At first sight F-Secure’s Health Check 2.0 looks to a useful addition to a PC owners box of troubleshooting tricks. It’s OK, but it is nothing to get excited about.

The online application is a Java program that works with Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer to investigate a computer’s security status then report back on potential risks.

On the plus side it is free, quick and simple to use. The code loads directly from the Health Check web page and after the obligatory rigmarole of accepting terms and conditions it takes next to no time to download even on my erratic broadband connection. I clocked the first download at seven seconds.

Once leaded the software steps through a familiar wizard-style process with four stages. the first stage happens without your involvement. It checks you have anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall installed and up-to-date.

Clicking on the ‘next’ button moves things along to stage two which investigates back-up – we’ll look closer at this in a moment. The third stage checks to see if certain key programs are up-to-date. The last stage is a summary screen with links to ’solutions’ to identified problems.

So, even if everything was perfectly hunky-dory, which it isn’t, PC Health Check 2.0 is of limited functionality. For a start there are many alternatives that do the same job either as well or better. For example, Secunia offers the free Online Software Inspector and the more complete downloadable Secunia Personal Software Inspector.

But my big problem with Health Check 2.0 is it mainly exists as a crude promotional device for F-Secure’s products and services. It’s compromised by its commercial function.

Allow me to expand on this. My computer failed the second stage back-up test. The software told me it didn’t find any back-up. This is wrong there are three back-up applications on my computer. I back up regularly to an external disk and to a server.

When I clicked on the Health Check 2.0 ’solve’ button to troubleshoot the ‘problem’ found by the software I got a message about protecting my “valuable content” with F-Secure Online Backup. And a link to the F-Secure store.

I live in New Zealand. My computer has almost a terabyte of data. Although I’m theoretically on an unlimited broadband plan, but with shaped bandwidth for almost the entire working day. In other words, online back-up simply isn’t a realistic option. And yet PC Health Check tells me it is.

My instinct says if the application gets this advice wrong – what use is the rest of its information?

Lastly, when the program finishes, there’s the opportunity to register an email address with F-Secure. Now why would I want to do that?

For an alternative view see F-Secure refreshes online PC Health Check by Stephen Withers at iTWire. His found other shortcomings, but reached a similar conclusion.

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When it comes to free PC security applications Panda Cloud Antivirus is hard to beat. I first wrote about it in August, since then it’s moved forward slightly, but the software is still relatively unknown. However, I suspect it will quickly gather momentum as people catch on to the software.

Unlike other security tools, Panda does most of its work in the cloud – that is, it is a software-as-a-service application. It sends data about dangerous looking files off to its servers for closer inspection.

Because your computer doesn’t have to do the hard work, Panda imposes almost no overhead. When I benchmarked my PC there was no performance difference between the system running the software and having the software switched off – there may however be a network overhead, but again, nothing I could measure.

Panda’s other big advantage is the malware checking database is always bang-up-to-date. There are no signature files to download.

One issue I have with Panda is the program is so trouble-free, it is easy to forget. You barely notice it. I previously described Microsoft’s Security Essentials as “barely there” – Panda Cloud is even more nebulous.

The program also appears to be better than the other free antivirus products at trapping malware. I previously ran it for a month without any issues and have run it for the past three or four days with no ill effects.

I’d say it is the most promising free anti-virus application on offer. Presumably at some point the developers will need to make some money. I’ll be interesting to see how that develops. For now, this is possibly the best free choice.

Of course, you may prefer not to leave your computer’s protection in the hands of free software makers.

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I can’t honestly tell you if AVG Free 9.0 offers decent PC security. That’s because the application was so annoying and imposed such an overhead on my home desktop I deleted it before testing finished. There are times when free is too high a price.

AVG Anti-Virus Free 9.0 is still only two weeks old. It arrived about the same time as Windows 7 and is compatible with Microsoft’s new operation system.

