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CounterSpy 2 is tough on spyware, adware, rootkits, and other malware, but is light on system resources and memory. Advantages of CounterSpy 2: Heavy-duty antispyware protection treads lightly on system resources. Kernel-level Active Protection defends 24-7. Hybrid design combines antimalware technology with our award-winning spyware detection and removal. Deep-rooted malware is exterminated at boot time, before Windows loads.

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A lot of discussion has centered on whether Microsoft with come to own a dominant position in the antivirus market by simply bundling its technologies with its operating systems at no charge.  This is a similar technique applied in other markets such as word processing and Internet browsers.

Of course there are a number of antivirus vendors who also play in this market. There are many companies with great market presence in other countries that are beginning to become more widely known. These vendors include GriSoft out of the Czech Republic, Sophos in the united Kingdom, Panda Software out of Spain, Kaspersky in Russia, SoftWin in Romania, F-Secure in Finland, Norman in Norway, Arcabit in Poland, VirusBuster out of Hungary, and AhnLab in South Korea.

It is not clear where the industry is heading and everyone in this market faces a rapidly changing landscape. The amount of effort to find and provide fixes for viruses is staggering. Malicious programs are getting more complex and the number of them is increasing.  Many companies may find themselves without the resources to match the efforts of those truly bent on creating havoc.  Some virus companies are getting of hundreds of new samples a day! Moreover, the new viruses are getting “smarter” in that they propagate themselves quickly and they often hide themselves and are smart enough to move around in a system by renaming themselves in an effort to make it hard to remove them.

Remember the “good old days”, before the advent of the Internet and downloadable programs? Life was simple then in terms of computer viruses. With the primary way in which a virus could be transmitted being limited to floppy disks, the ability to catch and eradicate the virus was a lot easier. By today’s standards, it used to take quite a while before a virus was able to infect a computer and slow down the system. The antivirus software of that time was typically able to identify and eradicate viruses before they caused too much damage. Additionally, computer users were pretty savvy on how to protect themselves in terms of scanning all floppy disks before copying them to our desktop.

The Internet helped change all that. The Internet provided a conduit by which viruses could move from host to host with lightening speed. No longer could a computer user just worry about floppy disks as points of entry, but they now had to worry about email, email attachments, peer-to-peer file sharing, instant messaging, and software downloads. Today’s viruses can attack through multiple entry points, spread without human intervention, and take full advantage of vulnerabilities within a system or program. With technology advancing everyday, and the convergence of computers with other mobile devices, the potential of new types of threats also increase.

Protecting Your Computer
Luckily, the advancement of antivirus software has kept pace with current virus threats. Antivirus software is essential to a computer’s ability to fend off viruses and other malicious programs. These products are designed to protect against the ability of a virus to enter a computer through email, web browsers, file servers and desktops. Additionally, these programs offer a centralized control feature that handle deployment, configuration and updating.
A computer user should remain diligent and follow a few simple steps to protect against the threat of a virus:

1. Evaluate your current computer security system.
With the threat of a new generation of viruses able to attack in a multitude of ways, the approach of having just one antivirus software version has become outdated. You need to be confident that you have protected all aspects of your computer system from the desktop to the network, and from the gateway to the server. Consider a more comprehensive security system which includes several features including antivirus, firewall, content filtering, and intrusion detection. This type of system will make it more difficult for the virus to penetrate your system.

2. Only install antivirus software created by a well-known, reputable company.
Because new viruses erupt daily, it is important that you regularly update your antivirus software. Become familiar with the software’s real-time scan feature and configure it to start automatically each time you boot your computer. This will protect your system by automatically checking your computer each time it is powered up.

3. Make it a habit to always scan all new programs or files no matter from where they originate.

4. Exercise caution when opening binary, Word, or Excel documents of unknown sources especially if they were received during an online chat or as an attachment to an email.

5. Perform regular backups in case your system is corrupted. It may be the only way to recover your data if infected.

Recommended Antivirus Software
There are numerous applications available to consumers. With a little research, you can pick the program that is right for you. Many programs provide a trial version which allows you to download the program and test its abilities. However, be aware that some anti-virus programs can be difficult to uninstall. As a precaution make sure to set up a System Restore point before installing.

Here are a few programs which typically receive high marks in terms of cost, effectiveness, ease of use, and customer service.

The Shield Pro 2005™ provides virus protection and hacker security through ongoing support and updates. When a virus breaks out, The Shield Pro 2005™ promises to provide a patch within 2-3 hours and a fix for the virus within 5 hours. You can set your computer to update viruses weekly and run a complete virus scan.

BitDefender 9 Standard provides antivirus protection, as well as Peer-2-Peer Applications protection, full email protection, and heuristics in a virtual environment. This provides a new security layer that keeps the operating system safe from unknown viruses by detecting malicious pieces of code for which signatures have not been released yet.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 program is simple to install and use. The user only needs to choose from three levels of protection. It allows updates as frequently as every hour while promising not to disrupt your computer. The program also offers a two-tier email protection feature and round-the-clock technical support.

