The Best Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus Still Can"t Protect You From Dancing Bunnies
You may wonder what anti-spyware program to use or which anti-virus program is the most effective.
There are many good anti-spyware and anti-virus tools out there but it's extremely important to remember that there is no perfect solution.
All of these anti-malware programs will miss things that others may catch.
The best approach is to choose one of the better ones - both an anti-spyware tool and an anti-virus tool - and then also keep a couple of others in reserve, just in case.
But whether it be for spyware or viruses, make sure you run something for both, and be sure to keep the databases for each as up-to-date as possible.
A post on Microsoft Software Engineer Larry Osterman's weblog is a good reminder of this.
Larry is a long-time Microsoft developer that some time ago commented on a claim made by someone that a properly-designed operating system should not require any anti-virus or anti-spyware software at all.
Larry pointed out the more practical reality of the situation in what he called the "dancing bunnies" problem.
The "dancing bunnies" problem is simply this: if you receive an email that says "click here to see dancing bunnies," then if you're like most users, you'll work around any protections your system may have in place because you want to see those dancing bunnies, and no one is going to stop you.
Also termed social engineering, the idea behind this approach is to promise you something that you'll react to, to get you to allow something else more sinister or malicious.
At that point, even an ideal operating system will make no difference.
You'll need to have some kind of protection that makes sure that what you just clicked on, ran, or even installed, is safe.
Today that means you need good anti-virus and anti-spyware tools installed on your system.
You might claim that education is the key - that by becoming more savvy about computer related issues and scams you can recognize and avoid situations like this.
You wouldn't need any additional protection from yourself.
Theoretically you might be right - and certainly the education is a good thing.
But practically? Sometimes those dancing bunnies can be pretty tempting...
There are many good anti-spyware and anti-virus tools out there but it's extremely important to remember that there is no perfect solution.
All of these anti-malware programs will miss things that others may catch.
The best approach is to choose one of the better ones - both an anti-spyware tool and an anti-virus tool - and then also keep a couple of others in reserve, just in case.
But whether it be for spyware or viruses, make sure you run something for both, and be sure to keep the databases for each as up-to-date as possible.
A post on Microsoft Software Engineer Larry Osterman's weblog is a good reminder of this.
Larry is a long-time Microsoft developer that some time ago commented on a claim made by someone that a properly-designed operating system should not require any anti-virus or anti-spyware software at all.
Larry pointed out the more practical reality of the situation in what he called the "dancing bunnies" problem.
The "dancing bunnies" problem is simply this: if you receive an email that says "click here to see dancing bunnies," then if you're like most users, you'll work around any protections your system may have in place because you want to see those dancing bunnies, and no one is going to stop you.
Also termed social engineering, the idea behind this approach is to promise you something that you'll react to, to get you to allow something else more sinister or malicious.
At that point, even an ideal operating system will make no difference.
You'll need to have some kind of protection that makes sure that what you just clicked on, ran, or even installed, is safe.
Today that means you need good anti-virus and anti-spyware tools installed on your system.
You might claim that education is the key - that by becoming more savvy about computer related issues and scams you can recognize and avoid situations like this.
You wouldn't need any additional protection from yourself.
Theoretically you might be right - and certainly the education is a good thing.
But practically? Sometimes those dancing bunnies can be pretty tempting...
Source...