Showing posts with label network. Show all posts
Showing posts with label network. Show all posts

Online Survey Company Is Fraud Or Not-how to know

Today, when there is hot dispute is already going on between the star news and online paid survey company Speak Asia after publishing the negative news about Speak Asia and their business behavior. sintuhack strongly feel that sintuhack should post an article to help you find the possible online fraud survey companies which are asking for money any how.


1. Whois Lookup:
A/c to sintuhack try to who is look up for the domain of official website of paid survey company you can easily find the following details.sintuhack also suggest you to know
Who is the owner of website domain?
From since long the website is active, means since how long the company is in survey business?
What is the registered official address? Where the company office is actually located.
All these info helps a lot to decide weather the company you are researching about is just another online scam or not.


2. SEO Research:
Seo research on the paid survey website can easily tell you the fact about how the website is popular in the world. You can look for number of backlinks, Google page rank and alexa rank for this. From alexa traffic analysis you can also find the location of main traffic toward the website so you can know where the website is doing more business in the world.


3. Online Complains and Scam Discussion boards:
One thing more a/c to sintuhack use google to know page rank of that website.
If you search in Google with the words like complain, fraud, scam along with the company name, you can easily find the various blogs or websites where people might have discussed about their issues or complaints with the company. Although every good company will also have some issues with clients but too much of them can really alarm you about possible online scam.


4. Make money online blogs and forums.
Here sintuhack talking about the blogs and forums where people are generally from the similar niche and discuss about how to make money online. It would be great source to find the exact information about such paid scams. If you are new to online money making niche and much not aware of the scams you can also post comments (here also) and threads in forum in similar niche to get reviews of experts in the same niche.


5. Think smartly, wisely and independently.
And last sintuhack guide you to use internet smartly wisely and independently
Think smartly to detect online scams
Its my own experience that people always get trapped in scams because they are always in search of quick rich formula and hence they generally do not think for the most important questions. So think like you want to investigate about the company and not want to invest in it, this way you can find most answers easily.

Computer Hackers and Predators


How computer hackers and predators are threat for your computer security?

People with bad mind, not the computers, create computer threats. Computer predators victimize unaware people for their gain.  A predator having access to the Internet is exponentially bigger threat to your PC than the others. Computer hackers and predators are unauthorized users who break into others computer systems to steal, change or destroy valuable information, often by installing dangerous and harmful malware without your knowledge. The use of clever tactics and detailed technical knowledge help them to access the information you really don’t want to let them know.
What computer hackers and predators do to find you?
Everyone who uses a computer with a Internet connection is susceptible by the threats of computer hackers and predators. These online demons mainly use spam emails or instant messages, phishing scams, and bogus Web sites (fake or duplicate webpage which almost look like the original) to deliver dangerous and harmful malware to the computer and disable your computer security. They will also try to access your computer and thus your private information directly if you had not taken protection by configuring your firewall. They can also peruse your personal Web page or monitor your chat room conversations. Generally by using a fake identity, predators can fool you and make you into revealing sensitive personal and financial information.
Be aware: computer hackers and predators can do the following things to you.
With the help of malware transmitted by the hacker, he can get your personal as well as financial information without your knowledge. Then he can use this information for his benefit and it will harm you in the aspect of loss of money as well as private information and data. In either case, they may:
•    Know your usernames and passwords and will change it or use it according to him.
•    Using your info they can open credit card and bank accounts in your name
•    Steal your money and Ruin your credit
•    additional credit cards  or Request new account Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) o
•    Make purchases form offline stores.
•    Add themselves or an alias that they control as an authorized user so it’s easier to use your credit
•    Obtain cash advances from your credit card
•     Abuse your Social Security number
•    Sell your information to such person who will use it for illegal purposes
Especially predators can pose a serious physical threat. Be extremely cautious when agreeing to meet an online “friend” or acquaintance in person.
Ways to know that are you in the net or not?
Regularly check the accuracy of your personal accounts, credit cards bills and other documents. Are there any unexplained transactions?
Questionable or unauthorized changes?
 If so, the dangerous and harmful malware is already installed by predators or hackers in your computer.
What can I do about computer hackers and predators?
Read as much as possible about the articles on computer security threats on this blog and increase our knowledge about this. Although Hackers and predators pose equally serious and but very different threats you will wiser enough to avoid their tricks.
To protect your computer from hackers and predators:
•    Regularly check the accuracy of your personal accounts and deal with any discrepancies instantly.
•    Use extreme caution when entering any chat rooms or posting on personal Web pages
•    Put a limit on the personal information you post on a personal Web pages
•    Carefully monitor requests  on social networking sites by online “friends” or acquaintances for predatory behavior
•    Keep personal and financial information out of any type of online conversations
Take these steps to protect your computer from hackers right away:
•    Switch to 2 way firewall.
•    Update your operating system on regular basis.
•    Increase your browser security settings.
•    Only download software from trusted sites you trust.
•    First carefully evaluate free software then use and do same in the case of file-sharing applications before downloading them.
•    Practice safe email protocol.
•    Don't respond messages from unknown senders, even don’t open it.
•    Immediately delete messages you suspect to be spam.
•    Make sure that you have the best internet security products installed on your computer.
•    Always use antivirus protection
•    Also Get antispyware software protection
An unprotected computer is a like a free gift for computer hackers and predators. To protect your computer from hackers and predators also use a spam filter or gateway to scan inbound email or IM messages. While free anti-spyware and antivirus downloads are widely available, they just can’t keep up with the continuous onslaught of new malware strains due to their limited functionality. Previously undetected forms of malware can often do the most damage, so it’s necessary to have up-to-the-minute updated and guaranteed protection.

