There are more than forty mobile phone viruses and threats that have been reported. Apparently, these viruses can badly damage your phone and can cause it to be of no use at all. Therefore, getting an anti-virus is vital to keep your mobile running well and efficient.
Zebra Virus Cleaner One of the most effective anti-viruses that you can implement on your mobile phone is the Zebra Virus Cleaner for Symbian OS Smart Phone. This is a dependable anti-virus software that can protect your mobile from being assaulted by malevolent programs. Zebra Virus Cleaner can identify and clean rootkits, Lasco, Cabir, Skulls, plus nearly a thousand of viruses including Trojans and worms from your smart phone. It also provides security for all your personal files and information. Zebra Virus Cleaner scans quickly and gets rid of viruses completely in real time, easy to adopt and has a friendly feature. The users can set the time to scan and update automatically.
The Kaspersky Anti-Virus With the growing recognition of smart phones and communicators, your phones may not be safe from malicious programs that were increasing both in numbers and variety. The Kaspersky Anti-Virus is the appropriate and reliable solution that will keep your mobile phones from such programs that affect the mobile platforms. It was developed and combined the latest technology of the Kasperky Lab technologies, experts in the antivirus field. Their solution offers competent armor for your smart phone and personal files.
Commander Mobile Anti-Virus One of the most effective defends against mobile phones harmful content, unwanted messages and malfunctioning applications is the Commander Mobile Anti-Virus. With this anti-virus, you can scan both the principal memory and memory cards, thus providing an absolute and prompt protection. It can detect viruses such as Cabir and thoroughly remove them from the system. All files are automatically inspected when they are copied, synchronized, modified, saved, or downloaded. This will definitely put off corruption of your mobile phone files.
F-Secure Mobile Anti-virus F-Secure Mobile Anti-virus is uncomplicated to adopt and does not need excess device resources or pointless user interaction. By design, it examines all files both in the device and on the memory cards. When a corrupted file is found, it is directly isolated to protect all the other data in the system. When the data connection is applied for emails and web browsing, the anti-virus database is updated unnoticeable in the background. F-Secure anti-virus also safeguards mobile computing by bringing together an integrated anti-virus and firewall. This platform makes available a remedy and automated security thru real time. The F-Secure Mobile Anti-Virus scans both the incoming and outgoing internet packets to thwart malicious, unsafe, or possibly destructive packets. F-Secure is also uncomplicated to apply.
These mobile software anti-viruses help us to stay composed and prepared for the attacks of malicious programs that can virtually impair the system of our phones. The defenses that they build into the network layer are the most valuable system of protection. In selecting mobile antivirus solution, look for the one that supports your device as well as its operating system. Also, the anti-virus software should be trouble-free to use, has over the air updates and a real time virus scanning and should scan all attachments for viruses. Although anti-viruses may significantly decelerate your mobile phone but it is beyond doubt the best protection.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Urmann
Showing posts with label antivirus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label antivirus. Show all posts
Antivirus CA : CA Antivirus Survey - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly About CA Antivirus : e
CA Antivirus by Computer Associate has been around the anti-virus software business for quite some time. But with so many other anti-virus programs on the market, it is very hard to know whether CA Antivirus should become your choice when it comes to protecting your computer. In this article, we would take a look at what current CA Antivirus users have to say about their purchase.
The Good:1. You have a choice on what feature YOU want to use in the CA Antivirus program. You can, for example, turn off the Automatic Email Scanning if you don't feel that you need it. There will not be any graphics and messages on your system tray that would "warn" you that you don't have all the features turned on.
2. It won't slow down your PC. This is a common problem among anti-virus programs. A slow PC is the last thing you want while having your computer protected and CA Antivirus is well-known in occupying very few resources.
3. Fast Scanning speed. CA Antivirus has been praised for its fast scanning speed. The time it takes to scan the entire computer is lower than most major competitors in the anti-virus market.
The Bad:1. Lack of technical support. The CA Antivirus website seems to lack detailed information for troubleshooting the software. Some users also experienced difficulties talking with the troubleshooting staff from CA Antivirus.
2. One user experienced instability in the initial installation when used with Windows Vista. But CA Antivirus seems to work fine for other Vista machines.
The Ugly:Some people criticize CA Antivirus for its lack of graphics, dull interface, and lack of blinking messages. However, others seem to find that welcoming with less disturbance from their anti-virus program and a user-friendly interface.
Overall, though it appears that CA Antivirus could improve its technical support and perhaps some instability issues in the past, it could be a solid choice for anti-virus protection. Read more reviews and decide for yourself.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_S_Anderson
The Good:1. You have a choice on what feature YOU want to use in the CA Antivirus program. You can, for example, turn off the Automatic Email Scanning if you don't feel that you need it. There will not be any graphics and messages on your system tray that would "warn" you that you don't have all the features turned on.
2. It won't slow down your PC. This is a common problem among anti-virus programs. A slow PC is the last thing you want while having your computer protected and CA Antivirus is well-known in occupying very few resources.
3. Fast Scanning speed. CA Antivirus has been praised for its fast scanning speed. The time it takes to scan the entire computer is lower than most major competitors in the anti-virus market.
The Bad:1. Lack of technical support. The CA Antivirus website seems to lack detailed information for troubleshooting the software. Some users also experienced difficulties talking with the troubleshooting staff from CA Antivirus.
2. One user experienced instability in the initial installation when used with Windows Vista. But CA Antivirus seems to work fine for other Vista machines.
The Ugly:Some people criticize CA Antivirus for its lack of graphics, dull interface, and lack of blinking messages. However, others seem to find that welcoming with less disturbance from their anti-virus program and a user-friendly interface.
Overall, though it appears that CA Antivirus could improve its technical support and perhaps some instability issues in the past, it could be a solid choice for anti-virus protection. Read more reviews and decide for yourself.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_S_Anderson
Antivirus agnitum : Security and Internet Browsers – Firefox vs Internet Explorer : e
Introduction
The Internet is becoming a more and more dangerous place to be, due in no small part to the inherent security risks posed by viruses and spyware. Additionally, applications that access the Internet as part of their normal operations may have errors in their code that allows hackers to launch attacks against the computer on which those applications are running. The safety and integrity of digital assets is further compromised by the fast-growing threat of cybercrooks who devise and implement large-scale hoaxes such as phishing and ID theft.
In the light of all this, it’s clear that users need a reliable and secure web browser between them and the Internet, which will be free of these problems and won’t let harmful content invade the computer.
The web browser industry continues to be dominated by the Windows-bundled Internet Explorer, with an 85% market share, but in recent years a new breed of free, more functional and resilient browsers has appeared – the most popular being Mozilla/Firefox and Opera. All have received serious security upgrades to help protect against recent scares and safeguard users online.
Internet Explorer is at version 6.0, essentially the same product that was included with Windows XP in 2001. Eighteen months ago, the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 substantially increased IE safety; however, it did not eliminate many of the loopholes exploited by hostile program code. At present, Firefox is at version 1.5, but its very different development history (see next section) means that it can be considered at a similar level of maturity as Internet Explorer.
Currently, Microsoft is preparing its next-generation browser, Internet Explorer 7.0, which it plans to introduce sometime during the first half of 2006. The company has stated that it intends to make the browser stronger and more secure to help protect its users against the many problems that have dogged the software over the years.
We, along with Internet users everywhere, await the final results with interest. In the meantime, we decided to undertake our own security evaluation of both IE 7 (beta) and its closest rival, Firefox 1.5.
History and overview
Internet Explorer is a proprietary graphical web browser developed by Microsoft. In 1995, the company licensed the commercial version of Internet Explorer 3.0 from Spyglass Mosaic and integrated the program into its Windows 95 OSR1 edition. Later, it included IE4 as the default browser in Windows 98 – a move which continues to raise many antitrust questions.
Firefox is an open-source browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation; anyone who is proficient enough can collaborate in writing and improving its program code. Mozilla is known for its stringent approach to security, promising a bounty of several thousand dollars for any major vulnerability found in the product.
Security incidents and threat response
While no browser is perfect, major security lapses happened rather more frequently with IE than with Firefox. To be fair, Firefox has less than a 10% market share and is thus a rather less enticing target than IE; that’s probably also why security researchers focus much of their attention on the vulnerabilities of Microsoft’s browser, not Firefox’s. Some people have argued that if the market shares were reversed, bugs in Firefox would start appearing on a more frequent basis, as has recently been the case with Internet Explorer.
The open-source architecture of Firefox contributes to the overall safety of the browser; a community of skilled programmers can spot problems more quickly and correct them before a new release is available for general use. It’s been said that threat response time for Firefox averages one week, while it may take months for Microsoft engineers to fix critical bugs reported by security analysts – an unacceptable situation for users who remain unnecessarily vulnerable to exploits (hacker attacks) during that time.
