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from the I-remember-an-internet-with-no-ads-or-malware dept.
[Ed. note: I had mixed feelings about running this story. It reads like a slashvertisement, but might be of genuine use to some members of our community (or people whose systems they help support). Decided to give it a try — please provide feedback in the comments.]
Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware review: A free tool that actually works:
Ransomware is malicious software that can lock your computer and files while demanding a ransom be paid to unlock it. This sort of attack can be much more serious than a typical virus or malware attack because much of the time, you end up losing all of your files that weren't backed up. Ransomware can be especially hard to prevent because it typically comes disguised as another trusted file.
Anti-ransomware software comes packed in with most of the best antivirus software or PC security packages including Windows Security. Anti-ransomware software needs to get very frequent updates to stay in front of threats. Since ransomware often comes disguised as something a user wants, they can let it through the first lines of security before they know there's a problem.
Kaspersky's Anti-Ransomware Tool looks for behavior and commonly infected files to offer a last line of defense on your system. It's also backed by a cloud-connected set of definitions to stay updated without waiting for a scheduled definitions update.
Always updated Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool
Bottom line: When it comes to PC security, you can never be 100% sure your PC is risk-free, Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool adds another layer of security with an up-to-date and well-reviewed knowledgebase of safe and risky applications. It's also able to watch out for suspicious app behavior in case a threat is new enough that it hasn't been detected yet.
The author notes some shortcomings in the tool, as well, so it's a mixed recommendation. Read the full article for details. Would you get/use it?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Opportunist on Monday July 20 2020, @09:26PM (2 children)
I have a test from AV-Test [av-test.org] here and while Kaspersky is certainly among the top contenders, the times when they were the gold standard for antivirus protection are over. I had a chance to talk with AV-Test a while ago and what they do is a pretty interesting way to test how these AV-Kits handle unknown threats. They collect samples for various trojans, then pit older version of the AV-suits against the current threats and check how they deal with threats that they can't really know about yet.
To understand the logic behind this, most malware isn't some new development but a variant of existing ones. An "evolved" variant, if you will. The malware writers basically take their existing malware, add some functionality, remove others, and when you analyze malware, you find a lot of legacy code and defunct snippets in the code. This is why some (of the better) AV kits can actually detect newer variants of malware, at the very least with heuristic approaches.
Kaspersky used to excel at this, to the point where they even managed to detect some POCs I created that contained routines that were often found in malware. In the past 5-6 years, though, their quality did decline. Resource usage went up, speed went down and detection rates aren't really where they used to be.
I guess the ex-KGBs Eugene hoovered up back in the days found out they can go work for someone else, too...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2020, @12:14AM (1 child)
Didn't a number of people from Kaspersky get sniped by Bitdefender and someone else around 2012 and 2015.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday July 23 2020, @10:55PM
Glad you said that or someone could say I'm making derisive remarks on the competition.
As an ex-boss of mine once said, never say anything bad about your competition, and only say true things about them. This is why we say "Symantec has really great box art".