Computer Security Blog

It Is Not Dangerous to Rely with Free Anti-Virus

Donna Buenaventura — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:20:33 GMT

David Hall of Symantec is saying that relying to free anti-virus is dangerous. In my opinion, it is not dangerous to use free security solutions if the person is applying best practices in using the computer and internet. Quite few times that I've run into testing several edition of paid and fee anti-virus programs. Almost every day, I am testing 0-day malware files against scanner by several scanner (paid or free) but no single scanner can detect all types of malware. We all know that there is no single weapon in preventing malware. Even paid solution anti-virus or anti-malware will miss handful of malware files.

Mr. Hall also said that "Microsoft’s free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from retail shelves. Consumers don’t need less protection, they need more."

I agree that people need more but it does not mean it is dangerous to use free anti-virus. There are free solutions that people can add to complement the free anti-virus program and there are many consumers and even business people who want a standalone anti-virus program because they want to use another protection from another vendor. Complete protection is mostly found in security suite and it's not what most people want to use. See Standalone vs Security Suite article on the advantage of using Suite or Standalone products. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free and standalone anti-virus solution which many of standalone end-users would try especially if it beat Symantec and other anti-virus vendor offering paid solutions only.

Whatever solution that a person will use, it is fine. What matters is: it is not rogue, fake antivirus. It is supported (with program and definition updates) by the vendor and it is not conflicting or interfering with your favorite application and the Operating System.

Free Diskeeper Pro Licenses!

Brett Callow — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:31:13 GMT

Our friends over at Diskeeper Corporation have kindly provided us with 5 licenses each worth $69.99 for Diskeeper Pro, the premier disk defragmenter for Windows, to give away to Bright Hub readers. Some information about Diskeeper (from the company website):

"The one investment that pays for itself many times over in restored performance and hardware life is Diskeeper.

Once installed, Diskeeper invisibly restores and maintains your computer’s performance automatically. With Diskeeper, you don’t have to live with the detrimental effects of fragmentation – slow computer, long boot times, hangs, freezes and crashes. Only Diskeeper with real-time defrag, eliminates performance-robbing fragmentation as it occurs, without hogging system resources or scheduling a defrag."

See our Review of Diskeeper 2008 Pro Premier for more information (note that the review is of Pro Premier, but the products are similar).

To be in with a chance of winning a license, answer this question: the ioSafe Solo external hard drive can withstand temperatures of up to 1550º F ... but for how long? A license will be sent to the first 5 people who send me a message with the correct answer and their email address.

Note: the licenses have now all been claimed.

Free antivirus by Microsoft: Microsoft Security Essentials

Donna Buenaventura — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:06:17 GMT

Microsoft is planning to release the beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials (codename: Morro) on June 23, 2009. This information was posted by Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet after she spoke to Microsoft's Anti-Malware Team but there's no information yet in Microsoft Malware Portal Center blog.

Another information she received is that people who do not have genuine copy of Windows (non-pirated copy) will not be able to use the free antivirus.

I'm excited to see how MSE will work in Windows 7, Vista and XP especially Microsoft's anti-malware scanner passed with flying colors on the latest antivirus tests by AV Comparatives. If Microsoft Anti-Malware team continue to keep the certification as Advanced malware scanner, it will definitely help people who do not wish to pay for protection tool.

Most people are enjoying the free AV by Alwil, Avira, ClamWin and AVG. It's good to have alternative free antivirus just in case people want a replacement.

What's the Best Backup Location?

Brett Callow — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:21:35 GMT

Ok, so you've decided that the time has come to start using a backup solution such as Acronis True Image, Paragon Drive Backup, GFI Backup or even Vista's Backup and Restore Center. But where should you store your backups?

You could use an online backup service such as Mozy or Carbonite, but what happens if the company goes bust (remember Digital Railroad)? You could use an external hard drive, but what happens if a fire or flood wipes out both your computer and your external hard drive?

Here's a solution: the ioSafe Solo - the world's first disaster-proof external hard drive. The Solo can withstand temperatures up to 1550 F and being submerged in water for up to 3 days. You can even bolt it to the floor so that it's harder to steal. Even if you lose everything else in your house to a disaster, at least your precious family photographs and other important data and documents will still be safe.

The best option, of course, is not to put all your eggs in one basket. Even if you're using something like the ioSafe, you should still backup online or find some other way to store your backups away from your home. Do that, and you'll be protected against pretty much every eventuality.

Microsoft, ESET and Kaspersky Took The Lead in The Latest Comparative Test

Donna Buenaventura — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:30:49 GMT

The malware scanners by Microsoft, ESET and Kaspersky has received the highest certification level in the latest proactive and retrospective tests by AV Comparative.

AntiVir by Avira actually detected more than Microsoft, ESET and Kaspersky were able to detect but due to many false positives by AntiVir in this round of test, Avira was penalized together with GDATA and BitDefender.