From the threat response standpoint, Firefox is clearly the winner.Security features
Phishing safeguard New protection against financial fraud and identity theft has been incorporated into the new IE. A so-called “phishing filter” now appears on the Internet Options menu, which is intended to protect users against unknowingly disclosing private information to unauthorized third parties. Here’s how it works:
If a user visits a spoofed site which looks exactly like a genuine one – usually as a result of clicking on a link in a fraudulent email - the browser senses a phishing attempt and compares the site against a list of known phishing sites. If the filter finds the site is a phishing culprit, it blocks access to the site and informs the user of the danger of leaving his/her personal details on sites like this. The database of known phishing sites is updated regularly, and users have an option to report a suspected phishing instant to Microsoft for evaluation.
We’re pleased to report that, even in beta, the filter appears to work quite well, correctly identifying half of the test sites we visited as phishing sites.
In Firefox, phishing protection is delivered through third-party extensions such as Google Safe Browsing (currently in beta for US-based users only (see http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/safebrowsing/index.html); this can be plugged into the browser’s extension menu.
As additional protection against accidental phishing, the authors of IE have stated that they plan to make their product display the URL of every visited site. With IE 6, this capability was not available and many pop-ups appeared without displaying an address in the previously non-existent address bar. Unfortunately, in neither browser were we were able to achieve more than a fifty percent URL display ratio; we trust that this percentage will increase as the release of IE 7 approaches and Mozilla continues to work on improving its functionality in this area.
Restriction of executable Web content
In the current version of IE, suspect websites have been free to install almost any software they want on visitors’ machines. While XP SP2 has dramatically reduced this possibility, many unnecessary add-ons and toolbars can still be easily installed by inexperienced users. IE 7 should provide more protection for naïve users, as it will offer to run in protected mode, thus restricting access to the host OS files and settings and making these critical elements of the computer inaccessible to malware.
The default setting for Firefox 1.5 is to have installation of extensions and add-ons disabled; the user must manually change settings in order to enable adding extensions to the browser.
There will always be a tradeoff between security and functionality, but security experts always maintained that letting websites unrestrictedly launch executable code within the browser creates unlimited potential for exploitation. IE 7 will offer much greater flexibility in configuring which external code will be permitted to run within the browser and what impact it would have on the OS.
ActiveX restrictions
Aside from some graphics enhancement of web pages, in most cases ActiveX is more damaging than beneficial. Many sites that serve up spyware and pop-up ads use ActiveX scripting technology, and ActiveX scripting in the Windows environment can be allowed to run unrestrictedly with administrator (root) privileges. Firefox 1.5 does not support Microsoft’s proprietary ActiveX technology and so the Firefox browser is more resilient against spyware infection.
In IE6, even with SP2, ActiveX is allowed to run by default, which automatically renders IE users less protected against the threat of spyware. In the upcoming IE 7, it is not yet known whether Microsoft will continue this approach, but early indications point to this being the case. This would be unfortunate, since the current approach is a clear security vulnerability.
Of course, IE users can manually disable ActiveX scripting on a particular website and let ActiveX be started automatically on all other sites visited. Or, vice versa, they can disable ActiveX scripting on most of the sites visited and permit it to run on a particular site. All this can be configured under the Security tab in IE’s Options menu. However, it is hardly realistic to expect Internet novices, who need the most protection, to do this.
Java, JavaScript and Visual Basic components
Java and JavaScript can be enabled and disabled by both browsers. Firefox allows users to specify permissions for particular actions performed by these scripts. IE 6 allows users to create a group of trusted sites to which global limitations on these scripts will not apply. In IE 7, more flexibility will be added that will lead users toward a more customized display of web pages belonging to a particular site; it appears Firefox also plans to introduce more flexible parameters.
Internal download manager
IE 7’s download manager will be revamped, and feature an option to pause and resume downloads - a feature not available with the current version. Specific actions will be able to be defined following the completion of a download, and users can check the newly-downloaded file with their anti-virus before running it. This approach is already in place with Firefox, so Microsoft appears to be playing catch-up here.
Encryption of data on protected sites
When you submit sensitive information, such as transaction details to a bank or financial institution, it travels in an encrypted form through a secure HTTP (SHTTP) connection. The information is encrypted by your browser and decrypted at the receiving end. The new version of IE will use stronger encryption algorithms to reliably transfer your data without the risk of being intercepted and deciphered by someone in transit. A padlock icon indicating that a user is on a secure site will be placed in a more obvious place than currently, and more detailed information will be provided to help visitors check the authenticity of such sites.
Firefox currently has a better-organized display of security certificates for its users, so clearly Microsoft has a room for improvement.
Updating
Both browsers are updated automatically when new code is ready. Firefox has this update mechanism already in place, and for IE 7, it is expected that updates will be provided through Windows update technology.
Privacy enhancements
IE 7 will have the ability for users to flexibly set what private data will be saved and can be applied to different sites; users will be able to easily remove browsing history and other private details such as passwords, cookies, details submitted on web forms, download history, and temporary files. In IE 6, these files were stored all over the place and users have complained that there is no clear way to delete this information. Firefox 1.5 already provides this capability.
Conclusion
IE 7 promises a lot of interesting security and privacy enhancements that will help users stay more secure. With the final release users will receive a good, solid browser that, if Microsoft promises are fulfilled, will help it to compete well on the security front. As we have seen, Firefox 1.5 is already a role model, and it will be interesting to see what lies ahead for this talented challenger.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Igor_Pankov
The Internet is becoming a more and more dangerous place to be, due in no small part to the inherent security risks posed by viruses and spyware. Additionally, applications that access the Internet as part of their normal operations may have errors in their code that allows hackers to launch attacks against the computer on which those applications are running. The safety and integrity of digital assets is further compromised by the fast-growing threat of cybercrooks who devise and implement large-scale hoaxes such as phishing and ID theft.
In the light of all this, it’s clear that users need a reliable and secure web browser between them and the Internet, which will be free of these problems and won’t let harmful content invade the computer.
The web browser industry continues to be dominated by the Windows-bundled Internet Explorer, with an 85% market share, but in recent years a new breed of free, more functional and resilient browsers has appeared – the most popular being Mozilla/Firefox and Opera. All have received serious security upgrades to help protect against recent scares and safeguard users online.
Internet Explorer is at version 6.0, essentially the same product that was included with Windows XP in 2001. Eighteen months ago, the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 substantially increased IE safety; however, it did not eliminate many of the loopholes exploited by hostile program code. At present, Firefox is at version 1.5, but its very different development history (see next section) means that it can be considered at a similar level of maturity as Internet Explorer.
Currently, Microsoft is preparing its next-generation browser, Internet Explorer 7.0, which it plans to introduce sometime during the first half of 2006. The company has stated that it intends to make the browser stronger and more secure to help protect its users against the many problems that have dogged the software over the years.
We, along with Internet users everywhere, await the final results with interest. In the meantime, we decided to undertake our own security evaluation of both IE 7 (beta) and its closest rival, Firefox 1.5.
History and overview
Internet Explorer is a proprietary graphical web browser developed by Microsoft. In 1995, the company licensed the commercial version of Internet Explorer 3.0 from Spyglass Mosaic and integrated the program into its Windows 95 OSR1 edition. Later, it included IE4 as the default browser in Windows 98 – a move which continues to raise many antitrust questions.
Firefox is an open-source browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation; anyone who is proficient enough can collaborate in writing and improving its program code. Mozilla is known for its stringent approach to security, promising a bounty of several thousand dollars for any major vulnerability found in the product.
Security incidents and threat response
While no browser is perfect, major security lapses happened rather more frequently with IE than with Firefox. To be fair, Firefox has less than a 10% market share and is thus a rather less enticing target than IE; that’s probably also why security researchers focus much of their attention on the vulnerabilities of Microsoft’s browser, not Firefox’s. Some people have argued that if the market shares were reversed, bugs in Firefox would start appearing on a more frequent basis, as has recently been the case with Internet Explorer.
The open-source architecture of Firefox contributes to the overall safety of the browser; a community of skilled programmers can spot problems more quickly and correct them before a new release is available for general use. It’s been said that threat response time for Firefox averages one week, while it may take months for Microsoft engineers to fix critical bugs reported by security analysts – an unacceptable situation for users who remain unnecessarily vulnerable to exploits (hacker attacks) during that time.
From the threat response standpoint, Firefox is clearly the winner.Security features
Phishing safeguard New protection against financial fraud and identity theft has been incorporated into the new IE. A so-called “phishing filter” now appears on the Internet Options menu, which is intended to protect users against unknowingly disclosing private information to unauthorized third parties. Here’s how it works:
If a user visits a spoofed site which looks exactly like a genuine one – usually as a result of clicking on a link in a fraudulent email - the browser senses a phishing attempt and compares the site against a list of known phishing sites. If the filter finds the site is a phishing culprit, it blocks access to the site and informs the user of the danger of leaving his/her personal details on sites like this. The database of known phishing sites is updated regularly, and users have an option to report a suspected phishing instant to Microsoft for evaluation.
