Vista - Cyberdefender or a Panda?

I got a couple of viruses in the last month, even though I had Norton anti-virus on my system and AVG – both were installed on my system by someone else.
I am looking at anti-virus programs, I want to pay cuz my experience with free software has not been all that good. A good friend recommended Panda anti-virus, and some forums also listed it as ones they liked, as well as I found some good reviews of Cyberdefender.

I liked that Cyberdefender seems to be a more complete package, covering anti-virus, trojans, spyware, id theft protection. Panda did seem easy to use though.

Panda doesn’t seem as good to me, but lots of people seemed to like it.

I checked CNET for reviews, and they rated AVG very high, but my experience was not so good.

Panda review is here (only 3 stars):

Panda Antivirus 2008 - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

Cyberdefender is here (got 4 stars):

CyberDefender AntiSpyware - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

I am leaning toward Cyberdefender which is cheaper for the paid version.

I have heard of Panda, and it is mentioned a lot, but Cyberdefender is not mentioned much.

I do know Cyberdefender is a public company, but is it a good anti-virus program?

Others that I should look at?

Malwarebytes, anti malware , free edition works very well. It took two infections off my computer at no cost. Very happy with it..

James

Hello apocalypticgirl, and Welcome to the Vista Forums.

A lot of members here are using Avast for their Antivirus in combination with regular scans with Spybot Search and Destroy and Malwarebytes

Avat is run as a resident program with the others used to scan manually on a regular basis.

The great thing about all these programs is that they are free for personal use.

avast! - Download antivirus software for spyware and virus protection

Spybot-S&D!

Malwarebytes.org

Whatever you do dont have 2 AV programs installed. That goes as a worldwide universal rule but sure it can be done, may be... Just depends on which 2 you talk about and how they are set up. Some products will simply not install until you have removed competing product. If in doubt dont!

Unless you use programs like paid Malwarebytes or SuperAntiSpyware you always risk getting infected "even though" using X or Y of the old programs. They fail sometimes.

May be an idea to check out Cyberdefender a bit more before paying up. Forget about Cnet, try some security forums or google. Does not look too convincing to me, never heard of it to begin with.

"life long" license for Malwarebytes cost 30$, I think 40$ for SuperAntiSpyware. Could be better to give them money and get closer to 100% detection in popular "malware" area - whatever that is. You get something you wont get from any AV. Why they exist, have even proved to work. At the moment Malwarebytes is only worth paying for if on 32bit Windows but I think they are working on 64bit.

Then use free AV like Avira (which dont catch malware/spyware at all), Avast (which can use some help) since you are well covered with what they are less good at.

Comodos Internet Security package has everything and is totally free. You can skip the weakest part which is AV and only install 2 way firewall and a beast called Defense+. More than enough but might require some setting up, reading of help file/forum. You will have to be stupid plus ignore prompts etc. to install virus/malware if you use Comodo correctly. I think it is very nice free product but waste of time if you are in some sort of control. Good for those with paranoia. Like the ultimate supplement to free AV.

Dont forget you also have free Windows Defender and this year MS will deliver free AV so either have good reason to pay up, like getting something extra/special, or may be check out what is avail. for free. Should do for most.

All the fluff like security bars, ID protection well they dont count much. There is opendns, build in attack/antiphishing filters in browsers plus several ways of increasing security, easiest for Firefox of course. If you really really need such gadgets may be problems dont come from attacks but your self? Dont rely too much on any security product. Ask how did infection happen? Is AV the only part who failed? What can I do to prevent myself from doing it again? etc. Potentially painful but works great and if successfull detecion rate can get close to 100%.

I heard an interview with a guy from Malwarebytes. He said the only AV he would pay for was Kaspersky, NOD32 or Avira - though still bad at what MBAM does! Good free ones were Avast, Avira. And the only competing product he respected was SuperAntiSpyware.

What he said, but do check out Comodo - not for everyone if defaults dont work perfectly, didn't for me, you need some interest or you will just go BAH and click randomly or uninstall. I uninstalled, heavy duty stuff for those who love or need it.

dk70,

That is all very good advice, but I would like to say that I have been using Cyberdefender for a little over a year and I have been happy with it. I wouldn't normally get on here and sing any software's praisses, cause most of the time they're not worth it, but I've really had a great experence with Cyberdefender. On two occassions those "fluff" products have really saved my @ss. The MyIdentityToolbar has shown when I hit a resky site, and then when I went back to the web and did a search about the site I was trying to get on i found where it had been flagged as part of ID theft scams.

After that I installed the software on my kids computers too. You can tell them till I'm blue in the face that they haf to be very very carful, but you know kids, they don't always lissen. I'd reather know that they are protected without me hafing to stand over there showlders.

And they have Registry Cleaner as a sidekick as well "Restore your PC's optimum performance and speed." Yeah, yeah.

Im not an expert an evaluating whole companies or their products but for now I dont think you get anything from Cyberdefender you cant get for free. Security business live high on peoples fear, protecting "identity" "children" "money", not even one-liners, just words. Or trying to take away responsibility from user is the real benefit? More so if you pay up. Is that good or bad? I think bad. Dont trust anything but use best available protection - adjusted to needs.