I downloaded the file in late October to test on my desktop running Windows 7 release candidate version. The program is available at AVG’s free web site – but as I’ll explain in a moment, I don’t recommend it.

It’s only a small download at 869Kb – it takes seconds with broadband. The first file is actually a down-loader application which fetches and installs the rest of the software.

While process is easy enough, the second screen you see is only the start of what becomes an annoying and shrill sales pitch designed to control your choices and trick you in to paying money. It appears AVG has learnt from the scam artists the software promises to protect you from.

Flakiness abounds

Your first choice is to select either the free basic protection, or a 30-day trial of the company’s comprehensive protection. Notice the way this choice is presented. The implication is that responsible people will choose the second option – which means in 30 days AVG will ask yu to hand over money. Don’t worry – you’ll get plenty more opportunities to pay AVG if you choose not to do so at this point.

I thought I was downloading the free software – that’s what I clicked on at the AVG web site – so that’s what I proceeded with.

During the download AVG asks you to remove existing anti-virus software. This makes sense, anti-virus applications can conflict with each other and anyway, as each program imposes an overhead, the performance drop can multiply.

Annoyingly AVG doesn’t remove the other software. It’s install halts and opens the Windows uninstaller so you manually remove it. Even more annoyingly the AVG installer closes itself at this point – you need to hunt around in your download folder to find it and start all over again – by now many megabytes have been wiped off your download cap.

Click, click, bloody click

There’s a lot of clicking throughout this process – some of it unnecessary. Then it asks if you wish to install the AVG Security Toolbar. It’s recommended. The software has also helpfully pre-selected the option to change your default search engine to Yahoo. This is spam – of a sort. In both cases I choose No. It’s actually tricky – if you click off the first box, the Yahoo box stays ticked but grayed out. This can only be designed to trick you into selecting the search engine choice.

At this point the installer had to close Firefox. Not wanting to be sent all the way back to the start rather like that horrible long snake at the end of a game of Snakes and Ladders, I clicked to close Firefox held my breath. Phew. The install resumes. At this point we are now 40 minutes into the process. Even at minimum wage rate this free anti-virus program has cost me the price of lunch and a clutch of grey hairs.

Finally

Suddenly the process is over. A box appears telling me the install has finished. But wait, what is this? More stuff to click. Do I agree to give anonymous information? Oh alright then. And now would I like to receive spam? (Sorry news and alerts). Please enter your email address. Are you kidding? No.

While AVG starts its first scan. I reload Firefox. In the meantime I notice the program has installed an icon on my Windows desktop. Did I ask for this? No I damn well did not. AVG asks tons of questions during the install – but doesn’t allow me to choose whether the icon despoils my desktop. At this point I’m starting to get annoyed.

Not responding

Meanwhile Firefox is failing to load. What’s going on here? There was a string of open tabs – none of them are visible. Windows tells me Firefox is “not responding”.

Eventually – more than an hour after the first download, Firefox opens. And what’s this? AVG has installed AVG Safe Search. Is this the toolbar I choose not to install? The name is different, so let’s assume it isn’t the same thing. I wasn’t warned or asked about it, but hey, let’s go with the flow for a moment.  So, Firefox opens at the home page – my tags are all lost.

At this point the AVG software is scanning my computer looking for viruses. I open up the scanner’s display and see what looks like a banner ad for the paid for software at the bottom of the screen.  Fair enough, the software was free and these people have to eat. I can accept a little advertising as the price to pay for free anti-virus.

But it has to go

Before long my computer started crashing, randomly. And things started being very s l o w   l i ke  w a d i n g t h r o u g h m o l a s s e s. There could be only one explanation for this. I removed AVG, reinstalled Microsoft Security Essentials and performance returned to normal.

Of course, you mileage may vary. AVG may rock your boat. But for me it has proved so disastrous I couldn’t even test its efficiency as an anti-virus tool. I give it zero stars out of five.

