Protection security settings harden your operating system and browser in an effort to prevent the installation of spyware. A protection signature defines a particular security setting that can be applied to the Internet zone and to the restricted sites zone of an Internet Explorer browser. A protection signature can be used for two purposes:
It can be used to detect and validate the current security state on the machines you scan.
If the settings are determined to be inadequate, the protection signature can also be used to apply the desired security settings.
So, unlike spyware signatures (which you want to remove), protection signatures are signatures that you want applied to the machines in your network.
The security settings defined by the protection signatures help to make the machines they are applied to less vulnerable to infection from spyware. For example, one protection signature may define the killbits used to prevent the installation and execution of a particular ActiveX control. Another protection signature may contain a list of restricted Web sites; the browser is allowed to go the site but is not permitted to download information from the site. provides many different protection signatures, each defining a unique set of security settings. You can decide which of the protection signatures you want applied to the Internet Explorer browsers in your network, and then scan for and apply the protections to those machines.
There are two basic forms of spyware protection. Active protection monitors in real-time against attempts to install spyware. Passive protection is used to immunize a computer against the installation of spyware by applying various security settings to certain programs (mostly to the Internet Explorer browser). It may use kill bits to block the execution of certain ActiveX controls, it may restrict the actions of certain Web sites, or it may prevent the use of cookies. The security settings defined by the protection signatures in are a form of passive protection.
Description of IE security zones: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=182569
Stopping an ActiveX control from running in Internet Explorer: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=240797