Welcome to a harsh reality: Relying on an ostensibly comprehensive antivirus suite just doesn't cut it in 2012.
Antivirus software is crucial for combating viruses, malware, and
hackers, but simply installing an antivirus program is rarely enough.
You should also use strong passwords; keep your system, applications,
and browser plug-ins up-to-date; and make sure your firewall is doing
its job by blocking all intrusions. Following these extra safeguards can
reduce the chances of your PC becoming a Petri dish full of digital
contagions.
Luckily, a number of tools and services can simplify all the extra
security precautions that modern PCs require. They go above and beyond
what's offered in antivirus suites, performing security audits of
vulnerabilities that the big-name software packages miss. Here are five
to check out.
Qualys Browser Check
An outdated browser or plug-in can serve as a security hole for hackers
and malware authors to exploit, so you’ll want to keep your web software
up-to-date. Qualys Browser Check
is a free service that scans your Web browser to determine if you’re
running outdated or insecure versions of some popular plug-ins or
add-ons, including Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Java, and Windows Media
Player.
You can run a quick scan from your browser in Windows, Mac, or Linux.
You don't even have to download any software—Qualys runs completely
within your browser. Supported browsers include Internet Explorer (IE),
Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Camino. Once Qualys
Browser Check completes its scan, it lists which plug-ins it scanned,
and indicates whether you’re running insecure versions of any of your
plug-ins, and if any updates are available. The scan also provides links
to where you can download the newest plug-in version, so you don’t have
to hunt around for it.
Sample results from a quick Qualys scan. Look at that: The Java plugin needs an update.
Alternatively, you can run a full scan after downloading and installing
the Qualys BrowserCheck plug-in, which supports IE, Firefox, and Chrome
on Windows—there's no Mac or Linux support for the full scan. This full
scan can check all supported browsers you have installed, not just the
browser you used to run the scan. And the full scan can also detect
other system vulnerabilities as well, such as no automatic Windows
Updates or Windows Firewall running, or out-of-date or disabled
antivirus software.
Sample results from a full scan in Chrome after downloading the plug-in.
Once Qualys Browser Check finishes doing its thing, you’ll see a list of
scanned plug-ins for your current browser, and icons to view the
results for each of your other browsers. And if you choose to do system
checks, you'll see a tab showing its results as well.
Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI)
Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI)
is a free program that scans your PC for security vulnerabilities, like
missing updates that hackers and malware authors can exploit to infect
or hack into your PC. If PSI finds a vulnerability, it will try to
automatically download and install any relevant updates. Otherwise, it
helps you manually fix the issue.
After you download and install Secunia PSI, it will scan your system and
notify you via its system tray icon if other programs require a manual
update. You can open the program to find your Secunia System Score, a
list of any programs that need to be updated, and a list of any software
that it found to be up-to-date.
If
your Secunia System Score is below 100 percent, you’ll find icons for
the vulnerable programs, which you can click on to resolve the issue.
Password Security Scanner
Password Security Scanner
is a free utility that scans for passwords stored by Windows
applications and Web browsers, and tells you how strong they are. This
gives you a chance to identify weak passwords, and change them to
something more secure. Although you can’t see the actual passwords, you
can see the username and which site or service they belong to.
The Password Security Scanner runs on Windows, and it will scan
passwords stored by Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft
Outlook, Windows Live Mail, and MSN/Windows Messenger, as well as your
dial-up and VPN passwords.
Sample list of passwords and details about their strength.
After you download and install the utility, it will automatically scan
and display additional details about your passwords, including their
length, the types of characters used, and overall password strength. If
you need help building better passwords, have a look at Alex Wawro’s primer on the topic.
ShieldsUp
ShieldsUp is a free,
Web-based port scanner that tests your Internet connection for possible
security holes, such as incorrect firewall settings. Although the
testing regimen and reporting might be a bit over the head of average
computer users, the ShieldsUP site provides a wealth of background information about firewalls and port scanning.
ShieldsUp lets you scan a few different port ranges, including File
Sharing ports (to make sure you’re not offering direct access to your
files) and Common Ports (to check the most commonly used ones). It also
lets you check all ports via the All Service Ports scan option. In
addition, you can tell it to scan a specific port or range of ports.
Additionally, you can evaluate your web browser headers for privacy and
tracking issues, and test to see if your PC is susceptible to spam via
the Windows Messenger Service, a messaging system built into Windows.
