Been told (by a friend) to use STOPzilla on a new laptop to protect it against spyware?

Always used things like Spybot or Malwarebytes in the past, which seem to do the job?

Is STOPzilla any good?

Ta

Can’t say I’ve ever used anything to protect against malware/spyware – other than common sense.

See for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOPzilla

I’d never heard of it, so it’s either new or crap. Seems it’s been around for about ten years.

TBH, I’m with Graham here.

The first line of defence against malware, to borrow a proverb, is “think twice, click once.”

The second line of defence is updates. Windows, Java, Flash must be kept up to date to plug known exploits.

Then, and only then, should you need to worry about ‘protection’. I’d suggest SpywareBlaster as a simple, free, passive tool.

Thanks GrahamS & Cougar for your advice, not that up on IT 😉

More on StopZilla,

http://scam.com/showthread.php?t=131477
http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=1416

And many, many more.

I’d respectfully suggest that you stop taking IT advice from your friend. (-:

For a new laptop, in addition to the above ^^ I’d suggest a decent antivirus product; it’ll probably come with a trial version of something that you’ll have to pay for in a couple of months, like Norton or MacAfee. Uninstall these and get MSE instead.

One of the best malware removal tools is Malwarebytes. They have a paid version which offers ‘real time protection’, though I can’t vouch for this personally as I’ve never used this feature. It is, however, worth having around for disinfection purposes if you think that you’re likely to have problems.

+1 to all of what Cougar said