Does Webroot protect against PUP"s and adware?
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Welcome alsheppard to the Community Forum!@ wrote:
Does Webroot protect against PUP"s and adware?
These are very annoying at best in that they cause pop-us, redirect your browser home page, and other behavior that may slow down the computer and direct ads your way, but they are not actually doing anything bad like damaging files or stealing information. Often they are installed intentionally by you the user as browser add-ons for various tasks such as quick search tools.. but they also come with the result of added annoying pop-ups and ads. Other times they 'piggy back' with other software that you installed, or try to 'sneak' onto your system entirely.
WSA does detect and remove many PUA's, and more are being added, but WSA does not detect all of them. A simple browser add-on with PUA behavior that is easy to identify and easy to remove is not likely to be detected and removed by WSA. Those that are intentionally difficult to locate and remove are. Please see THIS LINK for more information regarding Webroot's stance on these annoying programs.
For those that are not detected by WSA, please see this KB Article and this KB article here
Here is the User Guide for more information about Webroot!
For those that ARE detected by WSA, but cannot be removed automatically, you can submit a Trouble Ticket. Webroot Support will help you get these annoying 'crapware' off your computer at no extra charge, and the additional examples may help to better automatic removal of that particular PUA for all users in the future.
To make sure that your WSA is checking for PUA's with the best proficiently, it sometimes helps to reset the PUA detection within WSA's settings. For PUA's that had previously been scanned and determined to be OK, but have since been added to detection/removal, you may want to complete the following steps:
- Open Webroot SecureAnywhere
- Click on ‘Advanced Settings’ from the top right
- Select ‘Scan Settings’ from the left side
- Unselect the option “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
- Click on the Save button (you may have to enter in a CAPTCHA)
- Reselect the option to “Detect Potentially Unwanted Applications”
- Click on the Save button
- Run another scan with Webroot and remove any items that get detected.
Hope this answers your question and if it doesn't please come back and we will answer this further!
Actually TripleHelix or Baldrick may be able to answer this question as well!
Hi alsheppard!:D@ wrote:
Does Webroot protect against PUP"s and adware?
Thats great that I could be of assistance in answering this question!
Don't be a stranger and come on back to get to know us all better or just to browse around!
Have a Great Day!
So in other words, NO WEBROOT DOES NOT PROTECT AGAINST THE MOST INTRUSIVE MALWARE TO DATE BECAUSE THEY FEEL IT ISNT DOING ANYTHING WRONG HIJACKING YOUR BROWSER. AS IF THE WORD HIJACK COULD HAVE ANYTHING GOOD ASSOCIATED WITH IT.
THANKS WEBROOT FOR SAVING ME TIME
THANKS WEBROOT FOR SAVING ME TIME
Hi @ and welcome to the community!
I hope you'll come back here to discuss this topic :)
Webroot does protect against PUA like toolbars or the useless downloaders from software portals; For example Webroot blocks adware(browser add on, search engine, settings,...) from a popular german download portal.
What@ meant is that Webroot isn't specialized on those kind of threats. There are other tools out there which do only protect against PUA or clean them from your PC more efficiently. Actually every Antivirus software only has limited abilities to detect PUA.
I hope you'll come back here to discuss this topic :)
Webroot does protect against PUA like toolbars or the useless downloaders from software portals; For example Webroot blocks adware(browser add on, search engine, settings,...) from a popular german download portal.
What
WSA protects against malicious PUA/PUPs.
The thing is you download free software at your own will. Many of these free software come bundled with unwanted PUAs. The developers offering the free software make money from bundling these PUAs. Many of the PUAs are not malicious and offer you the option to uninstall cleanly. No need for WSA to intervene. You can remove them yourself.
The malicious PUAs are of course blocked or detected and removed by WSA. Tens of thousands of malicious PUAs are marked by the world class threat researchers at Webroot everyday.
WSA is built to be the most effective, lightest and fastest AV. It blocks the bad ones. The safe but nevertheless annoying ones can be removed by users themselves. The best practice would be to avoid installing software (especially free ones or from bad sources, I'm looking at CNET's download.com) that come bundled with PUA and adware.
WSA can of course miss malicious PUAs. It's not perfect. You can always contact the Support Team to get the PUAs removed.
The thing is you download free software at your own will. Many of these free software come bundled with unwanted PUAs. The developers offering the free software make money from bundling these PUAs. Many of the PUAs are not malicious and offer you the option to uninstall cleanly. No need for WSA to intervene. You can remove them yourself.