The results for the File Sharing tests are presented via a text description.The results for the All Services tests are presented in graphical form.
If results show open ports, you can investigate the firewall settings of your router or PC and try to close or secure them.
Belarc Advisor
Belarc Advisor is
free for personal use, and scans your PC’s hardware, network
connections, software, antivirus status, Windows Updates, and Windows
security policies for insecure settings and other security
vulnerabilities. It generates a report in HTML that you can view in your
browser. This report provides details on the scanned items and any
detected issues, along with links on how to fix them, but it doesn’t
automatically fix them for you. Also, the information it reveals is
geared more for techies and IT professionals than average home users.
Sample of the HTML report created by Belarc Advisor.
In the beginning of the report, the service shows your overall security
status via three scores: Security Benchmark Score, Virus Protection, and
Microsoft Security Updates. Click on any of these to see more details.
By scrolling through the report, you’ll discover details on your
hardware specs, user accounts, peripherals, and networking. You’ll also
find a list of installed software versions, licenses, usage, and a
report on missing or insecure Windows Hotfixes.
11/13/2012 10:06 AM PST
Thanks for this article. I will definitely be checking out some of these programs.
I
would like to add some other security programs that I Believe every
computer should have. They are all free and have different purposes.
1.
Avast Antivirus - It's free and not only has a high rate of detecting
and removing malware on a computer, but blocks a lot of it from getting
on through the real time scans. ( I highly recommend running a full
system scan nightly or weekly)
2. Malwarebytes Antimalware -It's
free and should be installed on a PC in case something gets on your
computer, you can scan right away and get it taken care of. It finds
lot's of different malware that isn't found using other programs. (I
recommend updating and running monthly)
3. SuperAntiSpyware - It's free and the same reason as above. It sometimes finds things that Malwarebytes misses.
4.
CCleaner - It's free and gets rid of temp files that take up disk
space, has a registry cleaner, as well as a uninstall and startup lists
and system restore. It can also erase files, folders or disk space
securely through the 35 pass deletion. ( I recommend scanning weekly or
monthly)
5. Comodo Firewall - It's free. I recently came across this and it seems pretty good.
If
you’re using BitTorrent without taking special measures to hide your
activity, it may be just a matter of time before your ISP throttles your
connection, sends you an ominous letter,
or you find yourself the target of a file-sharing lawsuit. Here’s how
to set up a simple proxy to keep your torrenting safe and anonymous.We’ve talked about how to boost your BitTorrent privacy before,
but those measures aren’t quite enough anymore to keep you anonymous,
because copyright holders are getting more vigilant at tracking down
people who share their content. Heck, you don’t even need to be doing
anything illegal, either. Maybe you just want to keep Big Brother out of
your business and stop your ISP throttling your connection. Either way,
if you really want to keep your activity private, your best bet
involves routing your BitTorrent connection through an external service.
BTGuard is a BT-focused proxy server
and encryption service, and it’s my service of choice. Below, I’ll
explain what it does, how it works, and how to set it up to privatise
and anonymous your BT traffic.
How BTGuard Works
When
you download or seed a torrent, you’re connecting to a bunch of other
people, called a swarm, all of whom — in order to share files — can see
your computer’s IP address. That’s all very handy when you’re sharing
files with other netizens, but file sharers such as yourself aren’t
necessarily the only people paying attention. Piracy monitoring groups
(often paid for by the entertainment industry either before or after
they find violators) also join BitTorrent swarms, but instead of sharing
files, they’re logging the IP addresses of other people in the swarm —
including you — so that they can notify your ISP of your doings. A proxy
(like BTGuard) funnels your internet traffic — in this case, just your
BitTorrent traffic — through another server, so that the BitTorrent
swarm will show an IP address from a server that can’t be traced back to
you instead of the address that points to your house. That way, those
anti-piracy groups can’t contact your ISP, and your ISP has no cause to
send you a harrowing letter.
But wait, can’t the piracy groups then go to the anonymiser service (BTGuard) and requisition their
logs to figure out that you’re the one downloading the new Harry
Potter? Theoretically, yes, but the reason why we chose BTGuard is
because they don’t keep logs, so there’s no paper trail
of activity leading back to you. All the piracy monitors see is BTGuard
sharing a file, and all your ISP sees is you connecting to BTGuard —
but not what data you’re downloading, because it’s encrypted.