Firefox spoofing flaw reported

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser is vulnerable to spoofing attacks, according to an Israeli security researcher. Aviv Raff reported on his blog on Wednesday that Mozilla Firefox v2.0.0.11 allows information presented in a basic authentication dialogue box to be spoofed, opening up the possibility of users being redirected to a malicious website. Earlier versions of the browser may also be affected.

According to Raff, when a web server returns a 401 status code, it causes Firefox to display an authentication dialogue box. The 401 status code is returned by the web server when it recognises that the HTTP data stream sent by a browser or bot is correct, but access to the URL requires further user authentication.

The authentication dialogue box displays the server URL in what is called the WWW-Authenticate header field. This URL is in part defined by the realm value and, according to Raff, it is possible for an attacker to create a specially crafted realm value that will look as if the authentication dialogue came from a trusted website. This is due to Firefox failing to sanitise single quotes and spaces in the WWW-Authenticate header field, after a legitimate realm value enclosed in double quotes has been given.

At least two possible attack vectors are opened by this reported flaw, according to Raff. Man-in-the-middle attackers could create a web page with a link to a trusted website such as a bank. When a victim clicks on the link on the malicious page, the trusted web page would be opened in a new window. A script would be executed to redirect the newly opened window to the attacker’s web server, allowing username and password details to be compromised.

Alternatively, an attacker could embed an image in an email or web page which, when clicked on, would return a specially crafted dialogue login from the attacker’s web server, again allowing authentication details to be compromised.

President of Mozilla Europe, Tristan Nitot, told ZDNet.co.uk that Mozilla is in the process of investigating the report, and so could not comment further at this time.

“We take security seriously,” said Nitot. “We are taking this report seriously, and are investigating.”

Tools to Track & Recover Your Stolen Laptop



Off late, in coffee shops, college campuses, hotel lobbies and even in cars, laptops and notebook computers are being targeted by criminals. And these incidents are increasing at an alarming rate.[sintuhack].As per FBI, 97% of the stolen laptops are never recovered. That is a staggering stat. But don’t worry, we can increase the odds of recovering / tracking your stolen laptop and that too for FREE![sintuhack]

Ways to Track and Recover your Stolen Laptop

1. Track your Stolen laptop with Adeona

Adeona from University of Washington provides an open source, [sintuhack].free and completely non-proprietary way to track your stolen laptop. [sintuhack].You can install Adeona on your laptop and go as there’s no need to rely on a single third party! What’s more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner’s choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can be rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop. You can read the detailed article on Adeona here
.[sintuhack].
2. Locate your laptop with LocateMyLaptop.com
LocateMyLaptop is a free service that offers a stealthy app on your laptop which reports its position whenever the computer is connected to the Internet.[sintuhack]. If it’s lost or stolen, you can issue a self-destruct command to erase all the data on the hard drive – but that requires upgrading to the Platinum Plan, which costs $3/month. But you do not need to pay anything until the disaster strikes. this is because, tracking of laptop is FREE, and you can upgrade to the platinum service only if your laptop gets stolen.

