MBAM + something?

[Rawr]

I'm not very tech savvy and after a recent infection easily cleared up by using MBAM I've been reading a lot of this forum in an effort to educate myself on the subject of the different forms of malicious software and how to protect myself.

I see a lot of people talking about what kinds of anti-virus to accompany MBAM, and I'm curious... what is that difference between MBAM and an Anti-virus? Does MBAM not search for a "virus" and just everything else (spyware/adware/scareware/etc)? Could someone use JUST MBAM and still be fairly safe?

A friend of mine told me to use AVG along with MBAM to try and catch anything it misses but in the past year I've only had 1 infection (Anti-spyware Soft) and MBAM cleared it right up. Is this a good idea?

Any info and clarification is greatly appreciated and if I posted this in the wrong forum subsection I apologize!

[Rawr]

Apologies for the triple post. Couldn't find a delete thread option. As you can see I wasn't exaggerating when I said I wasn't tech savvy >.<

*embarrassed*

[exile360]

Greetings Rawr

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware differs from normal antivirus software in several ways, but primarily it has to do with the actual threats that MBAM targets. We only focus on the threats that normal antivirus softwares either fail to detect, fail to remove, or both, which is not the vast majority of infections on the web, but certainly many of the nastiest (such as rogues, rootkits, bots and even some of the more adaptive viruses).

For this reason we always recommend that our users also have an up to date antivirus installed so that they have complete protection, not only from the nastier things that we target, but from as many infections as possible.

Antivirus software also typically includes certain features that MBAM does not (and likely will not ever in order to avoid conflicts with antivirus software) such as detection of malicious scripts that attempt to execute malicious code through internet browsers, email based script viruses and email attachments, malicious scripting through instant messenger applications and many others.

MBAM also does not disinfect system files when they are modified by a virus, that's something that antivirus software has been doing pretty much since the beginning so for now at least, we leave that to them.

I apologize that my reply was a bit long winded, I just wanted to explain as thoroughly as I could. Also keep in mind that while I do work for Malwarebytes, I am not one of the software developers so some of the information with regards to what MBAM does and does not do may change in the future depending on the direction the developers decide to take the software, but for the moment it is accurate.

Also, with regards to the triple posting, it's no big deal, there is a known issue with the forum lately that is causing it to hang up when you try to post. The post actually does get made, and if you click on the Malwarebytes Forum link at the top of a post you will see that your post has already been made. The problem is being looked into and will hopefully be corrected soon.

[Rawr]

Thank you very much for the quick response!

I appreciate the information and will be sure to get myself some AV software right away.

[exile360]

You're very welcome, I'm glad to be of service

If you require anything further please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Hi Rawr,

To clear things up better, Malwarebytes' is an antimalware program. It will catch all types of threats, but only catches the most missed threats by antiviruses. Microsoft Security Essentials or Avira free both do very well for antiviruses.

[YoKenny1]

Rawr

The use of an anti virus application is a personal choice and avast! V5 is excellent as Vincent Steckler of Norton (Symantec) joined as CEO a while back as it is a good application to have with Malwarebytes.

Welcome and Why I Joined Avast

http://blog.avast.com/2009/07/20/welcome-and-why-i-joined-avast