I made the switch to the Microsoft Anti-Spyware
app, now called
Windows Defender,
and haven't looked back. The latest major change has turned the tool into an invaluable one on my machine. But Defender
can't do it all. In fact, we all know that rootkits, spyware, and
badware in general could crud
up our computers at any point, right? Well MS is cogniscent of this, and has a real fix: wipe your drive, and reinstall.
Yep, that's it! Billions of bucks in R&D can't be wrong kids, it only takes a giant magnet and some extra time to be
free from malware. Oh, and a terrific backup scheme... Who says this? According to the
story on eWeek, Mike Danseglio, program manager in the
Security Solutions group at Microsoft. The choice quote from Mike is, "When you are dealing with rootkits and some
advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to
recover without nuking the systems from orbit." Mike goes on to explain some malware is just "way too
hard" to remove, thus requiring a total wipe and reinstall. They had to do this with a certain unnamed government
branch, wiping and restoring 2,000 machines. The good news is, with rootkit attacks on XP SP2 on the rise, all you
fixit types, IT guys, and family computer monkeys will have job security at least until Vista ships sometime in the not
too distant future... Huzzah!
Tags: defender, malware, rootkit, spyware, windows defender, WindowsDefender, xp