If
you subscribe to an ISP that throttles BitTorrent traffic and aren’t
using an anonymiser service, you have an additional problem. Your ISP
can still see what you’re doing, and if they detect that you’re using
BitTorrent — even if you’re using it for perfectly legal purposes — they
may throttle your connection so you get unbearably slow speeds. When
you encrypt your BitTorrent traffic, your ISP can’t see what you’re
using your connection for. They’ll see that you’re downloading lots of
information, but they won’t be able to see that it’s BitTorrent traffic,
and thus won’t throttle your connection. You still have to be careful
of going over your ISP’s bandwidth cap, however, if that exists.
BTGuard
offers you both a proxy (to combat spying) and encryption (to combat
throttling) — though many torrent clients have encryption built-in as
well.
Sounds great, right? Now the caveats: First, BTGuard isn’t
free. At $US7/month (as little as $US5 if you pay for a year in
advance), it isn’t very expensive, and we think it’s well worth it if
you want to torrent anonymously. A lawsuit settlement, if it comes to
that, will cost you at least a couple thousand dollars, which equals a
couple of decades of BTGuard subscriptions, so keep that in
mind, too. The other potential downside is that piping your downloads
through another service may decrease your upload and download speeds.
How much depends on what torrent you’re downloading, who from and a lot
of other factors, but just know that it’s a possibility.
Lastly, proxies aren’t supported by every client, which means you’ll have to use one with more advanced features. uTorrent (for Windows) and Vuze (for Windows, Mac and Linux) both support proxies, but sadly Mac and Linux favourite Transmission
does not. (If you’re absolutely stuck with a client that doesn’t
support proxies, check the end of this article for some alternative
solutions to the anonymity problem.)
How to Set Up BTGuard
BTGuard
has a one-click install process, but we’re going to show you how to do
it the manual way, since it works in any BitTorrent client that supports
SOCKS5 Proxy — not just the ones supported by BTGuard’s installer.
It’ll also give you a better sense of what exactly BTGuard does, so if
you run into problems, you’ll have a better idea of how to fix it.
Step One: Sign Up for BTGuard
First, sign up for an account over at BTGuard.com.
It’ll just take a minute, and then you can get to configuring your
client. Their BitTorrent proxy service costs $US6.95 a month, but you
can get discounts by buying multiple months at a time (up to a year’s
service for $US59.95). Once you’re done, you should receive an email
telling you that BTGuard is ready to go.
Step Two: Configure Your Client
Next,
open up your torrent client of choice and find the proxy settings
within its preferences. In uTorrent, for example, this is under
Preferences > Connection. Your client may have them in a different
place (Google around to find out where), but no matter your client, your
settings should look like this:
Proxy Type: Socks v5
Proxy Host: proxy.btguard.com
Proxy Port: 1025
Username: Your BTGuard username
Password: Your BTGuard password
You’ll also want to make sure you’re using the proxy for hostname or tracker lookups as well as
peer-to-peer connections, so check all boxes that say anything like
that. You’ll also want to disable connections or features that could
compromise the proxy, so check all the boxes under uTorrent’s “Proxy
Privacy” section, or anything similar that your client may have. Hit
Apply, exit the preferences and restart your client. Your proxy should
now be active.
Step Three: See If It’s Working
To ensure that it’s working, head over to CheckMyTorrentIP.com.
This site can tell you what your IP address is, and compare it to the
IP address of your torrent client, which will let you know whether your
proxy is working correctly. To test it, hit the “Generate Torrent”
button, and open the resulting torrent in your client. Then, go back to
your browser and hit the Refresh button under the “Check IP” tab. If
it’s the same as your browser IP — which you’ll see next to the Refresh
button — then your proxy isn’t working, and you’ll want to double-check
all of the above settings. If it shows a different IP address (often
from another country like Germany or Canada), then BTGuard is
successfully tunnelling all your traffic for you.
Step Four (Optional): Enable Encryption
If
you want extra security (or if you’re trying to protect your connection
from being throttled), you’ll also want to encrypt all that traffic.
Many clients have this feature built-in. In uTorrent, for example, just
head to Preferences > BitTorrent and look for the “Protocol
Encryption” section. Change your outgoing connection to Forced
encryption, and uncheck the “Allow incoming legacy connections” box.
