27 March 2011

Your one-stop guide to the world of Pc Security (Windows)



What is the purpose of this guide? This guide is to let everyone know how to protect your computer fully. 3-years old, 5-years old, 7-years old, up to 12-years old. They will not know what is Pc Security at ALL. Teenagers and adults, despite they are getting matured in live, they might still not know how to protect their computer, some might not even know what is an ANTIVIRUS... In this guide, you will find all about Pc Protection from viruses for Windows OS -based computers as Windows computer are more vulnerable to viruses and needs more protection.


Chapters
=======
1. What is a Virus (!!!)
2. Different type of Virus and how they harm your computer.
3. Virus host and how they avoid detection
4. What is an Antivirus
5. How does an Antivirus protect you (!!!)
6. Antivirus; Which are good and which are not good? (!)
7. A complete list of Antivirus
8. Rouge Antivirus (!!!)
9. Firewall
10. How does a Firewall protects you (!!!)
11. How much memory and resources your Antivirus use? (!)
12. Testing your Antivirus & Computer protection/Vulnerability (!)*
13. Prevent YOURSELF from downloading virus. (!)
14. Regular Scans of your computer
15. Combinations of Antivirus
16. Recommended Antivirus
17. Your full Summary of Security. (!!!)

* For ADVANCED pc users that use computers a lot like me.

Chapter 1 - What is a Virus (!!!)
=======================
Everyone knows what is a virus. It is a small infectious agent that can replicate on inside the living cells of organisms.But now, we are talking about Computer Viruses. Computer viruses can range from small to big(just like real viruses from illness). Virus can logs what you type, from what you chat with others to important information like your credit card details. Virus can also :
Create ads when you browse the internet, redirects webpage to pornography websites,etc.

Chapter 2 - Different type of Virus and how they harm your computer
==================================================
Virus is just a general term of different kind of infectious agents that can attack and harm your computer, here are the different kind of infectious agents:
-Virus
-Spyware (Keylogger,ScreenLogger,etc.)
-Malware (
-Rootkit
-Trojan horse
-Worm
-Bot
-Adware
-Scareware
-Crimeware
-Dialer
(These are the the 1st level of general terms and 2nd level of general terms.
Different kind of viruses/Malware,etc. has different names such as backdoor,etc.)

Chapter 3 - Virus host and how they avoid detection
=====================================
Virus can be installed into host such as
-Binary Executable files(EXE,COM files ,etc.)
-Master Boot Records
-Volume Boot Records of floppy disk and hard disk partitions.
-Document Containing Macro(words,excel)
-Others , you can find more information at the wikipedia or search Google :)

Virus avoid being detected by :
-Avoid infecting files used by anti-viruses installed and used by the infected Computer.
-Intercepting Antivirus's request to the OS to read the Virus file.
-Modify its virus signature which some AV use to detect the virus.
-Encrypt itself with a key

Chapter 4 - What is an Antivirus?
==========================
Antivirus is used to prevent, detect and remove computer viruses, worm, trojan horses, malware and other viruses. They issue warning when you visit a malicious website or when you download a malicious object. Occasionally, you will not be warned when you download the malicious object but normally, your antivirus will warn you when you open the object.

Chapter 5 - How does an Antivirus protect you (!!!)
===========================================
They frequently update themself with " Signatures" which is the appearance and looks of viruses. Then, they scan files on your system for objects that have very exact same looks. After that, they terminate what the file is doing and removes everything connected to it.

As technology improves, antivirus products also uses "Heuristics protection" . This feature look out for file displaying what a virus does. If the file appear to be like a virus, it will terminate the file and permanently remove it, otherwise it will quarantine it.

And some uses cloud protection which is a technology that uses lightweight agent software on the protected computer while offloading the majority of data analysis to the provider's infrastructure.


Chapter 6 - Antivirus; Which are good and which are not good? (!)
===============================================
There are dozens of Antivirus on the market, but the question is which protects you more? But to be honest, there is no exact answer. A good antivirus must protect you from all kind of viruses and has a proactive work-in-the-background realtime scanner. Also, the antivirus must have a active updater for their virus definition. In addition, the antivirus should prevent your computer from accessing any harmful websites or downloads. A list of good antivirus recommended from me and other famous review websites can be found in Chapter 17

Chapter 7 - A complete list of Antivirus
============================
A list of all antivirus, good and bad and antivirus that is gone. I am just writing one of the products from the company.