We’re pleased to report that, even in beta, the filter appears to work quite well, correctly identifying half of the test sites we visited as phishing sites.
In Firefox, phishing protection is delivered through third-party extensions such as Google Safe Browsing (currently in beta for US-based users only (see http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/safebrowsing/index.html); this can be plugged into the browser’s extension menu.
As additional protection against accidental phishing, the authors of IE have stated that they plan to make their product display the URL of every visited site. With IE 6, this capability was not available and many pop-ups appeared without displaying an address in the previously non-existent address bar. Unfortunately, in neither browser were we were able to achieve more than a fifty percent URL display ratio; we trust that this percentage will increase as the release of IE 7 approaches and Mozilla continues to work on improving its functionality in this area.
Restriction of executable Web content
In the current version of IE, suspect websites have been free to install almost any software they want on visitors’ machines. While XP SP2 has dramatically reduced this possibility, many unnecessary add-ons and toolbars can still be easily installed by inexperienced users. IE 7 should provide more protection for naïve users, as it will offer to run in protected mode, thus restricting access to the host OS files and settings and making these critical elements of the computer inaccessible to malware.
The default setting for Firefox 1.5 is to have installation of extensions and add-ons disabled; the user must manually change settings in order to enable adding extensions to the browser.
There will always be a tradeoff between security and functionality, but security experts always maintained that letting websites unrestrictedly launch executable code within the browser creates unlimited potential for exploitation. IE 7 will offer much greater flexibility in configuring which external code will be permitted to run within the browser and what impact it would have on the OS.
ActiveX restrictions
Aside from some graphics enhancement of web pages, in most cases ActiveX is more damaging than beneficial. Many sites that serve up spyware and pop-up ads use ActiveX scripting technology, and ActiveX scripting in the Windows environment can be allowed to run unrestrictedly with administrator (root) privileges. Firefox 1.5 does not support Microsoft’s proprietary ActiveX technology and so the Firefox browser is more resilient against spyware infection.
In IE6, even with SP2, ActiveX is allowed to run by default, which automatically renders IE users less protected against the threat of spyware. In the upcoming IE 7, it is not yet known whether Microsoft will continue this approach, but early indications point to this being the case. This would be unfortunate, since the current approach is a clear security vulnerability.
Of course, IE users can manually disable ActiveX scripting on a particular website and let ActiveX be started automatically on all other sites visited. Or, vice versa, they can disable ActiveX scripting on most of the sites visited and permit it to run on a particular site. All this can be configured under the Security tab in IE’s Options menu. However, it is hardly realistic to expect Internet novices, who need the most protection, to do this.
Java, JavaScript and Visual Basic components
Java and JavaScript can be enabled and disabled by both browsers. Firefox allows users to specify permissions for particular actions performed by these scripts. IE 6 allows users to create a group of trusted sites to which global limitations on these scripts will not apply. In IE 7, more flexibility will be added that will lead users toward a more customized display of web pages belonging to a particular site; it appears Firefox also plans to introduce more flexible parameters.
Internal download manager
IE 7’s download manager will be revamped, and feature an option to pause and resume downloads - a feature not available with the current version. Specific actions will be able to be defined following the completion of a download, and users can check the newly-downloaded file with their anti-virus before running it. This approach is already in place with Firefox, so Microsoft appears to be playing catch-up here.
Encryption of data on protected sites
When you submit sensitive information, such as transaction details to a bank or financial institution, it travels in an encrypted form through a secure HTTP (SHTTP) connection. The information is encrypted by your browser and decrypted at the receiving end. The new version of IE will use stronger encryption algorithms to reliably transfer your data without the risk of being intercepted and deciphered by someone in transit. A padlock icon indicating that a user is on a secure site will be placed in a more obvious place than currently, and more detailed information will be provided to help visitors check the authenticity of such sites.
Firefox currently has a better-organized display of security certificates for its users, so clearly Microsoft has a room for improvement.
Updating
Both browsers are updated automatically when new code is ready. Firefox has this update mechanism already in place, and for IE 7, it is expected that updates will be provided through Windows update technology.
Privacy enhancements
IE 7 will have the ability for users to flexibly set what private data will be saved and can be applied to different sites; users will be able to easily remove browsing history and other private details such as passwords, cookies, details submitted on web forms, download history, and temporary files. In IE 6, these files were stored all over the place and users have complained that there is no clear way to delete this information. Firefox 1.5 already provides this capability.
Conclusion
IE 7 promises a lot of interesting security and privacy enhancements that will help users stay more secure. With the final release users will receive a good, solid browser that, if Microsoft promises are fulfilled, will help it to compete well on the security front. As we have seen, Firefox 1.5 is already a role model, and it will be interesting to see what lies ahead for this talented challenger.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Igor_Pankov
Antivirus Norman : Top 10 Computer Virus Protection Reviews : e
Below are my top 10 computer virus protection reviews:
1. Bit Defender - This newly updated version of Bit Defender for 2008 has a new Gaming mode to ensure protection while not allowing pop-ups during game playing. They still offer all the services that they have been known for such as privacy protection and web scanning. It was awarded the top spot in the computer virus protection reviews because it is easy to use and install; it's overall effectiveness, can be updated regularly, and has great support.
2. Kaspersky - Kaspersky has received top ratings for the same above-mentioned aspects such as effectiveness and support. This software has received many awards from top organizations. It is one of the most advanced products available on the market today; it would be an ideal choice to protect your computer.
3. ESET Nod32- This is said to be a simple, but very thorough security protection solution. They scored highest on effectiveness, support, and easy installation. In 2008, the ESET Nod32 received major updates while maintaining the high standard of security protection it has always provided.
4. AVG Anti-Virus- This year two previously separate products were merged with their award winning antivirus software to ensure improved overall protection for your home computer systems. They have also improved their scanning engine which should cut down on time taken to complete a virus and spyware scan. They also reported an overall decrease in overall system resource usage.
5. F Secure Antivirus- The security protection suites offered by F-Secure are used by both home computer users and large corporations on their massive networks. They strive to ensure that the internet user understands general online security safety measures and precautions, along with the potential threat caused by an inadequate security setup. Overall F-Secure offers an excellent package.
6. Trend Micro- Although this software may cause a slight decrease in performance of some basic home PCs,Trend guarantee that the security level provided by their software will more than make up for any slight decrease in performance that may be experienced. This software is aimed directly at the home internet user rather than larger corporations and receives high scores in all areas. The lowest score is attributed to the help/support section. Trend Micro is used by many people and is a viable security solution.
7. McAfee VirusScan - McAfee is a leading antivirus software provider. This software now comes equipped with extra features including an email scanner. It is not the best security option in my opinion but very popular none the less.
8. Norton Antivirus- Norton Antivirus is a widely known antivirus scanner and has been around for many years. It is the choice of many computer manufacturers who install it as part of their normal PC or laptop setup. The 2008 version is equipped with antivirus protection as well as anti-spyware detection. It is not one of my favorites as in my personal testing I have found it to be a resource hog and some end users have found it difficult to remove from their systems. Symantec are a well respected security software provider and constantly strive to update and improve the software they offer to their customers.
9. CA Antivirus- If you are looking to only detect and remove viruses on your computer then this may an option you would want to consider. This is the primary function of this product and it does not contain additional detection capabilities.
10. Norman Antivirus and Antispyware- This software is good at detecting spyware and viruses that may be lurking on your home computer. Again some users have reported a slight decrease in computer performance as a result of installing Norman AV.
The idea behind writing the top 10 computer virus protection reviews was to offer what I consider a "taster" if you like on what is available, how effective it is, and how easy it is to use. Armed with this information my hope is that you will be in a position to more easily choose a security solution that fits with your individual needs and level of security required.
If you feel that you need more specific information on any of the top 10 then just head over to the company website or type (name of software) "computer virus protection reviews" into your search engine of choice.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hugh_Duddy
1. Bit Defender - This newly updated version of Bit Defender for 2008 has a new Gaming mode to ensure protection while not allowing pop-ups during game playing. They still offer all the services that they have been known for such as privacy protection and web scanning. It was awarded the top spot in the computer virus protection reviews because it is easy to use and install; it's overall effectiveness, can be updated regularly, and has great support.
2. Kaspersky - Kaspersky has received top ratings for the same above-mentioned aspects such as effectiveness and support. This software has received many awards from top organizations. It is one of the most advanced products available on the market today; it would be an ideal choice to protect your computer.
3. ESET Nod32- This is said to be a simple, but very thorough security protection solution. They scored highest on effectiveness, support, and easy installation. In 2008, the ESET Nod32 received major updates while maintaining the high standard of security protection it has always provided.
