Solved MSE effectiveness ?

[t-4-2]

I am beginning to wonder MSE effectiveness.
Is it not supposed to catch malwares, viruses and other malicious softwares ?

I just ran malwarebytes ( I did that almost weekly ), and it caught 7 infections.
Would anyone please tell me what those are ? Do they have anything to do with You-tube toolbar or related ?

 

[Maguscreed]

This is exactly the reason why I tell everyone with mse to get mbam and scan at least once a week with it manually.
Commonsense and a adblocker or noscript style browser plugin will usually keep you from even needing to scan.

 

[Bill2]

PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) are applications that, in keeping with security and privacy concerns, user may want to be informed of and mostly will want to remove. They are not really malware.They can be installed by legit apps.

Your pup is relaed to the dealio toolbar/adware, read here.

PUP.Dealio - Malwarebytes Forum

As far as MSE not detecting it is concerned, a regular AV like MSE functions differently from MBAM. MBAM actually looks for things overlooked by regualr AVs so it should always be used as a supplement ro a regular AV, not as a substitute.

 

[t-4-2]

This is exactly the reason why I tell everyone with mse to get mbam and scan at least once a week with it manually.
Commonsense and a adblocker or noscript style browser plugin will usually keep you from even needing to scan.

PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) are applications that, in keeping with security and privacy concerns, user may want to be informed of and mostly will want to remove. They are not really malware.They can be installed by legit apps.

Your pup is relaed to the dealio toolbar/adware, read here.

PUP.Dealio - Malwarebytes Forum

As far as MSE not detecting it is concerned, a regular AV like MSE functions differently from MBAM. MBAM actually looks for things overlooked by regualr AVs so it should always be used as a supplement ro a regular AV, not as a substitute.

Thank you both.
Can't give rep points because I need to give it to 14-15 other people first.

 

[Golden]

Excellent Bill - good reply.

 

[roban]

MSE will not detect the latest strains of fake Alert viruses and neither will Malwarebytes. You will need to run Combofix. The only AV I have found that secures a computer against these strains is Norton.

 

[Golden]

MSE will not detect the latest strains of fake Alert viruses and neither will Malwarebytes. You will need to run Combofix.

That depends entirely on your definition of "latest". I could argue that ComboFix will not detect the latest malware, if my defintion of latest was a hour ago. It depends entirely on how often the AV engines and defintions are updated.

ComboFix is not for the faint-hearted and uninitiated. Here is the standard description and warning that accompanies any download of ComboFix:

ComboFix is a program, created by sUBs, that scans your computer for known malware, and when found, attempts to clean these infections automatically. In addition to being able to remove a large amount of the most common and current malware, ComboFix also displays a report that can be used by trained helpers to remove malware that is not automatically removed by the program.

You should not run ComboFix unless you are specifically asked to by a helper. Also, due to the power of this tool it is strongly advised that you do not attempt to act upon any of the information displayed by ComboFix without supervision from someone who has been properly trained. If you do so, it may lead to problems with the normal functionality of your computer.

It is also understood that the use of ComboFix is done at your own risk.

For this reason, ComboFix is not generally recommended for a standard AV installation.

Regards,
Golden

 

[DBone]

2nd Quarter 2011 AV tests: AV-TEST.org · Tests of Anti-Virus- and Security-Software MSE has work to do.

 

[pparks1]

2nd Quarter 2011 AV tests: AV-TEST.org · Tests of Anti-Virus- and Security-Software MSE has work to do.

This might be true, however if you don't put yourself in risky situations, it's possible that the protection afforded for free is sufficient enough. I mean, I use MSE simply because I never get anything and I don't have problems. I cannot justify spending money on something else. And if MSE catches 100% of the very well known malware, and 98% of stuff in the past 2 months..that's most likely going to catch anything that I'm "more likely" to find.

 

[DBone]

Risky situations can surprise even the most experienced user. A good website this second, could be hijacked the next. Drive-by infections are everyone's vulnerability regardless of experience. Yea, searching porn and cracks will get you there faster, I agree. There are several better free products then MSE, with avast! Free being one of them. That being said, virtualization is the best weapon when browsing the internet, and really should be a users first line of defense. If a user is relying on any AV as their first and last line of defense, then they will be the next forum member to start a new thread titled, "I'm infected, now what".

 

[pparks1]

Risky situations can surprise even the most experienced user. A good website this second, could be hijacked the next. Drive-by infections are everyone's vulnerability regardless of experience.

While I agree with everything here in theory, that doesn't really explain why I hardly "EVER" see any of this kind of stuff, while other people seem to find it every other day. Most of my techie buddies rarely, if ever, get anything on our own machines...but yet we spend hours cleaning machines for friends and trying to teach them how to avoid this stuff. And I work in IT, so I spend the majority of my day googling for things, scouring the net and simply using the computer. So you would think my liklihood of hitting some random site would be far higher than the average joe, but history says otherwise.

Yea, searching porn and cracks will get you there faster, I agree.

Along with clicking on links for the latest "upskirt photos", or the "autopsy photos" of the latest dead celebrity, or clicking on the links to see "who is doing what on facebook" If people just just contain themselves there, things would be much more improved. I stay away from any sites with "free" non-free software. No key generators, no serial numbers, no warez, no peer to peer file sharing, etc. Once I stopped looking for stuff for free, things got so much easier in my world. I use free/open source apps for almost everything, and buy the 2-3 other things that are worth it to me (Win7, Acronis, and Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD).

There are several better free products then MSE, with avast! Free being one of them.

I have run Avast on my wife's Vista laptop for years. It hasn't found anything on her machine, just like MSE hasn't found anything on my machine. Random scans with MBAM turn up nothing on either machine. So, I still feel sufficiently protected on either machine.

That being said, virtualization is the best weapon when browsing the internet, and really should be a users first line of defense.

Yes, I use sandboxie for some things, and virtual machines themselves for other things.

 

[DBone]

I totally agree about what a user clicks and what they are searching for. I try to tell my parents, as well as my 16yr old daughter, that "curiosity killed the cat". It's better to wonder what may have been in that email that was sent to you, rather then knowing and now having a paper weight instead of a computer. Same goes for searches and facebook links..............They don't really listen though.

 

[pparks1]

People just think "wow, look it's really free". They don't recall the saying "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is". Websites that offer this "garbage" are often completely riddled with stuff. This type of stuff just draws people out and then WHAMO...they are hit. Its like hearing that such and such site offers "photoshop for free". Really, you are going to go to that website and see what you find and what happens. Seriously, wake up. Sometimes these offers for free software aren't for the good of the community, but rather a good way to get into your machine, personal info, etc.

 

[sygnus21]

I totally agree about what a user clicks and what they are searching for. I try to tell my parents, as well as my 16yr old daughter, that "curiosity killed the cat". It's better to wonder what may have been in that email that was sent to you, rather then knowing and now having a paper weight instead of a computer. Same goes for searches and facebook links..............They don't really listen though.

Well I've not been infected and I only use MSE, but than again as noted common sense should also pervail as well

 

[DBone]

Well I've not been infected and I only use MSE, but than again as noted common sense should also pervail as well

Well that's good, I just hope the name of your next thread isn't "I'm infect.................

 

[sygnus21]

Likewise

 

[DBone]

Thanks!