The previous proactive and retrospective tests was done last November. Similar to this month's test result, Avira has the highest detection rate followed by, Kaspersky.

Following the track records of malware scanners, you will come up on which antivirus to consider, the next time you want to replace your antivirus protection (whether you want a standalone or suite).

You can read the full review at the testing website.

Service Pack 2 for Vista and Windows Server 2008 are ready

Donna Buenaventura — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:24:25 GMT

The Microsoft Update Team informed us last week that Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is coming. For many us who want to take advantage of the hotfixes and improvements, we can now download the standalone installer of Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2008 SP2 for 32-bit and 64-bit system sfrom Microsoft Download Center.

What to expect with Service Pack 2?

It's a significant upgrade for your Windows! It has all the fixes that Microsoft Vista team have gathered from people who reported issues and some of you are maybe affected. Check the list of hotfixes for Vista SP2 or for Windows Server 2008. You should also check the notable changes in Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 before you will plunge on SP2.

What to do and What you need to know before installing Service Pack 2 on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008?

Make sure that you will backup your system drive and of course, read carefully the provided information by Microsoft about Service Pack 2.
You need to know the requirements before you will install SP2 in Vista and Windows Server 2008: Service Pack 1 is the prerequisite for installing SP2
You won't see SP2 in Windows Update if you not using SP1
Note that there are programs that are known to experience a loss of functionality after you install Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista or for Windows Server 2008

Note that it's best to download the Service Pack 2 from Windows Update which will be available too. That is if you have one PC only. The standalone installer of Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 is for people who need to deploy the service pack on more than 1 PCs or if you really want to have it now.

That's another SP and it's nice to SP'ed because it have fixes and of course, new code base on security updates which is always the case whenever a service pack is available because Microsoft reviews and test all updates and fixes prior releasing a service pack.

If you need support with Service Pack 2, visit the support pages:

Silent Update: Yay or Nay?

Donna Buenaventura — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:18:39 GMT

Earlier this month, Thomas Duebendorfer of Google in Switzerland and by Stefan Frei of CSG in Zurich have published their research entitled "Why Silent Updates Boost Security" by presenting the effectiveness of updating a software... silently.

According to their report: "Google Chrome's silent auto update mechanism is the most effective compared to those of Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera." They also mentioned that due to lack of the minor version in Internet Explorer, they cannot determine which version of IE is inuse in the population but the study discussed the methods use in updating Internet Explorer and other browsers.

I personally understand the need of updating a software, especially the browser so that we can take advantage of the security fixes offered by the vendors. However, we need to understand the environment where the browser is use. If you are in a corporate or small business area, you are unlikely to agree on the method to silently update your applications because it can break your policy and other applications that is integrated in your browser or any programs.

For end-users, which most of us prefer to be in control, we like to be informed also on what does the next update have? Is there any particular new feature that you will enjoy or will it disable a function in a browser that you always enjoy using? Will it really fix the security hole or does the fix will have impact to the add-on that you and your family is enjoying?

In forums, the recommended action is keep your software up-to-date but do this on your convenient time, ensure that you are browsing trusted sites and that your protection is up-to-date to at least prevent any zero day attacks. Allowing a silent update is a big no to many people. How about you, yay or nay to Silent Updating of your applications?

Removing Your Antivirus to Speed-Up Your Vista is a Bad Idea!

Donna Buenaventura — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:12:52 GMT

Paul Boutin at New York Times blog is seriously advising his readers to uninstall their antivirus program to gain back the speed of their computers. He wrote:

Uninstall your antivirus software. I’m serious. Symantec Norton 360 spent so much time trying to protect me from problems I’ll never have that it dragged my Toshiba’s performance to a crawl. I tried turning it off, but it kept rising from the dead. So I uninstalled it. Instant speed boost. I blame my fellow journalists for overhyping the threat of online viruses and malware. Thanks a lot, scaremongers.

Using any computer without real-time protection by anti-malware or anti-virus software is like going to a war without any weapon. The NYT blogger suggested also to install Windows Live Essential to gain back the speed of Windows. I do not see any connection on how Windows Live Essentials will speed up your computer because there's no feature in Windows Live Essentials that will optimize the system. If you will notice poor performance on your computer, you only need to do the following:

It could be malware or spyware that is slowing down your PC, so scan the system using an anti-malware program such as a-squared.
Securley clean-up the system using CCleaner
Defrag the system using the defrag utility in Windows or a utility such as Diskeeper or PerfectDisk.
If the system is still slow, remove the unnecessary Start-up applications using WinPatrol or StartUpLite
Use the Advanced Tools in Performance Information and Tools in Vista.
If your current antivirus is causing the slow performance, replace it with another malware scanner that is light to use. Try AntiVir, Avast or AVG (see the Free Antivirus Shootout article)
Avoid installing too many applications that you do not need. Review the applications using Add/Remove Programs or Revo Uninstaller, you may have old programs that you do not actually need. If the unnecessary programs is running a SaaS (Software as a Service), you will be able to free up not only the memory usage but harddisk space.

