In a typical Windows session, a computer may hold a significant number of processes in memory. The user might recognize most of them and know their origin, but there's always that rebellious, strange process with malicious intent. CrowdInspect is a program designed to scan all resident processes that connect to the web and assess how safe they are against services like VirusTotal.
Fortunately, it's been a long time since one of my systems was about to get infected with the usual malware... (knock on wood), however, a classic phrase says that the price of peace is eternal vigilance. The user becomes the first line of defense and as such must be alert to anything that slips past automatic filters.
More than once I've heard a certain minority claim they don't need any antivirus, that it's enough to have a little more care when browsing and downloading files. While that extra care is welcome, the truth is that someday we'll be tired, sick, distracted, or too busy. The most logical approach is a kind of “teamwork”, and if adding extra tools is possible, even better.
CrowdInspect: Process Analyzer
One of those tools is CrowdInspect. It's been around for a while, and we mentioned it more than once last year, but we never fully explored it. The idea is for CrowdInspect to perform a check on active processes on the computer that connect to the web, and determine through services like VirusTotal and Web of Trust whether the process is malicious or not.
If it is malicious, the user can generate logs, record the executable path, interrupt its connection immediately, and proceed to remove it by other means. CrowdInspect monitors processes in real time, so any change in the list is reflected instantly.
The only advice I can give is not to run CrowdInspect when you need to use an application that generates many connections at once, like BitTorrent clients. Let's say CrowdInspect can become a little crazy when monitoring so many connections at the same time. Aside from that, the program works perfectly, has a portable version, no external dependencies, and is compatible with Windows.