1. Ad-Aware Pro Antivirus+ Antispyware
2. AhnLab V3 Antivirus
3. Agnitum Outpost Security Suite
4. AOL Active Virus Shield (Gone/discontinued)
5. Avast! Pro Antivirus
6. AVG Anti-Virus
7. Avira Antivir Premium Security Suite
8. AVZ (Russian)
9. BitDefender
10. BullGuard
11. CA AntiviVirus
12. ClamWin&ClamAV
13. Comodo Internet Security
14. Dr-Web
15. eScan Antivirus
16. ESET Smart Security
17. Element Anti-Virus
18. Faronics Antivirus
18. F-Prot
19. F-Secure
20. Fortinet FortiClient End Point Security
21. IKARUS Virus Utilities
22. Immunet
23. Intego VirusBarrier
24. Kaspersky Internet Security
25. McAfee VirusScan
26. Symantec Norton Antivirus
27. Microsoft Security Essentials
28. Norman
29. Panda Antivirus
30. PcTools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus
31. Sophos Anti-Virus
32. VIPRE Anti-Virus
33. Trend Micro Internet Security
34. TrustPort Antivirus
35. Vba32antivirus
36. VirusBuster
37. ZoneAlarm Antivirus
38. Emsisoft Anti-malware
39. Cisco Security Agent
40. DriveSentry
41. eSafe
42. nProtect
43. Rising Antivirus
44. Windows LiveOneCare
45. VirAtt Antivirus
46. Untangle Gateway Platform Virus Blocker
47. ZenOK Antivirus
48. Quick Heal Admin Console
49. VirIT eXplorer
50. Coranti Multi-Engine Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware
51. G-Data Antivirus
52. Ashampoo
53. Hitman Pro
54. Webroot Internet Security
55. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
56. Iobit Security 360
57. Iolo System Shield

Chapter 8 - Rouge Antivirus (!!!)
============================
Rouge Antivirus/ Rouge Security Software/ rougeware is a malware that decieves user into buying the Rouge Antivirus by finding viruses in the computer that never existed and requires them to buy the Rouge Antivirus to get rid of the viruses. Most of the rouge Antivirus contain a trojan horse component which could disguise as a free online scanner, a toolbar or more. The trojan horse mislead the user of it to install the free version of the rouge antivirus before the rougeware does it job. Other Rouge Antivirus can get into the user computer as a drive by download by exploiting security vulnerabilities in web browsers, Pdf viewer, etc.

When a rouge antivirus is downloaded, it will:
-alert the user of a detection of malware or pornography in the computer.
-display an animation simulation a system crash and reboot
-Selectively disabling parts of the system to prevent the user from uninstalling them. Some may also prevent antivirus or anti-malware programs from running, disable windows update and block access to website of anti-virus providers.
-Install real malware onto the computer then alert the user after "detecting them. This is not so common due to the fact that the malware is likely to be detected by the legitimate/real antivirus.
-Altering System Registries and System Security setting.
-Some might even forcefully stop your legitimate antivirus from running.

Chapter 9 - Firewall
===============
A firewall is a/a set of device or software that is designed to allow or deny network transmissions based on a set of rules, commonly used to protect networks from unauthorized access, offensive web sites or hacker attacks, while allowing legitimate transmission to pass. Basically, a firewall is like a partially permeable membrane in a cell that keeps bad/destructive objects from entering.

Chapter 10- How do a firewall help you? (!!!)
================================
The firewall scans everything that goes through an internet access point and filters it based on its own customized settings. Blocking attacks while allowing legitimate programs to access.

The are two firewall varieties; hardware and software
A hardware firewall is a piece of electronic equipment generally used by businessses with larger networks.
Most home computer users use a software firewall instead(Normally provided in complete security suite such as Spyware Doctor, Norton, Zone Alarm, Kaspersky , etc.) It is a program that runs on your computer scanning traffic going in and out through your internet connection and stop anything suspious.

