Emsisoft AM/AV and Malwarebytes Premium

[RolandJS]

Emsisoft AM/AV and Malwarebytes Premium...and other favorites!

Snick, here we are, and everybody else is certainly welcome to contribute their thoughts and experiences!

For some years I have been using Emsisoft AntiMalware (which included an AV engine as well).
Some time ago, I discovered EAM/AV was no longer working. After some rooting around, I found that my Windows 7 lacked certain WhatchYouMaCallits, SH(something -- no, no, not that word, a certain Windows process). Snick, do you remember the previous threads were you, Paul Black, and others gave me so much help for a month and a half, and finally my Windows 7 Professional 64bit was up to date and Emsisoft AM/AV ran again?!?

I decided, for better or worse, that was not going to happen again. When Emsisoft subscription ran out on my two laptops, I did not auto-renew, I did not renew period. I found Helmdal Premium Home did not care whether I had SH(whatever) or not, did not care which Windows Updates existed on my laptops or not, etc. Helmdal Premium Home worked. There are sporadic occasions where my internet connection and their server did not handshake, however, such is life.

My question for you and others: Malwarebytes Premium. Does Malwarebytes act like Emsisoft AM/AV or does Malwarebytes act like Heimdal Premium Home? Remember, consider the two paragraphs above.

Thank you Snick and all others for your input!!

 

[RolandJS]

Continuing, I installed Malwarebytes Premium, 14-day test version, into both laptops. One laptop I had all real protections ON. The system, in general, was very slow to respond, more than it usually is! I turned off all real protections. For now, it is only an on-demand scanner, and if it remains only such -- I will use it in the free version mode. I still would like to know if MB, in the future, will depend upon certain WUs to exist.

 

[RolandJS]

Update. I followed Snick's example, installed M-AM 2.x, since I had Premium, set both protections ON, run on-demand scans. So far, it does not slow the laptops down. Earlier trying M-AM 3.x or 4.x, I notice the laptop operations slowed some. For now, Premium account covers both Windows laptops and three android devices.

 

[edassange]

What is your current situation? Are you using Malwarebytes Premium as your primary AV? If you are I would advise against it. Its detection rates are pretty poor these days and in my experience it is very resource heavy. Here are the views of some users and testers at Malwaretips on this very subject:Q&A - Malwarebytes premium like primary AV? | MalwareTips Community

My suggestion would be to just use Malwarebytes as an on demand scanner and replace it with Kaspersky Security Cloud Free. I gives excellent protection and receives top notch reviews:
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free review | Tom's Guide
Kaspersky Security Cloud Free - Review 2020 - PCMag UK

If you want to really beef up your security you could also pair it with Voodooshield free:
VoodooSoft VoodooShield - Review 2020 - PCMag UK

 

[file3456]

I wouldn't use ANY anti-virus product unless you have a bad habit of surfing dark areas and using the Pirate Bay, etc. Without getting into all the reasons, they are just all fluff.

Kaspersky is one I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Kaspersky Anti-Virus - Wikipedia

Again, I wouldn't use any anti-virus. From my website. I posted there what I use.

Voodoo shield is great, and there are others. I have used them ALL. But! they can be very cumbersome and if you're a power user like I am can get in the way. I find them more appropriate for a server rather than for a small home/office stand point.

Look at the cons there at the PCMag website. Not full proof for the cumbersomeness. A better "sandbox" approach would be full 1:1 disk clones.

I feel people get this sense that the moment they plug in the Ethernet cable they'll automatically get a virus. Nothing can be farther than the truth. It largely depends on what it is you are doing and what you download. Scanning all downloads at Virus Total, using the now free and open source Sandboxie for your browser, and periodic full disk clones will keep you from getting owned and tea bagged.

It's by no means perfect, and I know how I could bypass it, but it's probably going to help in the 80% cases of the crap you come across. Especially with Sandboxie if you're not using an Ad blocker. An Ad blocker like uBlock Origin can not only block Ads, but block a list of malware domains. The reason why you'd want to block Ads is that they can be infected. Even a rouge WordPress plug-in could do it and the WordPress site owner has no idea. There are so many vectors here it will make you loony. Like a simple image can contain a malware payload.


