Online services have adapted to different missions, and one of them is optimizing the performance of antivirus software. Under traditional mechanisms, an antivirus is limited by the version of its database, but if part of its system stays on the Web, it is possible to develop greater responsiveness. SecureAPlus takes the concept of cloud antivirus to the extreme, combining twelve different engines.
The situation of antivirus is quite peculiar these days. More than one security expert has declared them obsolete, while on the other side they are still presented as the first line of defense. Over the years, digital threats have become much more complex, forcing antivirus to extend and even split their functions. Several companies in the market offer general solutions that integrate antivirus, antimalware, and firewall. Other alternatives focus on permissions, digital signatures, and integrity verification. And then there are cloud antivirus, which process and analyze new elements at every moment. The intervention of the cloud and its remarkable growth gave rise to powerful tools like VirusTotal, which combines more than fifty engines. However, there are programs that have taken one or two tricks from VirusTotal's manual, creating something completely different.
One of those programs is SecureAPlus. When we first studied it in August 2013, its main function was to create safe lists for process execution, but today we have in our hands a complete security platform, which in addition to maintaining that safe-list scheme, also protects the system with twelve different antivirus in the cloud. The complete list is made up of Emsisoft, Avira, Sophos, McAfee, Microsoft, ESET, Bitdefender, AVG, Norman, Quick Heal, Total Defense, and Clamwin. SecureAPlus has three operating modes (Interactive, Lockdown, and Trust All), and an advanced section in case the user needs to insert exclusions or modify the frequency of updates. As an extra, SecureAPlus can work alongside an antivirus offline (it has a special installer for that), further expanding security.
I haven't found stability problems in SecureAPlus, its memory consumption is reasonable, and its compatibility even extends to Windows XP. The only point to consider is that it is not a completely free solution. The simple fact of installing it gives us a year of functionality without charge, and there is a fairly flexible referral mechanism to extend the time, but once the grace period ends, the price is $22.50 per year, per computer.
