AV-Test proves antimalware apps can restore infected computers

[A Guy]

Andreas Marx, CEO and founder of AV-Test, emailed me about AV-Test's newest long-term study. Marx attached the press release 17 software packages in a repair performance test after malware attacks. I have written about AV-Test studies before, but this project had special significance. If Marx and his crew determined which antimalware applications indeed restored computers to pre-infection conditions, I know several IT pros who would be appreciative.

Marx and AV-Test engineers spent the last ten months determining whether several popular antivirus software packages and malware-cleaning tools did what their developers advertised -- clean and repair Windows-based computers after being infected by malware.

Source

A Guy

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Why on Earth would we even THINK of needing this -- another case of somebody in a declining industry trying to sell products which aren't really needed any more.

What's wrong with simply restoring a clean image - which you should have anyway -- always take regular backups. Why in the world would I trust running ANY application on an already infected computer to cleanse itself 100% !!!!

IMO the only way is a Stand alone restore -- even on a large windows installation - 30 mins at most -- and as more and more people now have SSD's - maybe you could do a complete OS restore in as little as 10 mins.

Always keep OS and Pgms in its own HDD / Partition -- Your own data on the other HDD's / Partitions.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[andrew129260]

Jimbo, how could you be certain your image is clean?

Answer-You can't.

And you also have to think about the average user here. Most would not be able to do that.

 

[A Guy]

Not everyone is as all knowing as you Jimbo...

A Guy

 

[jimbo45]

Jimbo, how could you be certain your image is clean?

Answer-You can't.

And you also have to think about the average user here. Most would not be able to do that.

Hi there

The same answer that the anti-malware software says -- You have a Virus. If it doesn't report then what's the difference between restoring the image or getting the AV system to "clean it up".

I think also people underestimate the capability of the average user --OK people open up stupid email attachments and get conned by the most obvious of scams but inserting a USB into USB slot and booting up a stand alone recovery program and following simple on screen instructions isn't a mega problem.

Most of the people who get VIRUSES etc are those using torrent sites etc -- Well if you are sophisticated enough to use a site like THIS one (Scr shot enc) then I'd assume you certainly know how to backup and restore a computer. (Torrent site URL not shown - in any case it's blocked ("leakily !!") in UK / Belgium / Italy etc but you get the idea) .

I doubt if my old Grandma would even be aware of these types of sites !!.

Cheers
jimbo