5 Free Antivirus – Download Free Antivirus and Save your computer from Virus Attack!

Today I switched my computer ON just like any other day and the hell broke lose. Computer was running slow, high-speed internet was acting choked and I almost thought my monitor belongs to a 16 year old sexually charged with adult pop-ups all over the screen.
By the time I could figure out what went wrong (virus attack), I had already lost some data on my hard drive and my Operating System was acting weird.
A computer that is inadequately protected is vulnerable to all sorts of viruses, spyware or malicious codes which could attack your data or even your operating system.
Some malware are programmed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk. Other malware programs are not designed to do any damage, but simply replicate themselves and perhaps make their presence known by presenting text, video, or audio messages. (Wikipedia)
I gathered information on about 5 most popular free Antivirus softwares which do a good job of protecting your computer and keep your data safe from such attacks.
Why pay for Antivirus softwares when free ones are equally good? Following is the list of top 5 free antivirus softwares.
Avast.com – avast! is a fully featured free antivirus designed specifically for home users or for non-commercial use, however, it requires you to register your free version with Avast within 60 days of installation. It is compatible with Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT/ME/98. The latest version of Avast 4.8 comes with 39 downloadable skins to personalize your free copy of antiviurs software.
Some of the features of avast! Free Antivirus for Home Edition are listed below.
•    Anti-spyware built-in
•    Web Shield
•    Anti-rootkit built-in
•    Automatic updates
•    Strong self-protection
•    Virus Chest
•    Antivirus kernel
•    System integration
•    Simple User Interface
•    Integrated Virus Cleaner
•    Resident protection
•    Support for 64-bit Windows
•    P2P and IM Shields
•    Internationalization
•    Network Shield

AVG’s is one of the most popular free Antivirus softwares available online. AVG has a strong userbase of 70 million users and the number just keeps going up! AVG is easy to download, install and use. It is compatible with Windows Vista & Windows XP and freely available for home and non-Commercial use.
AVG keeps it virus database udpated with the latest virus definitions, this helps its users detect the latest virus threats as soon as it hits internet.
Her are some of the key feature of AVG FREE Edition
•    Automatic update functionality
•    The AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run
•    The AVG E-mail Scanner, which protects your e-mail
•    The AVG On-Demand Scanner, which allows the user to perform scheduled and manual tests
•    Free Virus Database Updates
•    AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files

Avira AntiVir Personal – FREE Antivirus is a another reliable free antivirus solution, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs such as viruses, Trojans, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc. It also monitors every action executed by the user or the operating system and reacts promptly when a malicious program is detected.
“AntiVir is also low-profile. By that I mean it spawns only two background services and if there weren’t a system tray applet to access the program, you probably wouldn’t even know it was running.” – (pcworld.com)
Avira is a Free Antivirus protection for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and also for Linux users. It has over 30 million users worldwide.
Some of the features that Avira AntiVir Personal has are following.
•    Protection from viruses, worms and Trojans
•    Protection against expensive dialers
•    Protection from hidden rootkits
•    Faster Scanning up to 20% faster
•    Protection from phishing

Bitdefender offers its version of free antivirus and it also publicizes that it is “one of the world’s most effective antivirus engines for free!”
Bitdefender’s Free Edition is an on-demand virus scanner, which is best used in a system recovery and is ideal for users who connect to the internet on a regular basis; however it’s not for users who are “always-on” the internet. For these types of users Bitdefender recommends them to upgrade to a more powerful version of their software which is the paid version.
Few features offered by BitDefender are listed below
•    Antivirus
•    IMPROVED Proactive detection
•    Spyware scanning and cleaning
•    IMPROVED Deployment and use
•    IMPROVED User Experience
•    Hourly Updates
•    NEW Rootkit Detection and Removal
Bitdefender also comes with other features such as Skinable Interface, where you can customize the looks of the scanner.
Also included in this version is the “Quarantine” and “Report” feature. In Quarantine you can isolate the infected file to reduce the risk of your other files and OS getting infected any further. In the Reporting feature you can check the statistics of your last scan.