3. Browser Plugin to Track your stolen Laptop – Loki[sintuhack].

Loki is basically a service which can add location of users to any website.[sintuhack]. But it can be tweaked in such a way that you can log directly into Loki to see your laptop’s location on a map, or enable “sharing” – which blasts your location to a public Web page, to Twitter, Facebook, or a handful of other services.[sintuhack]. Only concern is, Loki is not always reliable as it sometimes fails to update the public page with laptop’s location.[sintuhack]. This issue is seen even when Loki browser plugin on the laptop knew where it is.[sintuhack]. Hopefully this issue should be fixed by the next release.[sintuhack]

4. Locate your stolen Laptop with LocatePC

LocatePC is FREE software which lets you track and finally get back your stolen computer or laptop back to you.[sintuhack]. LocatePC sends you a secret email message from your stolen computer or laptop with some crucial information. But again, we will be hoping that the thief will connect the laptop to the internet before formatting. Still, something is better than nothing right?[sintuhack]

Email Security...some Basic point

In today’s electronic world, email is critical to any business being competitive. In most cases it now forms the backbone of most organisations’ day-to-day activities, and its use will continue to grow. According to the The Radicati Group’s study, “Microsoft Exchange and Outlook Analysis, 2005-2009,” the worldwide email market will grow from 1.2 billion mailboxes in 2005 to 1.8 billion mailboxes in 2009.[sintuhack]
As email becomes more prevalent in the market, the importance of email security becomes more significant. In particular, the security implications associated with the management of email storage, policy enforcement, auditing, archiving and data recovery. Managing large, active stores of information takes time and effort in order to avoid failures – failures that will impact the users and therefore the business, undoubtedly leading to lost productivity. For secure and effective storage management, organisations must take a proactive approach and invest wisely in a comprehensive solution.When considering a secure email storage management solution, a layered approach, combining both business processes and applications makes sense. By considering the service email provides to the business, email management can be broken down into a number of components: mail flow, storage, and user access – both at the server and user levels. Whilst each one of these components should be addressed separately, they must be viewed as part of a total security agenda.[sintuhack]
Mail flow can encompass many aspects of an email system. However, the security of mail flow is for the large part focused around the auditing and tracking of mails into and out of the organisation. Monitoring the content and ensuring that any email that has been sent and received complies with business policy is fundamental.
[sintuhack].Proving who has sent or received email is a lawful requirement for many industries and email can often be used as evidence in fraud and human resource court cases.[sintuhack],Another key aspect of the management of mail flow security is the protection of the business from malicious or unlawful attacks. It is at the gateway into the mail system where a business must protect itself via a variety of methods including hardware and software protection systems, such as spam filters and virus scanner[sintuhack].

We can Trace a Stolen SIM Card of any mobile phone....

All information about your cell phone is stored on a SIM card inside your phone. This is the card cell phone companies
program when you first activate your cell phone. When your cell phone is stolen, the SIM card is often the only way to trace the phone’s location.

Tracking your stolen cell phone through the SIM card is mainly done through your cell phone provider. As soon as you realize the phone has been stolen, call your cell phone provider. Provide them with your account number, cell phone number and approximate time the phone was stolen. They can then track the phone’s activity. If the SIM card has not been changed out, this will help the cell phone company lead authorities to your phone’s location.

If GPS is enabled on your cell phone, you may be able to monitor your cell phone’s location from home. This will require the cell phone to be turned on and the SIM card active. Open the web page you use to access the GPS locator on your phone. Call authorities as soon as you have a set location.

Try calling your cell phone. Some thieves will actually answer the phone. The call will provide a way for your cell phone provider to track the last known location. Authorities may also be able to provide this service as well.