The malicious PUAs are of course blocked or detected and removed by WSA. Tens of thousands of malicious PUAs are marked by the world class threat researchers at Webroot everyday.
WSA is built to be the most effective, lightest and fastest AV. It blocks the bad ones. The safe but nevertheless annoying ones can be removed by users themselves. The best practice would be to avoid installing software (especially free ones or from bad sources, I'm looking at CNET's download.com) that come bundled with PUA and adware.
WSA can of course miss malicious PUAs. It's not perfect. You can always contact the Support Team to get the PUAs removed.
Hi NotComingBack
Welcome to the Community Forums.
From reading through this thread so far it would appear that you have not really understood much of the information Sherry provided, especially that on Webroot's position on PUAs which IMHO is an entirely appropriate one given the nature of the 'nasty' and how it gets on a system.
I personally practice the approach of only downloading from app producers' sites where possible and have never been targeted by a PUA, but am confident that if by any chance I do inadvertently run into one then WSAhas got my back.
Regards, Baldrick
Welcome to the Community Forums.
From reading through this thread so far it would appear that you have not really understood much of the information Sherry provided, especially that on Webroot's position on PUAs which IMHO is an entirely appropriate one given the nature of the 'nasty' and how it gets on a system.
I personally practice the approach of only downloading from app producers' sites where possible and have never been targeted by a PUA, but am confident that if by any chance I do inadvertently run into one then WSAhas got my back.
Regards, Baldrick
@ wrote:
So in other words, NO WEBROOT DOES NOT PROTECT AGAINST THE MOST INTRUSIVE MALWARE TO DATE BECAUSE THEY FEEL IT ISNT DOING ANYTHING WRONG HIJACKING YOUR BROWSER. AS IF THE WORD HIJACK COULD HAVE ANYTHING GOOD ASSOCIATED WITH IT.
THANKS WEBROOT FOR SAVING ME TIME
I never get any PUA's as I use that thing between my ears and watch for any pre-checked unwanted crapware but I have used WSA to clean allot of PUA's off of other systems but I would agree Webroot could be more aggressive with PUA's but where do you draw the line?
Daniel 😉
Part of the issue with PUAs is more of a legal issue than a technical one. For instance, if you download software from a site that bundles a toolbar, and that site explicitly mentions it and has a checkbox for you to install it, then we can't really jump in and override that. As long as the toolbar people are following the proper notification process, even if it is annoying, then it isn't our place to stop that from happening. We can detect and prevent PUAs that aren't following this process. It's a controversial area still:
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/12/download-com-bundling-toolbars-trojans/
For instance the Java installer continues to bundle in the ask.com toolbar:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2494794/malware-vulnerabilities/oracle-will-continue-to-bundle--crapware--with-java.html
and you have to remember to uncheck the box every time you do a Java upgrade.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/12/download-com-bundling-toolbars-trojans/
For instance the Java installer continues to bundle in the ask.com toolbar:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2494794/malware-vulnerabilities/oracle-will-continue-to-bundle--crapware--with-java.html
and you have to remember to uncheck the box every time you do a Java upgrade.
good point nic the key word is compliance if the the site/and or developers are following the rules than its up to the end user to watch what they are downloading and as you say uncheck what you don't want.
Google also has a policy to refuse ads for software that doesn't comply. But as long as the installer tells you that you are getting a toolbar or other adware as part of the install, then those ads are allowed. That's why so many people get confused by the ads at the top of the Google results, when they offer an installer for Firefox or some other browser.
A lot of users have become totally ingrained to the idea that seeing ads, or ad popups, means that there MUST be malware on the device. In some ways AV software companies, and those who provide tech support, are becoming the victim of our own success: Since pop-ups and ads COULD be caused by malware now many users feel ALL must be.
But... you know... that is quite OK with me. I would far rather explain the differences between PUA's, Malware, why some PUA's are caught and some not 100 times a day than have a single person decide NOT to ask for clarification. Chances are pretty good the ONE person who decides NOT to ask is the one with a real virus.
I certainly do not want to be the one who discourages people from asking and going back to the state where things used to be when no one knew what the malware was, or maybe knew but wasnt concerned: the stakes a lot higher today than they used to be.
🙂
I certainly do not want to be the one who discourages people from asking and going back to the state where things used to be when no one knew what the malware was, or maybe knew but wasnt concerned: the stakes a lot higher today than they used to be.
🙂
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