A firewall is IMPORTANT and a MUST for people who has a permanant internet connection through a cable modem or DSL service and can try to access your computer to run computer, etc.

Chapter 11 - How much memory and resources your Antivirus use? (!)
===================================================
When I was writing this small guide, I suddenly thought of all the old computers...
One of my not-so-rich friend, she uses a computer with only 29 Gb hard disk. When I heard of this, I was shocked. I was pampered since I was young, thus getting a few hundred GB computer was not difficult to me. So this chapter is dedicated to all the unfortunately people :) . However, this can also serve some help to those whose parent/yourself who do not want to spend too much on a computer.

How much memory and resources your antivirus use?
How much memory - How much space does it use up from your hard disk?
Some AV can take only about 100 MB, while big one can take up to 2-3GB or even 4 GB.
This is because of their Database size, how much protection it offers, how many kind of protection,scanner it provides.

If you need a Antivirus that does not take up too much space but can provide protection for your computer, you can try using
1. Avast Internet Security
2. Zemana Antilogger (outer layer of defense)
3. Microsoft Security Essentials
4. ClamAV
5. Norton
6. Visit other AV's website and check out their size. I'm not too experienced in light AV, my apologies for that.

For people who does not need to care about space and want the BEST protection, visit Chapter 16 or 15.

Chapter 12- Testing your Antivirus & Computer protection/Vulnerability (!)*
=======================================================
Despite that I only put one ! for this chapter, it is also as important as those with !!!, especially for inexperienced computer users or addicted computer users.

Both of this might accidentally download malwares occasionally and why? Because they might have a vulnerability in their computer. There are a lot of websites, softwares containing malwares and others so checking your computer protection&vulnerability occasionally is very important(!!!)


Important before testing: Some of the website posted uses safe malware which they removed the nature of it. Some might contain real malware so please make sure you have a strong Antivirus before even testing, or else you might just end up knowing that you are not protected in a harsh way.

1. Internet Browser vulnerability testing

The top 2 websites are tested while the other 2 are not. Use at own risk.

2. Firewall testing
1st is tested, other 2 are not. Use at own risk

3. Antivirus Testing

  • Real malware sites( Get them for me if you want to use them to test your antivirus)
  • EICAR Test
  • Core Impact (Used by Professional Reviewers, Experts and Security Testers)
Chapter 13 - Prevent YOURSELF from downloading virus. (!)
===============================================
Now, everybody says " Prevention is better than protection" If you do not visit any malware sites/download an infected object, you need not get any protection.
However, this is IMPOSSIBLE. There are viruses everywhere in the Computer World, anything that might look safe or might look totally impossible to harm your comp might just be a top risk malware that can cause your hard disk and computer to be unusable.

Now, not only must you have a good Antivirus to stop viruses from being downloaded. You yourself must try not to visit&download viruses but HOW?

1. Download known softwares(such as - Antivirus; Norton - Internet Explorers; Chrome,etc)
Why known softwares? As in, you see all the not well-known softwares have so much different features. Because not well known softwares might contain viruses. Instead, well known softwares are mostly tested by Experts and different people from all over the world.

2. Make sure to have a pro-active Antivirus with a web guard(such as Norton,Avast,Avira,etc.).
Also, enable malware protection which is provided inside Google Chrome and Mozilla FireFox (Not sure about IE). This is because, you will be notified if the websites behaves suspiciously before you even visit it as they will block the website.

3. Before you download any softwares, search in google " malware " . This is to search if there are previous user who used the software and complained that the software has viruses,etc. as some viruses might not be removed, such as MyWebSearch .

Chapter 14 Regular Scans of your computer
================================
Why is it important to do regular scans?
First, viruses might get through your computer with your Antivirus not noticing it. Or the virus has not been found out as the time you downloaded it. Thus, regular scans will hopefully find new viruses.

But I'm lazy to do regular scans manually.
Most Antivirus will provide a scheduler. You can schedule a regular scan at some point of time in the week when you will definitely get online.

