Review: Spy Sweeper v4.0

Worried about adware, malware and spyware? Kai Chandler puts Spy Sweeper to work

Product	Spy Sweeper v4.0
Company	WebRoot
Web	www.webroot.com
Price	USD29.95 or £24.95 inc. VAT per year
We like	24x7 Guards against covert malware installation. 30 day try before you buy
We don't like	Annual Fee
Rating	9/10
Requirements

You've installed your firewall and antivirus tool. Are you safe to surf? Possibly not. According to a recent survey by Webroot, over 80% of computers are infected with nasty or even dangerous programs, collectively called malware, spyware or adware.

Often hidden in emails or shareware, malware, (for Malicious Software), can cause real problems for users.

There are several types of malware: adware, spyware, hijackers, toolbars, and diallers. They are often poorly programmed and at best will cause your system to become slow or unstable. Many are difficult to remove once your computer has been infected.

Let's look at them in more detail:

Adware - puts advertisements on your screen. These take many forms including popups, popunders and advertisements that appear later, even if your browser is closed. Ads may be relevant to the site you are viewing. For example the Peer to Peer free program, Bearshare carries a payload of Adware called Savenow. Although not a major concern, it displays certain advertisements depending on URL addresses that you have visited. It keeps a secret track of websites you have visited, takes up bandwidth and can cause your computer to crash.

Spyware - sends information about you and your computer to somebody else. Spyware may send the addresses of sites you have visited or worse still, transmit information you have entered into forms or other personal information. With today's concerns about identify theft this is a real worry.

Hijackers - Hijackers take control of your web browser and may reset your home page, search bar and search pages. They can redirect you to undesirable sites or stop you going to particular sites.

Toolbars - these plug into Internet Explorer to provide an additional function such as a search form or a pop-up blocker. A fairly reputable example is the Google toolbar. Again, they can harvest information and send it back.

Dialers - for those of us still with dial up modems, dialler programs redirect calls to a very expensive number. You won't know until you get the bill. There are some free tools to remove malware, the best known being Ad-aware from Lavasoft. Although they are reasonably effective in removing malware they have a big flaw. Rather than guard your system actively, they are passive scanners that clean on request. It's a bit like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. After reviewing a number of tools, Spy Sweeper from Webroot stands out. You may have heard of Webroot - they also publish the successful Window Washer cleanup tool.

Spy Sweeper works in three ways:

Installation Shield -runs in the background and prevents malware from installing. For example when I installed Bearshare, Spy Sweeper immediately blocked SaveNow from installing. Very neat.

Scan Now - allows you to trigger a scan at any time. Any malware identified is first put in encrypted quarantine and then permanently removed.

Scheduled Sweep - you can set a sweep for any time, for example at 0300 every morning.

Spy Sweeper is really very easy to use. It regularly updates its library of malware fingerprints and at latest count has almost 100,000. It has almost no impact on system performance unless you trigger a scan. This takes about five minutes on a 7200rpm 120GB drive but the PC is understandably slowed during this process.

Spy Sweeper gives you a summary of any malware it finds. Also, you can right-click on any item to see further details such as Threat Assessment, Characteristics and Method of Infection.

Spy Sweeper also boasts a dozen "shields." These protect a number of different areas, for example to

• protect Internet Explorer from home page or search tool hijacking
• stop unauthorized programs loading at startup
• continually scan memory for malware
• block popup advertisements that use Windows Messenger

At USD29.95 or £24.95 inc. VAT per year such protection is not too expensive for what it offers.

To sum up, you really do need a tool to protect your computer and your family from malware. Spy Sweeper offers comprehensive protection and is backed up by a reputable company. Spy Sweeper guards 24/7 against malware being installed in the first place and is widely agreed to be one of the most effective such programs available.

Click here for a Free trial download.

 

Kai Chandler reviews top tools for family friendly surfing at www.surfcontrols.com