From there, you should be good — your ISP shouldn’t throttle your
connection after this is enabled.
If your client doesn’t support
encryption, or you want a more powerful encryption behind your
torrenting, BTGuard offers an encryption service as well. Just head to
their Encryption page,
download the software, and install it to C:\BTGUARD (this is very
important; don’t change the installation directory). Then, start the
BTGuard Encryption program (accessible from the Start menu), and open up
your BitTorrent client. Change your proxy server from proxy.btguard.com to 127.0.0.1,
restart your client, and you’re golden. Again, this isn’t necessary if
your client already supports encryption, but it is an extra layer of
protection if you really want to keep everything private.
Other Alternatives
Lastly,
while this is our preferred BitTorrent privacy solution, it won’t work
for everyone. For example, if you’re stuck with a specific client that
doesn’t support proxies, you’ll need something different. Here are a few
of your other options: A full VPN: If your client doesn’t support proxies, you’ll want a full VPN service that anonymises all your traffic, not just BitTorrent. You can use one of these great VPN services
to protect your traffic, but it’s likely you could still experience
speed decreases — though this time, they’ll affect all your browsing. If
you only use it when torrenting, that’s fine, but this isn’t good for
those that want to seed those torrents afterwards. You should also make
sure that the VPN service you choose doesn’t keep logs of your activity, because if they do, that defeats the purpose of using them at all. A Seedbox:
If you want to contribute back to the community (or if you’re on a
private tracker that requires you seed to a certain ratio), you’ll want
to try a seedbox. A seedbox is essentially a dedicated server in another
country that does all the torrenting for you, using their very high
speed connection. Once a torrent is downloaded, you can then connect to
your seedbox via FTP or something similar and download your files from
them that way. It’s more expensive than a simple proxy (ranging from
entry-level boxes at $US10 or $US20 a month to fast boxes with more
storage at $US50 or even $US100 a month), but it allows you to keep
seeding at very high speeds. There are a lot of good seedbox providers. Bytesized and ExtremeSeed
come highly recommended, but a bit of searching can probably find you a
lot of different options. Shop around and see which one’s best for you. Usenet:
Your last alternative is to try a new file-sharing service entirely,
like Usenet. It offers encrypted connections and doesn’t connect to
peers, so others can’t track what you’re doing. It doesn’t always have
the selection that BitTorrent has (depending on what you’re
downloading), but it offers a ton of other advantages, most notably
higher speeds and more privacy. Check out our guide to getting started with Usenet to see if it’s right for you.
BitTorrent
isn’t the safe place it once was, and if you’re going to use it to
share and download files, we highly recommend getting some sort of
protection from the services above so you can avoid DCMA notices and
throttled speeds.Got any other tips for keeping your file sharing on the
down low? Share them with us in the comments.
Illustration by I Love DustYou
want security software that’s as close to perfect as possible. After
all, if just a single piece of malware slips through your defenses, it
can wreak havoc on your PC. The question is, how close to perfect is
free antivirus software?
According to our testing, some free antivirus programs do an
admirable job of detecting, blocking, and removing malware, but others
don’t have what it takes to protect you.
For this roundup, we once again teamed up with AV-Test,
a well-respected antivirus-software testing lab, to put nine free
antivirus programs through their paces. Applying a rigorous battery of
tests, AV-Test evaluated all of the packages to see how well each one
can withstand both brand-new malware and older baddies, and how well
each can clean up a malware mess. In addition, AV-Test performed a
number of system-speed tests to determine how much each program will
drag down a PC’s performance. Finally, after installing the programs, we
evaluated how easy each one is to use.
What Do You Get for Free?
Illustration by I Love DustMost
free antivirus programs are pretty basic: You get the ability to scan
your PC for malware when you want to, and most of the products will also
continually monitor your PC for malware as they run in the background.
But most of them don’t include a firewall or extra features like
parental controls. (One exception: Comodo’s free Internet Security
Premium does bundle in a firewall.)
The biggest drawback to going free: Your support options are
generally limited. Most free programs offer a message board where users
can discuss problems, but these boards don’t provide professional
support. You can find exceptions, however. Comodo, for example, includes
a version of its GeekBuddy software, which lets you work with a Comodo
technician to fix issues you encounter.
Which Package Is for You?
