Thread: win32/olmarik.AJL trojan

I'm pretty sure if I were to catch a trojan like this today, I'd be clueless about what to do. I don't think I've had a virus on my system for the past 10 years, probably more. I can't even say when or what it was. I'm not trying to say I'm special. On the contrary; that my long experience of a virus free system somehow makes me feel more vulnerable, if I indeed one day catch one for whatever reason.

An unexpected consequence; Concentrate too much in defending yourself -- and become successful enough -- and you'll be a sitting duck if something nasty eventually gets through.

Microsoft Security Essentials is currently pretty much the best free antivirus software on the market. I don't suggest Windows Defender, since it only protects against spyware and adware. MSE will turn off Windows Defender anyway, so you shouldn't worry if you have it installed.

But I do suggest you get rid of Avira or any other 3rd party free antivirus. MSE pretty much brought us back to the years of no nonsense, small, fast and highly efficient antivirus we enjoyed a decade ago before these companies started to bloat their antivirus.

Originally Posted by kermit

Hey Mario, how would MSE stand up in comparison of Norton AV? Just curious - I run Norton, cause that is all I have ever used, but if something like MSE would work just as well, I would consider using it instead.

Toe to toe, I would say. Norton AV has been the cause of too many crashed PCs. No doubt. However, not everyone has a similar experience. Invariably, if you have been using it for so long, it's safe to assume you haven't been having... too many problems. It needs to be said that much of Norton's flak is more the result of unsubstantiated word-of-mouth than actual experience with the software. I'm not trying to be offensive, really. Just that much has happened since the early 2000's when Norton's security suits did indeed deserve all the badmouthing they were getting. It's a typical example of how hard is to regain a reputation after you lost it.

Still, Norton AV is a complete AV suite. It's bot and rootkit protection are among the best. MSE is mostly a detection suit only with marginal deletion/cleaning abilities on infected systems, while Norton AV has very good protocols for deletion and cleaning of all sorts of malware. This distinction is very important, as I see it.

But this also means that Norton AV has a larger memory footprint and takes its tool also on processor usage. Assuming you take a pro-active approach to virus in your computer, meaning you put a lot of emphasis on safe computer usage and malware detection, there's no reason for you to use Norton when you have MSE in the market for free. Both compare in virus detection quality and sane heuristics. This is even more true if you are using Windows Vista/7 with UAC enabled because right there you already have yet another very strong line of defense against infection. With no risk of running into an infected system, there's no reason to use Norton. You won't be taking advantage of Norton's excellent cleaning protocols and MSE comparable excellent detection heuristics are all you need.

But... if you find yourself being sloppy sometimes, or absolutely must guarantee a safe(r) environment , say because this computer has a link to your workplace, Norton's added functionality comes as a must. In fact, for office environments I cannot recommend anything other than a complete antivirus suit and Norton has been making some of the best for the past... oh, 4 or 5 years.

Well, I don't know how to explain it. As I said not everyone has experienced all these troubles with Norton AV. For some the application just cruises along with them on their machines. I do know however, as well as you I'm sure, that bad rep travels faster and more broadly on the tubes. And when I see everyday a whole company running Norton's suit on 5 year old machines with Windows XP, without any problems whatsoever I can only take one conclusion: It's not as bad as people paint it. Maybe the ones for whom Norton works just fine aren't so vocal? Don't know. But our perceptions of what is good and what is bad are often mislead by exactly the imbalance of opinions. My experience with it is vastly different...

Still, that's the extent of my praise on Norton (and the fact that it boosts a much better security in case of infection). One other aspect I forgot to mention that irks me about Norton and pretty much every other security suit out there is that they make a point of remembering us they are running. Everything serves as an excuse to launch a popup. MSE is a sweet. It really only bothers you if it catches anything. Even if you don't setup scheduled scans (which I don't), the only thing it does is turn its taskbar icon red after a week of no scans. Not even a text balloon. For someone like me, that's just gold. That and the no nonsense UI; another area were the competition seems bent on driving everyone nuts with sometimes almost surreal interfaces (as if an anti-virus had to be a thing of beauty).

But not on performance. Sorry, don't know what the problem on those machines is (and I bet you are going to tell me on every machine you've seen it running. You wouldn't be the first...). Those days of Norton's antivirus woes are pretty much over. Anyone experiencing problems should probably look elsewhere for the cause.


Edit: the top selling position for several years of Norton's suits also betray that things may not be just as bad as sometimes they are painted. Surely, such a crap anti-virus software would have been by now entirely displaced by the "much better" competition. It's not even that it can be claimed Norton's marketing is particularly aggressive. It's not.

If you want to make a disk clean - really clean, then use something like Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing
Your windows install will just see a HD as if it had just come out of the anti-static bag.

I would suggest you head over to here -> Viruses, Spyware and other Nasties
Post your message and wait for crunchie or jholland1964 to respond.