The last Month in Software article was about a fresh installation of Windows and one of the first software applications that I install avast! However this is not the only antivirus solution and being that antivirus software is somewhat of a necessity if you're a Windows user this month I will show you what is probably the best combination of antivirus software where one application might not be enough.
Panda Cloud Antivirus & Malwarebytes
While you should never run two antivirus software applications at the same time, having two on your system is somewhat more beneficial than just one. Most antivirus software applications, i.e. McAffee and Norton try to track down and identify viruses on the web. They will then create an antivirus for that virus and send you an updated virus definition so your system can detect potential threats. This might sound great but there are potentially two major issues with this approach.
1. An Advance Persistent Threat (APT) (aka China, a talented black hat hacker or the NSA) makes a 100% custom, never seen before virus and sends it to one system instead of blanketing it on the internet for McAfee to stumble upon. While McAfee will stumble upon it eventually and then send out a definition file for the rest of us to use it might be too little too late by then.
2. Corporate virus companies white list viruses for law enforcement and other intelligence agencies (including some private companies). So you could have a keylogger, Remote Access Tool or other malware on your machine which these antivirus software applications are allowing!
Free products, like MalwareBytes, don't necessarily suffer from bureaucracy or a corporate agenda. Neither do open-sourced products, and they also benefit from crowd sourcing. Basically, Panda Cloud Antivirus is great, but you might want to add a second program to your arsenal just in case.
Panda Cloud Antivirus & Malwarebytes
While you should never run two antivirus software applications at the same time, having two on your system is somewhat more beneficial than just one. Most antivirus software applications, i.e. McAffee and Norton try to track down and identify viruses on the web. They will then create an antivirus for that virus and send you an updated virus definition so your system can detect potential threats. This might sound great but there are potentially two major issues with this approach.
1. An Advance Persistent Threat (APT) (aka China, a talented black hat hacker or the NSA) makes a 100% custom, never seen before virus and sends it to one system instead of blanketing it on the internet for McAfee to stumble upon. While McAfee will stumble upon it eventually and then send out a definition file for the rest of us to use it might be too little too late by then.
2. Corporate virus companies white list viruses for law enforcement and other intelligence agencies (including some private companies). So you could have a keylogger, Remote Access Tool or other malware on your machine which these antivirus software applications are allowing!
Free products, like MalwareBytes, don't necessarily suffer from bureaucracy or a corporate agenda. Neither do open-sourced products, and they also benefit from crowd sourcing. Basically, Panda Cloud Antivirus is great, but you might want to add a second program to your arsenal just in case.
Again, The important thing is to make sure you do not run both applications simultaneously. Antivirus software applications do not play well together, and running two at the same time will often lead to one singling out the other as a virus, while also chewing up some valuable system resources. Instead, what I suggest you do is run Panda Cloud Antivirus regularly and Malwarebytes manually - with Panda Cloud Antivirus turned off - once a week. That way you can get a that extra security without mucking up your system.
- Pros: The benefit of two antivirus software applications protecting you just in case one of them misses out on something.
- Cons: Unable to run both of the antivirus software applications side-by-side which means that you can't just install and forget about your antivirus and you must do a manual scan at least once a week.
- Available editions: Panda Cloud Antivirus and Malwarebytes come in a few additions although the free versions will suffice for most home users.
- Used for: Use for all Microsoft Window Operating Systems.
- Installation: Installation is fairly simple and mostly automated through Microsoft's executable files.
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