Illustration by I Love DustAVG
Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012 came out on top in our testing. It’s fast,
it blocks brand-new malware effectively, and it cleans up infected
PCs efficiently. Avast Free Antivirus 7 and Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5
round out the top three.
If you’re looking for something that can serve as a supplement to
your current antivirus software, we review three possibilities; of those
three, PC Tools Threatfire is a good option: It was the best all-around
at stopping brand-new malware attacks in our testing. Threatfire relies
solely on what’s called behavioral analysis—how programs behave on your
PC—to identify malware, whereas most traditional antivirus apps use
either malware definition files or a combination of technologies to stop
threats. Since Threatfire is primarily intended to stop malware before
the invader causes a problem, you should be sure to install it on a
clean PC.
Read how we rate antivirus software.
Click on the links below to download your choice of packages, and click
on the screens, including the chart thumbnail at right, to enlarge
them. (The chart shows how well the seven packages reviewed performed in
our tests.)
The reviews here appear in order of scoring.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
AVG
Anti-Virus Free is the all-around winner in our survey of free
antivirus products, having a perfect showing at disabling malware.Our top pick, AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012, performed well in virtually all of the tests we ran.
In our real-world malware detection tests, which evaluate how well an
antivirus package will block brand-new threats, AVG’s freebie blocked
85.7 percent of the samples, tying for the best result among the
programs we tested. It detected 98.7 percent of the more than 129,000
samples of malware from the past four months in our malware “zoo” test.
That’s a good score, although a bit short of the best results we’ve
seen.
AVG was at the top of its class in disabling active malware
infections: On our test PC, it detected and disabled all malicious
software, and removed all traces of malware two-thirds of the time.
AVG also scans a PC relatively quickly. When we directed it to check
4.5GB of data, it sped through the job in 1 minute, 35 seconds, the
third-fastest time in this test and only 4 seconds slower than the
fastest. Its on-access scanner—which runs when you open or save a
file—took 4 minutes, 55 seconds to go through the same amount of data,
about average for the programs we looked at.
I like AVG’s main interface, though its advanced settings could
intimidate some users. Apart from that caveat, if you’re looking for
solid, fast PC protection, look no further than AVG.
Avast Free Antivirus
Avast's Free Antivirus 7 mostly excelled in protecting against malware.Avast’s freebie finished second in this year’s roundup. Avast Free Antivirus 7 mostly excelled in protecting against malware, it has a versatile interface, and it sped through our battery of malware tests.
Avast’s defenses were weakest at blocking new real-world threats: It
caught just 78.6 percent of them—not outstanding, but slightly above
average. Avast did far better at stopping well-known malware, detecting
99.1 percent of samples in our zoo test—a very good showing. This
package cleans up malware infections effectively, as well. It detected
all the malware residing on our test PC, and disarmed the invaders 93
percent of the time, tying for second-best in this test. The utility
also removed all traces of infections two-thirds of the time.
The Avast offering won’t slow your PC down much. It completed the
on-demand scan test in 1 minute, 34 seconds, for second-best in the
group; and it finished the on-access test in 4 minutes, 16 seconds, good
enough for third-best.
Avast’s interface has a lot going on—advanced users will find many
settings to toggle. Despite this complexity, it is nevertheless friendly
enough that it shouldn’t scare away less-geeky users.
Panda Cloud Antivirus
If you think setting up antivirus software should be as simple as possible, Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5 is for you.If you think setting up antivirus software should be as simple as possible, Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5
is for you. Panda stops malware well, and its extremely easy-to-use
interface is great for those people who don’t want to tweak all sorts of
settings.
Panda blocked 85.7 percent of new malware, the same score as AVG. And
the Panda freebie outperformed AVG in the malware zoo test by detecting
99.94 percent of the samples.
Panda did only a so-so job at cleaning up infections. It detected all
active infections on our test system, and disabled 87 percent of them,
about average on this test. It completely removed infections 60 percent
of the time, also about average.
Panda’s program was far from speedy in some tests. It slowed the
copying of files over the network considerably, and its scan speeds were
among the slowest we saw: It completed the on-demand test in 6 minutes,
10 seconds, and in the on-access scan test it took 7 minutes, 25
seconds.
If you value simplicity over speed, however, Panda Cloud Antivirus, given its success in detecting malware, makes a good choice.
