Nowadays, it’s a sad but true fact that spyware and adware programs are a far greater threat to your internet security than the dreaded computer viruses. Indeed, spyware, adware and other so-called malware (such as key loggers and trojan horses) actually constitute the biggest single online threat to your privacy and the security of your data.

It’s also a major reason for system slowdowns on computers, as these types of programs generally use up precious system resources including RAM (memory) and hard drive space.
So, let’s look at some basic facts about spyware and adware, where these programs come from, what they are, and what you can do about protecting yourself.

Spyware comes in various guises and forms, but basically, it is a program or piece of information that is secretly placed on your computer, that sends data about you or your computer habits to someone else on the Internet, without your knowledge. This can be a company that is collecting data, or a thief seeking to steal access to your computer or the information held in your database (passwords, credit card details and so on).

Spyware can also be a program that places unwanted ads on your computer, often in the form of a malicious cookie. A cookie is a little piece of information placed in your web browser to track your web habits, which, in its more generally benign form, is useful as, for example, a web site can see you have visited it before and let you on without a registration process. Again, in its more benign guise, a cookie can help you by keeping track of your progress through a web store. They are also used to customize website ads to your likes and dislikes.

But, obviously, when they are used for spyware or adware purposes, a cookie is not a welcome guest on your PC!
Spyware programs can get into your computer in several different ways. Sometimes they arrive as an automatic download from a website you are surfing. Porn and online gambling sites are notorious for this, for example.

Sometimes, if you download a free or illegal piece of software, they are embedded in the installation process, or spyware can get on your computer via an email attachment that you shouldn’t have opened. (Tip here – if an e-mail comes from an unrecognized source with an attachment, DO NOT open it – it’s almost guaranteed to be some sort of program that you definitely don’t want!)

Spyware and adware are bad news for several reasons:
They hog precious system resources like memory and hard disk space. If you computer runs much slower than it did previously, then it probably is infected with spyware. If you have never done a spyware scan, then it’s almost guaranteed that there is spyware on your system slowing things down.

They can seriously compromise your privacy and security, providing outsiders with information about your computer habits. For example, by installing a keylogger, spyware can capture your keystrokes and send it to a third party.
This can potentially expose your user IDs and passwords to thieves.
Other program such as trojans which allows someone to log into your computer remotely and use it for their own purposes like sending spam or launching malicious attacks on other computers on the Internet, making it look like you are at fault.

So, it’s bad! Let’s look at how to get rd of it.
There are lots of both paid and free anti-spyware programs out there, and, like all things in life, some are better than others. The question often asked is, which is better, a free program or a paid one.

The simple answer is that the best approach is a combination of the two, and, unlike anti-virus programs, you can run more than one anti-spyware program on your system without any problems.

First thing to do is to install the totally free Spybot Search and Destroy program, which will eliminate 70-85 per cent of all known spyware.
The, invest a little money in a good paid program like Spyware Doctor, NoAdware or Spyware Nuker to complete the job for you. Yes, I know that it means spending some money, but if it can prevent someone stealing your credit card details, for example, then it’s a sure fire thing that its going to be money well spent.

Another advantage of the paid programs is that they generally have a more effective “pro-active” nature to them than the free programs do. In other words, they are usually far better at stopping spyware and adware actually getting into your PC in the first place, and, clearly, preventing the problem is far easier and less time consuming than having to deal with it once your PC becomes infected.

Spyware has become the most prominent computer security problem. How do you choose a good spyware removal tool? Beware of antispyware software which installs spyware/adware to your computer.

Spyware is a hidden software program. It is often used to monitor the browsing and shopping habits of computer users. Spyware can also be a remote control program that steals confidential banking and personal information.

Spyware has quickly become the most prominent internet security problem. According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, spyware infects more than 90% of home PCs. Recent survey shows that spyware is also sneaking into the network of corporate computers.

Spyware is often coupled with free downloads, such as free music, game and software downloads. Spyware may slow down computer, hijack homepage and create uncontrolled pop-up advertisements. Some spyware programs can remain unnoticed, secretly gathering information from the computer. Once installed, spyware is difficult to remove without the help of dedicated antispyware software.

Due to the rise of spyware activity, antispyware programs are in great demand these days. But are these spyware removal tools the same? Do they provide the security consumers need?