4. AVG Anti-Virus- This year two previously separate products were merged with their award winning antivirus software to ensure improved overall protection for your home computer systems. They have also improved their scanning engine which should cut down on time taken to complete a virus and spyware scan. They also reported an overall decrease in overall system resource usage.
5. F Secure Antivirus- The security protection suites offered by F-Secure are used by both home computer users and large corporations on their massive networks. They strive to ensure that the internet user understands general online security safety measures and precautions, along with the potential threat caused by an inadequate security setup. Overall F-Secure offers an excellent package.
6. Trend Micro- Although this software may cause a slight decrease in performance of some basic home PCs,Trend guarantee that the security level provided by their software will more than make up for any slight decrease in performance that may be experienced. This software is aimed directly at the home internet user rather than larger corporations and receives high scores in all areas. The lowest score is attributed to the help/support section. Trend Micro is used by many people and is a viable security solution.
7. McAfee VirusScan - McAfee is a leading antivirus software provider. This software now comes equipped with extra features including an email scanner. It is not the best security option in my opinion but very popular none the less.
8. Norton Antivirus- Norton Antivirus is a widely known antivirus scanner and has been around for many years. It is the choice of many computer manufacturers who install it as part of their normal PC or laptop setup. The 2008 version is equipped with antivirus protection as well as anti-spyware detection. It is not one of my favorites as in my personal testing I have found it to be a resource hog and some end users have found it difficult to remove from their systems. Symantec are a well respected security software provider and constantly strive to update and improve the software they offer to their customers.
9. CA Antivirus- If you are looking to only detect and remove viruses on your computer then this may an option you would want to consider. This is the primary function of this product and it does not contain additional detection capabilities.
10. Norman Antivirus and Antispyware- This software is good at detecting spyware and viruses that may be lurking on your home computer. Again some users have reported a slight decrease in computer performance as a result of installing Norman AV.
The idea behind writing the top 10 computer virus protection reviews was to offer what I consider a "taster" if you like on what is available, how effective it is, and how easy it is to use. Armed with this information my hope is that you will be in a position to more easily choose a security solution that fits with your individual needs and level of security required.
If you feel that you need more specific information on any of the top 10 then just head over to the company website or type (name of software) "computer virus protection reviews" into your search engine of choice.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hugh_Duddy
Antivirus Sophos : Why Should I Use Data Backup and What is It? : e
Data backup is a way of the storing of files from on your computer in a different location. In this particular way, if there is a loss of data on your first machine, you will still have all your data in backup device / area in order to retrieve those files.
In the world of computers data, a loss of data can be stressful, and while there are ways for recovery of data after a disaster it is a lot easier to retrieve your files from a previous backup than to attempt to find your data on a crashed drive.
I have heard stories in the past of hard drives going down (failing) with very important data on them and the companies involved having to resort to going to a data restoration company. The price that the data restoration companies can quote is much higher than you'd expect - many hundreds of pounds in some cases.
I have even heard of antidotal stories where a data recover company will tell you what files they can retrieve (actual file names) but not until you pay the large amount of cash involved. It pays dividends to be able to store your data correctly in the first place.
Before you get to the stage where you have to call a data recovery company, take some steps to back up your data on a regular basis. There are just too many horror stories regarding lost data and in this day and age of cheap storage, it should not be an issue.
Sophos Anti Virus
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Schofield
In the world of computers data, a loss of data can be stressful, and while there are ways for recovery of data after a disaster it is a lot easier to retrieve your files from a previous backup than to attempt to find your data on a crashed drive.
I have heard stories in the past of hard drives going down (failing) with very important data on them and the companies involved having to resort to going to a data restoration company. The price that the data restoration companies can quote is much higher than you'd expect - many hundreds of pounds in some cases.
I have even heard of antidotal stories where a data recover company will tell you what files they can retrieve (actual file names) but not until you pay the large amount of cash involved. It pays dividends to be able to store your data correctly in the first place.
Before you get to the stage where you have to call a data recovery company, take some steps to back up your data on a regular basis. There are just too many horror stories regarding lost data and in this day and age of cheap storage, it should not be an issue.
Sophos Anti Virus
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Schofield
RAV antivirus : Viruses and Worms, Protection from Disaster : e
Virus damage estimated at $55 billion in 2003. "SINGAPORE - Trend Micro Inc, the world's third-largest anti-virus software maker, said Friday that computer virus attacks cost global businesses an estimated $55 billion in damages in 2003, a sum that would rise this year. Companies lost roughly $20 billion to $30 billion in 2002 from the virus attacks, up from about $13 billion in 2001, according to various industry estimates." This was the story across thousands of news agencies desk January 2004. Out of $55 billion, how much did it cost your company? How much did it cost someone you know?
I. The WhyThere is an average of 10-20 viruses released every day. Very few of these viruses actually make ?Wild? stage. Viruses are designed to take advantage of security flaws in software or operating systems. These flaws can be as blatant as Microsoft Windows NetBIOS shares to exploits using buffer overflows. Buffer overflows happen when an attacker sends responses to a program longer then what is expected. If the victim software is not designed well, then the attacker can overwrite the memory allocated to the software and execute malicious code.
People make viruses for various reasons. These reasons range from political to financial to notoriety to hacking tools to plain malicious intent.
Political: Mydoom is a good example of a virus that was spread with a political agenda. The two targets of this virus were Microsoft and The SCO Group. The SCO Group claims that they own a large portion of the Linux source code threatened to sue everyone using Linux operating systems (with "stolen" programming source). The virus was very effective knocking down SCO's website. However, Microsoft had enough time to prepare for the second attack and efficiently sidestepped disaster.
Financial: Some virus writers are hired by other parties to either leach financial data from a competitor or make the competitor look bad in the public eye. Industrial espionage is a high risk/high payout field that can land a person in prison for life.
Notoriety: There are some that write viruses for the sole purpose of getting their name out. This is great when the virus writers are script kiddies because this helps the authorities track them down. There are several famous viruses that have the author's email in the source code or open script
Hacking Hackers sometimes write controlled viruses to assist in the access of a remote computer. They will add a payload to the virus such as a Trojan horse to allow easy access into the victims system.
Malious: These are the people that are the most dangerous. These are the blackhat hackers that code viruses for the sole intention of destroying networks and systems without prejudice. They get high on seeing the utter destruction of their creation, and are very rarely script kiddies.
Many of the viruses that are written and released are viruses altered by script kiddies. These viruses are known as generations of the original virus and are very rarely altered enough to be noticeable from the original. This stems back to the fact that script kiddies do not understand what the original code does and only alters what they recognize (file extension or victim's website). This lack of knowledge makes script kiddies very dangerous.
II. The HowMalicious code has been plaguing computer systems since before computers became a common household appliance. Viruses and worms are examples of malicious code designed to spread and cause a system to perform a function that it was not originally designed to do.
Viruses are programs that need to be activated or run before they are dangerous or spread. The computer system only becomes infected once the program is run and the payload has bee deployed. This is why Hackers and Crackers try to crash or restart a computer system once they copy a virus onto it.
There are four ways a virus can spread: 1.) Email 2.) Network 3.) Downloading or installing software 4.) Inserting infected media
Spreading through EmailMany emails spread when a user receives an infected email. When the user opens this email or previews it, the virus is now active and starts to immediately spread.
Spreading through NetworkMany viruses are network aware. This means that they look for unsecured systems on the network and copy themselves to that system. This behavior destroys network performance and causes viruses to spread across your system like wildfire. Hackers and Crackers also use Internet and network connections to infect systems. They not only scan for unprotected systems, but they also target systems that have known software vulnerabilities. This is why keeping systems up to date is so important.
Spreading through manual installationInstalling software from downloads or disks increase the risk of infection. Only install trusted and scanned software that is known to be safe. Stay away from freeware and shareware products. These programs are known to contain Spyware, Adware, and viruses. It is also good policy to deny all Internet software that attempts to install itself unless explicitly needed.
Spreading through boot sectorsSome viruses corrupt the boot sector of disks. This means that if another disks scans the infected disk, the infection spreads. Boot sector viruses are automatically run immediately after the disk is inserted or hard drive connected.
III. Minimizing the effect of viruses and wormsWe have all heard stories about the virus that destroyed mission critical company data, which cost companies months to recover and thousands of dollars and man-hours restoring the information. In the end, there are still many hours, costs, and would be profits that remain unaccounted. Some companies never recover fully from a devastating attack. Taking simple precautions can save your business
Anti-virus SoftwareAnother step is to run an antivirus program on the local computer. Many antivirus programs offer live update software and automatically download the newest virus definitions minutes after they are released (Very important that you verify these updates weekly if not daily). Be careful of which antivirus program you chose. Installing a PC antivirus on a network can be more destructive on performance than a virus at work. Norton makes an effective corporate edition specifically designed for Windows NT Server and network environments. When using antivirus software on a network, configure it to ignore network drives and partitions. Only scan the local system and turn off the auto protection feature. The auto-protect constantly scans your network traffic and causes detrimental network issues. Corporate editions usually have this disabled by default. PC editions do not.
