IObit Malware Fighter 8 Review

IObit makers of the very popular Advanced SystemCare tune-up program have released a new version of their anti-malware solution IObit Malware Fighter Version 8. IObit in this version has greatly expanded its malware database and improved its heuristics engine both of which were known to be lacking in older versions. So, let’s take a look at their latest version and see what’s changed and whether or not you should consider using it.

What’s New In IObit Malware Fighter 8

The company has outlined the following new features for this version of IObit Malware Fighter.

• New generation of IObit Anti-malware Engine brings faster scan speed, better detection, and higher protection.
• New Advanced Heuristics detects more threats intelligently, especially for those virus variants.
• New Email Protection protects your web emails against spam, phishing scam, and other email-borne threats.
• New Sensitive Data Protect keeps your sensitive data away from the latest ransomware attacks.
• Larger database (expanded by 100%) comprehensively protects your PC against the latest viruses, ransomware, and malware.
• Updated Bitdefender Engine gives you the best protection ever.
• Improved threat detection and removal processes for faster detection and thorough removal.
• New UI supports high DPI displays & high-resolution monitors for a better experience.
• Supported 32 languages.

IObit’s Malware fighter uses multiple engines to provide protection to users they have their own Heuristics Engine (which is used to identify unknown threats based on patterns), their own malware database (known samples), and Bitdefender’s database. The advantage of this method is it gives the product a large database of known malware to keep your device safe from known threats. There are other solutions on the market that make use of additional engines to bolster the protection of their users.

Furthermore, the extension of protection to emails is a good improvement if you’re using a service like Gmail IObit can help protect you against phishing emails to keep your account and computer safe.

In addition to the standard web, email, and file system protection IObit Malware Fighter 8 comes with ransomware protection, DNS protection, adblocking software, anti-tracking tools, and DNS protection.

• Homepage Advisor: This feature will alert and prevent unauthorized switching of your browser’s homepage. This is a common form of attack seen by adware that way the creator of said malware can generate additional income.
• Anti-Tracking: This tool will automatically delete all cookies once your browser is closed (keep in mind this can log you out of some services and websites).
• Download Protection: This will scan all downloaded files including attachments in emails to keep your device secured.
• Plugin / Toolbar Cleaner: This is meant to remove browser plugins and toolbars (less of an issue today since Internet Explorer is retired).
• DNS Protect: this toll will prevent malware from modifying your DNS services. This is a good feature malware can change your device’s DNS servers to route say Google.com to another website where you can receive further attacks.
• Ad Removal & Surfing Protection: Adblock combined with their anti cryptocurrency mining tool in addition to blocking standard web threats.

How Reliable Is It?

This is something that’s hard to address IObit Malware Fighter is not lab tested. I have from testing the program noticed some false positives (generally flagging Steam) which was slightly annoying. The program was easy to use and several of the other features such as the DNS Protect worked quite well as did the Homepage Advisor. As for the antivirus protection it worked against a couple of samples I had laying around but I didn’t have any zero-day samples to test. I would hope in the near future IObit could be tested by AV-test.org or AV-Comparatives to get a more official rating. Since we are not a lab it would be inappropriate for us to give it a rating on the protection portion. We will skip this in the final rating.

User Interface

One area the program does particularly well is its user interface. It’s easy to use and each of the settings areas is easy to get to and doesn’t require you to dig around for them. However, it’s not as autonomous as something like Bitdefender’s free antivirus solution which requires effectively no setup as it works out of the box. But it is in no way difficult to use and that’s something we appreciate as there are some vendors who over-complicate their interface for the sake of being complicated.