# AVs: Malware detection is the key



## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

It can now be safely stated that the entirety of the antivirus and computer security industry has undergone a complete sea-change in recent years. Gone are the "good ol' days" when viral attacks made big headlines and all the antivirus industry had to do was sit back while everyone rushed out to get the latest security software.

Nope. Those days are long gone. Nowadays, we are much more likely to hear about some large Fortune 500 company, a financial institution, or even the government being hacked into by cyber-criminals for the purposes of stealing money, confidential information, or both.

And if we do hear about it, the odds are that we are hearing about such break-ins long after the fact, and only after a public disclosure was unavoidable. 


http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,199119.shtml


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## JohnthePilot (Mar 30, 2006)

Is this just scaremongering to sell Panda products or is it a real threat? Out of curiosity I ran their Nanoscan and am glad to say I am clean, (Well, not me personally. :grin but how can it possibly scan for 2.5 million viruses in 46 seconds?


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## Cellus (Aug 31, 2006)

Oh break-ins happen more often than people think, it's just that now much of it is starting to come out in the open. The tactics have certainly changed, as have the motives. Back in the Ye Olde Days many viruses were mainly designed to trash systems. Unfortunately now a lot of that has changed to things like identity theft, credit card theft, to IP and trade secret theft/espionage. Granted this existed before, however it is far more prevalent, and the nasty people have gotten a whole lot nastier.

It isn't Armageddon. It is very important for people to realize that the Internet is the Wild Wild West, and everyone needs to be aware and properly "armed".


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## Geekgirl (Jan 1, 2005)

Panda Activescan is the first scan I use when I am cleaning a riddled system, regardless if the drive is a master in its own case or a slaved in my bench machine. 
But what I have been finding is that 55% of these systems I am getting in are those who have AVG Free Edition installed . Back a yr or so ago, the only systems being brought in riddled were those who had Norton, McAfee or nothing at all. Now I am seeing more and more with AVG Free Edition installed on them. And all these machines that have an anti-virus installed state the system is clean which in turn it was not. 
AVG had the highest number of missed viruses in the wild than 7 other big named anti-virus programs which were tested from May 1998 to August 2007.
Now I dont know about you but I am thinking twice about installing AVG Free Edition on another computer.

Even Panda did not come out on top in the comparison tests in the link in my sig. Go see for yourself.


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## JohnthePilot (Mar 30, 2006)

Is that just AVG Free Edition? What about AVG Paid Version; there is no distinction in the comparison?


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## Geekgirl (Jan 1, 2005)

In the test resultes it does not show any distinction, but is there any? 
Other than extra security features included in the AVG Internet Security package, the virus definitions should be no different from a paid version to a free version. What does the Professional Edition offer that the Free version does not. I did not catch any differences.

The following is what the paid version offers, does the free one not offer this also. I thought there was no extra feature added:
*# 100% virus detection* — AVG’s scanning engine has received numerous awards for its excellent detection of “in the wild” viruses, including the VB100% award. Its unique combination of detection methods provides full protection against viruses, worms and trojans.
*# Full on-access protection* — The powerful AVG Resident Shield provides maximum protection by scanning every file opened, executed, or saved. It also prevents the opening or executing of infected files.
*# Flexible intelligent scanning* — The AVG Resident Shield can include/exclude files from being scanned based on individual file extensions and can handle exceptions for potentially unwanted programs such as adware.
*# Full e-mail protection *— AVG checks every e-mail sent or received, providing full protection from e-mail-borne threats. AVG supports all leading e-mail clients, including MS Outlook, The bat!, Eudora, and all other SMTP/POP3-based e-mail clients, such as Outlook Express. Encrypted connections using SSL are also supported.
*# Automatic threat handling* — AVG can automatically heal or remove infected files and other threats such as trojans and worms.
*# Powerful scheduling *— AVG automatically provides recommended daily schedules for scanning and updating, and also allows you to create custom-scheduled events.
*# Multiple language support *— No need to buy a special language version.


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## Wox (Jan 10, 2007)

JohnthePilot said:


> how can it possibly scan for 2.5 million viruses in 46 seconds?


Not sure if that's been answered (I don't read thru all the posts) but NanoScan only scans running processes.
It's TotalScan (one hour) that scans the whole computer..
Panda does NOT look good on the comparison. But one fact might contribute to that: it's a graph made by Eset marketing.

Edit: and I know people hate to hear this but AVG Free did come out bottom on an About.com test on the three free av programs.
AVG Free had the most false positives and the lowest detection rate; Avast! had the highest rate but had more false positives than AntiVir Free.
AntiVir Free came out #1, only slightly ahead of Avast! and a long way ahead of AVG Free.
Avira did have the highest (correct me if it's wrong) rate in the latest AV-Comparatives.Org on-demand test.


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## chauffeur2 (Feb 7, 2006)

Geekgirl said:


> In the test resultes it does not show any distinction, but is there any?
> Other than extra security features included in the AVG Internet Security package, the virus definitions should be no different from a paid version to a free version. What does the Professional Edition offer that the Free version does not. I did not catch any differences.
> 
> The following is what the paid version offers, does the free one not offer this also. I thought there was no extra feature added:
> ...


