AVG 8.5 Free Version Best on my system
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Pcworld has a released there top free Antivirus software picks. Now let’s be clear on this, I am an a average user, and have tested these products out on my own laptop plus others and here is what I find.
According to Pcworld, Avira Antivir Personal is the top pick and claims to block 98.9 percent of samples:
Such less-than-friendly default behaviors make Avira AntiVir Personal a better choice for tech-savvy users who know how to muck about in the settings. If you’re willing to put up with a somewhat clumsy interface and the recurring pop-up ads, in return you’ll enjoy top-notch, free protection against malware. It’s not a bad trade-off by any means.
List of Malware sites for Aug 21, 2009
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It has been kinda busy today for the Antivirus scareware sites but here they are.
Personal Antivirus Scareware Site:
- check-for-malwarev3.com
- safeonlinescannerv4.com
- fatuus.info
Rogue Antivirus scareware sites:
- antivirusplus2010.com
- mybestantivirusplus.com
- internetantivirusplus.com
- antivirusplus09.com
- antivirus-plus-now.com
- yesantivirusplus.com
- goodantivirusplus.com
- i-antivirusplus.com
- nextantivirusplus.com
- antivirusplus-ok.com
- getavplusnow.com
- antivirusplusnow.com
- getantivirusplusnow.com
- realantivirusplus09.com
- freeantivirusplus09.com
- addedantivirusstore.com
- addedantivirusonline.com
- myplusantiviruspro.com
- yourcountedantivirus.com
- easyaddedantivirus.com
- addedantiviruslive.com
- addedantiviruspro.com
Most of the time, These sites are injected into one's browser by way of a Trojan taking over the system. If left untreated these sites will become more and more profound trying to get you to install them. Most of the time these are installed in unsuspecting computers by way of exploits, backdoors, or unsafe downloading practices. This usually means that if you have it you should remove it by any means necessary because this software has been know to cause more and more trouble as time goes by. This software is fake ware, it tries to tell you have a virus and that they can get rid of it. In fact, this software is not designed with Antivirus engine in mind but to illicit pop ups and warning to raise the users security concerns about the computer in question. Downloading programs from bit torrents or other unsafe ways can and most likely will have these types of programs installed alongside the program you wanted.
Threat to System : Moderate
Malicious Spammers target Bank of America
Comments OffI’ve saw two different security firms talking about Bank of America and I wanted to share with you:
Picture from F-secure
It is also been known to be floating around in Facebook this spam. So if you get a link going to a site you don’t know about to see a video and it says you need a codec or the Adobe update you should turn right around and leave site. You should always type in the url of Your Bank and not go there through links.
From what they are saying it monitors Network traffic and Steals ICQ, POP3, and IMAP passwords. If you find network traffic going to Hong Kong IP, then it is time to check to make sure all your Virus definitions are up to date and you’ve installed an Anti-virus and Firewall. I would encourage users to report it to Phishtank so that any other unsuspecting user or person going to that site will be warned.
Is Google the ultimate news source?
Comments OffAs you know We had a big problem Monday Night and All day Tuesday. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would of noticed either a 503 or lag. It was due to an article that I released late Monday night about the PIFTS.EXE and the so call conspiracy.
At the time, I was wondering and quite disturbed about what Norton Symantec was doing to the forums. So I blogged about this and wouldn’t you know my site was Held Hostage by Google. I kid you not, I had so many people come to my site in under an hour it wasn’t even funny.
I got hit hard by Slashdot, Reddit.com, and Google. In truthfulness, It was more of searches and people coming from Google than anywhere else. I would say Google was the 90% and and Slashdot and Redidit was 8% and the rest was from other websites for this one article. Now don’t get me wrong the 2% of people was my normal amount of people for the day. So you can imagine how many people actually came to my site over this fiasco.
Thinking back to PIFTS.EXE.
Comments OffThinking to this very incident looks to something out of the movie “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events“. I won’t go into much detail but here is what I want answers to about the PIFTS.EXE. You see after I have read a great article talking in detail about this, I have also come to the conclusion something isn’t right.
Although, in Norton’s defense there seems to be a lot of information that they have to sort through. I’ll admit this information people are asking should be really simple to find in the Symantec Databases somewhere. I will not say they are hiding anything major but I do think something is going on that we are not aware of. Here’s some other thoughts to considers? If Norton needed to find out who was using Windows 7, couldn’t they of asked or even made a simple site redirect to find that information, after all anytime you visit a site you have that information sent to the stats. I could in theory find out how many visitors are visiting from Macs and how many are on older systems. That would be very easy to do with Google Analytics.
