The last PCMag’s SpyShelter review done by PCMag’s editor Mr. Rubenking(as article says) can not be left without our comment. We have requested this review a couple times in the past. Now that the review has been done, we have to admit that we have never been so disappointed by a “Security Analyst”.
Reviewer expects SpyShelter to do things that our software is not intended to do.
Let’s start with the category. SpyShelter has been classified as Anti Virus software. Let us be clear, SpyShelter is not an Anti Virus. It is an Anti-Keylogger.
Reviewer has compared SpyShelter with AntiViruses like Kaspersky, Webroot, Bitdefender and others. In his article, he strongly emphasizes the fact that those Anti Virus programs easily detect and delete his malware samples. What he forgets to mention is that all public malware samples are well known to every anti virus publisher, so it is not big thing to detect a sample that has been out in the public for months or even years.
SpyShelter does not remove viruses, SpyShelter prevents actions which can cause damage to system and put private data at risk.
From real time protection point of view, SpyShelter does precisely what it is supposed to do. Reviewer has mentioned that he disabled protection in order to install malware. What was exactly the point? Disabling protection and then installing malware is not exactly how the tests of real time protection security software should be performed. Reviewer simply ignored our recommendation to never disable protection. He even ignored the warning message which pops when user tries to turn off SpyShelter’s protection or one of it’s modules. Once again – SpyShelter protects users in real time. It needs to be turned on in order to detect dangerous actions. It is not an antivirus so it cannot scan files to see if they are infected.
We have coded a simple keylogger to show you how weak Anti Virus software is against zero-day malware.
As you can see in this video, anti virus programs does not see anything wrong with this application. It took only a couple of minutes to code it.
Imagine how many companies, banks and institutions who rely on antivirus can fall prey to an average keylogger.
Some security analysts fail to understand that most of the so called zero-day malware will never be detected by antivirus labs. Why? For example, the person who coded a keylogger wants to target a specific audience – a specific company or people who use this bank or that service. This particular keylogger will never reach broader audience and anti virus labs will never even hear about it, so there will be no ‘cure’.
The same applies to other keyloggers we have tested. Sure, anti viruses detect most of commercial keyloggers. The thing is that most of monitoring program vendors offer a custom complation(and, of course nobody uses commercial keyloggers to steal high profile data). Basically it is the same keylogger, except for the fact that is undetectable for anti viruses. They do not have fingerprint of this custom compilation in their database, so it will fail to detect it. Someone might say, that anti virus got heuristic/real time protection which can deal with it. Well, if you think it can, look back at the video above. It can not. Even in the highest protection mode.
Yes, the amount of alerts in SpyShelter might scare some beginner users off. Yes, we agree that other type of security software can be much easier to use for average user. But in reality, users who decide to put a little bit more effort in understanding the alerts will benefit greatly.
SpyShelter protects you against all threats from the moment you install it. SpyShelter can block malware that was installed before SpyShelter but we do not guarantee it – Antivirus software fixes infections, not SpyShelter.
SpyShelter has a keystroke encryption driver, which protect against keyloggers that were present in the system before SpyShelter was installed.
You do not have to believe us, you can check it all by yourself. Any beginner programmer should able to create a simple monitoring app and test it against popular anti virus/interent security software. They will fail. And SpyShelter will not.
Sure, there are other HIPS applications on the market. However protection against keyloggers require much more than just a HIPS. There is plenty of unusual cases, exceptions…We have been developing SpyShelter for over 5 years and we do not intend to stop it.
Of course PCMag’s Reviewer has failed to mention that SpyShelter is the only application in the World which can encrypt keystrokes of all applications in all languages (As of 9.9.1 release, SpyShelter’s Keystroke Encryption supports East Asian languages). On top of that SpyShelter was the World’s first 64 bit anti-keylogger and anti-sound logger.
We are not fighting against Anti Virus software, since SpyShelter is an Anti Keylogger. Those are two different categories of software. All we ever wanted from was a fair review. Instead our software was compared to completely different type of security programs.
We will leave the huge amount of Anti Virus affiliate links within the article without a comment (those of you who do not know what affiliate link is – Affiliate gets money for every license sold through the posted link).
Test results from the video:
| Application | Version | Keylogging Protection | CLT |
| Webroot Secure Anywhere Internet Security Complete | 8.0.8.88 | Failed | 190/340 |
| Kaspersky Total Security | 15.0.2 | Failed | 200/340 |
| Bitdefender Internet Security 2015 | 18.21.0.1517 | Failed | 210/340 |
| SpyShelter Firewall | 9.9.1 | Passed | 340/340 |
Windows 7×64
Tools used:
Simple Keylogger
CLT – Comodo Leak Test