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Hacker compromises Royal Navy data security

The official Royal Navy website was shut down yesterday (8th November) after a hacker compromised its DATA SECURITY
Computer details of former and current defence staff were posted online by an unknown Romanian citizen known only via his codename as TinKode.
The hacker, who claims to have committed the breach after detailing the incident on his blog, posted the "hash values" for staff passwords on the internet.
These hash values are essentially a key for cybercriminals to enable them to easily crack user passwords.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the breach did not result in any malicious damage.
Rik Ferguson, a cyber security analyst at the company Trend Micro, said: "It's always embarrassing when something public is successfully hacked and should serve as a warning to anyone who has a presence online to take all the necessary steps to secure their websites."
Are your archives backing-up? Kroll Ontrack; providers of cost-effective archive data: migration, duplication, extraction and conversion services.

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Cyber attacks enter new phase......INCREASE YOUR SECURITY LEVEL

North Korea was originally a prime suspect for launching the cyber attacks, but the isolated state was not named on a list of five countries where the attacks may have originated, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said.

The attacks targeting dozens of government and business sites in South Korea and the United States did not cause major damage or security breaches, experts said, but the KCC warned a new phase could cause severe damage to PCs.


Leading South Korean web security firm Ahnlab, which has closely examined the attacks, said the new phase would target data on tens of thousands of infected personal computers.

"The affected computers will not be able to boot and their storage files will be disabled," said Lee Byung-cheol of Ahnlab.

Almost all of the websites that were out of service this week, including the South's Defence Ministry, were up and running while Lee said the damage to internet locations was dwindling due to better safeguards.

The KCC said host websites believed behind the original attacks were based in Germany, Austria, Georgia, the United States and South Korea. The location of the hackers behind the attacks was still unknown, it said.

South Korean MPs briefed by the National Intelligence Service said although websites in North Korea were not on the list, Pyongyang was still considered a suspect, Yonhap news agency said.

Internet access is denied to almost everyone in impoverished North Korea, a country that cannot produce enough electricity to light its cities at night. Intelligence sources say leader Kim Jong-il launched a cyber warfare unit several years ago.

Some analysts have questioned the North's involvement, saying it may be the work of industrial spies or pranksters.

The attacks will likely be seen by the North's leadership as a victory for Kim Jong-il - even if Pyongyang was not involved - because they added a new dimension to the threats posed by the state, which rattled regional security with a nuclear test in May and ballistic missile tests last week.

The attacks saturated target websites with access requests generated by malicious software planted on personal computers. This overwhelmed some targeted sites and slowed server response to legitimate traffic.

The so-called "distributed denial of service" hacking attack spreads viruses on PCs, turning them into zombies to simultaneously connect to specific sites, unbeknown to owners, experts said.

U.S. officials would not speculate on who might be behind the attacks but noted that US government websites face attacks or scams "millions of times" a day.

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Mobile scams 'costing users five times more than PC scams', security firm warns

As the number of people using the mobile internet continues to rise rapidly, criminals are exploiting new technologies with increasing efficiency, the latest research suggests.

With smartphones predicted to outsell PCs in 2011, the survey, commissioned by mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile, indicates that traditional spam email successfully persuades fewer than one in a million users to visit the site it’s advertising.
 


So-called “conversion rates” of mobile spam are often higher than one per cent, however, and one SMS text message spam attack can generate more than $10 million in just three days.

The types of scam the firm found ranged included sophisticated attacks that exploit smartphone capabilities to connect to the internet – the results included “click fraud” on adverts or mobile viruses. Simpler scams included SMS messages claiming the recipient had won a prize and fooling them into replying via a premium rate call or text.

“With spammers finding ways of avoiding the cost of sending bulk SMS, the traditional barrier to receiving spam on mobiles has been removed,” said Simeon Coney, vice-president of business development at AdaptiveMobile.

“A mobile phone is a very personal device and people are intrinsically more trusting of communications via their handset than content in their email inboxes. While the mobile operators are fighting the criminals at a network level, users too need to play their part if they’re to stay safe in an increasingly mobile world.”

