[2.Bi-Weekly] IOBIT 360 vs. Advanced System Protector (Personal Edition)

[steadywalking]

Systweak’s description of Advanced System Protector

 

Advanced System Protector is a solution to detect and remove the malicious programs intruding your computer.

 

• It offers protection against deceptive applications that affect start-up programs, cookies, Registry entries, and files and folders to hide themselves in your system. Check for infections in all vulnerable areas and safeguard your hard work and personal data. With the vast database of spyware detections you can efficiently control low-risk annoying pop-up adverts to high-risk infections that can steal confidential data to severe-risk malware that can even format your system in stealth mode. Advanced System Protector scans for spyware, adware, malware, riskware, key loggers, trojans, sniffers, BHOs, exploits, worms, and monitoring programs. It tracks all the infections present on your system, shows severity of every infection found, removes all the malicious entries and protects your data from prying eyes. It further provides complete protection by blocking the programs you suspect.

 

Version 2.0.323.1836 features improved update installation speed and database loading speed with better detections.

 

 

IOBIT 360 strengths against ASP(Personal Edition) are:

 

• Advanced System Protector lacks an integrated antivirus component, which more and more solo malware battlers are now building in from the get-go.

• Advanced System Protector will not work if there are not any other users on the computer.

• Advanced System Protector will not identify any infections if the user incorrectly installed the program and thought it would work on-the-fly right after being initialized. (I had several problems with Advanced System Protector, it was like Russian Roulette, when its good its really good but when its bad, bad things happen).

• Advanced System Protector was having a lot of updating problems and I had to uninstall and re-install numerous times on all pc’s because they were releasing bad updates that caused the program to lock up and freeze my pc’s.

• Improper understanding of Advanced System Protector will lead you to believe everything is fine and there are no problems.

• Advanced System Protector is sensitive enough to pick up tracking cookies, although there didn't seem to be a method for fine-tuning that.

• The real-time shields components are also kept behind a deadbolt unless you upgrade to the paid version. I still use Advanced System Protector because they were the second best option I found to supplement Malwarebytes Anti-Malware because if a rogue Trojan identified Malwarebytes it would try to disable its update program files, and the finally penetrate the program.

• I have now downgraded Malwarebytes to the number 2 slot, and Advanced System Care to the number 3 slot in importance because though they are good, neither of them are real-time, and so, IOBIT 360 is in the number 1 slot.

 

IOBIT 360 weaknesses against ASP(Personal Edition) are:

 

How much of this IOBIT 360 does, I am not technically sure of but, Advanced System Protector says the following:…

 

• Custom scan lets you opt out of Cookies, Memory, Registry, and Files and Folders, or select specific folders and files to toss in the pot. Advanced System Protector is sensitive enough to pick up tracking cookies, although there didn't seem to be a method for fine-tuning that. The scheduler was surprisingly impressive, allowing for scans daily, once, and variations in-between. You can configure the program to run at startup, to update definition files automatically, and create a whitelist of files to never scan.

 

• It offers protection against deceptive applications that affect start-up programs, cookies, Registry entries, and files and folders to hide themselves in your system. Check for infections in all vulnerable areas and safeguard your hard work and personal data. With the vast database of spyware detections you can efficiently control low-risk annoying pop-up adverts to high-risk infections that can steal confidential data to severe-risk malware that can even format your system in stealth mode. Advanced System Protector scans for spyware, adware, malware, riskware, key loggers, trojans, sniffers, BHOs, exploits, worms, and monitoring programs. It tracks all the infections present on your system, shows severity of every infection found, removes all the malicious entries and protects your data from prying eyes. It further provides complete protection by blocking the programs you suspect.

 

• Advanced System Protector offers a live person to talk to 24/7 for technical assistance.

 

IOBIT 360 Opportunities for Enhancement against Advanced System Protector

 

1. Increased depth of scan for spyware, adware, malware, riskware, key loggers, trojans, sniffers, BHOs, exploits, worms, and monitoring programs.

 

2. Have a live call center support available 24/7.

 

3. Create a commercial version of IOBIT 360.

 

4. Submit commercial of IOBIT 360 for federal contracts because for some unknown reason they use McAfee, yesterday’s line of defense.

 

5. Contact the Department of the Navy because they use McAfee and are bewildered as to how their network is penetrated, maybe because McAfee is useless and not real-time and it does not comes with any diagnostic support like Advanced System Care.

 

6. Upgrade program to tracks all the infections present on your system, shows severity of every infection found, removes all the malicious entries and protects your data from prying eyes.

 

IOBIT 360 Threats of Dismissing Nonsignature Antimalware

 

This new class of security software may not be as flexible as the traditional type, but it never needs updating—it's ready to intercept even zero-day threats.

 

Traditional signature-based antivirus and antispyware programs identify nasty attackers by looking for identifying signatures. These signatures are akin to malware fingerprints; they're the signs that traditional antimalware looks for to recognize malware. Similarly, the problem with the traditional signature-based approach is that it leaves you vulnerable between the time a brand-new threat appears and the time the security vendors develop a signature for it. Sometimes that window of vulnerability is just a few hours, but all too often it may be days before your security software is capable of recognizing a brand-new threat.

