Scenario One: A PC with limited capabilites (low RAM, older system)
Solution: Panda Cloud Antivirus
It’s low resource usage and simple interface makes it a great fit for aging systems, netbooks or systems with smaller amounts of memory. It’s a relatively effective defender and fairly decent at cleaning up infections. It’s license doesn’t apply to corporate usage though (you may want to go with Microsoft’s Security Essentials).

Scenario Two: A clean, newer PC that needs effective web protection
Solution: Comodo Internet Security
A bit of a drag on system resources like most security suites, but not debilitating. It’s effective at keeping out malware, free for personal or business use and it doesn’t require too much tweaking on the firewall side. It can be a bit daunting for novices though and its cleanup capabilities are not stellar if your system is already infected.

The Wired article is disturbing for those of you who are members. For the rest of us, it’s merely confirmation.

For those on a tight budget or those who run unprotected systems, this successor to Microsoft Live One Care  is as an obvious consideration for antivirus and antispyware. But does it actually work?

So far, the answer is yes.

The system requirements are pretty easy to meet. You need to be running Windows XP 32-bit, Vista or Windows 7 and you need 1GB of RAM. So, if your PC is from the last five years, Security Essentials is likely to run. Obviously, you’ll need to check your system first.

First, some great news. The download was ridiculously fast, the installation procedure was extremely simple and the definitions updated more quickly than Antivir. The interface is sparse, which threw me for a loop. You don’t normally see this kind of “stripped-down” software in the security world, where bloated code and feature touting reign.

One install caveat: you need to submit to Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage validation during the install. Not a serious concern for most, but still a bit “Big Brothery” for our tastes.

Memory usage fluctuated, but averaged around 65MB. The initial scan barely affected system performance; I let it run while I continued working on other tasks.  The time to complete the scan was very good too (about 2/3 of the time of the other major freeware AV vendors). Realtime protection caused minimal delays and were quite livable. We wish that Microsoft would offer an option on the system tray icon to temporarily disable it, but it can be done from within the program settings.

My big question? Is this software actually doing anything to protect my system? It’s way too early to expect accurate results from our real-world usage, but AV-Comparatives recently rated it as one of the best for protection and a low number of false positives. Of the five infected systems we’ve thrown it on, all have cleaned up nicely.

Conclusion: I’ve run without antivirus software for years and I just may keep this one. It’s that seamless.

The best way to deal with these threats is to prevent them. Here are some quick fixes:

1. Stop using Internet Explorer — even version 8. Load up Firefox, Chrome or Safari and use that as your primary browser. You’re far less likely to run into issues. It’s been said many times, but it’s true.

2. Free software often has a price. You’re courting disaster with every poker and online game you install. Be very careful this. Kids are frequent targets too. If you’re not sure, just Google it and add the keyword “spyware.” See if anyone else is losing their mind about it.

2. Bolster your filtering. Suites such as Kaspersky Internet Security are more effective than old, basic antivirus programs. Microsoft’s new Security Essentials is a good choice on the free side. Avira’s Antivir is a great free antivirus program, but you’ll end up with malware if you hit the wrong site…it’s spyware filtering is not very good.

3. Make sure you’re up to date. While not a sure thing, Microsoft’s updates are often related to security issues with web browsing. Run your updates if you don’t have automatic updating turned on. Obviously, this requires a bit more thought for corporate users.

4. Stop using the Internet so much. Phonebooks and encyclopedias are virus-free. It sounds radical and we’re  kidding…sort of…but it’s guaranteed to keep your system safer.

If you do get hit (or preferable before you’re infected), install the free program Malwarebytes and use that to scan your systems. It’s detection and cleanup tools are easy to use and quite effective.