Fake Scareware Sites Popup after the Pifts.EXE Conspiracy
Comments OffThere Seems to Be a Fake site that are popping up today right after what happened with PIFTS.EXE. I just happen to Google it to see what people are talking about and this appears on the front page.
As you can see this leads to a server in Poland and once you go to it you see:
I will be reporting this to Phishtank. This is scareware which means there is no real VIRUS because and you
Should never believe the screens when you see something like this. According to Wikipedia:
[Via Wikipedia]
Conspiracy theories run rampent due to PIFTS.EXE
(Looks like some of this was a 4chan gag, check my other post about it)
All of the sudden people around the World are seeing PIFTS.EXE popping up. Norton Antivirus is asking users if they want to accept it. Here what I do know:
Here’s some information I pulled from my Zone Alarm Logs. Does this make sense to anyone?
2009/03/09 18:26:44 — New Program — PIFTS.exe — Destination IP: 67.134.208.160:80 — outgoing — blocked — Destination: ping.lifecycle.norton.com2009/03/09 18:47:52 — Program Access — PIFTS.exe — Destination IP: — outgoing — blocked — Destination:
2009/03/09 18:48:28 — Changed Program — Windows Explorer — 207.46.248.249.80 — outgoing — blocked — Destination: sa.windows.com
[Via The Symatec Forums]
This indicates that the program tried to change tactics to go out on the net. I look a look for this and it is SwapDrive. So this must be an update to Swapdrive but I am unsure as to why it pops up that way. The other ip is in Africa or at least take the .80 out of the equation and it points to an Africa IP. (It looks to my mistake in that little part, “to error is human” Check out this post about it) Although just recently Norton Decides to Delete that thread and people are really worried about why? Is this a cover up of some sort because there is a exploit in the Wild that we don’t know about? These are good questions that need to be answered. Here is what one posted about this just after they deleted the forum thread:
Fake Emails about Windows Support spam!
Comments OffAccording to Trend Micro, Some malicious software is being sent to unsuspecting users about Windows SP1 andSP2 having a error that could damage software or even hardware. See Trends blog with the photos of the fake spam.
Microsoft sends e-mail messages to subscribers of our security communications when we release information about a security software update or security incident. Unfortunately, malicious individuals can and have sent fake security communications that appear to be from Microsoft.
[Via Microsoft]
So if you get an email from Microsoft you’ll probably want to delete it. Any Microsoft communications will be sent from the Update center. You should never install software that is from an untrusted website. If you are concerned you should check the web and find out what people are saying about the situation and see if it is a scam or true!! Remember only you can prevent a virus or Malware!
How do you like your Cricket USB Modem?
Lately I talked about the A600 USB 3G modem and Now I want to hear from the Readers? You see I can’t do my best reviewing these with comments from the readers, that being you.
Click the picture to send me email, just remember to replace “AT” with “@”.
So I want to hear what you think about either the USB UM100 Modem or the A600 USB 3g Modem? Here a re a few things to answer when you write your email.
Something will go to the people who email me? I want to publish some of these comments on my blog for all to read. I want to hear if what I am publishing helps you? I will even give your credit as to who wrote it. If you have a site or something you want to promote by all means add that to your testimonial. Here’s the basic questions that should be talked about:
- Which one did you buy? (Cricket USB A600 or Cricket USB UM100)
- Did you Upgrade from the Cricket USB UM100 to the Cricket USB A600?
- Are you using it for travel or Primary internet?
- Is it for business or Pleasure?
I hate Snopes Spam
Comments OffAs you know Snopes is used to find out about urban Legend and Rumors:
I received a Virus alert from my RSS feed about Email virus warning. It even adds a Snope URL. The Author just copies and pasted the virus warning into the blog without even going to Snopes.
According to Snopes and I’ll quote:
Although the Postcard virus is real, it isn’t a “BIG VIRUS COMING” (it’s already been around in multiple forms for a long time now), it will not “burn the whole hard disc” of your computer, CNN didn’t classify it as the “worst virus” ever, and it doesn’t arrive in messages bearing a subject line of ‘Invitation.’[Via Snopes]
Now as you can tell the link described in the blog post was “http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp”. If you went there, you’d have seen this as a not really true and some parts of this might be but that part about burning your Hard drive or even consider the Worst virus isn’t true.