Panda Cloud Antivirus

Brett Callow — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:09:30 GMT

Panda recently announced a new cloud-based antivirus solution: Panda Cloud Antivirus.

"With Panda Cloud Antivirus we introduce a new protection model based on a thin-client agent & server architecture which services malware protection as opposed to locally installed products. By combining local detection technologies with cloud-scanning capabilities and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus provides some of the best protection with a lightweight antivirus thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources."

So say Panda. How well does the beta work? Read Panda Cloud Antivirus: Security in the Cloud or Pie in the Sky? to find out!

Scanning for Conficker With Nmap

Brett Callow — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:47:42 GMT

Need an easy way to scan your network for signs of Conficker? Nmap can help. Here's how. For more detailed instructions, see Ron Bowes' post Scanning for Conficker’s peer to peer. Should you discover infected systems which need too be cleaned, be sure to read Lee Clemmer's article How To Remove The Conficker Worm From Infected Windows Computers.

For those unfamiliar with Nmap, it's a network/security scanner which appears on Lee Clemmers list of the Top Ten Free Security Tests. More information about using Nmap can be found in Steve Mallard's article Nmap: Performing Penetration Tests with UMIT.

What's Your Security Savvy?

Brett Callow — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:03:02 GMT

From PC Tools (the company responsible for PC Tools Internet Security):

New research from PC Tools shows that a new type of computer threat has grown by 7,300% since first being reported in January. PC Tools estimates that new Waledac threats are spreading at the rate of 51,000 per second. This type of threat appears to be an email or an IM from someone you know sending you a news report, a coupon web site, or a greeting card. But when you open it, a program is downloaded onto your PC, and cyber criminals behind the malicious program now have access to your credit card numbers, banking log-in and passwords, and can even take pictures of what they see on your screen.

PC Tools believes that Internet users are at risk more than ever before because while many are tech savvy, they are not security savvy. As the “constantly connected” turn to email, IM and social networking to stay in touch, they are exposed to increasingly sophisticated online threats like this one. And a January 2009 study by Pew Research shows that 59% of Generation Y (users 18-32 years old) regularly uses IM, while 67% frequent social networking.

So we've come up with this questionnaire so PC users can test their own security knowledge:

http://www.pctools.com/askdrgreene/savvy/

Totally Free Software to Remove Spyware Completely

Brett Callow — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:28:03 GMT

It seems that totally free software to remove spyware completely is an extremely common search term. In fact, according to SEO Book, the phrase is searched about 192 times per day. Now, this strikes me as being rather peculiar. While I can see why terms such as best antivirus software or free security programs would be popular searches, it seems completely implausible that so many people would be stringing together the words totally free software to remove spyware completely. So, my question is: does anybody know why this should be such a popular search? Is it simply a coincidence, or is there more to it that?

That said, if you are reading this post not because you are a SEO guru and know the answer to my question, but because you are actually looking for totally free software to remove spyware completely then Bright Hub can certainly help. You'll find reviews of many leading spyware killers and removers and other totally free software to remove spyware completely in the Security channel. Products such as Spybot, SUPERAntiSpyware, a-squared, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Comodo Internet Security and many others have all been put under the microscope.

Don't disable that SSID!

Brett Callow — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:12:12 GMT

Giant albino alligators inhabit the sewers of New York. Drinking too much Coke can cause carbon dioxide poisoning. Hummingbirds piggyback other birds when migrating. Bill Gates will send you a buck for each email you forward. Disabling SSID broadcasting can boost the security of a wireless network.

What do these things have in common? Yup, that's right, they're all completely untrue. The last one on the list may come as a surprise to some people but, yup, it's as much of a myth as the others. Disabling SSID broadcasting will do absolutely jack to improve the security of your wireless network - in fact, it may compromise it. Why Disabling Your SSID Broadcasting is Bad explains why and the article, How To Secure a Wireless Network gives some simple steps that really will help improve your wireless security.

Free eBooks from Microsoft Press

Brett Callow — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:27:54 GMT

From Microsoft:

"For 25 years, Microsoft Press books have focused on helping you take your skills and knowledge to the next level. Celebrate our 25th Anniversary with a "Free e-book of the Month" offer!"

This month's offering is: Windows® Small Business Server 2008 Administrator’s Companion.

For more information, visit the Microsoft Press website.

The Latest Conficker News

Brett Callow — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:04:25 GMT

According to our friends over at Trend Micro, Conficker has shown some new signs of activity.

We'll update you when more news is available but, in the meantime, be sure to read Lee Clemmer's article How To Protect Your Windows Network From The Conficker Worm if you haven't already done so!