BleepingComputer.com: Is this enough protection?

Hello

I have the following installed on my computer in the hope of protecting it from hackers and other security threats. Is it enough or do I need something else?

- Microsoft Security Essentials
- Windows Defender
- Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Thanks for your time!

Choosing a security toolkit with anti-virus, firewall and anti-malware programs is a matter of personal preference, your needs, your technical ability and experience, features offered, user friendliness, ease of updating (and upgrading to new program release), ease of installation/removal, available technical support from the vendor and price. Other factors to consider include detection rates and methods, scanning engine effectiveness, how often virus definitions are updated, the amount of resources the program utilizes, how it may affect system performance and what will work best for your system. A particular anti-virus that works well for one person may not work as well for another. You may need to experiment and find the one most suitable for your use and your system. There is no universal "one size fits all" solution that works for everyone and there is no best anti-virus. For more specific information to consider, please read Choosing Your Anti-virus Software.

A multi-layered defense using several anti-spyware products (including an effective firewall) to supplement your anti-virus combined with common sense, safe computing and safe surfing habits provides the most complete protection.

• Important Tip: Always remember that security begins with personal responsibility.

I recommend taking advantage of the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware (Pro) Protection Module in the full version which uses advanced heuristic scanning technology to monitor your system and provide real-time protection to prevent the installation of most new malware. This technology runs at startup where it monitors every process and helps stop malicious processes before they can infect your computer. The database that defines the heuristics is updated as often as there is something to add to it. Keep in mind that Malwarebytes does not act as a real-time protection scanner for every file like an anti-virus program so it is intended to be a supplement, not a substitute. Enabling the Protection Module feature requires registration and purchase of a license key that includes free lifetime upgrades and support. After activation, Malwarebytes can be set to update itself and schedule scans automatically on a daily basis. The Protection Module is not intrusive as the program utilizes few system resources and should not conflict with other scanners or anti-virus programs.

With the tools you currently have, I would also recommend using SpywareBlaster, a program that restricts the actions of potentially dangerous sites by adding a list of sites and domains associated with known spyware, advertisers and marketers to the browser's "Restricted Sites Zone". SpywareBlaster also prevents the installation of ActiveX-based malware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software amd blocks tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and any browsers that use the Internet Explorer engine such as AOL web browser, Avant Browser, Slim Browser and Maxthon (formerly MyIE2) and provides protection for Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Seamonkey, and Flock. SpywareBlaster is not intrusive as it does not run in the background. It only requires installation and then enabling of all protection. After that you only have to check periodically for database updates using the built-in "Check for Updates" feature and then enable all protection again.

And I would recommend using SUPERAntiSpyware Free as a separate stand-alone on-demand scanner. The free version does not provide real-time protection or scheduled scanning so there is no need for it to run at startup and waste system resources. You can always update the database definitions through the program's interface or manually download them from here. This gives you another tool to use in the event malware disables some of your other tools.