How Can Anti-Virus Software Keep My Data Safe?
It’s getting harder everyday to protect your data from the dangers posed by computer viruses. These malicious programs have evolved into multiple forms and can be contracted through a variety of ways, including opening email attachments, clicking on spam or by visiting corrupt websites.
Fortunately, just as viruses have grown in strength and complexity over the years, so also have the tools used to combat them. With the latest generation of anti-virus software, you can give your computer a level of protection never before possible.
Today’s best anti-virus software come with multiple virus scans, allowing you to schedule scans in advance, giving you access to a variety of location-specific scans and even real-time scanning, which scan your computer every few minutes for viruses—stopping them before they can do damage.
And, since new viruses are being created everyday, the most effective anti-virus programs offers convenient virus updates. Some software even offer automatic updates, which regularly and automatically check back with the manufacturer for information on new viruses, providing you the highest-level of protection at all times.
However, undeniably, the most valuable thing that today’s anti-virus software brings to its consumers is plain, good-old-fashion peace of mind.
In this site, you'll find articles on computer virus topics, news stories and comprehensive anti-virus software reviews that will help you make an informed decision on which anti-virus program is right for you. At TopTenREVIEWS – We do the research so you don't have to.™
What to look for in Anti-Virus Software
Top anti-virus software should be easy enough for a computer novice to both use and install. The software should effectively seek out and identify virus threats, as well as clean or isolate infected files. There should be understandable reporting available for each scan and plenty of help support available, so you can be well informed of the software’s activities and capabilities. Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to *******uate anti-virus software. | |
| Ease of Use –Exceptional anti-virus software is simple to use, regardless of a person’s computer experience or knowledge of viruses. | |
| Effective at Identifying Viruses and Worms – The best anti-virus products identify infected files quickly through real-time scanning, searching for viruses in a multitude of sources, including email, instant message applications, web browsing and so on. | |
| Effective at Cleaning or Isolating Infected Files –Truly capable anti-virus software thoroughly cleans, deletes or quarantines infected files—keeping them from spreading throughout the hard drive or network. | |
| Activity Reporting – Anti-virus programs should give immediate notification of viruses found by real-time scanners and should provide an easy-to-read report of scan results, including what it found and what it did with infected files. | |
| Feature Set – A well-rounded feature set allows anti-virus software to provide absolute protection. The best programs are those that offer a wide variety of tools, from basic real-time scanning to more advanced, heuristic scanning and ****** blocking—when it comes to virus protection, the more options the better. | |
| Ease of Installation and Setup – Anti-virus programs should be a breeze to install, making it easy to go from installation to initial scan in just a couple clicks of the mouse. | |
| Help Documentation – High-end anti-virus software come with plenty of help, including support via email, online chat or over the telephone. There should also be online resources, such as knowledge bases and FAQs available for quick and convenient help. | |
So, no matter how serious a computer virus is or how quickly it is passed around, with today’s anti-virus software, you’ll always have a cure. | |
Game Trojans Abound
Trojans Bypassing Firewalls
Using a permission-based firewall isn't that much different from being a good parent. If your son or daughter wants to go out, you expect they will ask permission and tell you where they are going. Most of us don't, for example, tell our child that it's okay to go outside without notice so long as they are 'just going to Sally's house'. Even if Sally lives right next door, you always want to know in advance. I know I do. And I expect the same from my firewall.
I use ZoneAlarm, which asks during setup if it should manage permissions automatically. Opting in for that automatically grants access to certain operating system services and standard programs such as Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and other Internet-related apps - including BITS. The moment you opt-in to allowing your firewall to make the decisions for you, that's the moment you've defeated the whole purpose of having a permission-based firewall.
My strategy is 'trust nothing'. I don't grant any carte blanche rights to any application. If it needs to access the Internet, it has to ask me first. That way, I minimize the chance of some miscreant app (i.e. malware) sneaking out by piggy-backing on something I've already allowed. To minimize alerts, I disable services I don't need (The Elder Geek has a great walkthrough for this) and I tend not to allow programs to update automatically. (On the flip side, I am fastidious about manually updating to ensure I'm protected against the latest vulnerabilities - visiting Microsoft Update once a month and checking my system with Secunia Security Advisor every couple of weeks.
Security is never a passive endeavor. And it's never guaranteed. But going the extra mile to monitor, *******uate, and make decisions on a case-by-case basis pays off - with both parenting and computers.
How to Report a Phishing Scam
Trojan Masquerades as IE7 Beta
Links in Outlook Not Working
"(Default)" = "%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\INTEXPLORE.com" -nohome"
"(Default)" = "%ProgramFiles%\common~1\INTEXPLORE.pif" %1""
in the registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\htmlfile\shell\open\command
This effectively places the Trojan file (in this case, INTEXPLORE.com) in the role of middleman. You click a link in email, it loads the INTEXPLORE.com file, which then passes the control over to the browser. It's possible that either some antivirus software is removing the Trojan but leaving behind the registry edit, or impacted users are manually deleting the file but leaving behind the registry edit. Either way, the result is the same - basically resulting in a dead end each time you click a link in email.
Fortunately, the fix is simple. First, scan the system with up to date antivirus software to ensure the Trojan really is gone. Then edit the registry and replace the bad value with the default value:
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -nohome
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