Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Safe Connections: Anti-virus and anti-malware tools
Viruses have become less of a threat to personal computing, and exploits that rely on social engineering techniques are rising. It is possible to avoid them, but the sophistication of the attacks needs more sophisticated tools to remove the infection.
Most anti-virus packages contain anti-malware components. No-cost and low-cost tools include:
AVG
Avast
Eset
Clamwin
The threats now arise not from email, but from other vectors. These include plugins to web browsers, such as Flash or Adobe/Acrobat Reader. What’s needed is a tool to inventory system software and the state of updates. These tools include:
Secunia
Belarc Advisor
Specific tools to detect and clean anti-malware include:
a-squared
Malwarebytes
Windows Defender
You may need to test, so the eicar anti-virus signature is helpful:
Anti-virus test signature
A more radical approach is sandboxing, that is, setting aside a separate area of memory to run suspect programs. These tools include:
Sandboxie
VMWare
