Most of us know how to protect our computers with firewalls and antivirus software, but we may not know how to sufficiently protect our servers, which store business-critical information. To begin with, turn off all unused ports and eliminate all unneeded software. By deleting unnecessary programs, you reduce the ways in which the system can be attacked. Next, install one of the various free auditing tools available to check for any vulnerabilities or open ports you may have missed. Lastly, install intrusion protection software and plan a strategy for ongoing maintenance.

Unfortunately, keeping your server safe is an ongoing process that involves periodically updating patches and planning for regular security audits.

Online attackers have found a way to inject IFRAME redirects into the search results of major sites, including tech news site ZDNet Asia and bittorrent tracker TorrentReactor, researchers discovered on Tuesday.

By abusing the way that the sites cache search queries to optimize their rankings in other search engines — most notably, Google — fraudsters have been able to inject iframe redirects into the cached results. The redirects send unwary users to servers affiliated with the Russian Business Network that attempts to install a fake antivirus product, known as XP Antivirus, according to Dancho Danchev, an independent security researcher based in the Netherlands. Read the rest of this entry »

These days, using only one antispyware program is like playing with fire: sooner or later, you’re going to get burned. Since not all spyware-combat tools share identical databases, we recommend running as many tools as you can get your mitts on–and Spybot – Search & Destroy, a time-tested and free application, should be part of your arsenal. The program might not have as pretty a face as some of its competitors, but it’s certainly adept at eradicating spyware. It also offers a wide variety of settings and tools for maintaining your security and privacy that might not be immediately obvious. Read on to get the lowdown on removing spyware with Spybot, and to get tips for using some of the program’s most important features. Read the rest of this entry »

Many companies are trying to combat the threats posed by viruses and spyware, but one you may not have encountered is Slovakian company Eset.

Eset Smart Security combines the conventional virus database – where the company writes specific fixes for known viruses – with a more advanced analysis called Threatsense that protects against new virus outbreaks. The most striking part of Eset Smart Security is the simplicity of its design. Whether this is a good or bad feature will depend on how involved you like to get with your security software’s controls.

The basics are all on display so it’s easy to independently turn the anti-virus and anti-spyware, firewall and anti-spam modules on and off, and there are facilities to add names to the spam blacklist and the list of trusted correspondents, but other than this, most things happen automatically.

The user can also turn on advanced controls that give a tree-based outline of all the possible settings, so it’s possible to select the bit in which you’re interested. While this is an interesting alternative approach to the process of changing settings, it’s more awkward to navigate than a regular control screen with lots of buttons. Read the rest of this entry »

Major upgrade protects home and SMB computer users against a broad spectrum of security threats including web exploits, malware, rootkits, system intrusion and spam

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 27 — AVG Technologies, a leading provider of Internet Security software, today released AVG Internet Security 8.0, the latest version of its flagship suite for consumers and SMBs. AVG 8.0 delivers a significant number of new benefits to users designed to deliver enhanced protection against the latest web-borne threats without sacrificing the product’s signature efficiency and unobtrusiveness. Read the rest of this entry »

Consumer antivirus protection received a few enhancements after Symantec (NSDQ:SYMC) recently released the launch its Norton 360 version 2.0.

"We’re really excited for this launch," said Mark Kanok, Symantec senior product manager for Norton 360. "It’s going to set a whole new bar in terms of what people expect."

Execs say that the comprehensive antivirus product is targeted at a wide range of users, which includes home office professionals and small businesses, in addition to the consumer market. "People who use computers on a regular basis but don’t necessarily have a Ph.D. in security," said Kanok. "The set it and forget it type. There are a lot of end users who just want one package." Read the rest of this entry »

Over the weekend, pornographic images and videos began appearing on Google Groups pages, along with infectious malware.

"These pages push other porn pages for profit," said Alex Eckelberry, CEO of security company Sunbelt Software, in a blog post. "While not all of the redirects go to malware sites, we did observe some redirects to a site which ultimately pushes a fake codec trojan, which if installed, results in a VirusHeat infection."

Google Groups is a free, online discussion forum available to anyone with a Google Account. Google uses a Captcha challenge to prevent spammers from using automated methods to create and abuse new accounts. Read the rest of this entry »

With all the press on spam and illicit emails; with all the concern over how to fix the problem; with all the money that companies have thrown at the issue of uncontrollable email spam without effect, it took a successful precious metals dealer named John Halloran to finally bring to market an effective solution that doesn’t block spam, it prevents spam – Woomail. Read the rest of this entry »

Taragana Inc, announced the launch of Comment Guard Pro, a third generation comment spam protection
software for WordPressâ„¢ blogs which uses expert system with pluggable rules to accurately classify
comments. Read the rest of this entry »

The registry of the computer is a mammoth file that stores all the information that is required by the registry. This central database of the system can slow the computer if it gets filled with irrelevant data and so needs to be cleaned from time to time.

The system registry is a very large filing system or rather a giant database that records all the changes made to the computer by the user. This may be addition or removal of hardware or software as well as adding permissions for users and removing permissions for users. The registry constantly and automatically upgrades its records with the new changes. This way the registry constantly grows and as it grows it slows down because the system takes a longer while to locate the information it is looking for. This is so because every time the registry has to come up with information it has to start searching from the very beginning of its database. So, the larger the database the longer it will take to locate the data. This is the main reason that the registry must be cleaned regularly with a good computer Spyware removal utility. Read the rest of this entry »