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Common mobile viruses:Mobile Security Threat

How they spread and what are the effects:

Cabir: When this virus infects  your mobile then  message 'Caribe' will be displayed  at each  time you switch off and  on the mobile. These worms are generally  spread through blue tooth signals from surroundings  mobiles. 

Duts: A parasitic  file infector virus .its alos  known as Pocket PC. It try to infect all EXE files which are more than 4kb present in the directory where it saved. 

Skulls:  it is a Trojan horse. Means a piece of code will be  downloaded  on your mobile nad then the virus called Skull replaces your phone desktop into  image of skull as icon.it is very dangerous as  It is usually  transferred with all phone applications and also with SMS and MMS. 

Comm warrior: It's also spread through MMS  and  unsecured blue tooth  to other devices. It has more impact on devices running under OS Symbian Series 60. This virus launches The executable worm file and the worm  hunt for gaining access to your blue tooth devices and sends the infected files under various different  name to various random device.

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Mobile Security:How you will know your mobile is being tracked??

.HOW IT IS DONE

cell phone image by sonya etchison from Fotolia.com

 Mobile phones are always being tracked by the cell phone company. And it  is a necessity for provide you the facility to make  and receive phone calls.Mobile service provider can simply pinpoint the location where your mobile is by measuring the strength or weakness of the signal relative to there mobile towers.[sintuhack]. And With the help of  this, you can be traeced  within a few hundred feet. But what if your phone is tarcked by other than your service provider.[sintuhack].

Yes my friend , in this technical its world its possible that your phone are being traced by any other person/company (similarly like it is done in Hollywood movies). There are a lot of service provider for this types of spying on the internet.[sintuhack].

If you would like to know whether your phone is being tracked by someone other than the phone company there are a few signs on which you must pay attention.[sintuhack]

Points to ponder

Check to see if your phone is still warm in between phone calls. It  is normal for phones to heat up during a call, but they will usually cool down within 30 minutes after one. If your phone is still warm even when it has not been used in hours then it could still be transmitting, which is an indicator that it could be bugged.[sintuhack]

Check to see if your phone is interfering with the radio even when it is turned off. A cell phone bug will transmit your location at all times even when the phone is turned off. While it is normal for a phone to interfere with a radio when it is receiving or making a call, it is not normal if this happens when it is turned off.[sintuhack]

Check for signs that your battery is draining faster the normally. If the phone is bugged, you will notice that it drains much quicker than it would normally. This is because it is constantly transmitting even when it is off.[sintuhack]

Oberservation:

Pay  close attention on  these signs. if  one or two of them  are present then it may be possible that someone has bugged your phone, but  all three sign together ensures that there is a good chance that someone using some technology to track you.[sintuhack]

Solution:

The only way to keep from being tracked is to either remove the battery from your phone or to get the phone wiped clean at a phone shop and have them reinstall the operating system.[sintuhack]

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Mobile security:Tips for using Bluetooth Securely

All  deficiencies(described in previuos post )  leave a Bluetooth device vulnerable to security threats. Even though security gaps are being filled every day by the manufacturer and technologist, Following are some of the tips that a normal user can keep in mind and protect himself from an amateur BlueTooth  security breacher.[sintuhack]

• Keep BlueTooth   in the disabled state, enable it only when needed and disable immediately after the intended task is completed.[sintuhack]
• Keep the device in non-discoverable (hidden) mode,[sintuhack]
• DO NOT accept any unknown and unexpected request for pairing your device.[sintuhack]
• 
  
• Use non regular patterns as PIN keys while pairing a device. Use those key combinations which are non sequential, non obvious on the keypad.[sintuhack]
• Keep a check of all paired devices in the past from time to time and delete any paired device which you are not sure about.[sintuhack]
• Register your device at the Manufacturer site and insure that security updates are installed regularly to protect from previously know threat which had been rectified in new models.[sintuhack]
• Always enable encryption when establishing Bluetooth connection to your PC.[sintuhack]

Above Bluetooth Security Tips should make your Bluetooth experience trouble free. Good Luck…!!! And that’s the end of chapter on bluetooth.[sintuhack].

