OREANDA-NEWS. Kaspersky Lab’s free utility Kaspersky Security Scan, designed to diagnose a computer’s security status and produce up-to-date information about the threats and vulnerabilities existing in the system, detects dangerous malware that is often overlooked by popular commercial security solutions. The modern anti-malware technologies incorporated into Kaspersky Security Scan have helped thousands of users around the world to detect viruses and Trojans that were active on their computers.

The developers of modern commercial and free security solutions assure users that with their software the computer is completely secure. In reality, this is not always true: as Kaspersky Lab found out in an early 2013 survey, even popular, tried-and-tested solutions can overlook a dangerous malware program and fail to inform users about a threat.

For example, in a study conducted by Kaspersky Lab, a Trojan called ZAccess was detected on a large number of computers protected by other vendors’ security solutions. Once installed, this malicious program can download extra modules with which it performs various malicious activities: it spoofs search engine results, automatically follows links suggested by cybercriminals, downloads files, etc.

Sality is another malicious program uncovered in Kaspersky Lab’s study. After a successful infection, this piece of malware disables security solutions installed on the victim computer and blocks access to security vendors’ web domains. To prevent manual deletion of the virus, all attempts to use Windows Task Manager and Registry Editor are also blocked. After installation, the program downloads a number of extra malicious modules, such as a module for stealing confidential data of the computer owner (including logins and passwords to accounts in various web services), a module for sending spam, and a module for turning the victim computer into a tool to brute force passwords.

ZAccess and Sality are just two of the numerous malware programs Kaspersky Lab specialists detected on the computers involved in the study. The conclusion is startling: even tried-and-true security solutions cannot ensure complete security and require a second opinion.

Second opinion solution

Kaspersky Security Scan is Kaspersky Lab’s free utility specifically designed as a second opinion solution that runs an extra check on a computer. It scans for viruses, Trojans, worms and other malicious objects. The utility scans the Windows operating system as well as applications for vulnerabilities and potentially insecure settings, such as the enabled auto-launch of external devices connected to the computer. The cloud-based Kaspersky Security Network is used as a permanent source of up-to-date information about active malicious programs and vulnerabilities; in addition, Kaspersky Security Scan receives daily updates of its antivirus databases, which are the same as those used by Kaspersky Lab’s commercial products. With all of this, the utility always has the latest information and can effectively detect the most recent threats. When the scan is completed, Kaspersky Security Scan delivers a detailed report of any problems identified, and suggests a solution.

An important advantage of Kaspersky Security Scan is that it does not conflict with other security solutions. This means users do not have to uninstall or disable their main anti-malware product before running an extra check with Kaspersky Lab’s utility.

"Kaspersky Lab’s top priority is to protect users from modern cyberthreats," says Oleg Ishanov, Director of Anti-Malware Research at Kaspersky Lab. "To achieve this, we have developed Kaspersky Security Scan - a second opinion solution which evaluates how well protected a user’s Windows environment is, and to check it for malware. The statistics collected by Kaspersky Lab’s experts show that such a check is highly relevant, even on computers that run security solutions from reputable vendors. The free utility will also be useful to those who do not use security software for one reason or another, but would like to check the security status of their computers and make sure there are no infections. However, we strongly advise all users to purchase and install a comprehensive security solution, such as Kaspersky Internet Security 2013."