Chapter 15 - Combinations of Antivirus
============================
Now how do you combine antiviruses to get the best protection?
First, you must find out if the antivirus will crash. Some AV will provide a list of compatible antivirus list such as ClamAV. While some AV will notify you that you must delete a incompatible antivirus that is found on your computer before you can install it. Otherwise, you can try to download it and see if one of them cannot start up automatically when you on your computer if the other antivirus is already opened.

So in PCSoftZONE, we provide you a list of good antivirus that can be put together.
And heres the list :)

1. Avast + Norton
2. ClamAV + Norton
3. Coranti + Avast
4. Spyware Doctor + Coranti
5. ClamAV + Spyware Doctor.
6. Returnil System Safe + Spyware Doctor

These are the mostly used combinations
You can also add extra layers of protections that works with most AV such as Keyscrambler, Zemana Antilogger, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware , Spybot S&D.

Also, you can choose to use Cloud Antivirus and this is a list of CloudAVs.

1. Prevx
2. Panda Cloud AV
3. Immunet

Chapter 16 - Recommended Antivirus
================================
BEST: Coranti Multi-Core Antivirus
BEST: Hitman Pro 3
(they are best due to the fact that they are antivirus machine containing different recommended antivirus and good antivirus so they provide a good detection&protection rate)
TOP: Norton 360
TOP: ZoneAlarm Extreme Security
TOP: Kaspersky Internet Security/Kaspersky PURE
GOOD: NOD ESET 32
GOOD: Spyware Doctor With Antivirus
GOOD: Avira Antivir Premium Security Suite
Ad-Aware Pro
Avast! Internet Security
AVG Internet Security
BitDefender
ClamAV
Comodo Internet Security
Mcafee Total Security
VIPRE Internet Security
Panda Internet Security

Trend Micro Internet Security
TrustPort Antivirus

Chapter 17 - Your full Summary of Security (!!!)
========================================
The computer world is full of viruses that can get money from you or cause your computer to crash totally. To have full protection, you must get a good antivirus that updates automatically and regularly. Also you should try to prevent yourself from download viruses. Then, you should back up regularly and scan regularly.

This guide is composed and written by scout1.
Copyright © 2011 scout1/SacredTxd . All rights reserved.







03 March 2011

How to make your choice of Antiviruses



Why did I make this post? Now, for most experienced computer users, they will surely know which antivirus and programs they want but for new users or people who are much more smaller and cannot decide(which may be visiting our website) , they might not know which to get.
Now, lets proceed.

Top Antiviruses&Protection Suite
(Ranked according price, features and power of antivirus protection by TopTenReviews)
=========================
1. BitDefender Antivirus
2. Kaspersky Anti-Virus
3. Webroot Antivirus
4. Norton
5. ESET Nod32 Antivirus
6. AVG Antivirus
7. G DATA Antivirus
8. Avira Antivir
9. VIPRE Antivirus
10. Trend Micro Titanium
11. Avast! Pro Antivirus
12. F-Secure Antivirus
13. eScan Antivirus
14. BullGuard Antivirus
15. McAfee AntiVirus
16. ZoneAlarm Antivirus
17. TrustPort Antivirus
18. Lavasoft Ad-Aware
19. Panda Antivirus
20. CA Antivirus Plus
21. Cyber Defender Early Detection Center
22. ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS
23. Norman Antivirus&Antispyware
24. ViRobot Desktop
25. F-Prot

Note
====
-This is taken from TopTenReviews. Their rankings are much the same for the pro version of it.
-The antivirus in bold are found in this blog.
-The antivirus in italics might be coming soon in this blog.
-Antiviruses that are not listed are either that they do not protect you or they are simply lousy.

Anti-malware
===========
1. Spy Sweeper
2. Counter Spy
3. STOPzilla
4. Spyware Doctor
5. Ad-Aware Pro
6. PC Spyware Protection
7. Malwarebytes Anti Malware
8. SUPER Anti Spyware Professional
9. SpyHunter
10. ZeroSpyware
11. SpyZooka

Note
====
You can see PcTools(Spyware Doctor) is in the rankings. This is because Spyware doctor has always been good in anti-spyware but their antivirus are just starting to get better.


