Thursday, June 2, 2011

Are Stand Alone AntiMalware/AntiSpyware apps dead?

 A couple years back their was the AV product and their was the AntiSpyware product. However over years the line between the two has disappeared with AV products now detecting all forms of Malware. So is the time over the stand alone AntiMalware/AntiSpyware app? Now this will all be in my opinion but I am stall going to share it with y'all.

 Now when you think back of the major stand alone AntiMal/AntiSpy applications you may think of CounterSpy, SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor, Spybot, and Ad-Aware. Now these apps are not as popular as they use to but some are still there. Here is where they are at today:

 CounterSpy: Just recently discontinued

 SpySweeper: Still being sold and is currently in 6.1. Webroot released another version that added Antivirus Scanner using the Sophos Engine.

  Spyware Doctor: Its still here, currently in version 8 and has added a behavior blocker. They have been acquired by Symantec the creators of Norton Antivirus

  Spybot Search and Destory: Just recently released the first beta of version 2.0. It will be the first Spybot version with real time protection.

  Ad-Aware: Ad-Aware is still there but you can no longer get a version without built in Antivirus protection. The AV is now powered by Sunbelt Software who used Counterspy.

  So what happened to these programs? AV programs extended into detecting all types of malware and people went back to running just one program in real time protection. People went back to thinking why pay for two programs when I can just buy one that does them all? Yes I still see many people running these programs I am not saying they are dead and are going away, however I don't see as many people running them as I used to.

 So is space still open for an AntiMal/AntiSpy program? The answer is yes and two tools have been strongly proven the space is open and people will pay for products to detect what their AV misses. Those programs as you may have guessed are: SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. They are the two go to tools if your machine gets infected and your AV is not detecting anything. It just goes to show if you have a program that is preforming well, can run with other AV programs, and spreading quickly via word of mouth you can have a successful product in the space.

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