See: Microsoft’s barely there Security Essentials

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It’s easy to forget Microsoft Security Essentials is installed on my desktop computer. Unlike many, but not all other security applications, Security Essentials sips system resources so sparingly there’s no noticeable effect on performance.

And yet the free application appears to do a more than adequate job protecting my system from malware and attacks. Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft Security Essentials

Ideally I would like to try Microsoft’s new free Security Essentials, but I’m in New Zealand and locked out from the official download site. Yes, I know there are ways around the lock-out, but I’m aiming to stay ethical. If you know how I can get hold of a legitimate copy please leave a comment or use the contact page.

Avast

When I installed Windows 7 RC on my computers I loaded Norton Internet Security 2010 beta on the desktop and a free desktop security application from Avast on my Thinkpad. We also tried AVG’s free anti-virus software on my wife’s Thinkpad.

Both free anti-virus programs are fully functional and seem to handle most everyday security requirements. We’re behind a NAT firewall and we keep out machines clean, so our security needs are basic. The features not included in the free versions of the programs are of no interest to me, however I would like the ability schedule Avast to scan my laptop at regular intervals.

Avast appears to do a better job at hunting down problems, but AVG has a better user interface. Nevertheless, we’ve now standardised on Avast on our laptops because the software appears easier to deal with and, let’s face it, when it comes to this kind of work a good brain trumps a pretty face.

Both programs impose less of a performance overhead than Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2010 beta – but that wouldn’t be hard. Their overhead is so small it is barely noticeable.

Downside of free anti-virus

There are downsides to the free anti-virus programs. Both are surprisingly difficult to find and download. That’s because to some extent they are hidden behind paid-for products from the same companies. And both tend to nag about updating – in ways that send you off to pay for versions of the software.

Of course, developers have to eat. I’m not complaining, the price of free security software is a small annoyance. Or to put it another way, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. On a point by point basis Avast seems less of a problem than AVG – but this could be perception and not reality.

One downside of the free software asking for updates and not automatically scanning is it  feels as if the PC lacks proper protection. For some reason this appeared to be more the case on my desktop than on my less frequently used Thinkpad.

Panda Cloud Anti-virus

For now I’m sticking with Avast on my Thinkpad and we’ve switched from AVG to Avast on my wife’s Thinkpad. But Avast didn’t feel satisfactory on my main desktop, so I searched for an alternative and discovered Panda Cloud Anti-virus.

Panda Cloud Anti-virus looks and feels very different from all other security software. Rather than chew up your computer’s performance doing all its anti-virus processing Panda is a software-as-a-service application that sends data about dangerous looking files to its own servers for closer inspection. This means there is no perceptible performance overhead. It also means the checking database is always bang up-to-date.

Panda is still a work in progress. Or more to the point, a beta. But unlike Symantec’s beta, it seems fully functional. I’ve run Panda Cloud Anti-virus for roughly one month without any problems. My biggest fear is I never hear from the program, so I need to check to see it is running – which it always is.

Given the ease at which Panda slips into the background, to the point where it is unnoticeable, I’d have to say this is the most promising security tool I have found so far.

See also:
Norton’s Windows 7 beta – security update

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Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009

Although at NZ$55* for a downloaded version it is one of the most expensive standalone antivirus programs on sale in New Zealand, Kaspersky is the most effective. The company is also quickest off the mark when it comes to delivering updates to protect customers against the latest emerging threats. The program is one of the easiest to use with a polished user interface and clearly labelled options – though you’ll have to set up its scheduled scan yourself. I’ve not tested Kaspersky’s Internet Security 2009.

* When I visited the online store points New Zealand customers to an Australian site where the download price is A$55.

http://www.kasperskyanz.com.au/

Symantec Norton Internet Security 2009

The best-known name in PC security combines a first-rate antivirus program that also pounces on spyware with a solid firewall in its security suite.