If the SIM card has already been changed out, finding the cell phone itself may be impossible. However, your cell phone provider can still attempt to trace the location of the SIM card. When the cell phone number assigned to the SIM card’s serial number no longer match, this alerts the provider to the theft. They will then be able to trace the stolen SIM card through the new cell phone number.

New applications are being created that work silently to track the SIM card and cell phone. These applications run quietly to prevent alerting the thief to their presence. One such application is Smart Phone Guard. The application hides itself the moment the SIM card is replaced. A message is then sent to friends’ numbers. The numbers are determined at the time the application is installed. The application also allows you to remotely delete any personal information such as photos and videos remotely through one of the friend’s numbers.

Check with your cell phone provider for other applications that may be able to trace the location of stolen SIM cards. These applications will give you peace of mind that no matter what happens to your phone, you’ll still have control. For older phones, newer applications may not be compatible.

In the event your SIM card or cell phone is stolen, report the incident immediately to your cell phone provider. This will prevent unauthorized calls and charges to your account. For many thieves, once the phone is deactivated, they simply discard the phone. Ask your provider to trace the SIM card if possible. GPS enabled phones can also be tracked through the SIM card and phone number. There are several different ways to trace a stolen SIM card with new methods being developed daily.

HOW YOU CAN IMPROVE A SECURITY OF INTERNET EXPLORER

There is no question that Internet Explorer is the most popular web browser in the world, but with great popularity comes great responsibility. Since one program is used by approximately 75 percent of the world to browse the web, you are forced to deal with the majority of the world’s hackers who are all trying to break down your defenses. Luckily, there are certain things you can do to improve the security of Internet Explorer so you don’t fall victim to the same problems that have already infected millions of computers already.

These days, most Windows Vista systems are set to automatically download updates from the Microsoft website, but for those that aren’t and for those folks still running Windows XP, you need to make a weekly pilgrimage to the Microsoft website via the “Windows Update” feature to download the latest updates that can keep you and your computer safe. As quickly as hackers can discover and exploit a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer, there are teams of Microsoft technicians working hard to close that loophole. It is only with regular updates that you are able to put those fixes to good use. Good Internet Explorer security means staying on top of security updates at all costs.

Next, you can help improve Internet Explorer security by watching where you surf. Part of the fun of the Internet is exploring new websites, but some websites are like traps that wait for Internet Explorer browsers to visit them so that they can try to infiltrate your machine. Your virus protection software should alert you if a website attempts to access your computer or change any of your settings. Your machine may lock up or freeze so that you can’t close the browser window. Once you regain control, run an immediate virus scan and never revisit that website. Many adult websites and hacker/peer-to-peer sharing websites feature these types of traps.

One of the most popular features in web browsers is the ability to add on toolbars and extra features that run along side the stand alone browser. As useful as these programs can be, they are often doorways for other programs to install themselves on your machine. You can download one toolbar and before you know it, you have a dozen different bars installed and you can’t see a thing. If you want to install a toolbar to give Internet Explorer extra functionality, make sure you do some research first to find out which toolbars live up to the hype and which ones are simply gateways to viruses and Trojans. You would be surprised how much you can improve Internet Explorer security by simply watching what add ons you use.

Finally, you can improve Internet Explorer security by simply getting to know the usual behavior of your browser. If you suddenly notice that web pages are taking significantly longer to load than they did a little bit ago, something might be wrong. Get to know what the usual pop up windows that come with your browser look like, so when a website attempts to get you to click on a box, you’ll know if you should or not. When it comes to Internet Explorer security, a good portion of the battle is common sense and not falling for traps set by hackers.

How do I protect my PC from spyware?

A firewall is considered to be the most popular tool to protect a computer from spyware. Firewalls are integrated into operating systems (OS) and permanently examine incoming and outgoing addresses to computer network ports. They analyze data packages coming to Internet ports and mail ports according to the type of request and the addressee. Most firewalls allow or deny some types of addresses, but this is a weak point because spyware may be integrated inside many packages or disguised as a Web browser. This type of spyware cannot be detected by a firewall, and gets inside the PC to start its malicious activity. Also, firewalls are usually resource-consuming, so the price for relative security is your PC running much slower.