Here are the facts:

1. The infection tries to block security vendors’ sites. A quick and easy test, while not 100% foolproof, is to surf to their site. If it doesn’t come up, jump down to #5 here. If you’re not sure, try F-Secure’s site. They’re on the blocked sites list.
2. Mac OS systems cannot run the virus natively but Parallels and Boot Camp installs can. Users with Windows on their Macs are at risk.
2. Linux PCs and servers…same thing…cannot run it. Neither can your handheld devices.
3. If you have all of your Windows Updates as well as a good, up-to-date antivirus program that is running normally, you are protected. Keep in mind that this virus, like many others, is designed to knock-out your antivirus though. If you can’t get into your AV software or it’s status seems wonky, see step 4.
4. If you’re not sure, scan your system now. An online scanner will not affect your current software and while it may take a while to scan, a second opinion is often useful.
5. Bitdefender has a good free cleanup tool designed just for this virus. Like the online scanners mentioned above, you can use it without harming your current AV.

I don’t think we need to panic come Wednesday, though. Don’t be too alarmed by news articles that lack balanced information. If you’d like more information, CNET has a good article. Don’t Google it too much though, because searching for Conficker seems to lead users to the very sites they should be avoiding.

There are two things you need to do: make sure that your systems are up-to-date on Microsoft Security Updates and make sure that your antivirus systems are covering you.

Here’s a quick summary of what you can do:

• Update your Windows systems manually if they are not set to automatically update.
• Make sure your antivirus software is also updated. After it is, a full scan is a good idea. Scan removable media like USB drives too.
• Get a second opinion if you can. Try an online virus scanner or a scan-only product.
• Strong passwords are recommended, but they don’t prevent infections.
• A software firewall can be a pain in the butt to tweak and overkill for the common user, but traveling users who rely on WiFi should really consider using something stronger than Windows built-in firewall.

And as with Koobface, Mac and Linux users are exempt from this paranoia. As a follow-up to this, CNET has a good overview of where Conficker came from and what it can do.

Mac users–yes, you Margaret–are safe for now. This one needs Windows to run. And thoughtful users won’t be stricken either, because the virus doesn’t hatch on its own. You need to click on a link to get it going.

As always, if your antivirus software is out-of-date or just plain ineffective, you should take this time to check your system. Most of the major virus players have covered this virus as of March 7th. The real question is how their software performs.

Any program that installs itself surreptitiously on your system, knocks out your antivirus program and proceeds to make your system unusable seems like a virus to me. But the major players like Symantec and McAfee didn’t see it that way. For them, it was an up-sell that allows them to tack on another $10-30 over the price of their standard antivirus offering and help offset the fact that these vendors had to purchase other companies to incorporate their malware protection technology.

The sheer number of malware infections has forced some like Symantec to change their course, but the protection is not what you’d expect. We work on more systems that were “protected” than not. In some cases, the antivirus program was humming along undisturbed while the system was throwing up ads left and right.

We’ve found one consistently effective tool for scanning your system: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (see CNET’s video review below). It’s the only program that we’ve seen capable of cleaning up infections like Antivirus 2009.

My spam filter catches these. Does yours?

The latest round of spam is easy to spot. You receive an egregious headline with a blank body and an HTML attachment.

Spam filters take a little time to catch up. In the meantime, your inbox is flooded with free ways to get a hard-on (apparently it’s expensive these days).

An Outlook rule that filters out email with .htm attachments seems like it would work, but–amazingly–there is no such rule. If you create one to filter on the message body or header, it generally won’t work either. That’s why these are getting through…they embed it in a way that  doesn’t show up.

The easiest fix? Make sure your Outlook junk mail filters are up to date and then temporarily jack up your Outlook junk mail filter to high. Unlike Vista, it usually works quite well. If you’re not using a spam filter at all and your mail server doesn’t have one, I suggest SpamFighter or CloudMark. There are freeware options, like Spamato, but their filtering takes work and they are sometimes unstable.

Scan Online
Getting the online scanner from Kaspersky to run can sometimes be tricky depending on your browser, but Kaspersky’s engine is one of the more thorough. It’s slow though, so run it when you’re starting your Monopoly party. Click here to try it.

Second Opinion Download
BitDefender makes a scan-only software. It’s fairly effective and amazingly slower than Kaspersky. Though…if you’re already running BitDefender this option doesn’t make much sense. It’s best to get it here.