_Hi TJ,

Sorry to disagree with you, but there are a few differences between the Free Version of AVG®, and the Paid/Professional versions.

*AVG Product Comparison*, will show the differences between three of the AVG Products.

You will see that the Free Edition *does not* have Anti Spam facilities.

Kind Regards,_


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## Geekgirl (Jan 1, 2005)

I was looking for that comparison chart :laugh:

But my point is, regardless of what other features the paid version has over the free version, should the virus detection be the same? You should have the same level of protection with the free version as the paid version.


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## chauffeur2 (Feb 7, 2006)

For starters, the 'paid' version of any product _will always_ be superior to its 'free cousin',whether or not the definitions are different.

I know for a fact that if the AVG® Free Edition AV is not updated daily, the definitions _will not_ be current, as I know that Grisoft™ will send out updates as many as 5 or 6 times in one day.

As far as expecting the same protection is concerned, why should Grisoft™ give the 'freeloaders' the same features that their paying customers are receiving? After all is said and done, isn't that what people pay for?

I suspect that the Anti Virus definition files _are_ the same, although I believe that the Free Edition is about 24 hours in arrears to the 'paid' versions.
Likewise, the Free Edition _does not_ have 24/7 email technical support, and nor should it, that's why they (and many other companies) have 'paid' versions so that they can put their technical resources into supporting the paying clients.

Of all the 'Free' versions of Anti Virus programs that are available, AVG®, as far as I am aware, is the only one that will update on a daily basis (the paid version gets instantaneous updates), as all others are on a weekly/monthly basis.

Take a look at Norton® and McAfee™, they charge like wounded bulls for programs that will only update on a weekly basis (if you're lucky).

Personally AVG® is the 'pick of the AV bunch', and the Tech Support Guys/Girls there will give email support to the Free Edition, but not in the quick response time as the paying clients receive.

I have been using AVG® Internet Security Products exclusively on the computers in this household, for the past 4½ years, and shall continue to do so in the future. I also will still continue to recommend AVG® to all my clients too. (Both versions, but I recommend the 'paid' one first...and no I _do not_ receive any commission from Grisoft™ either. :grin

That's my 25¢ worth.

Kind Regards,


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## audionyx (Oct 22, 2007)

Hi folks,
These discussions are very interesting. In my own experience, I've used most AV products over the past 20 years, freebies and paid versions. The top of the heap has been NOD32 and Kaspersky (but the screaming pig gives me a coronary) in recent memory.
NOD32 is very lightweight while KAV tends to pound on resources a bit more than advertised (for my machine). I've owned KAV for several years and NOD32 for about a year.
The dregs have been McAfee and Norton. McAfee pushed an update that corrupted my whole OS, forcing a reinstall, and Norton 2006 let a virus in on the 2nd day as a result of poor updates. Both have had inferior customer support which, in light of the issues, is pretty important.
Used Panda for quite a while but discontinued for a variety of reasons, mainly the way they were dodging full disclosure about a controversy a couple of years ago. But still a fine product.
AVG users I know (a couple) needed to have their machines cleaned. AVAST! is cool but kinda hard on an old notebook I have. I have tried AntiVir but it seemed....I dunno what it lacked. Just something. 
Back to NOD32, it may have a funky interface (till the new beta is done), but it screams on scans and is very reliable. I double check it with on demand scans from others on occasion.


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

NOD32 is indeed highly rated and highly recommended by several of the Security Team here.

Personally, I've used AVG Free for years and have never been infected. Your AV is only part of what should be a multilayered solution - with commonsense being the most important part. :grin:


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## audionyx (Oct 22, 2007)

I don't disagree at all. However, most users don't have that knowledge or care about it till their machines are misbehaving. Then they get religion for a day or two. 
The two AVG users I know, both of whom had infected machines this summer, aren't tech savvy (but they think they are) and use free products just because of the price and the illusion that all will be well. They don't explore what's out there, what new tools can provide additional protection. Since products like Cyberhawk and Prevx2 can be used without a fee (Prevx2 for a while, anyway), I tell them to add those, just for additional help. Again, not arguing your point. But you don't find most users in forums like these.
Thanks for the discussion!


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Unfortunately, what you've said is very true. And one of the reasons our Security Forum (and others) is so busy. And yet you don't need to be a 'computer geek' to stay safe. Long before I joined any forum, I made sure I knew the basics about staying safe on the internet. As my interest in the subject grew, so did my knowledge.

Oh, feel free to argue any point I make - I'm not always right...:grin:


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## audionyx (Oct 22, 2007)

Nor am I, Glaswegian! 
As you can see, I am a new member to the forum, and I seldom join any (I'm a pretty busy guy, like many here, but I've been at home dealing with allergies for a couple of days and had some time). I was compelled to join yesterday when the Spy Sweeper false alarm issues cropped up. This is a very diverse group with a wealth of experience and a commendable willingness to share the knowledge. Thanks for the venue to discuss these things!


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## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

You are welcome.

Stick around, we have plenty of other discussion areas. I'm sure you'll be able to contribute.


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