The problem of firewall relative protection is successfully solved by proactive security systems. Such systems analyze all application activity on the PC for its potential maliciousness, according to predefined rules of malicious or non-dangerous behavior. In case of a real threat, proactive systems block dangerous programs before any damage to the OS is done.

An anti-spyware solutions called Safe’n’Sec+Anti-Spyware, is a special solution consisting of Safe’n’Sec behavior analyzer -- which blocks previously unknown spyware (new modifications) -- and the Anti-Spyware module, which detects already known spyware with the help of extended anti-spyware signature databases. This Anti-Spyware module has the option to delete malware from the user's PC. The solution is absolutely compatible with any traditional security software installed on your computer. Anti-Spyware solutions efficiently protect your confidential data from unauthorized access, whether you work in the system or just browse the Internet.

World of Warcraft Attacked by Phishers

World of Warcraft players desperate for a new mount to traverse the online role-playing game's fantasy world are getting a reality check from hackers who have devised a clever pop-up phishing scam to spread malware.

Security technicians at F-Secure Security Lab on Tuesday posted a blog entry Tuesday detailing the latest scam making its way through the world's most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).

With more than 11.5 million monthly subscribers, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft is not only the most successful MMORPG in history, but also a very popular environment for hackers, phishers and assorted click-fraud scam artists.

This latest hoax preys on players' desire to add mounts for their online avatars to ride. After clicking on a link to get a new trial mount, players are redirected to a malicious phishing Web site that mimics an official WoW page.

Those players who are still hard up for a mount are then prompted to enter their WoW log-in details.

"Apart from losing all the gold and items saved, a compromised account could also be used to send out the malicious messages to other victims, adding insult to injury," the researchers warned in their blog post. "An interesting detail about this particular site is that a reverse-IP check on its IP address turned up over a dozen other WoW phishing sites."

F-Secure officials remind players that phishing sites like the one identified today are blocked by the security firm's browser protection software.

World of Warcraft holds an estimated 62 percent of the MMORPG market. The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was announced at the BlizzCon conference earlier this year.

14 More Open Source Tools to Protect Your Identity

AS IN PREVIOUS POST I DID EXPLAIN 14 OPEN TOOL FOR SECURE YOUR DATA,IN THIS POST I ADD SOME MORE TOOL AND EXPLAIN TO--SO READ AND APLY THEN GIVE COMENT...AS ADVICE....YOUR ADVICE WILL PROVIDE ME A WAY AND ENERGY TO COLLECT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR NEED
To help you keep from making the same sort of mistake I did, we've compiled a list of 14 more open source apps that can help protect your identity. Some of these fit into traditional security categories, like anti-spam, anti-virus, and firewalls. Others, like browsers, e-mail, and PDF tools, we've included in this list because they include encryption or other security features that can help you protect yourself.
No one is likely to need all 14 of these apps, but the list should give you plenty of options for filling in any security gaps in your system.Open Source Anti-Spam=========

Open Source Compression

1. 7-zip

7-zip offers higher than normal compression ratios and supports multiple file formats. However, in order to take advantage of its strong AES-256 encryption capabilities, you'll need to create either 7z or zip files. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

2. PeaZip

One of the most flexible compression utilities available, PeaZip currently supports about 90 different archive file formats. It also supports multiple encryption standards and even offers a two-factor authentication option for maximum security. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

3. KGB Archiver

One big benefit of using this compression utility is that it encrypts files with AES-256 encryption automatically. It also supports multiple file formats and nine different languages (but not Russian, which seems odd for an app named after the KGB). Operating System: Windows.

Open Source Data Destruction

4. Darik's Boot And Nuke

Also known as "DBAN," Darik's Boot and Nuke allows you to create a boot disk (CD, DVD, thumb drive, or even an old floppy) which will completely erase all the drives it can detect on your system. It's a great tool if you're getting rid of an old computer, but not as helpful if you're just deleting a few files. Operating System: OS Independent.

