This post and others like it relate back to an introductory post that explains the point. This is an edited variant of something I wrote in 2007, in this case software related to security, antivirus, spam and malware. There is a good chance I am forgetting more recent ones. In no particular order, the list as best I can remember…
Sybari Antigen & Spam Manager
Norton Antivirus/Internet Security
Norton Antispam
Thunderbyte Antivirus
McAfee
Ad-Aware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Ewido
MS AntiSpyware
CWShredder
Trend Micro Housecall
ZoneAlarm
KEYKatcher
Malwarebytes
Not a lot to say here. I’ve done outrageous amounts of malware cleanup, with a lot of it being done or completed manually, above and beyond any of these tools. I selected and rolled out Sybari Antigen to the former big client, after I finally convinced them they needed at least that level of protection, then two years later we renewed to include the integrated Spam Manager feature. Antigen was never anything but stellar. Spam Manager worked superlatively until a point roughly coinciding with Microsoft’s purchase of the company (of which they’d been a customer after lab testing showed them to be hands down the best), but that may be coincidence.
KEYKatcher is the odd item here. I helped someone purchase and learn how to use the unit. It was for seeing what one of his kids was doing online, or so he said. What made this interesting was the first one I got failed in a fascinating way. I ended up working with the owner of the company that makes them, trying to figure it out before sending it back so he could study it, because it was unique. It’s a device (it could have gone in the hardware section) that goes between the computer and keyboard to log keystrokes, which can then be dumped into Notepad or any word processor, triggered by typing the right code.
It’s not security-related software, but the most useful thing I ever did at the big client, after eliminating e-mail as a virus source, was to roll out Firefox and get as many people as possible to use it unless a crucial site absolutely required Internet Explorer. The malware cleanups became primarily for those who insisted on using IE or, coincidentally or not, had a third-party nagware screensaver installed.
Next up, call center and tech support tools.