Some things you need to consider before forwarding anything is:
- Is it completely True?
- Is it Legitimate? (True blown warning about something like a product recall or something important like that)
Microsoft Releases the Patch Information for March
Comments OffMicrosoft Has Released the Patch information For march and This is what is expected to be patch on March 11, 2009:
- Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Kb949029) — This security update resolves several privately reported and publicly reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. (affected System : Microsoft Office)
Offline Update 5.0, Clone of Autopatcher to Some!!
Comments OffOffline updater 5.0 has been released a couple months ago and I just realized it now. This is an excellent tool for IT professionals who want to keep all your Systems up-to-date with the last patches from Microsoft. The systems it supports are Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 x64, And Windows Vista / Server 2008.(32 bit and 64 Bit updates).

Valentine’s Day Brings More Malware!
Comments OffPanda Labs talks about this new technique where it tries to install W32/Waledac.C.worm under the thought of someone special. It sends out email to people hoping to click links such as:
- hxxp://goodnewsreview.com
- hxxp://worldnewseye.com
- hxxp://www.spacemynews.com
- hxxp://www.worldnewsdot.com
- hxxp://www.worldtracknews.com
- hxxp://www.wapcitynews.com
- hxxp://linkworldnews.com
- hxxp://goodnewsdigital.com
- hxxp://waleprojekt.com
- hxxp://expowale.com
- hxxp://topwale.com
- hxxp://waleonline.com
- hxxp://goodnewsdigital.com
- hxxp://wapcitynews.com
- hxxp://bestgoodnews.com
- hxxp://spacemynews.com
- hxxp://linkworldnews.com
Once your at the site, clicking on the hearts you would then download an file that is the worm!! SO here are some things to remember.
If you don’t know the person, then it’s probably spam. If you know the person you need to ask them before you run the program. You also need to scan any downloads before you run them. Go to my Malware Page and get a free Anti-virus and Firewall. For the likely possibility this worm seems to search the computer and harvest email addresses, you should also warn the person who email you the link to let them know that they are infected.
Brace for Impact, Brace for Botnet! (Conflicker Worm)
Comments OffThe Worm that has infected 6% of Personal Computers is starting to build into something totally different. According to some Researchers, they are saying this has to happen soon. And I’ll quote:
In any case, today seems better than the day before and we think that growth of Downadup has been curbed. Disinfection of the worm remains a challenge.
[Via F-secure]
“Why is it taking so long?” asked Huger. “That’s what we’re all asking.” He couldn’t recall an attack of this size with such a long lag time between the initial attacks and follow-on downloads of more malware to the hijacked systems.
[Via PcWorld]
Now We know this exploit is being patched as quickly as possible in some areas of the industry but that leaves the question? What isn’t being patched, I am guess the next stage of this worm is mutant into a new worm much like the way it tries to communicate to download new software or instruction. I believe it will be using a newer exploit so that it can infect even more computers. I also think it will be a botnet and so does others.
trojan.zlob removal tricks!!
Comments OffAliases:
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qyl (Kaspersky)
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qzs (Kaspersky)
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qzn (Kaspersky)
Trojan.Zlob.CPP (BitDefender)
Puper (McAfee)
SystemDefender (Symantec)Trojan:Win32/Zlob.G is a component of Win32/Zlob that downloads rogue security programs, adware, and additional Win32/Zlob components.
[Via Windows Live OneCare]
Having trouble with I-tunes Here is way to fix the problem:
Comments OffI’ve been having problem with I-Tunes lately and I wanted to talk about how to fix the problem that come along with using it.
Err = 8008 [A corrupt file that can't be completed due to some kind of glitch in downloading the file. It can happen to anyone at anytime.]
To Fix the problem here are the steps you must do:
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Go to the I-tunes Music Directory – C:\USERS\[USERNAME]\MUSIC\ITUNES\ITUNES MUSIC\DOWNLOADS
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Look for the corrupt files, depending on the problem you can expect to see two or three directories. Find the one directory that has the corrupt file and delete the whole directory.
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Once that is done load up I-tunes and go to the Store Tab and Check for Purchases.
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This will get I-tunes to download the file again.