Top Antivirus Ranking( From Editor Scout1 and various voters)
=============================================

1. Kaspersky Anti-Virus
2. ESET Nod32 Antivirus
3. Webroot Antivirus
4. Norton
5. Avast! Pro Antivirus
6. AVG Antivirus
7. BitDefender Antivirus
8. McAfee AntiVirus
9. VIPRE Antivirus
10. Trend Micro Titanium
11. G DATA Antivirus
12. F-Secure Antivirus
13. Lavasoft Ad-Aware
14. BullGuard Antivirus
15. Panda Antivirus
16. ZoneAlarm Antivirus
17. Lavasoft Ad-Aware
16. Panda Antivirus
19. Norman Antivirus&Antispyware
20. Cyber Defender Early Detection Center

Note
====
-Any constructive suggestions is welcomed, please comment or say it at the chatbox and I will review my rankings again.
-This ranking is ranked according to their
1. Protection rate
2. Detection rate
3. Database size
4. How much it slows your computer
5. How much features it has (Tune-up, back-up CD,etc.)

Top Anti-Malware rankings ( By scout1 and various voters)
===========================================
1. Spyware Doctor
2. Malwarebytes Anti Malware
3. STOPzilla
4. Webroot Spy Sweeper
5. Ad-Aware Pro
6. Iobit Security 360
7. Spybot - Search & Destroy
8. SUPER Anti Spyware Professional
9. Returnil System Safe
10. Counter Spy
10. ZeroSpyware
11. PC Spyware Protection
12. SpyZooka
13. Advanced System Protector

The antivirus& Anti-malware posted here
==============================
9.Lavasoft Ad-Aware ($29.95 USD - 1PCs/1 Year)



AND YOU CAN GET THEM FOR FREE HERE!!!



Note
====

-The prices are for the PRO version of the anti-virus because all our antivirus that is posted is the PRO version of it.

-Most of their price on their website contains a back up disk which we do not provide. BUT some of the antivirus allow you to manually download it after you install the program.

- Some of the antivirus program that we posted that are not listed here are either not rated by famous review websites.



Choosing your antivirus

==================

Now what do you need to consider before downloading an antivirus?



1. How strong and fast is your computer?

2. How much things do you do on the web?

3. How much space does your computer have?



Recommended Antivirus

==================

-Requires about 1 GB of computer Hard Disk Space

-Overall protect your computer

-Has a detection rate of 99% and detects all kinds of viruses.

-Slows down your computer by a bit.

-Gives you a free option to download a Rescue CD



2. Avast

-Requires not too much of Hard Disk Space

-Overall protect your computer

-Detection rate is average and detects all kinds of viruses

-Hardly slows down your computer

-A boot-time scan that scan your computer before the viruses start.



-Protects you from phishing, malicious website

-A high detection rate of protection from malwares.

-Does not slow down your computer unless when scanning

Note
====
These are just antiviruses that I like and have used before and is pretty good.


2 IN 1 ?
=========
Some people might like using two or MORE antiviruses together, just like me.
What are the pros and cons of doing these then?

Pros:
- You get double the protection
- You get double the detection
- You will be much more sure that your computer is safe

Cons
- Your computer will slow down (!!!)
- Your antiviruses might crash and when they do, your computer will be unprotected. (!!!!!!!)

Now, how do you prevent the cons when you want to use two antiviruses together?

1. Your computer will slow down
This is a fact why most people do not want to use two antiviruses together. Now, how do you solve it? The answer is tune-up.

- Remove/stop un-needed programs when not in use.
- Solve registries problems and defrag your registry.
- Download programs that helps monitor your system and actively lower your computer's processes to stop/pause them from using too much RAM when they overload.

Now to do these 3, you can simply download these 2 programs:

2. Your antiviruses might crash and when they do, your computer will be unprotected.
This is an important point to consider when using two antivirus at a time. To solve this, you must use two antivirus that will not crash when used together.

Here are some antiviruses that wont clash together

- Kaspersky and Spyware Doctor
- Avast and Norton
- Malwarebytes and all antiviruses
- To find out more, simply install the antivirus and they will tell you if you installed any antivirus that will clash with theirs.

Conclusion
=========
Its all up to you, check how many GB of ram and space your computer has and make the right choice. Also, you can ask the admins for more advice.