Need to scanning folders/drives when anti-virus is smart

Kurdishboy · 28 Sep 2013

Hi,

When an anti-virus like KIS 2013 is running on a Windows machine and that AV is smart and real time protection and all of the components for protecting are enabled as well, is there any need to scan the suspected folders/drives manually before opening them? For example when we input a USB flash memory? If yes why? And what that "smart" word means in the AV?

Thanks.

Kurdishboy · 29 Sep 2013

No answer!?

ICIT2LOL · 29 Sep 2013

Hiyya Kurdishboy To answer your query in one go yes I always set up my Kaspersky to scan anything I insert into the machine - sticks, external drives drives etc etc

AS to folders I am not real sure of what you mean if you mean folders that are on sticks then scanning that stick should scan the lot I always do a full scan on any sticks I put in. The only exception is if it is a stick or an external drive that I have set up or used for storage on my machine - myself and I know are free of any malware.

Now any downloads of software the KISS should auto scan anyway
See my pics and as an afterthought I always set my heuristics high plus I always set a password for the settings to stop tampering but the choice is yours if you decide to do a password then make sure you write it down and keep in a safe place because if you forget it you will need to reinstall and reconfigure the settings again . If you have any problems or queries please post back.
Sorry the pics are not in the right order go bottom top middle

UsernameIssues · 30 Sep 2013

I think that the OP is asking:
If the AV software is smart - then why scan anything. Why tell it to scan all files on a USB stick or even the main hard drive? The only files to worry about are the ones going from drive to RAM.

In other works:
If each file is scanned when accessed, then why scan files and folders that are not being accessed.

@OP,
"Smart" means different things to different antivirus vendors.

LMiller7 · 30 Sep 2013

Modern malware is highly complex and sophisticated and AV software must be equally so. Malware goes to great lengths to avoid detection and sometimes it does, even with the very best AV software with the latest definitions. Some forms of malware are best detected at run-time, others with file scans. You should give the AV software all the opportunities you can.

Kurdishboy · 01 Oct 2013

Dear "ICit2lol", Your explanation was very valuable, but if I want to keep my question in my mind I should say my problem was more about what the "UsernameIssues" said which was that:"If the AV software is smart - then why scan anything. Why tell it to scan all files on a USB stick or even the main hard drive?". But I learned good things from your good comment! thank you.

@UsernameIssues: Why do you named me "OP"!? What that means? And although your talk is effective but is not exactly such a suitable answer to that question! Anyway I appreciate completely your help. Thanks.

@LMiller7: Does your talk means that the AVs have different powers, one is when run-time (or smart) and one is when we scan one thing (folder/drive) on demand? And the demand one is more powerful which can uses all of the opportunities the AV has!? It'a very strange for me.

LMiller7 · 01 Oct 2013

Any good AV product will offer real time protection, that is it checks files as they are accessed. They can also scan files and folder on demand or on a schedule. Modern malware will attempt to hide from both forms of detection. AV software will attempt to detect malware in spite of it's best efforts to hide. You need to give your AV product every advantage in its fight with malware by using real time protection and file scans.

UsernameIssues · 01 Oct 2013

OP stands for Original Poster or Original Post.

The main reason for my post was to use other words to describe your question to other forum members; to help them help you. I'll leave it to other forum members to try and explain why you should scan too.

As for the term "smart". It is just a word used by those selling software. In my experience, "smart" is used to describe a feature that lets the antivirus app classify a file as bad based on what it does (heuristics). People don't usually know what the term heuristics means, so those selling antivirus tools use a word like "smart" in its place.

Kurdishboy · 01 Oct 2013

Yeah, your work was fine.
If I consider the word smart used by vendors/sellers has not really the meanings of word smart so I can assume I got the answer.

ICIT2LOL · 02 Oct 2013

Kurdishboy said:

Dear "ICit2lol", Your explanation was very valuable, but if I want to keep my question in my mind I should say my problem was more about what the "UsernameIssues" said which was that:"If the AV software is smart - then why scan anything. Why tell it to scan all files on a USB stick or even the main hard drive?". But I learned good things from your good comment! thank you.

@UsernameIssues: Why do you named me "OP"!? What that means? And although your talk is effective but is not exactly such a suitable answer to that question! Anyway I appreciate completely your help. Thanks.

@LMiller7: Does your talk means that the AVs have different powers, one is when run-time (or smart) and one is when we scan one thing (folder/drive) on demand? And the demand one is more powerful which can uses all of the opportunities the AV has!? It'a very strange for me.

Well mate it is just a specific built in feature I mean just say for example a friend walked up to you and said see whats on this USB drive mate and you just stuck it in and looked at the files and meanwhile it is downloading all sorts of rubbish and malware it wouldn't a be a very clever thing to do in fact I reckon you would be pretty miffed.
So KISS has that feature whereby any plug in device stick external spinner Printer etc is auto recognised and KISS asks if you if you want to scan it and gives you three levels of scan. You can of course decline it but to be honest for the time it takes to do a a scan is it worth it. The only ones I don't scan are ones I have made myself like SD cards and externals with backups or sticks I know are perfectly safe.
If you need any more of the config stuff mate just drop me a PM only to pleased to help out. :)