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Six Rootkit Detectors To Protect Your PC

An anonymous reader writes "InformationWeek has a review of 6 rootkit detectors.This issue became big last year when Sony released some music CDs which came with a rootkit that silently burrowed into PCs. This review looks at how you can block rootkits and protect your machine using F-Secure Backlight, IceSword, RKDetector, RootkitBuster, RootkitRevealer, and Rookit Unhooker."

4 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Blue Pill by Asztal_ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Can any of them detect blue pill?

  2. Re:On debian/ubuntu by MrShaggy · · Score: 1, Interesting

    They forgot a decent anti-root kit

    MAC-OSX.. see it has six letters to.

    Is there a decent one for OS-X?

    --
    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
  3. Re:Rootkit by John+Jamieson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A/Coward - What, you somehow think that you are immune to Rootkits???

    I would not bet my life on that. Even though I consider the default security in my choice of GNU/Linux distro to be tighter than OS-X, I still use Knoppix (a CD based GNU/LINUX OS) for internet banking. It is the only TRUE assurance of safety from being rooted.

  4. Root of the problem with Windows by shanen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's really a philosophic problem. Microsoft sees the OS as a weapon against the competitors, and when you're building weapons, of course you make them as powerful as possible and of course safety gets a lower priority. (Microsoft's highest priority has always been on the money, however.) The problem is that the results are overpowered OSes that real experts can use in ways that completely overwhelm us normal mortals. Heaven help the little old lady who just wants to visit her church's website on Sundays.

    As regards the article, I read most of it, and might finish it later, but I wasn't too impressed with it or with the rootkit-detection tools that I've experimented with in the past. I'm supposed to be something of a computer expert, and I've certainly been using them long enough, but I regard myself as pretty much a helpless infant in these areas. If the NSA is planning to root my computer because I regard Dubya as an asinine embarrassment to my nation, I don't seriously expect to be able to do anything about it. Sure, I can use an expert's tools in many cases, but that doesn't make me any match for a real expert with corresponding tools. Or returning to the weapon metaphor, I may have a great gun, and even be competent enough in using it, but I'm sure that a seriously experienced killer would have little trouble taking me out, even with an inferior weapon.

    In conclusion, "It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools", but it's also a poor craftsman who can't tell the difference...

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.