To be honest, I’ve heard of PC Tools ThreatFire very long ago and I didn’t really have any confidence in this product thinking that this is another “unnecessary” tool since Kaspersky is the only security product that a computer would ever need. All this while I only know that ThreatFire can be installed together with an antivirus product without causing conflicts to provide stronger protection against viruses. If I already have one of the top antivirus (Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009) installed, I wouldn’t want any more security software slowing down my computer.
As I was going through the list of websites that I normally visit everyday, I saw that ThreatFire has been updated to version 4. I had a little time off today because of slight gastric pain, so I decided to check out ThreatFire. Boy I was really glad that I did and also regret that I didn’t review this earlier so I can share with you what is so good about ThreatFire.
ThreatFire is dramatically different to traditional antivirus software. Normal antivirus products usually need to have first identified and seen a threat before they can provide adequate protection against it. The protection is then provided via a signature or fingerprint update, which must first be written by an antivirus researcher. This creates a large window of time where threats are undetected and can therefore infect your PC even when you have antivirus software installed.
ThreatFire continually protects your PC against attacks by detecting malicious behavior, such as capturing your keystrokes or stealing your data, instead of only looking for known threats like normal antivirus software. By implementing sophisticated real-time behavioral analysis ThreatFire is able to stop never- before-seen “zero-day” threats solely by detecting their malicious activity. ThreatFire’s patent-pending ActiveDefense technology offers protection against all types of internet threats – both known and unknown – spyware, adware, keyloggers, viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, buffer overflows, and other malware. ThreatFire uses its unparalleled protection to hunt down and paralyze those threats that are either too new or too clever to be recognized by traditional “signature-based” antivirus software.
ThreatFire 4 Features:
Comprehensive protection against viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers & buffer overflows Real-time behavior-based malware detection Immediately shut down destructive processes and quarantine malware AntiVirus engine with signature updates to perform on-demand or scheduled scans of your entire PC for known threats Automatic updates (when opted in to ThreatFire Community) ThreatFire reporting and protection statistics Malware quarantine & removal Rootkit scanner – ability to schedule and customize Advanced custom rules settings, fully configurable System Activity Monitor – view instructive data about all running processes Informative alerts provide guidance on how to proceed; most threats automatically quarantined Free online support Personal and individual use allowed
I tried running one of the worst virus that I’ve ever encountered (Almanahe / Alman / JambanMu) on my test computer. ThreatFire immediately intercepted it and auto deletes the virus. This shows that ThreatFire is able to recognized “known” virus using the built-in antivirus.
Next, I wanted to test if ThreatFire can detect my undetectable trojan or not. I copied it to my test system, ran it, and amazingly ThreatFire picks it up as a threat telling me that the application has performed an action that is potentially dangerous. All I need to do is select “Kill and quarantine this process”, click the Proceed button and my computer is safe from the trojan infection.
OK, ThreatFire works. What about its memory usage? I am sure we all want to have secured computer without compromising its speed. ThreatFire only uses two process (TFService.exe and TFtray.exe) and both process takes up less than 8MB of system memory.
When I double click the ThreatFire system tray icon to show the user interface, a new process TFGui.exe appears taking up 18MB (sometimes more). As long as you don’t open ThreatFire’s interface, and leave it running in system tray, ThreatFire won’t gobble up 18MB of your system memory. Even if it does, closing ThreatFire will release back the used up 18MB memory usage.
Kaspersky is good but the Application Filtering feature is a little annoying. If you don’t like Kaspersky or somehow having compatibility problems with it on your computer, I’d suggest you to go for Norton Antivirus 2009 + ThreatFire 4. Both of this would pair up pretty well and give you a good protection against malware without slowing down your computer. *Hint* Norton Antivirus 2009 license giveaway = very soon…
Update: ThreatFire 4 is completely FREE for personal home use. Business users must purchase ThreatFire Pro license.
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