Free Malwarebytes Premium for (some) Natwest customers

SnowTiger

According to a posting at hotukdeals, Natwest is offering personal customers who have a Select or Premier account a free copy of Malwarebytes Premium until May 2022.

This is confirmed on Natwest's website.

IIRC a Select account is Natwest's standard current account with a no monthly fee option.

Natwest punters who have opted to receiving marketing communications should get an email about it.

This email will contain information about Malwarebytes, your unique coupon code and a link to the Malwarebytes sign-up page.

If you don’t have an email, this is likely due to your marketing preference choice. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to market this offer to customers who have opted out of such communications.

We are working hard to deliver a change to our online service, which will allow all customers to claim Malwarebytes Premium as soon as we can. We will be extending this offer to our business customers at this time too.

This video suggests Malwarebytes Premium isn't particularly good as stand alone anti-virus software.

unforeseen

SnowTiger wrote: »

suggests Malwarebytes Premium isn't particularly good as stand alone anti-virus software.

That's because it is an anti-malware product and not an anti-virus product.

The name is a bit of a giveaway.

SnowTiger

unforeseen wrote: »

SnowTiger wrote: »

This video suggests Malwarebytes Premium isn't particularly good as stand alone anti-virus software.

That's because it is an anti-malware product and not an anti-virus product.

The name is a bit of a giveaway.

Malwarebytes itself classifies viruses as malware.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/lp/sem/uk/:

What is malware?

Malware is malicious software engineered to work for its makers, and not for the computer user. Malware might steal your identity, install unwanted programs, or encrypt and hold your digital files for ransom. As a term, “malware” covers all sorts of malicious software, including Trojans, spyware, adware, ransomware, and viruses. Malware is now often delivered by exploiting flaws (“exploits”) in legitimate programs.

And:

[Malwarebytes Premium] automatically finds malware 24/7

Detects malware in real-time, before it can be a danger to your device.

MSarker

I see this sort of comment about Malwarebytes quite a lot and it's wrong pretty much every time.
Malware aka Malicious software, includes viruses, worms, ransomware and other nasties, if anything meaning that you are afforded more protection than with 'anti-virus' alone.

That said, the free version is limited in its capability BUT this offer is for Premium, which for Windows at least has just released Malwarebytes Premium 4.

Blurb on their own page;

"Like antivirus, but smart.
Traditional antivirus fails because it’s slow to react to new threats. And, well, because it’s “dumb.” We use layers of technology like anomaly detection (a cool sort of artificial intelligence), behavior matching, and application hardening to crush malware that hasn’t even been seen before. Alright, so not really like traditional antivirus."

I've used the product for years and it has only ever been a top performer as far as I am concerned, and now I can get it for free, on... checks notes..... 10 devices!
:money:

Gillor

Although I’ve had Malwarebytes Premium on my desktop for a number of years - from the time when you could get a lifetime’s subscription for a one-off fee - I rarely use it now for either scanning or real-time protection.

I can’t speak for version 4 but certainly previous versions were pretty good at cleaning up an infected system when malware had bypassed the machine’s primary a/v, but not so good at real time detection.

Unless version 4 has improved significantly (and judging by the video the OP refers to it doesn’t appear to have done) in my experience I certainly wouldn’t recommend using it as the main source of protection. However, pair MBAM Free with something like Bitdefender Free or Windows Defender and it should be fine for routine day-to-day use.

Although it does a great job as a second opinion scanner - it detected all the malware files I threw at it recently - I don’t use it that often as it’s sooooo slow. Using the right click context menu to check individual files is bad enough but waiting for a full scan to finish feels like being an unwanted guest a seance - nearly two hours to scan five hundred files whereas others will do a similar job in a fraction of the time.

MSarker

I watched that video, that test is not a good way to test an AV product. Also, that researcher works for Emsisoft, a competitor to Malwarebytes, but he wont 'test his employers products'.
Seems a little debatable to me.

End of the day, I guess it's free, and it's a personal choice. With the enhancements with Windows Defender, no AV is the only thing on a PC anymore, so it'll do very well for me I think.

Gillor

MSarker wrote: »

I watched that video, that test is not a good way to test an AV product. Also, that researcher works for Emsisoft, a competitor to Malwarebytes, but he wont 'test his employers products'.
Seems a little debatable to me.

You may well be right. Test methodology and impartiality is a whole new subject but the only comments I would make are…

If he marked down the Malwarebytes test purely on the basis they are a competitor of Emsisoft surely this would also apply to his previous tests of Avast, Kaspersky and Bitdefender, all of which scored excellent results.

If he has a bias against Malwarebytes surely he wouldn't use it as as a second opinion scanner in his tests?

Malwarebytes Premium only scored 4.0/6.0 in AV-Test. Org’s July/August Protection Test. :sad:

MSarker wrote: »

End of the day, I guess it's free, and it's a personal choice. With the enhancements with Windows Defender, no AV is the only thing on a PC anymore, so it'll do very well for me I think.

Agreed. A layered security approach has surely got to be preferable to relying on a single source of protection.

fenlander_uk

This offer appears to be available only if you have opted in to receiving marketing emails. Another bribe that comes at a price.

esuhl

SnowTiger wrote: »

This video suggests Malwarebytes Premium isn't particularly good as stand alone anti-virus software.

Malwarebytes Premium (MBP) is NOT a traditional antivirus. It does not slow down your PC by scanning every file on access. Instead it guards the ports of entry (USB sticks, internet servers, etc.).

The test in the video deliberately turns off MBP's defence mechanisms, then expects it to work as an anti-virus; something MBP doesn't claim to be.

MBP is designed to protect a system that you know is clean. And it does that so well that you don't need a "traditional" anti-virus at all. It's the only software I've paid for in a LONG time.

Chino

fenlander_uk wrote: »

This offer appears to be available only if you have opted in to receiving marketing emails.

Yes, because that's the only way the company can advise its customers of the availability of the offer.

fenlander_uk wrote: »

Another bribe that comes at a price.

In what way is being offered some software that, for most Windows 10 users these days, is unnecessary and superfluous, a bribe?

Gillor

esuhl wrote: »

The test in the video deliberately turns off MBP's defence mechanisms, then expects it to work as an anti-virus; something MBP doesn't claim to be.

No he doesn’t. He only turns off Real-Time Protection to load the malware pack (1:14) and then switches the protection back on (2:29) to run the actual test.

esuhl wrote: »

...you don't need a "traditional" anti-virus at all.

From Malwarebytes own website...

“No one technology can catch everything, which is why security experts recommend a layered approach. It’s better to have more than one type of tool looking at threats from different angles.”

“And even though our product remains compatible with antivirus software, we’re confident that if you can’t afford to use both, Malwarebytes Premium is your best choice.”