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I’ve written before about the virtues of having Malwarebytes (MBAM) as a tool in your arsenal to combat malware. Before I ramble further, I’d like to reiterate it is not a substitute for good antivirus protection. It is also not a firewall replacement. It is critical you have both antivirus and a firewall running on your computer at all times.  Malwarebytes works alongside these to help keep you clean and running smoothly. Remember, no one program does it all. In fact, I don’t even like security "suites" because you are putting all your faith in one company’s set of definitions.

The free version of MBAM is a tool I’ve used on a regular basis for several years now. Malwarebytes is known for being one of the few programs effectively removing Antivirus 20xx (insert whatever year you like here) infections painlessly. I personally have run the free version of MBAM on a weekly basis to ensure my machine is free of problems. More often than not, my scans come back clean. But, in the rare cases something is found, I trust MBAM to remove it. On my 15-year old male offspring’s computer that I should pay more attention to but don’t because he won’t leave the keyboard long enough for me to do any cleaning, MBAM was the best option for cleaning up a whole host of infections he managed to acquire about a year ago. It detected infections like wallpaper hijackers, of which I’d never even heard before (at the time).

In the free version, you don’t get automation. It is an on-demand scan. This means you have to remember to run it. And when you do, it’s crucial you remember to update the definitions first so you get the best scan possible.  The allure of the paid version is automatic updates, automatic daily quick-scans (which run very quickly), and real-time protection against intruders. The price is a one-time fee of $25.00 (US) for a lifetime consumer license.  Of course, corporate licensing is based upon the number of seats and is an annual fee.  I’d never been convinced enough of the virtues of the real-time protection to shell out the money - until now.

We just purchased MBAM for use on 100 seats at work. (While I’m sure pricing varies from company to company based on specific requirements, I can tell you we found the annual fee was extremely reasonable on a per seat basis.) My experience with their sales and support techs was outstanding - top of the line - with prompt answers and clarifications to all my pre-purchase questions and concerns. I’ve been using it for several days now on my machine at work and while my scans always come back squeaky clean, and my antivirus solution never detects any problems, I was amazed to see MBAM pop up a small notice it had blocked a malicious IP from accessing my computer.  While my machine is clean, the conclusion was ultimately reached somehow on our network is allowing the bad IP addresses to make it through our firewall - and of course it’s now being addressed, but the important thing is MBAM stopped it. Who knows how long such intrusions have been going on quietly without detection!! Perhaps…..just perhaps….this is how my Aol email credentials were compromised recently. We’re doing our wide scale corporate-wide roll-out of Malwarebytes on Monday. I’m sure the next few days will provide me with many panicked calls about what’s been found upon first scan, but I’m sure the weeks and months that follow are going to be much quieter and I’ll have much less time spent cleaning infected machines.

I do want to say no one program - no arsenal of programs -will catch everything. The groups that design malware are always one step ahead and malware removal software developers struggle to keep pace with the growing number of infections being released. Not only do these developers have to find samples and ways of identifying new infections, they have to figure out how to effectively neutralize and remove them. The sheer volume of files, folders and registry entries that can be dumped on a machine in nothing flat is amazing.  If you’ve ever cleaned up a machine with MyWebSearch on it you’ll know what I mean. None of us is ever really totally safe from infections. We arm ourselves to the best of our abilities (both with knowledge and programs to combat the potential problems) and we make the decision to plunge onto the internet. To some extent we must accept the responsibility for what happens next.

My experience with the real-time protection at work gave me reason to rethink getting a license key for home. I love free software, but the companies that generously make such high quality programs available to home users at no charge for personal  use do have real costs associated with the development and maintenance of these programs. I’d been seeing recent Tweets from BestTechie.net about a Holiday Coupon Code for MBAM. It was only a few dollars off (15% OF $25 isn’t really drastic), but I decided to go for it. My grand total was $21.21 (US) and I had my license key in mere moments. I enjoy the BestTechie site and using Jeff Weisbein’s affiliate link for my purchase was a small way to help support him too. If you have any inclination to upgrade to full protection, as I did, you can use his link to purchase. The limited time discount code is listed in his post - but even at the regular price of $25.00 (US) for a lifetime consumer license, it’s a bargain.

And just so no one ever comes a-knocking on my door because I provided a positive review, I was not asked to write this and I was not compensated for it. I’m not an affiliate for MBAM (mostly because I’m too lazy to sign up, but maybe I’ll put it on the to-do list.)  This is just my honest, personal opinion - based on my experience with the free and paid versions of Malwarebytes.