Free Web Software Reviews

Anatomy of a malware scam: How everclipz.com infects people and evades the good guys

2009-01-04T20:32:00.001-08:00

Hundreds of thousands at risk dailyIn my previous posts, I have talked about malware downloaded from everclipz.com and how they keep the anti-malware vendors guessing. The downloaded malware is not detected by a majority of the anti-virus software. Also of interest is how the site operates, since it gives us knowledge as to how malware distribution actually works.How is the attack carried out:

Malware Authors Present AntiMalware Vendors a Moving Target

2009-01-04T14:03:00.001-08:00

One Site, Four Days, Four Different Trojans Analysis of the site everclipz.com provides a grim reminder of the challenges and limitations of anti-malware software. . (Warning:Please do not visit the site, it is potentially very very risky, downloading a variant of the Zlob trojan). I had first hit upon the site on the first of January, looking for an “additional media codec” to improve upon

You do not have to pay extra for the best antivirus

2009-01-02T06:54:00.001-08:00

How to block any malware from entering Vista, for freeThe best antivirus on Windows Vista comes free, along with the operating system. Yes, I repeat, its true: the best solution for all spyware and viruses comes along with the operating system; you just have to unlock it. Just go to the control panel, click on user accounts, make a new standard account and enable strict parental controls in

Which is the best Free Anti-Virus for Windows

2009-01-02T04:14:00.001-08:00

Home users have quite a few options for free anti-viruses. Which is the best anti-virus among them? To answer this question, we first have to ask: What makes a good antivirus?A good anti-virus must have :A very good detection rate for viruses and trojans.Additional antispyware/ anti-rootkit capabilityLesser number of false-positivesUse less system resources so that there is no performance

Misleading Vulnerability Counts in the Browser Wars

2008-12-19T10:18:00.001-08:00

Getting Behind the Raw Numbers A lot of noise has been made recently about the inclusion of Firefox among the most vulnerable programs on Windows. Certainly, amongst the browsers, it has the dubious distinction of being most hit by vulnerabilities. What is the reason behind this? Is it due to the browser being so buggy that external researchers can find vulnerabilities very easily, or is

2008-02-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

For the last few days, I have been in a totally grumpy mood. First, I see an article in a computer magazine Digit comparing the security of Linux with Vista and come to the conclusion that both are equally secure but if things go wrong, they will go more wrong in Vista. Hello Digit, can you get off the fence please? On one hand, you give reasons why Linux is more secure, explain the

The eyeOS: A Review

2008-02-05T11:43:00.001-08:00

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Popularizing Linux: Are Flash based Distros underutilized?

2008-02-03T15:04:00.001-08:00

I have often thought why Linux is not more popular. Mostly, it is usable, more secure and less costly than Windows. Why, then, do more people not use Linux? Disregarding, for the time being, the general ignorance of the people,I think the following points are very relevant:It is a Windows world: Most of the applications that people use are Windows specific proprietary programs. The most commonly

The Safest Version of Internet Explorer Yet?

2008-01-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

Evidence:Tried to install spyware: Failed Tried out proof of concepts of some known vulnerabilities: Failed Tried out ActiveX: Failed

Jeff Jones at it again

2008-01-25T05:19:00.000-08:00

When will the half truths of Microsoft end? While reading ZDNet, I came across a blog post stating that Jeff Jones, security director of Microsoft has again published a flawed study in which he compares the total security counts of Vista in its first year vs those of Linux distributions in their first year.Of course, he does not mention how many of those were high risk, and how many low risk.

My encounter with a computer salesman (or justification of my obsession with FUD)

2008-01-24T12:13:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to an authorized dealer for HCL computers. I was interested in their offering of a mini-laptop just like the Asus EEE-PC, and was slightly cheaper to boot (costing about 14,000 Rs + taxes for the 2 GB model against Rs 15, 900 approx for the ASUS EEE PC 4 GB model; I intendedto use a 2GB pen drive to make up for the difference in storage) . I also had to help a colleague of mine

Ten Common Security Myths

2008-01-23T10:58:00.001-08:00

While browsing and in discussion with friends, I have come across many misconceptions regarding security. Some of them are planted by the marketing division of software companies, some are the result of fanboyism and some are due to plain ignorance. The following are some of the most common:Myths regarding the OS:Windows is insecure because of its popularity : Perhaps the most widely repeated

FUD from Techworld, and Secunia's numbers

2008-01-22T16:04:00.000-08:00

I came across an article in Techworld which discussed a Secunia report. The story ran with the title: "Red Hat and Firefox more buggy than Microsoft" . Now, on reading the report by Secunia, it is amply clear that the window of exploitation is lesser for Firefox, and Secunia also makes it clear that on a OS is to OS comparison, RedHat has far lesser bugs than Windows, with most of the security

Sorry for not posting for a few days

2008-01-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

I have been quite busy with my work and have not been able to post for a few days. I am sorry for that. I will remain busy on till about the 25th of this month, and do not really think will be able to post anything before that. I apologize once again.NilotpalEdit: Made redundant by Techworld's FUD

Does OpenOffice have an unfair notoriety as a performance hog?