Email Clients Do not open emails from unknown sources. If you have a website for e-commerce transactions or to act as a virtual business card, make sure that the emails come up with a preset subject. If the emails are being sent through server side design instead of the users email client, specify whom it is coming from so you know what emails to trust. Use common sense when looking at your email. If you see a strange email with an attachment, do not open it until you verify whom it came from. This is how most MM worms spread.
Disable preview panes in email clients. Email clients such as Outlook and Outlook Express have a feature that will allow you to preview the message when the email is highlighted. This is a Major security flaw and will instantly unleash a virus if the email is infected.
It is also a good idea to turn off the feature that enables the client to view HTML formatted emails. Most of these viruses and worms pass by using the html function "<>" and run the attached file within the email header.
We will take a quick look at an email with the subject header of "You're now infected" that will open a file called readme.exe.
"Subject: You're now infected MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related;
type="multipart/alternative";
boundary="====_ABC1234567890DEF_====" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Unsent: 1 To: undisclosed-recipients:;
--====_ABC1234567890DEF_==== Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="====_ABC0987654321DEF_====" *** (This calls the iframe)
--====_ABC0987654321DEF_==== Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<> <> < / H E A D > < r =" 3"> < c =" 3" height="3D0" width="3D0"> *** (This calls readme.exe) < / i f r a m e > < / B O D Y > < / H T M L >
--====_ABC0987654321DEF_====--
--====_ABC1234567890DEF_==== Content-Type: audio/x-wav;
name="readme.exe" *** (This is the virus/worm) Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-ID: <> *** (Notice the < c =" ?">)
PCFET0NUWVBFIEhUTUwgUFVCTElDICItLy9XM0MvL0RURCBIVE1MIDQuMCBUcmFuc2l0aW9u YWwvL0VOIj4NIDxodG1sPg08aGVhZD4NPHRpdGxlPldobydzIHRoZSBiZXN0LS0tLS0tPyAt IHd3dy5lemJvYXJkLmNvbTwvdGl0bGU+DQ0NDTxzY3JpcHQgbGFuZ3VhZ2U9amF2YXNjcmlw dCBzcmM9aHR0cDovL3d3dzEuZXpib2FyZC5jb20vc3BjaC5qcz9jdXN0b21lcmlkPTExNDc0 NTgwODI+PC9zY3JpcHQ+DTxzY3JpcHQgbGFuZ3VhZ2U9ImphdmFzY3JpcHQiPg08IS0tDWZ1 bmN0aW9uIE1NX29wZW5CcldpbmRvdyh0aGVVUkwsd2luTmFtZSxmZWF0dXJlcykgeyAvL3Yy
*** Broken to protect the innocent. (Worm is encoded in Base64)
aHJlZj1odHRwOi8vY2l0YWRlbDMuZXpib2FyZC5jb20vZmNhbGhpc3BvcnRzZnJtMT5Gb290 YmFsbDwvYT4NIA08Zm9udCBjb2xvcj0jRkYwMDAwPiAtIDwvZm9udD4NDTxicj48YnI+PGJy Pjxicj5Qb3dlcmVkIEJ5IDxhIGhyZWY9aHR0cDovL3d3dy5lemJvYXJkLmNvbS8+ZXpib2Fy ZK48L2E+IFZlci4gNi43LjE8YnI+Q29weXJpZ2h0IKkxOTk5LTIwMDEgZXpib2FyZCwgSW5j Lg08L2NlbnRlcj4NPC9ib2R5Pg08L2h0bWw+DQ0NDQoNCj==
--====_ABC1234567890DEF_====--"
Email Servers The first step to minimizing the effect of viruses is to use an email server that filters incoming emails using antivirus software. If the server is kept up to date, it will catch the majority of Mass Mailer (MM) worms. Ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) if they offer antivirus protection and spam filtering on their email servers. This service is invaluable and should always be included as the first line of defense.
Many companies house an internal email server that downloads all of the email from several external email accounts and then runs an internal virus filter. Combining an internal email server with the ISP protection is a perfect for a company with an IT staff. This option adds an extra layer of control, but also adds more administration time. Sample specs for an internal email server are:
Setup #1* Linux: OS* Sendmail: mail server* Fetchmail: Grabs email from external email addresses* F-prot: Antivirus* SpamAssassin: Spam Filter
Setup #2* Win 2003 Server: OS* Exchange: Email server* Symantec antivirus: Antivirus* Exchange Intelligent Message Filter: Spam Filter
Software Updates Keep you software up to date. Some worms and viruses replicate through vulnerabilities in services and software on the target system. Code red is a classic example. In august 2001, the worm used a known buffer overflow vulnerability in Microsoft's IIS 4.0 and 5.0 contained in the Idq.dll file. This would allow an attacker to run any program they wanted to on the affected system. Another famous worm called Slammer targeted Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft Desktop Engine (MSDE) 2000.
When updating your software, make sure to disable features and services that are not needed. Some versions of WinNT had a web server called IIS installed by default. If you do not need the service, make sure it is turned off (Code red is a perfect example). By only enabling services you need, you decrease the risk of attack.
Telecommunications Security Install a firewall on the network. A firewall is a device or software that blocks unwanted traffic from going to or from the internal network. This gives you control of the traffic coming in and going out of your network. At minimum, block ports 135,137,139,445. This stops most network aware viruses and worms from spreading from the Internet. However, it is good practice to block all traffic unless specifically needed.
Security Policies Implementing security policies that cover items such as acceptable use, email retention, and remote access can go a long way to protecting your information infrastructure. With the addition of annual training, employees will be informed enough to help keep the data reliable instead of hinder it. Every individual that has access to your network or data needs to follow these rules. It only takes one incident to compromise the system. Only install proven and scanned software on the system. The most damaging viruses come from installing or even inserting a contaminated disk. Boot sector viruses can be some of the hardest malware to defeat. Simply inserting a floppy disk with a boot sector virus can immediately transfer the virus to the hard drive.
When surfing the Internet, do not download untrusted files. Many websites will install Spyware, Adware, Parasites, or Trojans in the name of "Marketing" on unsuspecting victims computers. Many prey on users that do not read popup windows or download freeware or shareware software. Some sites even use code to take advantage of vulnerability in Internet explorer to automatically download and run unauthorized software without giving you a choice.
Do not install or use P2P programs like Kazaa, Morpheus, or Limewire. These programs install server software on your system; essentially back dooring your system. There are also thousands of infected files floating on those networks that will activate when downloaded.
Backups & Disaster Recovery Planning Keep daily backups offsite. These can be in the form of tape, CD-R, DVD-R, removable hard drives, or even secure file transfers. If data becomes damaged, you would be able to restore from the last known good backup. The most important step while following a backup procedure is to verify that the backup was a success. Too many people just assume that the backup is working only to find out that the drive or media was bad six months earlier when they were infected by a virus or lost a hard drive. If the data that you are trying to archive is less then five gig, DVD-R drives are a great solution. Both the drives and disks have come down in price and are now a viable option. This is also one of the fastest backup methods to process and verify. For larger backups, tape drives and removable hard drives are the best option. If you choose this method, you will need to rotate the backup with five or seven different media (tapes, CD/DVD, removable drives) to get the most out of the process. It is also suggested to take a "master" backup out of the rotation on a scheduled basis and archive offsite in a fireproof safe. This protects the data from fire, flood, and theft.
In the Internet age, understanding that you have to maintain these processes will help you become successful when preventing damage and minimizes the time, costs, and liabilities involved during the disaster recovery phase if you are affected.
Adware: *A form of spyware that collects information about the user in order to display advertisements in the Web browser based on the information it collects from the user's browsing patterns.
Software that is given to the user with advertisements already embedded in the application
Malware: *Short for malicious software, software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus or a Trojan horse.
Script Kiddie: *A person, normally someone who is not technologically sophisticated, who randomly seeks out a specific weakness over the Internet in order to gain root access to a system without really understanding what it is s/he is exploiting because the weakness was discovered by someone else. A script kiddie is not looking to target specific information or a specific company but rather uses knowledge of a vulnerability to scan the entire Internet for a victim that possesses that vulnerability.
Spyware: *Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet; however, it should be noted that the majority of shareware and freeware applications do not come with spyware. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.
Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. A common way to become a victim of spyware is to download certain peer-to-peer file swapping products that are available today.
Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, spyware steals from the user by using the computer's memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spyware's home base via the user's Internet connection. Because spyware is using memory and system resources, the applications running in the background can lead to system crashes or general system instability.