Snackr RSS Ticker Keeps You on Top of News
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Windows/Mac/Linux: Freeware Adobe Air application Snackr runs a news ticker of your RSS feeds at the bottom or top of your monitor, or as a scrolling sidebar. The application is very customizable, allowing you to add feeds individually or import an OPML file of feeds from your current reader of choice. If you like to keep an eye on all the latest updates to your newsfeeds, Snackr is an excellent option. The attractive Snackr is freeware, cross-platform, and requires Adobe Air.[Via LifeHacker]
I thought you’d like to see this little program. It might be useful for some of you!!
Save Ink, Paper, and Money with GreenPrint
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Windows only: Save money on ink and paper while helping the environment with GreenPrint World Edition. The freeware version of the otherwise shareware GreenPrint offerings, GreenPrint World Edition identifies and removes unnecessary pages or space—like images you don’t need to waste ink on or pages with lone URLs—from your print jobs. GreenPrint also keeps track of just how much money, paper, and greenhouse gases you’re saving by using it. The freeware world version includes most of the best features of its shareware siblings, so give it a try and start saving both white and green ($) paper today. GreenPrint is freeware, Windows only. For a closer look at how it works, check out their screencast.
Anxiety Task Manager Integrates with iCal and Mail
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Mac OS X Leopard only: Despite its unfortunate name, task manager Anxiety is a slick, good-looking, lightweight way to keep track of your to-do lists. Since Leopard now includes a “calendar store,” or central repository of tasks from both iCal and Mail.app, Anxiety taps into those lists and displays the items on your desktop. Add, change or check off a to-do in Anxiety, iCal or Mail? And the info updates across all three applications. Neat. Anxiety is a free download (donations encouraged) for Mac OS X Leopard only.
Add System Monitoring to Your Desktop with CoolMon
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Windows only: Freeware application CoolMon monitors your systems vitals with attractive desktop-embedded widgets. In very basic operation, CoolMon displays information like RAM usage, hard drive space, and CPU load, but with the right plugins you can embed just about anything on your desktop—like new email alerts, weather, the song you’re currently listening to, and so on. If all you’re looking for is more of a plain-text to-do list on your desktop, check out previously mentioned Samurize. Mac users should take a look at GeekTool. Setup for CoolMon is a little quirky, so check out Simplehelp’s post guide if you’re having trouble. CoolMon is freeware, Windows only.
[Via Lifehacker]
I thought this was cool tool for a geek to use!! Go check it out!!
Simplified Gmail Notifications with cGmail
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Linux only: Linux users already have a powerful Gmail notification tool in Checkgmail, but the advanced functionality doesn’t always fit the bill, or even just work, for some users (including yours truly). For those seeking a more streamlined notification window, or perhaps just the same kind of tool for non-Gmail POP or IMAP accounts, cGmail is a handy taskbar tool. Once you’ve installed and configured your account, it’s just one click to have cGmail load on startup, and the app integrates nicely with the GNOME desktop’s keyring manager. cGmail is a free download, available in .deb, .rpm and source downloads for Linux systems only.
View the Contents of a Zip File in Quick Look with Zip Quick Look
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Mac OS X only: View the contents of zipped files in Leopard’s Quick Look without unzipping the archive with freeware plug-in Zip Quick Look. Just download the plug-in, drag it to
/Library/QuickLook/, and then restart Finder (right-click Finder in the Dock while holding the Option key and select Relaunch). Next time you Quick Look a zipped archive, you should get a look at the contents as well. The Zip Quick Look plug-in is freeware, Mac OS X Leopard only.
Access Any Web Site (Like Wikipedia) Offline with GearsMonkey
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Firefox with Greasemonkey and Google Gears: The Wikipedia Offline Greasemonkey script plugs Greasemonkey into Google Gears (the offline web access extension that works with Google Reader and other sites) to provide offline access and syncing with Wikipedia. Once you’ve installed the script, head to Wikipedia and enable Gears. Now, when browsing any page on Wikipedia, you’ll notice a small frame that contains links to cache the current page or access other pages you’ve already cached. Even better, the author of the script provides a howto guide for taking virtually any web site offline with Gears and Greasemonkey, so anyone with some javascript chops should be able to start building Gears access for their favorite sites (here’s hoping we see a lot more of these). The Wikipedia Offline script is free, requires Greasemonkey and Google Gears.