PC-cillin Internet Security combines antivirus security and a personal firewall—for comprehensive protection against viruses, worms, Trojans, and hackers. It also detects and removes spyware and blocks spam. It even guards against identity theft by blocking phishing and pharming attacks.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is a free downloadable antivirus program that has received high marks for its reliability. In the past, free downloadable antivirus programs have been viewed skeptically because of issues relating to its reliability. However, AVG from Grisoft, remains one of the best-known free anti-virus programs available. While AVG can not be installed on a server operating system and there is no technical support, it still makes a good choice for many home computer users. The best part is that since it is free, you can try it with no further obligation necessary.

Virus:  Trojan.Lodear
A Trojan horse that attempts to download remote files. It will inject a .dll file into the EXPLORER.EXE process causing system instability.

Virus:  W32.Beagle.CO@mm
A mass-mailing worm that lowers security settings.  It can delete security-related registry sub keys and may block access to security-related websites.

Virus:  Backdoor.Zagaban
A Trojan horse that allows the compromised computer to be used as a covert proxy and which may degrade network performance.

Virus:    W32/Netsky-P
A mass-mailing worm which spreads by emailing itself to addresses produced from files on the local drives.

Virus:  W32/Mytob-GH
A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan for the Windows platform.  Messages sent by this worm will have the subject chosen randomly from a list including titles such as:  Notice of account limitation, Email Account Suspension, Security measures, Members Support, Important Notification.

Virus:  W32/Mytob-EX
A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan similar in nature to W32-Mytob-GH.  W32/Mytob-EX runs continuously in the background, providing a backdoor server which allows a remote intruder to gain access and control over the computer via IRC channels.  This virus spreads by sending itself to email attachments harvested from your email addresses.

Virus:  W32/Mytob-AS, Mytob-BE, Mytob-C, and Mytob-ER
This family of worm variations possesses similar characteristics in terms of what they can do.   They are mass-mailing worms with backdoor functionality that can be controlled through the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network.   Additionally, they can spread through email and through various operating system vulnerabilities such as the LSASS (MS04-011).

Virus:  Zafi-D
A mass mailing worm and a peer-to-peer worm which copies itself to the Windows system folder with the filename Norton Update.exe.  It can then create a number of files in the Windows system folder with filenames consisting of 8 random characters and a DLL extension.  W32/Zafi-D copies itself to folders with names containing share, upload, or music as ICQ 2005a new!.exe or winamp 5.7 new!.exe. W32/Zafi-D will also display a fake error message box with the caption “CRC: 04F6Bh” and the text “Error in packed file!”.

Virus:  W32/Netsky-D
A mass-mailing worm with IRC backdoor functionality which can also infect computers vulnerable to the LSASS (MS04-011) exploit.

Virus:    W32/Zafi-B
A peer-to-peer (P2P) and email worm that will copy itself to the Windows system folder as a randomly named EXE file. This worm will test for the presence of an internet connection by attempting to connect to www.google.com or www.microsoft.com.  A bilingual, worm with an attached Hungarian political text message box which translates to “We demand that the government accommodates the homeless, tightens up the penal code and VOTES FOR THE DEATH PENALTY to cut down the increasing crime. Jun. 2004, Pécs (SNAF Team)”

Spyware and adware programs are such a nuisance when you use a computer that has been infected by them. Some of these malicious programs will attach into your computer and bombard it with pop-up ads that you cannot seem to get rid of easily.

There are some adware programs that are really legitimate advertisements that won’t be such a bother to you. But the proliferation of extreme forms of pop-up ads has given such programs a bad name. Instead of a good way of promoting a product or service on the internet, adware programs have been seen as a hassle that every computer users have begun to dread.

And then there are spywares. These malicious programs try to get in to your PC and work secretly from among the many programs you are running. They are called spyware because they try to hide behind the cover of other seemingly legitimate computer programs in order to get inside your computer.

Once they are downloaded, they can begin doing their malicious work. Some spyware programs try to spy on your surfing habits or on how you use your computer. It monitors the websites that you visit as well as the programs that you frequently use. This type of spyware compiles the data and then sends it to the spyware author.

Then there are other spyware programs that can do a scarier job. There are types of spyware programs that actually try to record your very keystrokes. This in turn will let the spyware author know and discover your own passwords, email addresses, credit card information as well as other sensitive information that you would otherwise like to keep to yourself.

There are also other spyware programs that are capable of scanning your hard drive and can be sophisticated enough to download other programs into your computer. These types of spyware can even prevent you from using other computer programs and try to force you to use instead a certain program that they might be promoting or selling.

There are many signs to know that your PC may be infected by spyware. Although they may run secretly, you may be able to notice them if you try to look closely. Have you noticed any changes lately on your web browser? Do you see any extra toolbars? Did your homepage settings surprisingly change without you knowing it?

If you notice these things, chances are, your PC may already have spyware in it. Do you suddenly get pop-up ads that are not related to the website that you are currently browsing? Is your PC getting a bit sluggish even though you have tried everything to make it go faster? These and many other things are tell-tale signs of a spyware infection.

There is a wide range of anti-spyware programs now available on the market that may help you get rid of these nuisance programs. These programs work by trying to identify spyware programs inside your hard drive and remove them or put them into quarantine. Such spyware removal tools usually have a database of known spyware and adware programs that gets updated to make sure that your PC is always protected from newer and more recent spyware threats.