There are many reports that some antispyware programs installed their own spyware and adware to the computer. One consumer was quoted saying: “It’s a rip-off. I downloaded the free trial of an antispyware program, only to find out that it added its own adware to my computer.” Other consumers have complained that the antispyware program they use cannot detect all spyware programs. Some even slow down the computer and create pop-up advertisements.

There are a few good antispyware programs in the market today. On the other hand, dozens of spyware removal programs are blacklisted by consumers. Beware of spyware removal tools that are heavily promoted by e-mail campaigns. Never run any free downloads and free scans from unknown software publishers. Their programs may as well be spyware programs themselves. Read independent product reviews from renowned computer magazines or reputable sources. Spending some extra time in research can save you a lot of hassles in the long run.

 ,  antispyware ,  anti spyware

DOWNLOAD ESET ANTI VIRUS & ESET SMART SECURITY 4.0.437

Combining powerful management tools, ease of use for end users, and state-of-the-art proactive threat detection, ESET Smart Security is the most effective way to protect your business’ valuable data assets while improving your compliance posture.

ESET Smart Security was already highly regarded for its ease of use. Now it’s even easier to use, which will brighten your help desk manager’s day. The Business Edition of ESET Smart Security includes all the features and benefits described above, but has additional functionality and flexibility that every growing business requires:
Additional Benefits

Supports Complex Compliance Requirements — ESET Smart Security adds critical features, such as external drive access control and scanning, Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) compatibility, as well as enhanced logging and reporting functions to support your compliance initiatives.

Host-based Intrusion Prevention System — Unauthorized attempts to modify your OS or applications are actively blocked through a combination of advanced behavioral analysis and network filtering that monitor your system processes, files, and registry keys. HIPS protects against modern blended threats that may have bypassed your network perimeter security.

Easy to Manage — ESET Remote Administrator provides a single management console to control an entire network from a single screen—supporting tens to thousands of computers. Installation, updates, alerts and other tasks are all easily managed from these intuitive screens. To effectively manage your networked systems, the updated console smooths Active Directory integration and simplifies policy creation. With support for Oracle, MySQL and MS-SQL databases, it also handles increasingly large deployments and runs significantly faster. ESET Smart Security can be configured with antispam and/or personal firewall disabled to ensure compatibility with existing network security solutions. Integrated SysInspector makes it easier for IT administrators to diagnose and resolve problems.

Usability Improvements — For administrators, version 4 offers:
License Manager with simplified tools to manage multiple licenses with different terms
Read-only access for Management Console which enables multiple administrators to share tasks without risk of overwriting configurations
Notification Manager to keep administrators informed of all key events with customizable alerts
Full support of Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) in support of compliance initiatives
More efficient use of network bandwidth and improved log storage scalability
Advanced Protection status screen that informs you of threat detections
Password protection that prevents ESET Smart Security from being uninstalled by unauthorized employees or visitors
System Requirements

Processors supported: Intel or AMD x86/x64
Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP (32- and 64-bit editions), Microsoft Windows Vista (32- and 64-bit editions), Microsoft Windows Server 2000 (32- and 64-bit editions), Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (32- and 64-bit editions), Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32- and 64-bit editions)
Memory: 48 MB
Disk Space (download): 32 MB
Disk Space (installation): 46 MB

 ,  eset smart security for linux ,  eset smart security linux ,  download eset smart security for linux ,  eset firewall for ubuntu ,  eset for ubuntu download ,  smart security for linux

Internet World is not complete without the presence of viruses. Computer viruses are now growing. Here we discuss about how to create simple virus to save a notepad.

First open notepad and enter this code:

Set oWMP = CreateObject(“WMPlayer.OCX.7″)
Set colCDROMs = oWMP.cdromCollection
do
if colCDROMs.Count >= 1 then
For i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count – 1
colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject
Next
For i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count – 1
colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject
Next
End If
wscript.sleep 5000
loop

Save the file with the file extension (. Vbs) and run the 2x click the file, note the CD / DVD ROM will open and close themselves without interruption. One to stop this virus is by pressing the button (CTRL + ALT + DEL) and turn off the process wscripts.exe

 ,  computer viruses

With proper setup and administration, viruses in Linux are the least of your worries, but you still need to worry about Windows clients that connect to your Linux servers. I have been looking at anti-virus programs, designed to run on Linux servers, that can keep viruses from infecting Windows clients on the networks I administer.