Because spyware exists as independent executable programs, they have the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, such as chat programs or word processors, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change the default home page on the Web browser, consistently relaying this information back to the spyware author who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party. Licensing agreements that accompany software downloads sometimes warn the user that a spyware program will be installed along with the requested software, but the licensing agreements may not always be read completely because the notice of a spyware installation is often couched in obtuse, hard-to-read legal disclaimers.
Trojan: *A destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer.
The term comes from a story in Homer's Iliad, in which the Greeks give a giant wooden horse to their foes, the Trojans, ostensibly as a peace offering. But after the Trojans drag the horse inside their city walls, Greek soldiers sneak out of the horse's hollow belly and open the city gates, allowing their compatriots to pour in and capture Troy.
Virus: *A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are man made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.
Since 1987, when a virus infected ARPANET, a large network used by the Defense Department and many universities, many antivirus programs have become available. These programs periodically check your computer system for the best-known types of viruses.
Some people distinguish between general viruses and worms. A worm is a special type of virus that can replicate itself and use memory, but cannot attach itself to other programs.
Worm: *A program or algorithm that replicates itself over a computer network and usually performs malicious actions, such as using up the computer's resources and possibly shutting the system down.
* Definitions provided by Webopedia
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_Martin
I. The WhyThere is an average of 10-20 viruses released every day. Very few of these viruses actually make ?Wild? stage. Viruses are designed to take advantage of security flaws in software or operating systems. These flaws can be as blatant as Microsoft Windows NetBIOS shares to exploits using buffer overflows. Buffer overflows happen when an attacker sends responses to a program longer then what is expected. If the victim software is not designed well, then the attacker can overwrite the memory allocated to the software and execute malicious code.
People make viruses for various reasons. These reasons range from political to financial to notoriety to hacking tools to plain malicious intent.
Political: Mydoom is a good example of a virus that was spread with a political agenda. The two targets of this virus were Microsoft and The SCO Group. The SCO Group claims that they own a large portion of the Linux source code threatened to sue everyone using Linux operating systems (with "stolen" programming source). The virus was very effective knocking down SCO's website. However, Microsoft had enough time to prepare for the second attack and efficiently sidestepped disaster.
Financial: Some virus writers are hired by other parties to either leach financial data from a competitor or make the competitor look bad in the public eye. Industrial espionage is a high risk/high payout field that can land a person in prison for life.
Notoriety: There are some that write viruses for the sole purpose of getting their name out. This is great when the virus writers are script kiddies because this helps the authorities track them down. There are several famous viruses that have the author's email in the source code or open script
Hacking Hackers sometimes write controlled viruses to assist in the access of a remote computer. They will add a payload to the virus such as a Trojan horse to allow easy access into the victims system.
Malious: These are the people that are the most dangerous. These are the blackhat hackers that code viruses for the sole intention of destroying networks and systems without prejudice. They get high on seeing the utter destruction of their creation, and are very rarely script kiddies.
Many of the viruses that are written and released are viruses altered by script kiddies. These viruses are known as generations of the original virus and are very rarely altered enough to be noticeable from the original. This stems back to the fact that script kiddies do not understand what the original code does and only alters what they recognize (file extension or victim's website). This lack of knowledge makes script kiddies very dangerous.
II. The HowMalicious code has been plaguing computer systems since before computers became a common household appliance. Viruses and worms are examples of malicious code designed to spread and cause a system to perform a function that it was not originally designed to do.
Viruses are programs that need to be activated or run before they are dangerous or spread. The computer system only becomes infected once the program is run and the payload has bee deployed. This is why Hackers and Crackers try to crash or restart a computer system once they copy a virus onto it.
There are four ways a virus can spread: 1.) Email 2.) Network 3.) Downloading or installing software 4.) Inserting infected media
Spreading through EmailMany emails spread when a user receives an infected email. When the user opens this email or previews it, the virus is now active and starts to immediately spread.
Spreading through NetworkMany viruses are network aware. This means that they look for unsecured systems on the network and copy themselves to that system. This behavior destroys network performance and causes viruses to spread across your system like wildfire. Hackers and Crackers also use Internet and network connections to infect systems. They not only scan for unprotected systems, but they also target systems that have known software vulnerabilities. This is why keeping systems up to date is so important.
Spreading through manual installationInstalling software from downloads or disks increase the risk of infection. Only install trusted and scanned software that is known to be safe. Stay away from freeware and shareware products. These programs are known to contain Spyware, Adware, and viruses. It is also good policy to deny all Internet software that attempts to install itself unless explicitly needed.
Spreading through boot sectorsSome viruses corrupt the boot sector of disks. This means that if another disks scans the infected disk, the infection spreads. Boot sector viruses are automatically run immediately after the disk is inserted or hard drive connected.
III. Minimizing the effect of viruses and wormsWe have all heard stories about the virus that destroyed mission critical company data, which cost companies months to recover and thousands of dollars and man-hours restoring the information. In the end, there are still many hours, costs, and would be profits that remain unaccounted. Some companies never recover fully from a devastating attack. Taking simple precautions can save your business
Anti-virus SoftwareAnother step is to run an antivirus program on the local computer. Many antivirus programs offer live update software and automatically download the newest virus definitions minutes after they are released (Very important that you verify these updates weekly if not daily). Be careful of which antivirus program you chose. Installing a PC antivirus on a network can be more destructive on performance than a virus at work. Norton makes an effective corporate edition specifically designed for Windows NT Server and network environments. When using antivirus software on a network, configure it to ignore network drives and partitions. Only scan the local system and turn off the auto protection feature. The auto-protect constantly scans your network traffic and causes detrimental network issues. Corporate editions usually have this disabled by default. PC editions do not.
Email Clients Do not open emails from unknown sources. If you have a website for e-commerce transactions or to act as a virtual business card, make sure that the emails come up with a preset subject. If the emails are being sent through server side design instead of the users email client, specify whom it is coming from so you know what emails to trust. Use common sense when looking at your email. If you see a strange email with an attachment, do not open it until you verify whom it came from. This is how most MM worms spread.
Disable preview panes in email clients. Email clients such as Outlook and Outlook Express have a feature that will allow you to preview the message when the email is highlighted. This is a Major security flaw and will instantly unleash a virus if the email is infected.
It is also a good idea to turn off the feature that enables the client to view HTML formatted emails. Most of these viruses and worms pass by using the html function "<>" and run the attached file within the email header.
We will take a quick look at an email with the subject header of "You're now infected" that will open a file called readme.exe.
"Subject: You're now infected MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related;
type="multipart/alternative";
boundary="====_ABC1234567890DEF_====" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Unsent: 1 To: undisclosed-recipients:;
--====_ABC1234567890DEF_==== Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="====_ABC0987654321DEF_====" *** (This calls the iframe)
--====_ABC0987654321DEF_==== Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<> <> < / H E A D > < r =" 3"> < c =" 3" height="3D0" width="3D0"> *** (This calls readme.exe) < / i f r a m e > < / B O D Y > < / H T M L >
--====_ABC0987654321DEF_====--
--====_ABC1234567890DEF_==== Content-Type: audio/x-wav;
name="readme.exe" *** (This is the virus/worm) Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-ID: <> *** (Notice the < c =" ?">)
PCFET0NUWVBFIEhUTUwgUFVCTElDICItLy9XM0MvL0RURCBIVE1MIDQuMCBUcmFuc2l0aW9u YWwvL0VOIj4NIDxodG1sPg08aGVhZD4NPHRpdGxlPldobydzIHRoZSBiZXN0LS0tLS0tPyAt IHd3dy5lemJvYXJkLmNvbTwvdGl0bGU+DQ0NDTxzY3JpcHQgbGFuZ3VhZ2U9amF2YXNjcmlw dCBzcmM9aHR0cDovL3d3dzEuZXpib2FyZC5jb20vc3BjaC5qcz9jdXN0b21lcmlkPTExNDc0 NTgwODI+PC9zY3JpcHQ+DTxzY3JpcHQgbGFuZ3VhZ2U9ImphdmFzY3JpcHQiPg08IS0tDWZ1 bmN0aW9uIE1NX29wZW5CcldpbmRvdyh0aGVVUkwsd2luTmFtZSxmZWF0dXJlcykgeyAvL3Yy
*** Broken to protect the innocent. (Worm is encoded in Base64)
aHJlZj1odHRwOi8vY2l0YWRlbDMuZXpib2FyZC5jb20vZmNhbGhpc3BvcnRzZnJtMT5Gb290 YmFsbDwvYT4NIA08Zm9udCBjb2xvcj0jRkYwMDAwPiAtIDwvZm9udD4NDTxicj48YnI+PGJy Pjxicj5Qb3dlcmVkIEJ5IDxhIGhyZWY9aHR0cDovL3d3dy5lemJvYXJkLmNvbS8+ZXpib2Fy ZK48L2E+IFZlci4gNi43LjE8YnI+Q29weXJpZ2h0IKkxOTk5LTIwMDEgZXpib2FyZCwgSW5j Lg08L2NlbnRlcj4NPC9ib2R5Pg08L2h0bWw+DQ0NDQoNCj==
--====_ABC1234567890DEF_====--"
Email Servers The first step to minimizing the effect of viruses is to use an email server that filters incoming emails using antivirus software. If the server is kept up to date, it will catch the majority of Mass Mailer (MM) worms. Ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) if they offer antivirus protection and spam filtering on their email servers. This service is invaluable and should always be included as the first line of defense.
