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29 out of 54 people found this review helpful
2 stars
Version: Spyware Terminator 1.3.00.599
"I Hope It Improves"
Pros: Recently delisted from the Spyware Warrior rogue list.
It has some limited effectiveness against older types of spyware and tracking cookies, and I really hope it improves. It would be great to have another effective and reliable anti-spyware application available.
Cons: Here is what Spyware Warrior has written on their webpage about delisted apps.
"That an application has been de-listed should NOT BE UNDERSTOOD AS AN ENDORSEMENT OR RECOMMENDATION OF ANY KIND. We still recommend that users consult the short list of "trustworthy" anti-spyware applications."
Personally I think that short list leaves a lot to be desired. *JMO* You get the point though.
Of all of the many ASW apps out there only a very few are really effective.
Scanners with ref databases like Spyware Terminator have been outclassed by polymorphic spyware, which behave like trojans, and if you really want adequate protection you are going to have to get more 'state of the art' about it.
Spyware Terminator is by no means state of the art, and it has consistently performed very poorly against real spyware threats.
I use Ewido Anti-Malware and Privacy Software Corporation's BOclean myself, in addition to AVG Antivirus, SpywareBlaster and HijackThis.
- 6 replies to this review
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Whats left to say. Try it ror real and then ammend this foolish review!
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YOU CAN NOT TRUST THIS SOFTWARE AND COMPANY!
23-Apr-2006 05:16:40 AM
Reviewer: Bjorn Lundahl
Cons: Logically I think you should not trust this software and company! A "anti-spyware software" that has been on Spyware Warrior rogue list is something bad. You can not really believe that this company has changed "its soul" and suddenly wants to fight spyware with its whole soul? They play serious, I think. They want a better reputation, BUT THEY DO NOT HATE SPYWARE!! Because I do not think they are schizophrenic! Best Regards, Bjorn Lundahl, Gothenburg, Sweden
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dusen wrote:
"Webgrrl, your statement is correct if you apply it on complete file however both Spyware Terminator and other apps using this technology use just part of the file which is constant - even polymorphic spyware has parts which are not random and they are used in the detection process."
NUTS
For your software (I assume you are involved with CRAWLER based upon your statements of 'we' etc) to really protect against truly hidden threats, you simply must incorporate HIPS protocol into it, and you know it.
If you want to sell a less than state of the art fair to middlin ASW bot scanner, fine, no problem. I can respect *that*. But do not try to portray it to be better than it is.
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Webgrrl, your statement is correct if you apply it on complete file however both Spyware Terminator and other apps using this technology use just part of the file which is constant - even polymorphic spyware has parts which are not random and they are used in the detection process.
Can you identify any spyware threat which in your opinion represents "modern polymorphic spyware"? I'll be more in happy to show you that we already detect it or it is very simple for us to include it in our database.
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The "signature techniques" you speak of, is merely part of the conventional method of *signature/reference file comparisons* to *known* spyware, used by traditional scanner apps like Spyware Terminator.
Conventional *scan and compare* methods, are useless against encrypted and polymorphic spyware, and here is why.
Encrypted code is ENCRYPTED, and traditional scanners can NOT read (detect) it, to then compare it against their 'ref and sig' file. Polymorphic code *changes on the fly* to evade detection and comparison.
New and more serious spyware threats, which employ encrypted and polymorphic code, also evades detection, by AV *scanners* which rely on sig and ref file comparisons.
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Webgrrrl, if you really want to provide relevant information you should mention (based on infor provided by Crawler on SpywareWarrior forum) that Spyware Terminator is using combination of both database detection and signature techniques which are used in antivirus apps. This is the only way you can achieve reasonable speed of the spyware test and the efficiency is great - threats which are not polymorphic are detected based on database (which is VERY fast) and threats which are polymorphic are detected based on file signatures - which is slower but there are not that many threats in this category comparing to the first category.
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