A simple entry in your host file could have prevented same entrance to whatever site you refer, there are 1000s of those. Cyberdefender really works! no surprise, but how well does it work?

There are tons of companies like Cyberdefender, sometimes the old AV products OEM license their stuff - like Avira does with Lavasoft Ad-aware. What ever you paid for does not have to be bad - but could very well be waste of money. And dont link to Cnet for these things

There are ways of locking kids down, even Microsoft Live have "familty safety" as a goal. If kids are clever you need Opendns in router (and a good one with equally good firmware) with safe password to prevent them from going crazy. Think trust instead of prevention is another, and if succesful much more efficient, way out. I dont see much idea in not trusting own kids but opinions will differ. Own kids means mine and so I will trust them - or have failed. Kids are kids though, I do understand but Cyberdefender blocking a site or 2 dont mean anything in the big picture, and internet is huge.

Updating to latest Firefox or IE8 would be a good start if not done already. They are first layer of defense and they do work even if not 100%. Try Perfect Defender 2009 Firefox (Googles attack filter) dont care but what about IE8? What happens when you click download? This is a yet another rougue scanner you should never install but you see there are protection in place, sometime they work. Cyberdefender might add to that, worth to pay for considering free offers - I doubt it... Try WOT Internet Security | WOT Web of Trust and compare, Cyberdefender will look like waste of money. If you feel safe because paying up start over Better than nothing but if much more is avail. for free why please companies like Cyberdefender?

Hello Apocalypticgirl

If you want a good pay program have a look at Best Anti-Virus Software & Internet Security - Kaspersky Lab You can choose between just the Anti-Virus or the complete packet, Internet security

Pooch

Neither of those programs (Panda for sure) are very effective.



CYBERDEFENDER (malware)
CyberDefender has a 3% detection rate (this product has never been entered in any certified comparative lab testing- and in fact has been marked as Malware. Use at your own Risk!!)
Malware-Test Lab: Antispyware Comparison Report (January 3, 2007)

Note on Cyber Defender
Beware CyberDefender - Tech Support Forum
Note on CyberDefender: We originally listed CyberDefender on this page out of concerns that the vendor behind the product was the same company that previously released Spyblocs/eBlocs, an application with a bad history of aggressive, deceptive advertising and illegal force-installs. Although we found no major problems in our initial testing with CyberDefender beyond false positives that were quickly cleaned up, and while the vendor itself halted the sales of Spyblocs and vowed not to repeat the same mistakes with CyberDefender, we decided out of caution to impose a three month probation period before we would consider re-testing and, if warranted, de-listing the the product from the Rogue/Suspect list. During that three month probation period we monitored the behavior of the company. When we encountered a spurt of advertising for the product through adware, we refused to de-list the product and imposed a second three month probation period. At the end of the second three month probation period we re-tested CyberDefender, again finding no problems serious enough to justify listing the program on this page. As we have observed no advertising of the product through adware for many months, and as the program itself exhibits no problems serious enough to warrant listing on this page, we have decided to de-list CyberDefender from the Rogue/Suspect list and can no longer regard the program to be "rogue/suspect.

CyberDefender AntiSpyware
2006 review
We DO NOT recommend purchasing and using this program!
http://www.2-spyware.com/review-cybe...ware-2006.html
CyberDefender AntiSpyware 2006 produces false positives. We have tested this program on uninfected machine that were never exposed to viruses or any other parasites. However, the tested Spyware remover managed to detect 30 spyware items (using the Full Scan mode) and 16 spyware items during the Quick Scan. In the first case malicious object were related to 8 different parasites, while in the latter case items were associated with only 4 pests.

Further analysis revealed that none of detected items are actually related to any kind of Malware. Furthermore, some found parasites actually are not even parasites at all. For instance, neither C-Dilla software protection tool or Engima SpyHunter Antspyware are real threats. In our case C-Dilla was installed and used by Autodesk Inventor 6, professional drawing and graphics software. Removing C-Dilla would corrupt this program. Other "malicious" objects that CyberDefender AntiSpyware 2006 found were actually related to the following programs: the WinRAR archiver (the rar.exe file, identified as Perfect Keylogger), Creative sound card drivers (stprov.ini, identified as FreshBar), K-Lite Codecs Pack (lame.exe, identified as HideExec), simple self-made C++/OpenGL application (6.exe, identified as shopathomeselect), Adobe Photoshop CS (several registry keys describing the .sta file extension, identified as istbar). See screenshots provided below.

The Full Scan mode is too slow. Several regular modern Computers were fully checked in a little more than one hour. An effecive anti-spyware program should scan the system much faster. Quick Scan is also not too quick. It usually takes about 5 minutes to complete.

CyberDefender AntiSpyware 2006 is made by the same company, as SpyBlocs, which is a corrupt spyware remover producing false positives. Both programs have very similar interfaces, although the vendor claims to have implemented new technologies in CyberDefender AntiSpyware 2006.

Domains associated with the product are cyberdefender.com and cyber-defender.com.



PANDA
Panda has failed almost every comparative test for active Viruses/malware it has entered. See attached VB100 results (no posting is available for AV-Comparatives due to no entries).