The other biggest factor here is that everyone is so concerned about patching/updating Windows and anti-virus products that they never pay attention to the router/modem. I know of a Python script that can hijack your modem or router and once in that hacker can turn your router/modem into their little launch pad for nefarious activity. They have turned your router/modem into a zombie botnet. Believe me when I tell you I have seen my fair share of infected residential routers hit my website trying shenanigans only to get blocked. Then the customer blames the ISP for piss poor Internet speed, bandwidth, etc. It's withen the realm of possibility a hacker took advantage of your insecure router or modem. Of course, once they are in your router/modem they can get into your computer's and download all your crap or do what ever they want and no anti-virus software or sand boxing program like VoodoShield will stop it. This all from an internal LAN.

I've been meaning to write a topic at my site about how to secure your router/modem. What I'll write about is what I already knew about only to be echoed by the FBI a couple years ago. And now with IoT (Internet of Things) being so prevalent you have a whole new set of circumstances. For that you need to segregate your devices like the Echo Dot, Ring doorbell, cameras, etc into its own network vLAN or guest network WITHOUT internal routing capability. The fact is many companies don't deploy security in their products at all. If they do it's probably minimal. And to make matters worse there's very little code signing. It WILL take an act of Congress to get this crap storm contained.

I'll end with this. Did you know as of this post the world's largest DDoS (Denial of service) attack was conducted by many thousands of hacked IoT devices? What's that tell you?


PS: These shenanigans are so easy to do now-a-days that you can literally build your own botnet on the Internet.

i bought a DDoS attack on the DARK WEB (don't do this) - YouTube

HAHAHA Two weeks ago on his channel he has to tell all the little kids to stop DDoSing him.

 

[edassange]

For the average, not very tech savvy, click happy user, it would be highly irresponsible not to have an antivirus. in terms of free protection nothing matches Kaspersky Security Cloud Free but I fully understand reservations about using it due to various allegations. Have a read of this and decide for yourself:Should You Buy Kaspersky Security Products? | PCMag

I am far more reluctant, for instance, to use Avast products due to their questionable practices in recent years.

Anyway RolandJS, post back regarding what you decide.

 

[file3456]

I don't even have an anti-virus on my parent's computer who no nothing about computers. I just have them roll Sandboxie for the browser and I have uBlock Origin installed to block malware domains and Ads that could be laced with malware. So far so good. I do clone their drive every once in a while should disaster strike.


Now get this. Their Windows user account is an Admin. account. They've been rolling like this for 10 years and no issues. And to top that off I always turn off UAC.

I guess the biggest factor here is that they don't download anything. And as I said, if you do scan that download at Virus Total. Depending on what it is, four hits and it's probably malware. Again, it depends on what it is.

 

[edassange]

You've made it quite clear in your many dissertations in countless threads that you don't use an antivirus. What you do on your parents' computer is your business. You have set up all the security measures and you can sort out issues should they arrive. For the average Joe who doesn't have someone to do this for them, and who downloads (most people do) and partakes in other activities your parents probably don't, it is extreme folly not to have an antivirus. If you feel the need to repeat yet again that you don't use an antivirus that is your choice but it adds little to discussions, but that hasn't stopped you so far.

 

[RolandJS]

edassange, I use W7 MSE and W7 WD as on-demand scanners, M-AM 2x for malware, HeimdalSecurity Thor Premium Home for AV, HitManPro.Alert, SUPERAntispyware, and of course the three BillP Studio products. I even use SpyBot AntiBeacon (early free version). I download lots of stuff from known safe places. I am not near as computer-savvy as F22Simpilot, so I count on a collection of free and fee AV/AM/AS utilities.

 

[edassange]

RolandJS Even amongst the tech savvy, the vast majority would still advocate using an AV, and for everyone else I would regard it as a must. F22Simpilot is obviously entitled to his views but I do think it is rather irresponsible for him to preach his no AV approach to all and sundry.

Anyway, regarding Microsoft's own AVs, their current Windows Defender that comes with W10 is excellent and you'd be hard pressed to find a better free AV, but W7's MSE is not so good. My recommendation is Kaspersky Security Cloud Free but with the reservations above. You seem to have quite a lot of security programs, posssibly too many. My suggestion would be Kaspersky combined with VoodooShield Free but if you feel happier with your current setup then fine. At least you have an AV which is better than some. Good luck.

 

[RolandJS]

edassange, let's start a new thread, with a copyNpaste of our last two exchanges, I must tell you about my WifW311-W95/98/98SE days!

https://www.sevenforums.com/system-...k-my-wfw311-w85-98-98se-days.html#post3484075

 

[RolandJS]

I forgot to mention earlier that I am using Windows 7 firewall, enhanced by Windows 7 Firewall Control panel (a 3rd party utility).