Secured Computers

Iphone was developed in such a way that no security problem will arise. They do not allow installing 3rd party software on iphone. It sounds good that as no third party program is not running hence it possess more security. Though it do not provide 3rd party software to install still it possess virus vulnerability. Due to following reasons.

• It allows to connect to web through the browser "Safari". But already it have been noted that the "mobile version" of "Safari" possess a lot of loop holes so that unwanted programs can be run. So one can easily run their programs through internet.
• It is easy to send a mail or SMS to a mobile phone. Now when the user clicks on the link then the web-server can easily inject a file/script into the phone which ultimately damages the phone.
  

What is spyware ?
Spyware is nothing but a script or a tiny software or a cookie or something like that which is used to gather information about the victim computer with/without prior knowledge of the user.

What they can do?
Though spywares can do a lot of things starting from simply displaying some ad products to extremely altering computer settings. They can display multitude no of ads via popup even they change your browsers setting to search specific queries to display their/affiliated products to generate revenue. There are some intelligent spywares which are so smart that they can change the firewall settings of your computer to enable access of unwanted sites and when you try to remove them from the registry editor they will intercept you doing that. Another major problem is some time they will connect to some expensive calls while you dial your modem up to connect internet. The worst is that while they do so they use so much of your bandwidth that your internet speed becomes meaningless.

What type of data is gathered?
Mainly financial account information, computer registry information, email address and their passwords are collected. Spywares not only collect information but also maximum time they display commercial advertisements.

Types of Spyware
Spywares may come in many forms. Some of them are given below.
Adware: These are most common type. Their main function is to display a lot of pop up ads.
Trojans: These are installed to remotely spy for many important information and to make sever damages.
Cookies: They expose your important information though they cant send them to others. These are least dangerous.

How they have entered into your computer ?

During software installation: Many people install their softwares by downloading them form different websites which they are not knew earlier. Most of the free download websites embed a spyware script into the setup file. When you install the software you are also activating the script. So you should be more careful while installing a new software.

Drive by Downlaod: While browsing the web some times a popup appears and displays that a new plugin is required or a new version is available and asks for installation. The source may be real also maynot. If the soruce is real then no problem but if not then ? Whatever you click "Yes" or "No" the script starts installing the spyware.

Masquerading as anti-spyware: Some time you may have experinced that a message box appears while browsing and says that "your computer is slowing down. So it may be got affected by spyware and your computer needs a spyware search. So click "Yes" to start search". The message may appear to be genuine. But while you accepts this it starts search but at the background it installs the spyware script.

Houston, TX – 05 June 2008: ListDNA, Division of VERTX SYSTEMS, LLC today announced the release of ListDNA software utility to help you build your own marketing lists from the web. There are few tools on the web which allows individuals and small business owners to build and generate your own unique marketing lists with e-mail, phone, fax and urls all included – easily. Sure you can buy all types of lists for $300+, and we went down this path. We purchased an e-mail list for $1000/- and they would e-mail our product and service to 1MM opt-in e-mail users (not spam). Do you know our return on investment - $0.00 big ZERO!! Why? The Company we bought the list from did do the work, they did send out 1MM e-mails but they did not bother to tell us that all of these e-mail users were outside USA, outside our demographics based on our target. After exploring many solutions it was concluded that ListDNA offered the best options to empower the end user to extract and build their own custom lists from the web. Clearly there are limitations because the product can not and will not extract data from phone directory listings such as BigYellow.com or business social networks such as Linkedin.com. The technology can not extract data from java controls, .net controls which are set on pages. Therefore, a consumer of this product maybe able to view the information on the web and/or print them but ListDNA and/other competing products can not extract this data. However, if ListDNA.com can be customized to support such operations upon specific customer requests – please contact management for such discussions. ListDNA can run for days and ongoing to continue custom list building as required and specified by the consumer of this product. There are no limits and a free trial is provided for consumer use to test the results. Like most marketing lists, the data upon extraction needs to be saved, sorted and messaged to ensure the information will be valuable to the marketer. Additionally, ListDNA.com and the management of VERTX SYSTEMS, LLC subscribes to the “DO NOT SPAM” policies, therefore, we recommend you read, review and follow such internet policies. Please ensure that if you leverage our product to build up e-mail or snail mail lists and use it to market, you provide options to the receiver of such mail the opportunity to remove themselves from your list. For additional information on ListDNA, visit www.ListDNA.com, download and try our product FileOn List Builder. Please report any bugs or errors, and our support team will continue to enhance the product and release as they become available. ABOUT ListDNA, Division of VERTX SYSTEMS, LLC, is software utilities division that designs and builds products with user-friendly approach to working with extraction of data from the web.

Most of the people do not have a antivirus software fully updated. It may be due to following reasons:

• May be the liscence key of your antivirus software has expired
• May be you don't have sufficient money to buy a new version of the antivirus
• May be you are using a pirated version of the antivirus software so that you can not update the database directly.
• May be you are using a pirated version of the antivirus software so that you can not update the database directly.

