Questions about corporate anti-spyware and anti-malware software.

[Albion]

Recently I have been reading quite a few review sites on Anti-Malware software. I am finding more and more that most of the software out there is, plain and simply, crap. How can I protect my network from bad software (rootkits, spyware, adware, etc..) if I can't even trust the software I am using to do it. We use trend micro as our security package including anti-spyware and if you look at adwarereport.com you see that their anti-spyware only has a 36% detection rate. How can I even come close to keeping my network safe with that kind of number without going broke on multiple packages?

Has anyone done any hard testing into their current security package and found that it wasn't sufficient? If so, what kind of solutions are you looking at to repair the problem?

Thanks

-Craig

 

[Scotsdude]

Look at Sophos for anti-virus and Webroot for anti-spyware.
Even better, watch Webroot's Enterprise product line as they recently announced a partnership with Sophos to provide an all-in-one solution. Both of these vendors provide top-notch protection, so any combined offering, using just a single console to control the lot, should be excellent.

Scotsdude

 

[rjfoster]

IMO the detection rates are a bit misleading. I tend to favor using one product at a time on a single machine, just to make things simple.

While Trend Micro may only detect 36% of the stuff out there, its my experience that a workstation is either in good shape or LOADED with crap (aka malware).

Workstations just don't get one crapware on the machine, once they get one, they soon have a dozen more.

In that case, Trend Micro (or whatever product you are using) may only detect a handful of the junk, but if it detects one, scan and clean with everything at your disposal.

In other words, if Trend Micro (again, or whatever product you are using) doesn't detect anything you're probably in good shape.



Peace out.
-gg

 

[GVN]

I like Trend Micro's AV product, however I tested the trial version of their spyware product and wasn't totally impressed. It would detect stuff, but then say it was unable to completely remove them. I use Spybot and AdAware "after the fact" to remove them, but I haven't been able to find a product to completely keep machines clean for an extended amount of time. Even Spybot, which is supposed to run resident in memory all the time, will find new stuff on your machine even though it didn't actively prevent it from getting back on in the first place.

GVN

 

[ankit0680]

I use Trend Micros both the AV and the Spyware solution. I find it to work well, I agree that the accuracy is only 36 perecent, but our simple rule has been that if something is detected do a complete clean with two different Agents, I am implementing Cisco NAc with TRend Hardware, so I hope tihs makes me a little more secure.

 

[Stevehewitt]

I use the CA eTrust AV across our network and was thinking about trialing the anti-spyware product (PestPatrol I think it's called) that can link in with it. Again not sure but maybe another product to look into.



Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[Scotsdude]

Thats Webroot just released their new package. Have a look at

http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/spysweeperwithantivirus/

Looks rather good, and as Sophos is one of the better Enterprise-class of AV vendors, I think it could be a winner.

Scotsdude

 

[GVN]

Steve-
When I first started at the location that I'm currently at, they were using CA eTrust and it was a total piece of junk, no offense. It would say that all the computers were clean, but then when I ran other scanners on them they would have 20+ viruses. Try another scanner to verify on your network to test effectiveness....

 

[Lunatic]

At home I run SpyWare Blaster, SpyBot Search and Destroy, and AdAware and that seems to keep me pretty clean. Even with some of the sites I visit (the NSFW ones with the funny images and videos but you just know you're opening yourself up to tons of crap) I haven't had a problem in the 2 years I've been running that package.

Add in ZoneAlarm, McAffee anti-virus and using FireFox with NoScript (as well as Netscape 4.77 for any site I'm not fully trusting) and I'm not terribly worried.

It may seem like a lot, but most of the stuff runs behind the scenes and only takes a second to make a decision with the other programs (such as to allow scripts on a site temporarily or to allow a program to access the internet through Zone Alarm). And then I run SpyWare Blaster and company every Sunday night.

Might not be the best for a large company, but for a smaller group I imagine it might work well... though since its for home use its all free (except McAffee) so I'm not sure what the cost implications are.