Study: Anti-adware misses most malware

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Wow. This is a very interesting and scary article. Apparently, even the combined use of AdAware and Spybot only catches approx. 54% of spyware that can be infecting a computer.

http://windowssecrets.com/050127/#story1

 

[cybertalus]

Mega scary.

I *thought* I was safe. My last scan with Ad Aware (last night) only turned up 5 hits, all cookies from the last time I cranked IE up for something. I'm careful what sites I visit, I don't use IE unless absolutely necessary, and keep Javascript turned off as much as possible.

Still, now I'm not sure.

 

[Andre]

I downloaded and ran three of the products Livingston recommended - SpySweeper, SpySubtract, and MS AntiSpyware (Giant) - in that order. Each one found something, mostly cookies. Well worth the effort.

Interesting note: After Microsoft's product finished, it tried to change my homepage to www.msn.com. It did not tell me it was doing that. SpySweeper caught it and warned me so I could cancel the action. Only Microsoft would develop software to catch malicious code (such as redirects) that in turn makes its own changes without telling the user...

 

[drnuncheon]

Hmm. I haven't actually encountered much that Spybot won't fix - certainly not on the level they claim, and if there's some kind of malware to be downloaded I have great faith that our employees will find it. I have to wonder if they were using the most up-to-date versions.

If I had a spare PC, I'd run the tests myself, but I think the wife would kill me if I used hers.

J

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Interesting note: After Microsoft's product finished, it tried to change my homepage to www.msn.com. It did not tell me it was doing that. SpySweeper caught it and warned me so I could cancel the action. Only Microsoft would develop software to catch malicious code (such as redirects) that in turn makes its own changes without telling the user...

Really? I've been running Spybot, AdAware, SpySweeper, and Microsoft/Giant, and never had Microsoft try to change my home page. Never got a notification from Spysweeper either. thats really odd. Did it try to change without telling you, or did it just ask you if you want to set your homepage to msn?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Hmm. I haven't actually encountered much that Spybot won't fix - certainly not on the level they claim, and if there's some kind of malware to be downloaded I have great faith that our employees will find it. I have to wonder if they were using the most up-to-date versions.

If I had a spare PC, I'd run the tests myself, but I think the wife would kill me if I used hers.

J

I've had Spybot miss lots of things that AdAware, Spysweeper, and Microsoft pick up. Not a ton of stuff, but 5-6 items each time I run them all.

 

[GlassJaw]

Assuming you don't click and install things you shouldn't, a hardware firewall is still your best bet. If you have a broadband connection, I wouldn't even plug my computer in without one.

 

[Andre]

Really? I've been running Spybot, AdAware, SpySweeper, and Microsoft/Giant, and never had Microsoft try to change my home page. Never got a notification from Spysweeper either. thats really odd. Did it try to change without telling you, or did it just ask you if you want to set your homepage to msn?

I think it's tied to the Settings option. The first time I ran the program, it wanted to run Settings. I skipped that and did a quick scan. Later I went back and ran Settings. The program asked to reboot my system and as soon as I clicked "Yes", I got the warning from SpySweeper. Since I can't find a anything in Settings to change my homepage to msn.com, I wonder if Settings tried to reset IE to it's default configuration (in which the homepage is msn.com)?

I've run the program (but not Settings) a few times since and haven't had a problem, so I'm just guessing as to the reason - but it did happen.

 

[Krieg]

I think it's tied to the Settings option. The first time I ran the program, it wanted to run Settings. I skipped that and did a quick scan. Later I went back and ran Settings. The program asked to reboot my system and as soon as I clicked "Yes", I got the warning from SpySweeper. Since I can't find a anything in Settings to change my homepage to msn.com, I wonder if Settings tried to reset IE to it's default configuration (in which the homepage is msn.com)?

I've run the program (but not Settings) a few times since and haven't had a problem, so I'm just guessing as to the reason - but it did happen.

It happens during set-up. When AntiSpyware asks you about protecting against browser hijacks if you just click next without manually configuring the setting it will reset your home page to msn.

When I manually reset my homepage it went so far as to list that as a hijack attempt and asked for permission. lol

 

[EricNoah]

Anyone know if it's bad practice to run two anti-spyware programs simlutaneously? For example, I run SpySubtract (in theory it is stopping spyware before it gets installed). Could I (and should I) also run the Microsoft one with "real-time protection"?