2008-01-17T13:22:00.001-08:00

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MS Excel 2007 vs OOo Calc 2.3: Which is faster?

2008-01-14T22:42:00.001-08:00

In my last post, I showed how the vulnerability counts for Ubuntu Dapper LTS were lower than Windows Vista. However, I also mentioned that this should be used only to counter Microsoft FUD, and not as a measure of security. What, then, shows that Linux is actually more secure than Windows? To answer this, we

Ubuntu vs Vista Vulnerability Counts in 2007 : Destroying the FUD

2007-12-18T16:01:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of FUD flying around stating that Microsoft Windows Vista is more secure compared to Linux. What has been actually compared are the number of vulnerabilities fixed, for a distribution of Linux and Windows Vista. Both 3 month and 6 month studies have been published, with the intention of showing Linux security in a poor light. Now, this is in no way an apples to apples

Internet Explorer Shows Amazing Security Gains in 2007

2007-12-03T22:34:00.001-08:00

(..Ok, Opera finished as the safest browser, but that's nothing new)I have finished calculating the total number of risk-days (for those who want to know what risk-days is, read my earlier research) for browsers for the period January 2006 till now. Whew! And the surprising result is that Internet Explorer has improved markedly on the security front in 2007. When compared for the entire period of

Former Microsoft Security Strategist Says Microsoft Does Not Report All Security Issues

2007-12-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

Respected security strategist, Window Snyder, presently Head of Security Strategy at Microsoft and formerly senior security strategist at Microsoft and security lead and signoff on Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003, has mentioned that Microsoft does not publicly report security issues found internally. Rebutting the study comparing IE security to Firefox by one of the

The Microsoft FUD Machine cometh again: Firefox said to be less secure than Internet Explorer

2007-11-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

I had lost all interest in blogging, but the latest installment of FUD by Microsoft has made me again take it up. Jeff Jones , security guy at Microsoft has published a paper stating that Firefox has more number of unpatched vulnerabilities, and is more insecure. Now, I had done a small study a few months back comparing the vulnerabilities of the three major browsers on the Windows platform, and

GIMP: The best image editing software for home users

2007-03-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

GIMP is the best image editing software for amateurs and home users. You can download it here. You will also need a few tutorials, which you can get here. There has been a lot of arguments about which is better, the GIMP or Adobe photoshop. Philip McClure has done a nice analysis on GIMP vs Photoshop, and has found GIMP to be better for home users while the photoshop to be better for professional

2007-02-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

ONLINE MALWARE SCANNERS, A GREAT COMPLEMENT TO YOUR ANTI-VIRUS You have a good anti-virus, congratulations. You are conscientous about spyware and have included a good anti-spyware. Further congratulations. However, you have to remember that all anti-viruses will miss something, and there is no anti-spyware which gives 100% results. This fact was borne out to me when, inspite using an

2007-02-24T14:34:00.000-08:00

WHICH IS THE BEST FREE ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM There are 6 major anti-virus programs: AOL Active Virus Shield, Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Classic, Bit Defender Free edition, Avast! Home edition, AVG Free edition and ClamWin. To compare between the best programs, we need to know the detection rates, how the program affects the system speed, and the scanning speed. In this article, I will compare

2007-02-21T20:40:00.000-08:00

WHICH IS THE MOST SECURE BROWSER?Browser security is extremely important. It is one of the major ways by which a remote attack can be made on your system. Any important information on your system can be easily read by a malicious hacker if you are not careful. Therefore, browser security is of prime importance.There have been misguided, (and probably mischievous) attempts in the net to measure

WHICH IS THE BEST BROWSER OF THEM ALL?

2007-02-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

WHICH IS THE BEST BROWSER OF THEM ALL?There has been numerous arguments as to which is the best browser, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Opera. All three have their own strong points, making it very difficult to decide as to which is the best browser. Added to that are the differing philosophies behind the creation of each browser: Firefox has a simple default install and gives the owner