Contributions, click flag to see details
A Perkin Web Design © 2008 - 2009
June Updates
10th
Virus Total
Web Of Trust
Firefox 3.0.10
Real testing of infected computers
With the new Windows Internet Security 2009 suites and software programs now becoming available, I decided to put a number of the programs to the test. These were real live computers used for every day working and not clinically prepared or new PC’s for lab testing.
- Sources were a Hotel with 20 Trojans on their tower PC
- Fairly new laptop with Vista with 30 day free trial McAfee had expired over 4 months ago. Used with only Windows Firewall and Windows Defender running
- 1 year old Desktop PC running Windows xp Pro
- 2 year old Tower PC running Windows xp Home
- 3 year old laptop running Windows xp which infected USB flash drives
- CD ROM - PC Beginner with 14 Trojans and Key loggers
- CD ROM - PC Painkiller with 10 Trojans
- A worm and key loggers collected from Internet banking Phishing sites
Tested with infected 2GB USB flash drive
Kaspersky Anti Virus 7.0 supplied within Internet Security 2008.
Found two viruses but was unable to remove.
BitDefender Internet Security 2008.
Found same two viruses and a second occurrence of one of them and was able to remove. Did not detect the other harmful content on the USB flash drive that later corrupted another Windows PC.
Pentium D Desktop PC
BitDefender Internet Security 2008 failed to detect 2 Trojans and 10 Key loggers.
A first time install of Spybot Search and Destroy did not find anything wrong after a full search.
PC Tools Spyware Doctor V 6, October 2008 free trial found 12 infections. Being a trial version it does not remove only detects.
PC Tools Spyware Doctor V 4, April 2008 6 month subscription found 24 infections and was able to remove them all. However on reboot into Windows all letters and numbers were disabled on the keyboard so it was useless.
F-Secure Internet Security 2009 failed to correctly load on this system
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 has built in self defence and correctly loaded on this system. Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 warned that Farstone Restore-IT 7 Pro was a high risk back up program. Acronis True Image works fine. Also reported Spyware Doctor as incompatible software.
Failed to detect anything, also Windows kept reporting that it was turned off, which was normal during system start up, but not after 2 minutes.
Pentium 4 Tower PC
80GB Hard Drive data destructed with 7 passes and Master Boot Record over written. Another data destruction pass with zeros and new partition installed then formatted using Windows xp Pro.
Norton Internet Security 2009
Able to detect CD ROM - PC Painkiller with 10 Trojans. However did not correctly respond after 5 shut downs and Microsoft updates no longer installed correctly at shut downs.
Pentium D desktop PC
BIOS flashed then 160GB Hard Drive data destructed with 11 passes and Master Boot Record over written. Another data destruction pass with zeros and new partition created then formatted using Windows xp Pro. Acronis True Image installed.
Norton Internet Security 2009 with PC Tools Spyware Doctor v6
According to Norton these are compatible programs full scans run 3 minutes apart failed to detect anything by either program.
Norton Live Chat with Technician offered to inspect and fix the system for £69.99 remotely, even though I had bought the full retail version of their product and had 360 days subscription left.
Pentium 4 Desktop PC
80GB Hard Drive data destructed with 3 passes and Master Boot Record over written. Another data destruction pass with zeros and new partition created then formatted using Windows xp Home.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
On connection to Kaspersky server for the live updates using a 3 USB wireless modem Kaspersky detected a worm trying also starting up and trying use the Internet connection.
After the update the PC was shut down correctly, 20 seconds later it was switched on and booted again.
Windows kept reporting that Anti Virus was turned off, which was normal during system start up, but not after 2 minutes. Kaspersky reported it was running fine but Windows reported differently.
Pentium 4 Tower PC
Hard Drive formatted using Windows xp Pro but Master boot record left intact.
Norton Internet Security 2009
Able to detect CD ROM - PC Beginner with 14 Trojans and Key loggers. However did not correctly respond after 3 shut downs and Microsoft updates no longer installed correctly at shut downs.
Pentium 4 HT Tower PC
250GB Hard Drive data destructed with 3 passes and Master Boot Record over written. Another data destruction pass with zeros and new partition installed then formatted using Linux OpenSUSE 10.3 with KDE desktop.
Installed correctly and worked fine with KlamAV and ClamAV able to scan 8 USB flash drives and detected the Windows Broken executable files that were the source of the Windows PC infections.
ClamAV able to scan 2 USB external hard drives and also detected more Windows Broken executable files that were sources of other Windows PC infections.
All were deleted except one stubborn Windows Broken executable file that refused to go to the trash bin twice and wrote itself back on the 512MB USB flash drive. At the third attempt I noticed that the right click option that I was previously using displayed without the delete option.
Celeron D Tower PC
AVG 7.5 Free
Able to detect 20 Trojans in one mornings full system scan and remove them to the virus vault. However the free version does not allow you to delete them.
Running on Windows XP SP2 and lacking regular Microsoft updates.
With Microsoft firewall.
None Windows software firewalls
Kaspersky was tested by CCL Computers who are rated as the best online PC retailer by PC PRO. Kaspersky was found to be better than Norton because that left a number of ports open.
Zone Alarm and Comodo Pro free are better performers than Windows built in firewall.
None IS4 tests
Test your Firewall for free
This service is provided by Gibson Research Corporation, click on the Services button when you arrive at the web site, you will then be taken to a secure server to run your firewall detection test.
After reading click the Proceed button if agreeable. Then click the
All Service Ports button. Test can take 2 to 5 minutes but well worth it.
Is your computer visible while your connected to the Internet or is your PC in Stealth mode?
Fairly new laptop with Vista
with 30 day McAfee free trial had expired 4 months ago
AVG 7.5 Free installed after 4 months of no protection
Unable to detect any problems after fresh installation and full system scan. Windows firewall and Windows Defender running. Regular Microsoft updates.
Pentium 4 HT Tower PC
160GB Hard Drive infected with Anti Virus 360 which is a rouge spyware program for the desktop which also hijacks the browser..
Anti Virus 360 source of the Windows PC infections including a Trojan that it installs and does not report about, this was a pain to eradicate, see laptop below.
Installed Bitdefender Internet Security 2008 after formatting the hard drive correctly and data destructing the whole contents of the drive.
Laptop with Media Center Edition 2005
With Norton 2006 had expired over a year ago
This customer has AOL and used AOL’s own spyware protection
On the surface all was well a full scan revealed nothing, it was not until a deep file scan was done with BitDefender IS 2008 were seven infections found. Six were removed easily and the seventh was harder to remove. BitDefender Total 2009 installed.
Toshiba Laptop with xp Home
With Anti Virus 360 had not been bought
Anti Virus 360 source of the Windows PC infections including a Trojan that it installs and does not report about, this was a pain to eradicate, on this laptop. After a week it was returned to me again with the same infection, so I data destructed the 40 GB hard drive and reloaded windows.