ZoneAlarm Anti-Spyware Available Free Today Only
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Windows XP/2000 only: Software firewall ZoneAlarm is offering free downloads of its basic firewall package with a spyware scanner/cleaner and a year of free updates until 5 p.m. PST today (although you’ll get an email with a download link that’s valid for a week after that). Program maker Check Point Software claims the free offering is made to coincide with Microsoft’s monthly “Patch Tuesday” and the ensuing new vulnerabilities that hackers start working on. Regardless of the piggy-back marketing, ZoneAlarm is an easy-to-use port protector, and a little free spyware protection couldn’t hurt either. ZoneAlarm Anti-Spyware is a free download for Windows 2000 and XP only.
Overlay Drawers onto Your Dock’s Stacks
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Mac OS X Leopard only: One of the nice things about Stacks—or annoying things, depending on how you look at it—is that the topmost document icon appears on your Dock, instead of an indicator of which folder contains it. To solve this problem, the icon designer at Optica Optima’s offering a set of icons for download that add a drawer-like image to your Stacks. The screenshot above displays the Downloads, Applications, and Documents folders as Stacks sporting the drawer icons. Pretty! To add the icons to your Stacks, just download and unzip the package, and move the appropriate icon to the folder. For more fun along the same lines, here’s how to add custom icons for your Mac hard drives.
Overlay Drawers onto Your Dock’s Stacks
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Mac OS X Leopard only: One of the nice things about Stacks—or annoying things, depending on how you look at it—is that the topmost document icon appears on your Dock, instead of an indicator of which folder contains it. To solve this problem, the icon designer at Optica Optima’s offering a set of icons for download that add a drawer-like image to your Stacks. The screenshot above displays the Downloads, Applications, and Documents folders as Stacks sporting the drawer icons. Pretty! To add the icons to your Stacks, just download and unzip the package, and move the appropriate icon to the folder. For more fun along the same lines, here’s how to add custom icons for your Mac hard drives.
Set Up a Self-Cleaning Mac with Hazel
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Just like in the physical world, it’s easy to let digital clutter accumulate on your Mac: in fact, right now your Downloads Stack is filled with no-longer relevant files and your Desktop is covered in documents you finished with last week. The Windows Janitor cleans out files of a certain age from a given folder on PCs, but Mac users have an even more robust, graphical alternative: the automated, rules-based file manager Hazel. Let’s take a closer look at how Hazel can keep your Mac’s hard drive free of files you don’t need anymore.
Download a 14-day free trial of Hazel 2 here. (A license costs $22.)
It’s a Mac OS software only but I think it would help some people out!!
Turn Your Webcam into a Motion-Sensing Security Camera with Yawcam
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Windows only: Got a webcam bundled with your last computer but don’t know what to do with it? Turn it into a motion-sensing security camera with freeware application Yawcam. All you need is a webcam to get started, but after spending a little time in the Yawcam settings you can set automatic FTP uploading, emailing, or just saving captured images to your hard drive. You can even set a schedule for when Yawcam is enabled to capture images so your security camera isn’t constantly snapping pics while you’re sitting in front of your computer. We’ve seen similar motion detecting software, but Yawcam looks like an excellent and simple alternative. I don’t have a webcam on my Windows PC, so if you give it a try, let’s hear how it worked for you in the comments. Yawcam is freeware, Windows only.
Reserve Space from Maximized Windows with DesktopCoral
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Windows only: With the increasing popularity of sidebar gadgets/widgets, dock applications like RocketDock and ObjectDock, and other desktop integration applications like Samurize, a maximized window can cover a lot more than you want it to. Donationware application DesktopCoral reserves desktop space and prevents maximized applications from covering your reserved screen real estate. Just run the app and define the area you want restricted from maximized apps. From now on, any maximized window will stay off your reserved screen area, letting you go big with apps without covering the desktop space you want access to. DesktopCoral is donationware, Windows only, requires a free license key.
Keep an Eye on Hard Drive Space with SpaceControl
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Mac OS X only: Freeware application SpaceControl keeps watch of your hard drive space and alerts you when you’re getting low on free space. The application lives in your Mac’s menu bar and displays the total amount of free space available on all drives. You can also set alerts to notify you with a simple system sound or with an email when your startup disk drops below a threshold you define. In general iStat Menus is an excellent menu bar app for monitoring you system (including hard drives), but if you have trouble keeping enough free space on your drive, SpaceControl might be for you. SpaceControl is freeware, Mac OS X only.









Firefox with Greasemonkey and Google Gears: The Wikipedia Offline Greasemonkey script plugs Greasemonkey into Google Gears (








