SpyBot 0.0

Vaccines these days are no longer a simple subject. Arguments that suggest they may do more harm than good have surfaced and makes you wonder if the flu shot has any effectiveness, or is just a marketing scheme aimed at sucking money and potentially leaving you with an unwanted substance running around in your bloodstream. You see, unlike computers, the human body is not fully understood, even if respectable people with letters after their names would like you to believe. Good thing that computers are in fact understood, at least by people who make them. The idea of immunizing a computer is much more feasible and plausible than immunizing a human. So what do we have here?

Seek and Neutralize

Spybot Search and Destroy, besides reminding me of Metallica, brings a new concept to my attention: Immunization. This feature essentially injects your browsers with automated responses in case you stumble across a site that's on Spybot's blacklist. A fairly simple concept, but this means that the immunization should be done regularly in order to be up to date.

The main window works as a hub for every tool. Each tool is a separate module (different application). Spybot Free Edition includes System Scan, Immunization and Quarantine and of course, Update.

The System Scan, performs a full search for everything that can harm you from rootkits, key loggers and other malware embedded in your browser. It features an option to disable tracking cookies. Some cookies can track your internet usage and if you want full privacy it's best to activate this option. The system scan is very thorough but it also takes a long, long time to finish. It is divided in two parts, scanning and cleaning and you need to be there after scanning completes. It can also happen to crash when cleaning so keep your fingers crossed or knock on wood, whichever method you like better.

Features

• System Scan - scans for multiple threats
• Immunization - modifies browsers to reject malicious sites
• Quarantine - positives are stored nand dealt with from here

Pros

• Cool immunization feature

Cons

• System Scan is not stable enough

Conclusion

Spybot is a nifty addition to your computer security, as long as you do not also use other auxiliary security applications (as overlapping does not work well).