More Security Wares Lined up For Vista

ESET Software will release NOD32 2.7 of its antivirus software on Friday, November 17, expanding its capabilities in malware  and adding support for Windows Vista.

The new release, posted to the ESET home page on Tuesday, has broadened its coverage to include unwanted and nuisance software, but not necessarily dangerous programs, like adware, code for keystroke loggers, and the most dangerous of malware, rookits.

The Vista support covers both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Despite Microsoft’s touting of Vista’s security, ESET said it’s only a matter of time before malware shows its ugly face on Vista.

“Out of the box, Vista’s going to be more secure than Windows XP or anything else Microsoft has released,” said Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET. “But like any OS out of the box, users can do a tremendous amount of damage if they want to.”

Entire categories of malware will be shut down on Vista, since it uses kernel-level hooking and the PatchGuard kernel protection in Vista that has Symantec and McAfee crying that it will lock their software out. “So right off the bat you have a much smaller pool of malicious software that can run on Vista,” said Abrams.

NOD32 has offered rootkit   detection before it gets into a computer, but hasn’t really had the technology in place to effectively deal one once it is in the computer’s system. With version 2.7, ESET has added the technology to automatically remove a rootkit that has already taken hold of a system.

For reasons of clarity, not to mention legal coverage, ESET defines its newest area of coverage as “unwanted applications.” This covers things like keystroke loggers and ad popup software, or applications that install themselves and don’t uninstall easily.

Despite adding on new functionality, NOD32 retains the same small memory footprint that has distinguished the product. The price remains the same, at $39 for a single user license and a one-year subscription which provides the user with daily virus definition updates.

ESET isn’t the first vendor to jump on board the Vista security bandwagon, despite repeated assurances from Microsoft of its safety and security. GRISOFT, developer of the free AVG security software, has announced its AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 software is available on the Microsoft Windows Security Center for Windows Vista

AVG Anti-Virus has received its share of kudos from reviewers and its price is hard to beat (free). It detects things like viruses, Trojans, adware, dialers, keyloggers and worms, but like NOD32, doesn’t have spyware detection.