5. Eraser

If you need to erase only a few files—perhaps your financial or tax records, work files, or as the website suggests, bad poetry—Eraser is the tool for you. It overwrites deleted data multiple times, making it nearly impossible to retrieve the "erased" files. Operating System: Windows.

6. BleachBit

Like Eraser, BleachBit can completely erase files, but it also includes a number of other features to help protect your privacy and speed up your system. For example, it can erase your cache, remove your browsing history and cookies, clean up junk left by more than 50 applications, and much more. Operating System: Windows, Linux.

Open Source Email

7. Thunderbird

This e-mail client from Mozilla (the makers of Firefox) includes built-in encryption capabilities, anti-spam, and phishing protection. It further protects you by blocking remote images in e-mail and alerting you when security updates become available. Operating System, Windows, Linux, OS X.

8. Zmail

Need to send a secret e-mail? Zmail lets you send e-mail messages anonymously if you know your SMTP server address. Operating System: OS Independent.

Open Source Encryption

9. AxCrypt

With more than 1.5 million registered users, AxCrypt has become one of the most popular open-source encryption applications. It integrates seamlessly with Windows—simply right-click a file to encrypt it. Operating System: Windows.

10. TrueCrypt

With more than 12 million downloads, TrueCrypt is also a very popular way to protect your files. While AxCrypt focuses on encrypting individual files, TrueCrypt makes it easy to encrypt a drive partition or an entire drive (including USB thumb drives). Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

11. Gnu Privacy Guard

Also known as "GPG," Gnu Privacy Guard lets you encrypt and digitally sign documents before transmitting them. This is a command line tool, but the Web site includes links to a number of graphical interfaces for the software. Operating System: Windows, Linux, Unix, OS X.

Open Source File Transfer

12. FileZilla

FileZilla supports regular FTP and the more secure FTPS and SFTP protocols. While the client version should work with any operating system, the server version only works with Windows machines. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

13. WinSCP

This Windows-only file transfer tool has won tons of awards and supports FTP, SFTP, and the older SCP file transfer protocols. Note that it's a client-only tool—i.e., you can use it to download files from other sites, but you can't use it to set up your own FTP server. Operating System: Windows.

Open Source File Sharing

14. Waste

While most file sharing networks are designed to help users circumvent copyright laws, Waste at least claims to be aimed at law-abiding citizens. With it, small groups (10-50 nodes) can chat and share data securely without opening their systems to unauthorized users. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

Open Source Firewalls

15. Firestarter

Unlike most of the open-source firewalls, Firestarter can protect a single PC as well as a network. Best of all, you can probably install it and be up and running in just a couple of minutes. Operating System: Linux.

16. IPCop

IPCop is a complete Linux distribution designed to be used as a standalone firewall and boasts a very user-friendly interface. To use it, you'll need an old PC to connect to your network. Operating System: Linux.

17. Vyatta

Vyatta sells open source networking hardware and software commerically atwww.vyatta.com, and they also maintain the free, community version. With the community version, you can turn a PC into a network appliance that offers routing, firewalling, VPN, intrusion prevention, and WAN load balancing services. Operating System: Linux.
32. SmoothWall E
Because it's designed to be used by people with no knowledge of Linux, SmoothWall Express is an excellent option if you aren't a technical whiz, but want to tackle setting up your own network. A supported commercial version is also available. Operating System: Linux.
33. LEA
The "Linux Embedded Appliance Framework" (aka LEAF) can be used as an Internet gateway, router, firewall, or wireless access point. This app requires a little more know-how than some of the other choices in the category, but is a good option. Operating System: Linux.

