing recent surges of people getting infected.  I’ve come to the conclusion that companies like AVG and other Anti-Virus companies are keeping up.   Now true if all you have is an Anti-virus and nothing else that greatly increases your likely hood of getting a virus.

In a recent virus storm, We have people finding my site because of a Good Firewall.   No if he didn’t have anything but Windows firewall then it would of gotten through and you would not of known about it.  So let’s talk about how to prevent botnet attacks.   This is relatively easy and if you follow some common rules.   You to could be less likely to be infected.  I will say this most people don’t do these common tips and they should do them.

[ad#digg-right]So what should you do to help prevent from getting a Virus or Malware.  This is really simple, you want to find an Anti-virus Software that you like, and Firewall that you like also.  You’ll also want to download the tools to better help you in case you do get infected.  Some of these tools I recommend are Hijackthis, Spybot Search and Destroy, Hitman Pro, and Ad-aware 2007 Edition (FREE).  Then Go buy a Sandisk USB memory Stick and put those on there for later use!!  You will always want to keep a backup of those just in case you get infected.

[ad#ad2-right]Make sure you update Windows regularly.  Having seen this time and time again, if you don’t keep windows updated then you lose the battle.  If you have a system that needs updating, I suggest downloading the Clone to Autopatcher.  This little program will download the files needed to update your system without having to be online.  Although, you can have windows update automatically every month but that might not update the recommended updates only the ones that are hot.  It doesn’t matter which way you prefer to update, as long as you do to update regularly, Like every 2nd Tuesday of the Month.

One last tip you should also keep your Firewall and Anti-virus updated.  There is a little program that will do that, it’s call AppSnap.  If you follow all these recommendations you will greatly reduce your chances of getting a virus on your system.