Avira Free Antivirus
Avira Free Antivirus has an overview panel that, while better than in earlier versions, can still be overly technical.Avira Free Antivirus 2012
is fast and is unlikely to scare you with warnings about legitimate
files, but it is also worse than average at detecting malware, and its
interface is overly complicated.
Avira blocked 70.4 percent of the samples of new viruses in our
real-world test, slightly worse than average for the tools we tested. It
also lags in disinfection: Though it found all active malware
infections on our test system, it disabled only 80 percent of them,
another worse-than-average showing.
I’m not a big fan of Avira’s interface. Its overview panel is better
than in previous versions, but the interface remains too technical in
places. Also, I noticed that Avira occasionally displays ads.
Avira’s results weren’t all bad, however. It detected 99.7 percent of
known malware samples in our zoo test, and it was one of only two free
antivirus programs we tested that didn’t mistakenly label legitimate
files as possible malware. Its on-demand scan time of 1 minute, 31
seconds was the best in our testing, and its on-access scan time of 4
minutes, 54 seconds was respectable.
Using Avira will by no means leave your PC completely open to
malware, but you should consider the higher-scoring AVG, Avast, or Panda
first.
Microsoft Security Essentials
Microsoft Security Essentials 2.1, our fifth-place finisher, is something of a mixed bag. Microsoft Security Essentials 2.1,
our fifth-place finisher, is something of a mixed bag. I like its
interface, and it is reasonably good at cleaning up infections, but it
falters at stopping new malware, and it plods through its chores.
Security Essentials’ user interface is particularly
straightforward—perfect if you don’t want to waste time messing around
with your antivirus software.
Microsoft’s program cleans up malware infections quite effectively:
In our tests, it identified all active infections on our machine and
disabled over 93 percent of the malware. It removed all traces of
malware 80 percent of the time—better than any of its competitors in
this roundup. In addition, it was one of the two free antivirus
applications that didn’t mistake a single safe file for malware.
While Security Essentials excels at removing malware from a PC, it
doesn’t do as well at keeping dangerous code off a computer in the first
place. It fully blocked 71.4 percent of new malware in our real-world
tests, slightly worse than average. In our zoo test, it detected 97.0
percent of known malware samples. With that result, it lags the
competition—some packages detected over 99.9 percent of samples.
Security Essentials didn’t unduly slow overall system performance,
but it performed a good deal worse than average in file-copy tests and
app-installation tests. In scan speeds it also fell behind the pack: Its
on-demand scanner completed our virtual obstacle course in a
worse-than-average 3 minutes, 56 seconds. The on-access scanner was poky
too, clocking in at 6 minutes, 43 seconds.
While Microsoft Security Essentials has some good qualities, you would be better served by looking at some other options.
PC Tools AntiVirus Free
PC Tools AntiVirus Free has some good points—and an annoying habit of promoting the company’s paid software products.PC Tools AntiVirus Free 2012
has its strong points, but it was the worst of the field when it came
to blocking new malware. In our real-world blocking tests, PC Tools
managed to stop only 57.1 percent of malware samples, placing it well
behind its competition in this roundup.
On the plus side, PC Tools detected 99.96 percent of known malware
from the past four months. It is also one of the best free antivirus
programs at disinfecting a PC. It detected all infections on our test
system, and it successfully disabled 93 percent of the infections. It
removed all traces of malware in 73 percent of the cases.
PC Tools AntiVirus Free didn’t slow overall system performance much.
Its results were mixed when we tested scan speeds, though: Its on-demand
scanner completed our tests in a sluggish 4 minutes, 51 seconds. On the
other hand, the on-access scanner finished in 2 minutes, 50 seconds,
the second-best time of all the products we tested.
PC Tools is easy to use for the most part, and its screens are laid
out nicely. One thing I found annoying, however, was that it pushed
the paid version of the company’s software at every turn.
Comodo Internet Security Premium
Comodo Internet Security is the only product in this group that comes with a firewall.Comodo
Internet Security Premium 5.9 has an accessible interface, and it comes
with a firewall (it’s the only freebie we tested that has one), but in
both malware blocking and cleanup, it ranks behind other free
antivirus products we tested. (Note: This link goes to the download for Comodo Internet Security 5.10 in PCWorld's Downloads library.)
