Digital Disease Terminator (DDT) is in the process of being resurrected

DDT is a spin-off of the old Multi-Scan, but the code is a complete re-write and many new features were added. I worked on DDT for quite awhile and released several versions. With the help of a couple very cool and connected people in the info-sec community, i then started building a newer and much more capable DDT. The development became kind of overwhelming however and i decided to take a break while i worked on other projects and figured out what direction i wanted to take with DDT. That break lasted over a year, but work has resumed and i am now seeking beta testers!

If you want to help beta test the next version of a very cool anti-malware package, click here!

Run multiple anti-virus scanners? Check!
All at the same time? Check!
From a single interface? Check!
Without user intervention? Sure! It’s called “QuickScan”!

what? Digital Disease Terminator, hereafter referred to as DDT, is a highly configurable, flexible and intuitive program capable of running multiple, 3rd party, command line anti-virus/anti-malware scanners.

Support for 5 free command line anti-virus scanners is built-in, including AntiVir (scancl.exe), ClamWin (clamscan.exe), Emsisoft (a2cmd.exe), Ikarus (T3Scan.exe) and Sophos (SAV32CLI.EXE). More can be added upon request.

Installing anti-virus programs with DDT is as simple as clicking a button which will download, install, and configure the program. Up to 8 configurations for each program are automatically created after installation, 4 of which are for running on-demand scans and the remainder of which are for running full system scans. More can be created, saved and quickly recalled as needed.

Any of the scanning programs can be easily enabled, disabled, updated or uninstalled. Their associated command line arguments may also be independently enabled or disabled as well as edited to suit your needs.

DDT will run your installed programs either concurrently or consecutively to process files and folders you send to DDT using a variety of methods, including from the Windows Explorer “SendTo” context menu, QuickScan, Folder Monitor and more.

Not only can you run multiple programs with DDT, you can also run multiple commands for each program. This functionality makes it easy to update virus definitions before running a program for example.

DDT also features a QuickScan feature whereby it will automatically process the objects sent to it without any user intervention.

The Folder Monitor feature, similar to QuickScan, will watch a chosen folder for incoming objects and automatically scan them.

who? DDT is primary geared towards threat-knowledgeable, resource and performance conscientious home and business users who do not wish to run a full-blown, resident security suite, yet still require powerful tools for detecting threats at their disposal. In this case DDT may be an ideal choice since it does not need to be running constantly, yet is always readily available for on-demand scanning. With the QuickScan and Folder Monitor features, the process of scanning objects is even faster and virtually transparent to the user.

The portability of DDT also makes it a great tool for the system administrator or IT professional to carry with them when a workstation or customer machine is suspected of being compromised by viruses, back-doors, spyware or other threats.

why? I think once one realizes the common types of threats that exist and the vectors for attack, and hardens their system accordingly, the need to run resident anti-virus software diminishes greatly. It is also my personal view that crippling a machine in order to protect it is not an optimal solution, yet this is quite often the case with many well known anti-virus products and “security suites” which entrench themselves deeply into the system, constantly using resources to monitor for changes and detect threats. From a performance point of view, this often slows down the system and consumes resources which may be denied to other programs. From a stability point of view, such software can and has caused many significant problems including data loss and system instability, even while simply trying to uninstall the program. From a sanity point of view, the false alerts and in-your-face pop-ups can be both annoying and disruptive.

Having tossed all full-blown, resident anti-virus programs long ago as i watched their size and problematic behavior increase exponentially, i began using smaller and more efficient tools which were capable of on-demand scanning only. Since i sometimes like to have a second or third opinion, i found myself with several Explorer context menu items for running my programs. I don’t like cluttered menus any more than i liked the routine of repeatedly selecting files, opening the context menu and sending them to a scanning program, once for each program. Of course there were several possible solutions to simplify the task, but i wanted a GUI with options i could easily configure and which was capable of running multiple programs at the same time, and do so with one click. This led to the development MultiScan which, although it worked great for my needs, was a rather “dirty” solution, and so Digital Disease Terminator was born.

While DDT is not a replacement for resident anti-virus programs for novice users, it can certainly be used to confirm the results of your current anti-virus software.

Some of the many features of DDT are:

• Portable – you can install or copy DDT to a portable drive and take it with you!
• Run multiple, 3rd party anti-virus/anti-malware programs to scan your files either consecutively or concurrently
• QuickScan automatically processes objects sent to DDT without user intervention
• Folder Monitor watches a folder for incoming files and automatically processes them without user intervention
• Automated downloading, installation and configuration of several free, command line anti-virus programs
• Automated anti-virus definition updating
• Create, save and quickly switch between multiple anti-virus program configurations
• Create, save and quickly switch between multiple lists of objects to scan
• Quickly send objects you want to scan to DDT from the Windows Explorer SendTo context menu
• User editable settings for downloading, updating and configuring anti-virus programs
• The DDT console keeps you informed of exactly what operations are taking place and notifies you in the event of a problem
• Configurable font styles for the Scan List and Console
• Automatic and manual update checking (for DDT)
• Option to start DDT with Windows
• Easily report a bug or suggest a feature without jumping through hoops!
• No garbage! DDT is clean software