Technologies like Panda Software's TruPrevent, BitDefender's B-HAVE, and F-Secure's DeepGuard do their best to block these zero-day attacks using behavioral analysis and similar techniques… but they still rely on signatures for known threats. A growing number of vendors, many of them smaller and less well-known, are working on solutions that take the next step. They propose to protect your system from malicious software without using signatures at all. Where traditional signature-based antivirus products work in pretty much the same way, these up-and-coming non-signature anti-malware products are all over the map in the ways they try to protect you.

 

One very simple solution is to just ban any program that's not known to be safe. Everything that's already on your computer is approved (so it had better be clean!); anything new is blocked. This type of utility works best if you don't install a lot of new software, and it still needs to handle things like Windows Update and automated updates of your security software. Anti-Executable, from Faronics, is an example.

 

Another option is to block downloading of executable files, ActiveX controls, and anything else installable. In particular this approach will block "drive-by downloads" – downloads that you didn't even ask for. This type of program makes no judgment on the downloaded program, and typically lets you install anything you want if you suspend its protection. That means if you're tricked by a Trojan it won't help. Aura, from Atka Software, works in this way.

Of course, one sign of sneaky software is unexpected changes to your system. A malicious program generally needs to set itself to launch at startup, or install as a browser add-on, or somehow ensure its own survival. However, perfectly valid programs make the same kind of changes to your system. If a utility is going to protect you by watching this type of activity it really has to do its own due diligence and not warn you about every little change. One approach to avoiding false-positive warnings is that taken by Dynamic Security Agent. It watches your typical system and program usage for a week and develops a baseline profile. When it observes activity that's sufficiently different from the baseline, it offers a warning. However, non-technical users may have difficulty interpreting these warnings, especially if too many of them pop up.

 

It isn't easy to tell whether an unknown program is malicious just by looking at it. Some sophisticated programs simulate execution of an suspect program to make sure it's not trying anything nasty. Others let it run in a virtual machine so it can't affect the actual computer. GreenBorder Pro takes this approach. Any program downloaded through Internet Explorer is "protected", as is any program downloaded through an existing protected program. Protected programs can run, but they're insulated from your actual computer.

 

It would be great to have a program smart enough to just look at a program and determine that it's designed to do something nasty. And hey, it'd be even better if the protective utility could uninstall the malicious software, along with all of its clutter of support files. This is surely the Holy Grail for non-signature anti-malware, and Sana Security's Primary Response SafeConnect comes very close. A beta version tested out better than many signature-based products last year.

 

The end of signature-based protection may be in sight.

 

 

And that’s all folks,

 

Steadywalking

 

8-)

[XILFE]

Hi, I've got McAfee working alongside Advanced System Protector. And McAfee is deleting a lot of trojans and virus which are listed under application c/...Advanced System Protector. Does this mean that the Advanced System Protector is spotting them or that it is causing them or neither? Do you know?

[ha14]

I used advanced system protector about 6 months ago, then when I tried to install klite codec it used to alert me that there was infection inside and had to reboot to clean. I choosed the installer of klite from different sources and each time was the same! This was annoying because the installation was not complete. Then I uninstalled Advanced system protector and installed spyware terminator, MBAM, non of them behaved like that. But still I think advanced system protector free is a nice tool. So far IS 360 dont complain about Klite!:grin:

[Sybrandus]

Be very careful with ASP or you could do real damage to your system. It is not a "rogue" program but it will produce sometimes DOZENS of false positives (this is the new ASP 3 version as well as previous versions as I have tested both of them).

 

It is so ridiculous that they even detect some IE explorer settings as viruses (not the program but the actual settings in the registry)

 

If I'd deleted what it "found" ... I'd be in a heap of trouble right now lol. This happened in version 2 as well which is why I junked it. This one is also headed for the garbage bin.

 

 

Some examples of the "dangerous" infections it found were ...

 

7 text files left behind by pc decrapifier (records of scans)

 

14 registry settings used by TCP Optimizer (not dll's but settings)

 

6 custom settings for Internet Explorer (that I set myself re colour etc)

 

2 mru entries ... completely harmless

 

recguard (used to protect the recovery partition)

 

c:\windows\i386\jscript.dl_ (normal windows file and tested on virus total just in case all 41 negative)

 

A version.dat file belonging to AnVir task manager pro

 

fdi.dll used by a poker room where I play poker

 

system32\install.dll (also checked on virus total)

 

The CLSID for Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool

 

My context menu openas command in the HKCR\* key

 

And many more. You get the picture

 

What a joke !!!

 

Sybrandus

 

Note to admin: I originally posted this in week 1 and then realized it should be here. Feel free to delete the other one and sorry for the double post.

[Sybrandus]

Just uninstalled it and it left behind 140 registry entries and 183 files.

 

That's enough for me to change my mind about it being a "rogue" application lol

 

Sybrandus

[jelrikj]

Reply

 

i think that Advanced System Protector is rogue it finds alot of Valse Positivies! + it doesn't work on XP. + it almost install nothing!

[enoskype]

Bump to get the bi-weekly contenders together.

[blacksea]

i think that Advanced System Protector is rogue it finds alot of Valse Positivies! + it doesn't work on XP. + it almost install nothing!

 

What are you talking about ?

 

I have XP and it works fine ?

But your right it every time my program a false positive!