Comodo’s performance in our real-world tests was acceptable: It
blocked 78.6 percent of new malware, slightly above average compared
with other free antivirus programs. It partly blocked an additional 21.4
percent of attacks. But Comodo protected poorly against well-known
malware. It detected 98.2 percent of zoo samples—though that may sound
like a good score, only two products we tested performed worse.
Malware cleanup may be Comodo’s Achilles’ heel: It detected all
infections, but it was successful in disabling malware only 80 percent
of the time—quite low compared with the top performers. It left behind
more malware remnants than any other product, too; it was successful in
removing all traces of malware only a third of the time.
For the most part, Comodo had a light impact on PC performance, but
it significantly slowed copying of files across the network. Comodo also
took its time in scanning files for threats: Its on-demand scanner took
4 minutes, 31 seconds—the third-slowest result. Meanwhile, the
on-access scanner required a staggering 13 minutes, 58 seconds to run,
nearly twice as long as the next-slowest product. While its included
firewall makes Comodo Internet Security Premium an attractive option,
we’d suggest giving other freebies a look first.
Three Supplements
Here are three products to consider as supplements to your main antivirus software. PC Tools Threatfire PC Tools Threatfire
won’t replace your existing antivirus software, since it won’t
effectively clean up malware that has already infected your computer.
What it will do, however, is excel at preventing brand-new threats from
infiltrating your system.
Because of the way Threatfire works, we were unable to test it
against our malware zoo of known threats. Threatfire doesn’t use
traditional signature files; instead, it relies solely on behavioral
analysis—that is, it identifies malware based on how the invader acts on
your PC.
That technology should make Threatfire fantastic at ferreting out new
malware, and our tests bear that out. The tool produced outstanding
results when blocking malware in our real-world tests: It fully blocked
92.9 percent of malware, and partially blocked the remaining 7.1
percent, the best showing of any free antivirus app we looked at this
year.
As mentioned, Threatfire falters at disinfection: It detected and
disabled only about half of the infections on our test PC. Because of
this, it’s best to install Threatfire on a clean, malware-free system.
Threatfire is designed to work side by side with most antivirus
products, so if you just bought a new PC, installing Threatfire is a
good addition to your setup routine.
Malwarebytes’ Antimalware Malwarebytes' Antimalware is a tool for detecting and removing brand-new 'zero-day' malware.Malwarebytes’ Antimalware
is another supplemental free product that can help bolster your
existing security software. The makers of Malwarebytes’ Antimalware
pitch it as a tool for detecting and removing brand-new “zero-day”
malware, and it uses a number of different technologies to accomplish
this task.
The software did perform decently compared with other freebies when
it came to stopping new malware. In our real-world tests, Malwarebytes
fully blocked 78.6 percent of samples—slightly better than average—and
partially blocked an additional 14.3 percent. It’s also reasonably fast:
It had the lightest overall impact on system performance of any free
antivirus product we tested.
Malwarebytes isn’t something you’ll want to use as your primary
antivirus software, though, as it isn’t great at stopping known malware:
It detected a scant 57.1 percent of known malware samples collected
from the past four months—far and away the worst result we saw from any
of the freebies tested.
The software has a fairly no-frills interface, but it’s
straightforward. One clever feature is Chameleon, which lets the program
run even when a particularly evil piece of malware attempts to block
it.
Malwarebytes’ makers don’t see its product as a first line of
antivirus defense, and frankly, neither should you. But it’s something
to consider adding to your security toolbox. Hands On With Ad-Aware 10
Ad-Aware recently released version 10 of its free antimalware software. The program came in too late for our full suite of testing, but we had a look at its slick new user interface.
The work Lavasoft put into the UI shows right from the installation
phase. Ad-Aware uses its own custom installer, which downloads the most
recent definitions file as part of the installation process, so you
don’t have to update Ad-Aware immediately after installing it. That’s
slick, but what isn’t is that you still have to restart your system
before Ad-Aware can start working.
As part of the installation process, Ad-Aware suggests installing its
browser toolbar, and switching your default homepage and search engine
to Blekko. These are enabled by default, but you can opt out of them if
you wish.
The home screen feels like the dashboard of a powerful application,
but it will not confuse even a novice user. The Scan Now button can’t be
missed, nor can the current system status. More technically inclined
users will easily be able to view scan reports, quarantined files,
protection settings, and the status of definition updates.