There are a growing number of companies and GNU Projects coming forward to provide Linux antivirus products. The Open Antivirus Project aims to provide open source solutions to multiple antivirus needs, including squid-vscan (virus scanning with squid), samba-vscan (on-access virus scanning with Samba), and VirusHammer (a standalone virus scanner to be run by end users). Many other features and projects are planned, like rescue disks and remote management. The Open Antivirus Project also has a project page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openantivirus/.

Commercial products are becoming available in the mainstream for Linux. McAfee, Trendmicro, Panda Software, Sophos, and Central Command all have products for home Linux users as well as enterprise networks.

Installation for all of these products is straightforward and quite easy. Even novice users should be able to follow along without confusion. Most products provide the same basic capabilities, but some provided additional features, such as mail gateway server protection or file server protection. One thing I found disturbing with most products was the lack of SMP support. I run dual processor servers for better performance. Most of the antivirus programs gave a warning during install about not supporting SMP machines, while some simply would not function after installation under SMP. Trend Micro’s ServerProtect, for example, installed nicely on my dual processor Red Hat Linux box, but failed to run. Only after trying to start the daemon manually did I discover that the application would not function on a dual processor box.

Panda Software
Panda Antivirus for Linux

Panda Software provides a free ‘command line only’ version of their software for use on Red Hat systems. The software can be automated easily by creating a script and then scheduling it to run scans at scheduled times, but real time protection is not possible. Updates to the engine are installed manually after downloading new definition files. If you are going to run a Linux workstation this provides a nice cost-effective solution, but too many features are missing to consider it for deployment for on commercial servers.

Central Command
Vexira Antivirus for Linux

Central Command Vexira Antivirus for Linux provides real time protection for workstations as well as servers with the ability to scan email, files, and downloads from external sites. Updates can be downloaded automatically via the Internet, relieving some administration chores. Vexira also has the ability to scan files automatically as they are accessed, and it offers configurable path protection. It also provides email virus notification, blocks access to infected files, and has options for repair – move – rename – deletion of infected files. Vexira provides a command-line scanner, scans archives (.zip, .gz, .tar, etc), and allows for scalable concurrent scanning. Vexira does not provide support for SMP.

RAV Antivirus
RAV Antivirus Desktop

RAV Antivirus Desktop provides a clean graphic user interface for configuring scan engine settings. With the control center you can modify settings for scheduled scans, scan actions such as clean, ignore, rename, delete, or copy to a quarantine folder, and even automated updates.

RAV Antivirus for Mail Servers provides support for most email servers including Sendmail, Qmail, Postfix, and CommuniGate Pro.

Trend Micro
ServerProtect

Trend Micro’s ServerProtect provides virus protection for Linux servers in a mixed Windows environment. Administration is handled through a Web based interface, and allows administrator the ability to run on demand scans, set scan options for real time and on demand scans, and even automatic updates. Because the management console is web based, remote management is made easy. ServerProtect allows administrators to configure automated alerts via email, and SNMP. The logs are easy to read and provide adequate information for dealing with file infections. The down side of this product is its lack of support for newer kernels, and SMP systems.

Sophos
Sophos Antivirus

Sophos Antivirus provides a “command line” version of their software for use on Linux systems. Creating and scheduling scripts can automate scans. Updates must be downloaded and installed manually. This product does a great job of finding and removing viruses, but lacks many features needed by network administrators.

Central Command’s Vexira Antivirus for Linux is the best product of its kind for providing overall features and protection. Its only downfall, again, is the lack SMP support. If Central Command can correct this one shortcoming, they could dominate the Linux market until other companies begin providing more features and automation to their products. The cost for a single workstation is around $40, and $400 for a server.

The best hope, though, is still riding on the open source community to come from the back of the pack and provide the best Linux anti-virus solution.

Mike Dittmeier is the President of Blue Crab Technology, Inc., located in Bradenton Beach, Florida. Blue Crab Technology provides IT Management Services to small businesses in west central Florida using a combination of Microsoft and Linux solutions. Mike has been an MCSE for 6 years, and has worked in network technology for 9 years as a consultant, IT manager, and developer. You can e-mail Mike at mike@bluecrabtech.com.

 ,  linux ,  antivirus ,  antivirus linux