All the security functions are accessible from a control centre which clearly shows when something’s wrong – clicking this will normally fix things in a jiffy. If you run a home network, you can inspect the security settings of all computers from a single screen.

Norton Internet Security 2009 will slow your machine a tad, but in practice I find it far less disruptive than McAfee’s products and a noticeable improvement on earlier versions of the Norton software. Norton also stays out-of-the-way when you are working. At A$99 or NZ$99 to protect three home computers the price is good too.

http://www.symantec.com

Trend Micro HouseCall

If you’ve been slack with your computer security and suddenly feel under threat Trend Micro’s Housecall (http://housecall.trendmicro.com) is a free web-based antivirus and spyware service that can check your system for problems and then fix them. It works with both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, you simply download some code and then set it to work in your browser while you get on with other tasks. It works just like any other antispyware product and is at least as good at finding nasty software. While using HouseCall isn’t as safe as having security software running on your machine, it is a great quick fix.

Kaspersky offers an alternative online scanner at http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner. It works fine, but can be  tricky if you’re running Windows Vista as you have to open your browser in administrator mode. That’s a non-trivial road block.

McAfee Total Protection 2009

In the past McAfee’s security tools haven’t been the best. I’ve found them to deliver less than first-rate protection while slowing down my computer and getting in the way of everyday work. What’s more, the company seems heavy-handed about extracting money from customers with pop-ups and constant email reminders.

And to cap it all, McAfee’s products are expensive. Total Protection 2009 costs A$130 in Australia and NZ$130 for customers buying direct from the web site. Computer stores often sell it for less but the rival programs are cheaper and have a better track record so why risk it? While I haven’t had the chance to test McAfee Total Protection 2009 personally, the marketing blurb says its simpler to user and uses fewer resources. It’s not the product I’d choose, but there are people who swear by McAfee.

http://au.mcafee.com/

Avast Antivirus

Avast is free for home users. It’s a price you can’t argue with. Business users are expect to pay, but prices are low in comparison to other antivirus options. It’s a light program and uses hardly any computer resources which means it won’t slow you down. It’s also simple enough for non-technical people to use without being bamboozled. You’ll get regular automatic updates as required too.

http://www.avast.com/

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0

As the name suggests, the price tag on AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 is a big fat zero. Unlike Avast, AVG makes the free version harder to find on its web site and goes to great lengths to persuade you the paid for products make more sense, but in reality it’s a good anti-virus tool at keen price.

http://www.avg.com.au

Comodo Firewall

Don’t be lured into a false sense of security by the firewalls built into Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows XP, you need better protection. The paid-for internet security suites all include robust firewalls, Comodo is widely regarded as the best free option. You might find it a bit annoying at first when it keeps asking you about programs, but after a while it’ll settle down and keep the worst malware at bay.

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

A whole range of security products can help protect your computer. Some are traditional packaged software others are online services. Here’s a list of the types of security software applications you are most likely to need:

Anti-virus

Designed to keep your PC free of infection, anti-virus programs generally use two different approaches. First, they use large databases – known as signatures – which are matched against incoming files to identify potential threats and block them.

Although signature files are updated regularly, with some vendors running daily updates, while others updating signatures every hour or so, this isn’t always enough. Virus writers are engaged in a constant battle of wits against antivirus specialists and aim to ‘fly under the radar’ with fresh malware.

The worst code can often spread faster than distribution of signature updates. So most antivirus programs now include tools designed to identify suspicious virus-like behaviour from unknown files. These files are then flagged as potential threats and treated accordingly.

Anti-virus is a misleading name these days. Almost every anti-virus program provides protection from a range of different mal-wares.

Firewalls:

Firewalls control the flow of internet traffic to and from your computer. They can be hardware devices – if you use a router it may have a built-in firewall – but in most home set-ups they tend to be software.

