[RTC List] Choice of antivirus protection

[John McBrearty]

Chris,

 

A somewhat belated (and slightly tangential) response to your query, but I
happened to see this today in a newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher
Education:

 

 
<http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3231&utm_source=wc&utm_medium
=en> Hey, Virus, Get Off of My Cloud

Having a hard time choosing which antivirus program to use? Researchers at
the University of Michigan have a suggestion: Don't settle on just one.
Computer scientists at the institution have developed a new service, called
CloudAV, <http://www.eecs.umich.edu/fjgroup/cloudav/>  that lets computer
users send questionable software off to a separate server--where a dozen
antivirus programs and behavioral-detection tools decide whether the
material is safe or corrupted. CloudAV takes its name from "cloud
computing," a term used loosely to describe technology services conducted
through an online network, not through software native to a particular
user's machine. Why rely on the cloud if you've already got an antivirus
tool sitting on your own computer? Well, as Ars
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080807-outsourcing-av-researchers-mo
ve-antivirus-scan-to-the-cloud.html>  Technica points out, virus-blockers
use different methods to pick up on new malware, so "the best software on
one day may not hold the title on the next." A typical antivirus program,
acting by itself, might let plenty of malicious software slip through the
cracks, but CloudAV spotted 98 percent of the viruses submitted to it, the
researchers say.--Brock Read

 

John

 

From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org] On
Behalf Of CrawfordCA at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 11:58 AM
To: list at redwoodtech.org
Subject: [RTC List] Choice of antivirus protection

 

Greetings all  ...

 

I'd like to start a thread about different choices for antivirus protection
on your Windows-based desktop or laptop computers. Long ago, I used Norton
(from Symantec), then I switched to McAfee for a number of years, and now
I'm looking for a better replacement.

 

To get things rolling, I wrote a blog posting on this topic in May when I
dumped McAfee and went shopping for substitute protection:

 

http://www.tsblogs.com/techblog/2008/05/shopping_for_antivirus_softwar.html

 

I am currently using a trial version of Microsoft's Live OneCare, that has
too many flaws to keep as a long term solution.

 

Any tips or recommendations are welcome, except for gratuitous gloating over
having chosen Mac or Linux over the evil empire (Microsoft). Thanks for your
consideration.

 

Chris Crawford

www.justiceserved.com





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