Many companies house an internal email server that downloads all of the email from several external email accounts and then runs an internal virus filter. Combining an internal email server with the ISP protection is a perfect for a company with an IT staff. This option adds an extra layer of control, but also adds more administration time. Sample specs for an internal email server are:
Setup #1* Linux: OS* Sendmail: mail server* Fetchmail: Grabs email from external email addresses* F-prot: Antivirus* SpamAssassin: Spam Filter
Setup #2* Win 2003 Server: OS* Exchange: Email server* Symantec antivirus: Antivirus* Exchange Intelligent Message Filter: Spam Filter
Software Updates Keep you software up to date. Some worms and viruses replicate through vulnerabilities in services and software on the target system. Code red is a classic example. In august 2001, the worm used a known buffer overflow vulnerability in Microsoft's IIS 4.0 and 5.0 contained in the Idq.dll file. This would allow an attacker to run any program they wanted to on the affected system. Another famous worm called Slammer targeted Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft Desktop Engine (MSDE) 2000.
When updating your software, make sure to disable features and services that are not needed. Some versions of WinNT had a web server called IIS installed by default. If you do not need the service, make sure it is turned off (Code red is a perfect example). By only enabling services you need, you decrease the risk of attack.
Telecommunications Security Install a firewall on the network. A firewall is a device or software that blocks unwanted traffic from going to or from the internal network. This gives you control of the traffic coming in and going out of your network. At minimum, block ports 135,137,139,445. This stops most network aware viruses and worms from spreading from the Internet. However, it is good practice to block all traffic unless specifically needed.
Security Policies Implementing security policies that cover items such as acceptable use, email retention, and remote access can go a long way to protecting your information infrastructure. With the addition of annual training, employees will be informed enough to help keep the data reliable instead of hinder it. Every individual that has access to your network or data needs to follow these rules. It only takes one incident to compromise the system. Only install proven and scanned software on the system. The most damaging viruses come from installing or even inserting a contaminated disk. Boot sector viruses can be some of the hardest malware to defeat. Simply inserting a floppy disk with a boot sector virus can immediately transfer the virus to the hard drive.
When surfing the Internet, do not download untrusted files. Many websites will install Spyware, Adware, Parasites, or Trojans in the name of "Marketing" on unsuspecting victims computers. Many prey on users that do not read popup windows or download freeware or shareware software. Some sites even use code to take advantage of vulnerability in Internet explorer to automatically download and run unauthorized software without giving you a choice.
Do not install or use P2P programs like Kazaa, Morpheus, or Limewire. These programs install server software on your system; essentially back dooring your system. There are also thousands of infected files floating on those networks that will activate when downloaded.
Backups & Disaster Recovery Planning Keep daily backups offsite. These can be in the form of tape, CD-R, DVD-R, removable hard drives, or even secure file transfers. If data becomes damaged, you would be able to restore from the last known good backup. The most important step while following a backup procedure is to verify that the backup was a success. Too many people just assume that the backup is working only to find out that the drive or media was bad six months earlier when they were infected by a virus or lost a hard drive. If the data that you are trying to archive is less then five gig, DVD-R drives are a great solution. Both the drives and disks have come down in price and are now a viable option. This is also one of the fastest backup methods to process and verify. For larger backups, tape drives and removable hard drives are the best option. If you choose this method, you will need to rotate the backup with five or seven different media (tapes, CD/DVD, removable drives) to get the most out of the process. It is also suggested to take a "master" backup out of the rotation on a scheduled basis and archive offsite in a fireproof safe. This protects the data from fire, flood, and theft.
In the Internet age, understanding that you have to maintain these processes will help you become successful when preventing damage and minimizes the time, costs, and liabilities involved during the disaster recovery phase if you are affected.
Adware: *A form of spyware that collects information about the user in order to display advertisements in the Web browser based on the information it collects from the user's browsing patterns.
Software that is given to the user with advertisements already embedded in the application
Malware: *Short for malicious software, software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus or a Trojan horse.
Script Kiddie: *A person, normally someone who is not technologically sophisticated, who randomly seeks out a specific weakness over the Internet in order to gain root access to a system without really understanding what it is s/he is exploiting because the weakness was discovered by someone else. A script kiddie is not looking to target specific information or a specific company but rather uses knowledge of a vulnerability to scan the entire Internet for a victim that possesses that vulnerability.
Spyware: *Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet; however, it should be noted that the majority of shareware and freeware applications do not come with spyware. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.
Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. A common way to become a victim of spyware is to download certain peer-to-peer file swapping products that are available today.
Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, spyware steals from the user by using the computer's memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spyware's home base via the user's Internet connection. Because spyware is using memory and system resources, the applications running in the background can lead to system crashes or general system instability.
Because spyware exists as independent executable programs, they have the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, such as chat programs or word processors, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change the default home page on the Web browser, consistently relaying this information back to the spyware author who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party. Licensing agreements that accompany software downloads sometimes warn the user that a spyware program will be installed along with the requested software, but the licensing agreements may not always be read completely because the notice of a spyware installation is often couched in obtuse, hard-to-read legal disclaimers.
Trojan: *A destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer.
The term comes from a story in Homer's Iliad, in which the Greeks give a giant wooden horse to their foes, the Trojans, ostensibly as a peace offering. But after the Trojans drag the horse inside their city walls, Greek soldiers sneak out of the horse's hollow belly and open the city gates, allowing their compatriots to pour in and capture Troy.
Virus: *A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are man made. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.
Since 1987, when a virus infected ARPANET, a large network used by the Defense Department and many universities, many antivirus programs have become available. These programs periodically check your computer system for the best-known types of viruses.
Some people distinguish between general viruses and worms. A worm is a special type of virus that can replicate itself and use memory, but cannot attach itself to other programs.
Worm: *A program or algorithm that replicates itself over a computer network and usually performs malicious actions, such as using up the computer's resources and possibly shutting the system down.
* Definitions provided by Webopedia
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_Martin
Anti virus comodo : Best Free Antivirus Software : e
The debate goes back and forth as to whether antivirus or firewall software are more important. In terms of what you need to add to your system many computer users will find that in a real world situation their choice of antivirus software is the most important. The reason for this is that many systems are already protected to some degree from outside intrusions by routers that have powerful firewall capabilities and also Windows XP and Vista have limited firewall capabilities built in. For those systems that are not behind a firewall router or are without the firewall feature of Vista or XP then adding a software firewall is just as important as adding a good antivirus application.
There are a number of very good free antivirus programs available from a variety of sources. When considering free antivirus software be sure it is as good as a paid program or look elsewhere, because free does not have to mean low quality or limited features as you will see from the following selections.
Comodo AntiVirus (Comodo) This great free antivirus application can eliminates viruses, trojans and even worms from both desktops and networks. It offers constant protection with on-access scanning working in real-time. A powerful feature is the proactive heuristic analysis that can even intercept unknown threats. Updates of virus definitions are provided automatically on a daily basis. Any suspicious files it identifies are isolated in quarantine thereby preventing infection. This antivirus software is very easy to install and use. We have used this on all of our test systems and currently use it on a number of our computers! >> Windows XP(SP2) / 2000(SP4)
PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition (PC Tools) This is a new free antivirus application from PC Tools. It can detect, quarantine, disinfect and destroy viruses, worms and trojans. This free edition even includes real-time protection and comprehensive system screening to keep your system running safe and virus free. >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000
McAfee Security Center (AOL/McAfee)This free product is offered free by AOL. You need to complete a free registration to get this product but the few minutes spent are well worth it. This is a multi purpose suite that includes antivirus, firewall and antispyware components. >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000
AVG Anti Virus Version 7.5 Free Edition (Grisoft)Download the new version 7.5 of this top free antivirus product. This new version has an improved virus detection engine based on more accurate heuristics and NTFS data stream scanning. It also has a smaller installation 'footprint' and an improved user interface. >> Windows Vista / XP(SP2) / 2000(SP4) / NT(SP6a) / ME / 98SE
avast! 4 Antivirus Free Home Edition (Alwil)This antivirus program is available free for home users. It is a complete antivirus solution and will do a great job protecting your computer from viruses. This newest version features better detection levels, together with higher performance. You can expect 100% detection of 'In-the-Wild' viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and even excellent detection of trojan horses. >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000 / NT(SP4) / ME / 98 / 95
AntiVir PersonalEdition (Avira) Use this antivirus download free! It can reliably protects your private computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers. This program uses very few computer resources so is especially good for older computers. AntiVir can run in Windows Safe Mode so can be helpful if you are unable to get Windows to boot! >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000 / ME / 98
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Jacobs
There are a number of very good free antivirus programs available from a variety of sources. When considering free antivirus software be sure it is as good as a paid program or look elsewhere, because free does not have to mean low quality or limited features as you will see from the following selections.