Don't worry bro. Now a days some of the antivirus software companies are launching their new program on online scanning. Even some of them have already launched. Some of them are freely available. Here I am providing some of the direct links so that you can scan your computer freely from the top rated antivirus programs.

Is it safe ? Are they reliable ? Is a very good configuration essential ?

Safety: Yes these programs are totally safe to use, only if you are using them from a well known source. There are some other sources available who demmands, if you use their tools, then you can scan your computer by more than one branded antivirus software simultaneosly. But they are not trustworthy. So donot dare to scan your computer by sources about whom you do not know much.

Reliability: The top rated antivirus companies are refering to their same virus database which they use for their regular programs. So they are reliable also.

Configuration: Yes configuration really maters. According to their official publications, the required system configuration are not so high. You can scan your computer. But if you dont have atleast 512 MB RAM and a broadband connection then the scanning is worthless. If you are using the programs then the first scan may be a little bit slower but later scans will be normal, as they require to download some essential files (known as ActiveX control) to the hard disck to setup the framework.

Is the Operating System must be Windows based ?

No, most of them are releasing their programs separately for each OS type. But you dont worry about them may your OS be Windows or Linux or Mac based your scanning will start automatically.

If online scanning is so much good then why should I buy an antivirus software paying so much?

It's common that most of you will ask you this question. Yes online free scanning provides a lot of important facilities like every scanning is done with referenc to the updated virus definitions. But in the same time it lacks in following actions:

• May/May not takes action to either disinfect the file or delete the file or move to vault. You have to do these actions manually. It depends upon the sofware company.
  
• No auto scanning is done. That means like the standalone anivirus softwares it do not scan each and every new files.
  
• When a malicious program starts it donot provides the information like standalone softwares do.

So obviously installing a full featured antivirus program is prefered.

Just click on either link to start your computer scanning from their own server.

	It scans and also disinfects the infected files. but functions only with Internet Explorer. Mozilla is not compatible with it. So only Windows based OS
	The online scanner for Symantec Antivirus, related to Norton Antivirus software, provides a complete virus detection and security scan from your browser, although it does not check compressed files. The Virus Detection mocdule checks for known threats, including top threats identified by Symantec Security Response. It also provides an analysis of your results and offers suggestions for further action. Included are checks in regard to your exposure to hackers, worms and trojan horses. You receive an analysis of the results with suggestions for further action (including of course, purchasing Norton Antivirus software!).
	With this you can create a free account to save your scan history
	McAfee FreeScan helps you detect thousands of viruses on your computer. Based on the award-winning McAfee VirusScan engine, FreeScan searches for viruses, including the latest known "in the wild" viruses, and displays a detailed list of any infected files. Should viruses be found, FreeScan even provides links to more information about the viruses and what you can do to clean your system.
	Windows Live OneCare safety scanner is a free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC. Check for and remove viruses Get rid of junk on your hard disk Improve your PC's performance
	only displays the infected files. You have to manually delete those files
	Trend Micro™ HouseCall is an application for checking whether your computer has been infected by viruses, spyware, or other malware. HouseCall performs additional security checks to identify and fix vulnerabilities to prevent reinfection.

Hi friends. Last time I had written how to protect your computer from pen-drive viruses. Now another important thing is how to protect your important documents, unfortunately if virus affected ?

There are several methods following which you can keep your important documents virus free. I should tell you that this method helps you keep your files/documents as they are. That means virus cant change your documents. But how ??

First Method: Through backup
Regularly create backups of your important documents. Keep your backup files in separate folders. If you can create a new partition on your hard disk specially for backup files then it would be more effective.
You can create your backup files by following below steps.
click start menu -> accessories -> system tools -> back up
You can see here that the rest process can be done in two ways, either in wizard mode or in advanced mode. We will try the advanced mode. Hence click on the advanced mode.
Now the backup tool functions in advanced mode. Click on backup tab -> navigate to the desired folder where you had put your all necessary documents. Now tick the desired folder or folders. At the left hand below section you can find the destination for your backup files. By default it is the floppy drive. But you can navigate to other place/folder by clicking on the browse button. When the destination place is selected click on the "start Backup". And your process starts. Later you can restore those backup files when necessary. To restore them you have to go the restore and manage media section. There first you choose the location of the backedup file then click on "start restore". Now all your previous files which are not infected are restored on the accurate place.

Second Method: Converting to ISO format. You can check here to find some free softwares which can create and burn these iso files to separate cds. These iso files i.e when convert a normal folder containing necessary files into iso a new file named as "foldername.iso" is created. These iso filesa are not viewable nor alterble directly. You need special iso viewer softwares, like I mentioned at couple of lines ealier, to change the inside contents of the ".iso" file. Hence viruses can not infect those files.