Firewalls have two main functions. They act as a gate, stopping unwanted traffic from entering your system. At the same time, they should stop unapproved traffic from leaving your system. For example, if there’s a spyware program on your computer monitoring your activities, a properly configured firewall will stop that information from being sent. Equally, if you are infected by, say, a worm, a firewall won’t let it get out and infect others.

Be warned that the firewall in Windows XP only stops incoming traffic; it will only protect you up to a point. You should invest in a commercial firewall product – they are all bi-directional.

Unlike antivirus programs, which can be installed and forgotten, firewalls can be complex to operate. If you set things up incorrectly, you may leave your computer vulnerable. Alternatively, you may hinder legitimate traffic – this can be especially difficult if you operate a home network. The best firewalls will automatically configure themselves, but they tend to err on the side of caution blocking any unusual application.

Anti-spyware

Also known as spyware blockers. There’s a thin line between antivirus and antispyware tools – in fact some commercial security products now combine the two functions in a single application. Good antispyware products will detect and remove both spyware and adware from your computer. It should also block this kind of software from being installed. Some spyware will be detected by a firewall when it first attempts to send data back to base.

Spam Filters

A program designed to stop, or at least drastically reduce, the amount of spam turning up in your email in-box. Spam filters can save you time and money sorting through rubbish emails but most home and small business computer users don’t need to worry about filtering spam. That’s because many ISPs and web-mail providers now use anti-spam filters to check mail before it is downloaded to your computer or read in your web browser. Also, modern email programs, like Microsoft Outlook 2007, have built-in spam detection tools.

See also:

Computer security guide: 1 introduction
Computer security guide: 2 what are the main threats?
Computer security guide: 4 how to buy security tools
Computer security guide: 5 what to buy or download for free

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The online security problems facing home users and small businesses are different from those facing larger companies and corporations. Here’s a list of threats you may encounter:

• Malware: Is the generic name for all malicious software. Some people also talk of greyware which refers to software that’s annoying rather than dangerous.
• Virus: A small program designed to automatically copy itself from one computer to another. Viruses are attached to other pieces of software or hidden inside images, games and music files. They usually travel from machine to machine by email, instant messaging or file transfers. Although some viruses are harmless, most are disruptive, the worst can stop a PC from working.
• Worm: Also a self-replicating program, but unlike viruses, worms can automatically travel from machine to machine without being attached to other pieces of software. This means in addition to any other damage they slow networks because they can consume bandwidth.
• Trojan: The name given to a program which looks harmless, but has an unexpected malicious purpose. Some start their mischief immediately they are loaded, others may wait for a period of time, possibly collecting data without the computer owner’s knowledge.
• Spyware: A program designed to collect information about a computer and its user that the spyware author can use to make money. Typically spyware may monitor your web browsing and target pop-up advertising at you or divert you to other web sites.
• Rootkit: A program designed to modify a computer’s operating system to hide the behaviour of other malware.
• Keylogger: Software that collects keyboard input – possibly to collect passwords or important account information. Keyloggers can then send this information back to criminals allowing them to impersonate users and, for example, robbing their online banking accounts.
• Botnet: Programs used to control, update or trigger activity in previously infected systems.
• Backdoor: A way of getting undetected access to a computer system.
• Zombie: A computer being controlled by another user to perform some malicious online tasks.
• Spam: Unwanted email, instant messages or other form of electronic communication. Spam clogs email inboxes and the sheer volume of spam (as much as 95% of all email traffic) slows networks.
• Phishing: is when someone fraudulently tries to get hold of important information such as passwords and bank account details by pretending to be a trustworthy source. Phishers may send authentic-looking emails asking for the data or with links to a fake web site.
• Adware: Strictly speaking this isn’t a threat, but an annoyance. It refers to any software that bombards you with unwanted advertising.

Computer security guide: 1 introduction
Computer security guide: 3 defensive software
Computer security guide: 4 how to buy security tools
Computer security guide: 5 what to buy or download for free

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