Comodo AntiVirus (Comodo) This great free antivirus application can eliminates viruses, trojans and even worms from both desktops and networks. It offers constant protection with on-access scanning working in real-time. A powerful feature is the proactive heuristic analysis that can even intercept unknown threats. Updates of virus definitions are provided automatically on a daily basis. Any suspicious files it identifies are isolated in quarantine thereby preventing infection. This antivirus software is very easy to install and use. We have used this on all of our test systems and currently use it on a number of our computers! >> Windows XP(SP2) / 2000(SP4)
PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition (PC Tools) This is a new free antivirus application from PC Tools. It can detect, quarantine, disinfect and destroy viruses, worms and trojans. This free edition even includes real-time protection and comprehensive system screening to keep your system running safe and virus free. >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000
McAfee Security Center (AOL/McAfee)This free product is offered free by AOL. You need to complete a free registration to get this product but the few minutes spent are well worth it. This is a multi purpose suite that includes antivirus, firewall and antispyware components. >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000
AVG Anti Virus Version 7.5 Free Edition (Grisoft)Download the new version 7.5 of this top free antivirus product. This new version has an improved virus detection engine based on more accurate heuristics and NTFS data stream scanning. It also has a smaller installation 'footprint' and an improved user interface. >> Windows Vista / XP(SP2) / 2000(SP4) / NT(SP6a) / ME / 98SE
avast! 4 Antivirus Free Home Edition (Alwil)This antivirus program is available free for home users. It is a complete antivirus solution and will do a great job protecting your computer from viruses. This newest version features better detection levels, together with higher performance. You can expect 100% detection of 'In-the-Wild' viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and even excellent detection of trojan horses. >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000 / NT(SP4) / ME / 98 / 95
AntiVir PersonalEdition (Avira) Use this antivirus download free! It can reliably protects your private computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers. This program uses very few computer resources so is especially good for older computers. AntiVir can run in Windows Safe Mode so can be helpful if you are unable to get Windows to boot! >> Windows Vista / XP / 2000 / ME / 98
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Jacobs
A Brief Introduction To Panda Antivirus 2008 : download free antivirus panda
http://antiviruspanda.blogspot.com
"Malware" means "malicious software" - viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware and adware - with varying degrees of potency, but all of which is undesirable. "Phishing", on the other hand, is a fraudulent attempt to gather sensitive personal, or financial, information, perpetrated by unscrupulous individuals, or organised groups. Panda Antivirus 2008, thankfully, provides maximum, automatic protection against all forms of malware and hacking, with a reinforced security model which is surprisingly light on system resources.
Panda Antivirus 2008 Features & Benefits
Panda Antivirus 2008 features a new, and exclusive, security model - known as "MegaDetection" - to provide protection against over 1,000,000 known virus threats. In addition, viruses attempt to hide from the operating system, or other virus protection software, by operating at a low level - in so-called "stealth" mode - can be detected, and eliminated. Even so-called "rootkits", the most sophisticated of the hidden threats, cannot avoid detection. MegaDetection therefore offers a level of protection that is far higher than some other antivirus protection programs. Furthermore, a "heuristic" approach means that, even if a virus definition, or signature, does not exist, suspicious activity - indicative of a potential virus infection - can be isolated, and prevented. Virus protection extends to file attachments on email messages, and incoming files from any other source.
Spyware is another form of malware which can cause frustration and anxiety for computer users. Spyware typically hijacks, or changes, Internet browser settings, redirecting the user to websites from which various scams are perpetrated, and may cause a computer to perform poorly, or erratically. In the worst cases, spyware may also attempt to harvest, for example, bank account, or credit card, details which are used for fraudulent purposes, including "identity theft". Panda Antivirus 2008 identifies and removes all forms of spyware, along with its associated effects, such as spurious entries in the Windows registry, so that your computer continues to function correctly, and securely.
Phishing is a potentially much more damaging activity, if a computer user is "duped" into revealing his, or her, financial details to a fraudster. Suspicious, or dubious, email messages, and websites are immediately recognised by Panda Antivirus 2008 - as is the presence of other potentially malicious items, such as "rogue" Internet dialers - so that any form of financial transaction can be performed with complete confidence.
Conclusion
Panda Antivirus 2008 is straightforward to install, and use, with the facility for automatic, daily updates via the Internet; once the software is installed, you can forget about it, to all intents and purposes, and simply rest assured that your malware protection is always active and up-to-date. Panda Antivirus 2008 is easy on system resources - recommended memory, for example, is just 64MB - and is compatible with Windows XP, and Windows Vista, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Technical support, if required, is available 24 hours a day, via email or the Internet, from Panda Security.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josh_Taylor
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 Review : download antivirus free kaspersky
http://antivirusnorton.blogspot.com
few months ago a very popular anti-virus software came out with their most recent edition. This article will be a Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 Review. I spent the $40 bucks to get a copy not only to test it but what I thought was going to be my Virus Software for the year to come. I might have been counting my eggs before they were hatched if you know what i mean. I installed this program on my backup Dell laptop computer running Windows XP.
Just like all of the previous, non beta, releases of Kaspersky Anti-Virus, this version was very good at detecting malware and viruses of the sort. I would systematically go to websites I knew contained viruses or spyware and I would purposely let the computer get infected. I noted all the sites and in what order so that I could run comparison tests on other anti-virus softwares like AVG later on.
Once I finished installing Kapserky Anti-Virus 2009, which was not such an easy task. After installation it would tell me I had a conflict with another software that we all know as Norton. This software had not been on my computer in a very long time and not sure why it was still installed, probably something in the registry. Needless to say, a false alarm. It made me manually enter the product key that they emailed to me by hand, not the worst thing in the world but just very annoying. I am a big fan of the copy paste for these types of keys for various programs.
Moving on in the Kaspersky Anti-Virus review, lets discuss how it performed in the actual scanning for malware or viruses. I was pleased with the time it took to do a quick scan, but I was not pleased with how was notified of these results. I really was not notified of the results whether they were cleaned or sent to the vault. I later learned I had to click a very small button called "Reports" which would tell me all of that information. I would of liked to be notified on each removal of a piece of spyware, maybe one piece I wanted to keep, the point is I just like being in control and choosing what goes on my PC.
Like I said it did the normal full scans and quick scans rather quickly like the old versions of the software. It did remove all of the infections that was able to get while browsing lets say not G rated sites. So it did perform well in that regard.
In all it is a very solid working anti-virus software for most people. However it does need some work to its actual functionality and usability. Many computer users are not as technical savy as some others, and they need to remember this when they start to develop their next years software. After this Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 Review I will be doing a complete comparison to AVG Anti-Virus so we can know what to use in the new year.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Travis_Klein
AVG Free Downloads - Don't Blindly Download Or You May Regret It : Download antivirus free
http://avgfreee.blogspot.com
There are factors to initially deem an AVG free download as being safe, and the top priority is if the web site itself can actually be verified or confirmed. If the website is unknown it is best to find one that has more traffic and positive feedback offered as far as the download application is concerned.
Most verifiable sites will offer user comments or forums where the satisfaction of the user can be posted. If you can see this, then in most cases the application should be all right to download. However, there are web sites that offer the same thing and don't use comments or profiles of the users that have downloaded it, and for good reason to their knowledge, the program is corrupted and they don't want others to know it. Then once it is installed on your computer then the website and who created it has control or access to information from your computer.
These people unfortunately are smart. They have the ability to be discreet and lure those who are looking for something to protect their computer to actually load their computer with corrupt programs and they steal your information from you or this in turn causes your computer to not function in the right way.
Many users who have access to the Internet and the ability to download as well often fall victim to these sites. This is why it's a good idea to try every means possible to make sure that the website is on the up and up. The site shouldn't be afraid to offer the information users want to see. If you don't see any I would advice that you leave the site as soon as possible. Simply because some of the sites can exploit security holes in your web browser and install attachments onto your computer just by you clicking the link that leads to their website. So you know it's not a bad thing to be "just too cautious". In the users realm of things it just means bad news if you don't exercise an extreme amount of caution when it comes to unknown web sites.
More advanced AVG programs that are offered will cost you, so if you happen onto a website that you see this and the free version is available you still have a sense of caution to think about in case the advertising for the free version is being offered by a site that isn't consistent with other web sites that might offer the AVG free download.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Synder
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