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Bluetooth Security Risks:MOBILE SECURITY

Bluetooth Security Risks
1. The first step in using any Bluetooth device is to turn on the Bluetooth feature in it. The default state of Bluetooth in any device is “Off” mode. 
2. Once Bluetooth is turned on, it is in active but dormant state. In order to use it, it needs to be put in to “Discoverable” state. In theory when a device is in “non discoverable” state it should not be visible to other devices but in reality the device is still discoverable to those devices it has made a connection before using MAC address. A hacker seeing the Blue LED can use Brute Force address discovery process to record the MAC address and hack the device using software such as RedFang.


3. During communication process also Bluetooth technology exposes itself to security breach as the address itself is not encrypted although the message may be encrypted. Technique such as frequency hogging provides some protection but is not completely secure.
4. There are devices available in the market which can capture a Bluetooth signal from the air and analyze. At present cost is prohibitive for casual hackers to acquire some of these devices but still a professional hacker can use those devices and hack vital information.
5. Many owners leave the Bluetooth device in the discoverable mode after actual use due to ignorance or simply forget to turn off “discoverable” mode which gives hackers easy opportunity to pair with their device and hack.
6. Pairing two Bluetooth devices usually does not require any authentication, however using a service like file transfer or data/video/voice exchange require some authentication by entering PIN. Once PINs are entered a link key is generated and stored in the device’s memory. This process is not required for next time onwards.
7. Many vendors do not implement authentication and authorization process correctly allowing hackers to steal information or use one’s phone or use it for making calls or SMS.

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BLuebugging:Can Breach YOUR Mobile Security

BLuebugging was somewhat like bluesnarfing but the difference is that it is more harmful to your mobile from the prospective of security of your mobile. It was first invented in 2004 by German scientist. In the initial phase, it was necessary to pair devices via Bluetooth before the security breacher  try to breach your mobile with the bugger, but now a days its not needed to pair up the devices.[sintuhack]. It can also possible to break you mobile security via the Bluetooth enabled headset which is used to take call as per to free your hands.[sintuhack]

At early stage it was done with laptop but now a days such powerful PDA and mobile phones are available  in the market that it can be done without laptops .[sintuhack]. you may be happy that your mobile Bluetooth has only a small range so its not easy to pair up your device hence you mobile is secured. But did you know that in market antenna’s are available which can send and receive weak signal s and hence data can be transferred from range of even 200 meters.[sintuhack]

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Bluesnarfing:Mobile Security Breach

Bluesnarfing refers to a the method in which one has gained access to data, which is stored on a Bluetooth enabled phone of other people. Literally Bluesnarfing can be described as unauthorized access of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth connection. The level of access depends from case to case, but, in general, it involves pretty much anything that's stored on the user's mobile device. Bluesnarfing allows the using person to make phone calls, send and receive text messages, read and write phonebook contacts, eavesdrop on phone conversations, and connect to the Internet. he can also download the material in his mobile from the victim mobile. The good news is, bluesnarfing requires advanced equipment and much advanace expertise In this field. As bluejacking can be done at the range of 10 meters, in bluesnarfing the intruder must be present within a 30 ft. range. If the phone is in non-discoverable mode, then its not true that you cant be a victim of this. Its adds only some problem and makes it little bit more difficult for intruders to bluesnarf your phone. It can be possible from phone and laptop both to bluesnarf a mobile. By just using some bluesnarfing tools (Bluesnarfer, Blooover) on mobile phone or laptop, anyone can detect and access those vulnerable mobile phones to view and download entire phonebook, calendar, real time clock, business card and other important private data without alerting the phone owner(you).

There's little info on whether Bluesnarfing is possible without the targeted phone being paired with the computer running the aforementioned software application, but anyone cannot completely rule out this possibility, either.

So that’s all about bluesnarfing. Wait till next post to know about other mobile security breach methods………….

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