14:-Open Source Tools to Protect Your Identity

Usually these lists of open source software start with statistics or general observations on current trends in the open source community. This one starts with a personal story.
I used to use a thumb drive to backup my budget software, and I also kept a copy of our tax returns on the same drive. While the files were password protected, I didn't encrypt them because the drive never left the house, and we don't exactly live in a high crime area.
Then one day my friend was looking for a drive to carry some files to the school where he teaches. As you probably guessed, he grabbed the drive with our financial info on it. And as you probably also guessed, someone stole his computer and the thumb drive right out of his classroom. As a result, I've had the great joy of spending many, many hours changing our account numbers, checking our credit reports, and setting up fraud alerts.
To help you keep from making the same sort of mistake I did, we've compiled a list of 14 open source apps that can help protect your identity. Some of these fit into traditional security categories, like anti-spam, anti-virus, and firewalls. Others, like browsers, e-mail, and PDF tools, we've included in this list because they include encryption or other security features that can help you protect yourself.
No one is likely to need all 14 of these apps, but the list should give you plenty of options for filling in any security gaps in your system.Open Source Anti-Spam
1. SpamAssassin
The highly acclaimed "#1 open-source spam filter," SpamAssassin, uses a number of different features to identify spam, including header tests, body phrase tests, Bayesian filtering, blacklists and whitelists, and others. It can be used on its own, but it's also been incorporated into a number of other commercial and open-source applications. Operating System: OS Independent.
2. ASSP
Humbly claiming to be "the absolute best SPAM fighting weapon that the world has ever known," ASSP is short for "Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy" Server. While it takes a little work to get it up and running at first, it doesn't require a lot of maintenance, and the site wiki includes extensive help on configuring the app so that it works for you. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.
3. Spamato
Available as an Outlook add-on, as a Thunderbird extension, or as a stand-alone proxy, Spamato uses multiple filters to separate junk mail from the stuff you actually want to receive. Unlike some anti-spam tools, it also lets you see why a message gets classified as spam and adjust your settings as necessary. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.
Open Source Anti-Spyware
4. Nixory
Nixory will quickly scan your system and remove any malicious cookies from Firefox. Unlike some similar apps, you can use it alongside other anti-virus or anti-spyware applications without first disabling those systems. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.
Open Source Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware
5. ClamAV
One of the best-known open-source security projects, ClamAV provides e-mail virus and malware scanning for Unix-based systems. Its owners update its prodigious virus database several times each day to provide up-to-the minute protection from evolving threats. Operating System: Linux.
6. ClamWin
Based on the well-respected ClamAV engine, ClamWin integrates with Microsoft Outlook and Windows Explorer to scan files for viruses and other malware. You can set it up to automatically download the updated virus database, and you can schedule system scans. However, unlike many commercial products, it does not include a real-time scanner for files you receive by e-mail. You'll need to save files and right-click in order to scan them for viruses. Operating System: Windows.
7. ClamTK
As you might expect, this is another interface for ClamAV, this time for Linux only. Operating System: Linux.
8. Moon Secure
This app also uses the Clam AV engine (though developers claim to be working on one of their own), but offers a different interface and some different features. Operating System: Windows.
Open Source Backup
9. Amanda
Currently protecting more than 500,000 computers, Amanda is one of the most popular (if not the most popular) open-source backup and recovery program. Importantly, it encrypts backup data both in transit and at rest. Several commercial vendors (notably, Zmanda) use Amanda to offer cloud backup services for users who prefer to store archived data off-site. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.
10. Areca Backup
Designed to be both flexible and simple, Areca Backup makes it extremely easy to archive your files and work with those archived files (browse, merge, track versions, etc.). It also gives users the option to encrypt backup files with strong algorithms. Operating System: Windows, Linux.
11. Bacula
While it's primarily aimed at enterprises and users with large networks, Bacula can also be used to backup a small home network or a single system. It's an excellent program (one of the most popular open source enterprise apps), but you need to be pretty tech-savvy to use it. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.
Open Source Browser
12. Firefox
An independent study cited on the Firefox site claims that Internet Explorer users are vulnerable to threats 98 percent of the time while Firefox users are only vulnerable 2 percent of the time. In addition to being secure, Firefox is fast and highly customizable. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.
13. Tor Browser Bundle
If you're really paranoid about privacy or have other reasons for wanting to browse the Internet anonymously, the Tor Bundle will install with your existing browser for ultimate protection. When its running, no one can tell what sites you are visiting, sites can't figure out your physical location, and you should be able to access sites that are blocked by governments or Web filtering software. You can also install it on a thumb drive for mobility. Operating System: Windows.
14. TorK
For Linux users, this Tor front-end lets you anonymously browse the Internet, send instant messages and e-mail, and more. Operating System: Linux.