I have been wondering the same thing for a while now also.
I have been wondering the same thing for a while now also.
Hello,
You need not be concerned.
Immunization will not be dropped, we will continue updating immunization.
However, lately there has been a change on how malware handles it's 'servers', many domains hosting malware exist only for a short time and those who exist longer are mostly hijacked websites.
Protection against malicious downloads from legit websites is handled our IE browser helper object in Spybot S&D 1.6.2.
Immunization mostly blocks the whole domain which is usually not wanted when a legit domain only has a couple malicious files for download (IE Helper will block these downloads).
The entries in hosts file protect Firefox, Opera and other browsers, so the loss of immunizations there leaves those browsers unprotected from such sites.
I think we also need to improve the labels of updates here. The update currently labelled "Immunization" is just part of what is used during immunization and effects only browser plugin immunization.
Domains and specific URLs are within the update labelled "Supplemental".
This split happened because these databases are used in multiple parts of Spybot, not just the immunization.
Just remember, love is life, and hate is living death.
Treat your life for what it's worth, and live for every breath
(Black Sabbath: A National Acrobat)
so this program wont protect firefox???
This is correct, however it is unwise to block a school or hospital website just because a malware was successful in placing one or two exe files in a subdirectory so it can be downloaded when triggered. Usually you will not stumble on such files when you visit those websites.
Malware however often use the Internet Explorer (even if it is not the default browser) to access such downloads.
So this is a minor disadvantage for other browsers than the IE until such a feature is globally available.
@mark5019
Spybot S&D does also protect Firefox, however Spybot S&D has one more feature for the IE.
My past 3 updates did nothing.
Why is this?
I click immunize and it says 0 unprotected last 3 updates?
I personally go here to get the update file(s) manually: http://www.safer-networking.org/upda...d_includes.exe
When I tried the integrated updater in the first Beta, it never actually found updates, so I've moved to that...anyway an excellent (and better-updated) supplement to Spybot's permissions.sqlite based protection for Firefox is in an Adblock Plus subscription called "Malware Domains" (also available for Chrome and Safari).
I've been using Malware Domains subscriptions along with the EasyList and EasyPrivacy for quite some time in Firefox with AdBlock Plus. However, that doesn't negate the need for the hosts immunizations to be added. Better be running a really good antivirus that just might catch a zero-day threat.
Build a better defense, and along comes a better weapon. It's an arms race that the defenders will always be behind the curve on. Hardening the OS is the best answer to that, but that would make a computer much less of a plug-n-play toy to most users. They just want it to be very easy.