Do you need 'guard' with original premium app?

[captfbgnet]

Is malwarebytes Browser Guard included/part of the Malwarebytes premium app or does it have to be installed in 'addition to' ? 

[exile360]

Greetings,

No, it is a separate application/tool and adds additional protection on top of the Web Protection provided by Malwarebytes Premium and the two programs function very well together.

I hope this helps, and if there is anything else we might assist you with please let us know.

Thanks

[captfbgnet]

Rather than using another 'extension' any chance that this 'Guard' will be "built-into" the premium version of Malwarebytes at a future date? So I guess the question is, why not include it in as a Malwarebyte update?

[gatortail]

[exile360]

I'm not sure what the image above shows as I cannot see it in my browser, however my perspective on why it cannot be integrated into Malwarebytes, at least not in such a way that it would no longer be a separate browser extension vs working the way the Web Protection component in Malwarebytes Premium is comes down to the fact that it must be an extension within the browser for many of its functions to work, particularly those which depend on analyzing website behavior for heuristically/behaviorally blocking things like persistent ad popups, tech support scam sites and several other categories of threats/undesirable websites.  Website behavior cannot be analyzed outside the browser and the Web Protection component operates outside the browser plugged directly into the network stack via the WFP (Windows Filtering Platform) APIs (the same APIs/framework used by the built in Windows Firewall in modern Windows versions since Vista) and while it is great for blocking known bad sites through targeting blacklisted IPs, domains/URLs and even entire blocks of IP addresses, it cannot analyze the actual actions and contents of a website within any browser to determine if it might be malicious.

Obviously they could include the extension as a part of the installer package for Malwarebytes Premium, however this would likely be problematic for some browsers which might require that the user manually install extensions by visiting the approved app store for the browser as a security measure (like Apple does and like both Microsoft and Google are likely to in the future).  That said, perhaps they will advertise Malwarebytes Browser Guard in the user interface of Malwarebytes Premium somehow at some point to inform more users/customers of its existence so that they may visit the appropriate page for their browser and install it if they wish to, but that would be up to the Product and Marketing teams to decide if that would be a good option or not, though I wouldn't be opposed to it personally as I'm a big fan of the browser extension.

[David H. Lipman]

40 minutes ago, gatortail said:

The above indicates " You need to sign in to see this page. "

Please directly attach and not use 3^rd party sites.

 

[captfbgnet]

Thank you exile360 for a most in depth and complete answer. Great job. One question, if one is using a vpn (NordVPN for example) is one faced with the same issues that  "guard' protects from or does the 'vpn' protect against these types of attacks because of the encryption and  the 'false' IP address??

[exile360]

Yes, since you're still viewing third party websites (even though they're forwarded through a VPN), you'll still run across the same kinds of malvertisements, scams, ads and trackers among other things, that Malwarebytes Browser Guard would block.  I use a lot of security for my connection, including both Malwarebytes Premium and Malwarebytes Browser Guard, and on top of all that I also use a large HOSTS file, uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere and more because with so much financial motivation there's a lot of undesirable and hazardous content out there these days, so adding an additional layer like Malwarebytes Browser Guard to the mix is always a good idea, especially given its extended behavior based capabilities which I've found to be quite unique in the security landscape (in fact, I was the one who originally came up with the concept of behaviorally blocking tech support scam sites and the like which led to the original development of the browser extension which became Malwarebytes Browser Guard back when I was part of the Product Management team for Malwarebytes for this very reason because I saw the gap in this area left by other solutions and figured there must be some way to do it given the way these sites/threats behave).

[captfbgnet]

exile360, your answers are extremely complete, detailed and easy to understand. I hope there is a way for your answers to be 'pinned' somehow to these types of questions. Thanks again.

[exile360]

Thank you for the compliments, I'm glad I could help  

I'm sure the forum guys could easily come up with a better/more condensed way of stating pretty much all of the info I provided (I tend to get kinda verbose in case you couldn't tell by the walls of text above ), but yes, if they find it useful to do so then they are certainly welcome to, whether by copying/pinning my posts directly or by paraphrasing them to convey any key information that they believe would be useful.