It is very easy to switch features on and off, although there is no
real reason to toggle protection off. The only toggle button I see users
routinely using is the one for Gaming Mode, newly available in the free
version. This is a silent mode in which Ad-Aware doesn’t show pop-ups.
Another significant new feature in the free version is real-time
protection, or scans of your computer as you work.
All in all, Ad-Aware 10 is a promising product, and it feels polished
and modern. As for its effectiveness, only lab testing can render a
verdict. (Ad-Aware 10 reviewed by Erez Zukerman)
Hi folks. There is a serious security issue with older versions of Adobe Reader software. This is the program you use to view .pdf files. You probably have it even if you weren't aware of it. I recommend you download the latest version of adobe reader (version 8) to avoid any problems
This is a first step toward fixing what security experts are calling one of the worst security problems they've ever seen. Ellen Messmer, Network World Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:00 AM PST
Adobe late Tuesday released the first set of security patches to address the cross-site scripting vulnerability disclosed by European researchers late last year. The flaw allows Acrobat Reader 7.0.8 and earlier versions to be exploited by hackers. Left unpatched, the vulnerable versions of Adobe's Reader, Acrobat Standard, Acrobat Professional, and Acrobat 3D let an attacker easily include JavaScript code in a browser session so that when a user clicks on a malicious link to a PDF on the Web, the attack code is activated. There is no vulnerability associated with PDF itself.
Update Now! The latest version of Acrobat, version 8, released in December, isn't vulnerable to the cross-site scripting attack. But because researchers Stefano Di Paola and Giorgio Fedon drew attention to the flaw when they presented a paper at a Berlin conference in late December, Adobe has been working to address the problem. "Adobe strongly urges Adobe Reader users to update to the latest version, Reader 8. Adobe Reader 7 users who wish to stay with their current version can follow the instructions outlined in the bulletin," Adobe advised in a post last night. Adobe also issued recommendations for a server-side workaround for Web site operators.
Worst Security Problem Ever Adobe labels the cross-site scripting flaw critical, and many security experts say it's one of the worst security problems they've ever seen given that Adobe Reader is so widely used for viewing PDF files. "It's the prevalence of it," notes Amol Sarwate, manager of vulnerability research at security services firm Qualys. "There's an Adobe Reader installed on almost every desktop." "This is so very dangerous because it exploits a random PDF on the Web," says Billy Hoffman, a leading researcher at vulnerability-assessment firm SPI Dynamics. "I send someone, the victim, a link to a legitimate Web site. The vulnerability allows you to put JavaScript in it, executing in the client's browser. Then, I can simulate the victim at that time. You're piggybacking perfectly legitimate commands on top of a PDF." "This is the biggest issue in security I've ever seen," says Danny Allan, director of strategic research at Web application security firm Watchfire. "It's extremely easy for someone to do this. There's nothing difficult here."
More Patches Coming Soon Spam-filtering appliance vendor Barracuda says it has updated its equipment to filter out spam with a URL link containing JavaScript for a PDF. "There's no reason a URL to a PDF file should contain a JavaScript for a PDF," says Steve Pao, vice president of product development at Barracuda. An Adobe spokesperson says Adobe expects to soon post additional security patches for the cross-site scripting vulnerability for Adobe Reader 6 users.
A new version of the Firefox web browser is about to be released - version 2.0. (tomorrow actually) It looks like it will have security similar to that provided by the Mcafee SiteAdvisor add-on that I mentioned in the previous post. So if you update Firefox to version 2.0, you shouldn't have to worry about using SiteAdvisor as well.
Mcafee have a free web browser add-on that alerts you if a web site is associated with spam or spyware. There is a Firefox version & a Internet Explorer (IE) version. http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/
Security Add-On for Firefox Our Rating: (Excellent) McAfee SiteAdvisor is a security add-on for your Firefox browser that helps you identify websites that are linked to spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, or online fraud. The SiteAdvisor service is based on a huge database with detailed test results for more than 100,000 pieces of software and covers more than 90% of the world`s Web traffic. The program integrates with search engine results from popular search engines and also adds an icon to the browser toolbar that indicates whether a site is safe to use, or should be used with caution. If SiteAdvisor has negative information for a site, you can review a very detailed report that shows any spam received from that site, harmful downloads, and association with other sites. An excellent browser add-on, that provides an in-depth site analysis that is based on actual test results, rather than assumptions.
