Posts tagged Anti virus at Download Squad

Posts with tag anti-virus

AVG 8.0 Free released, now with protection from spyware

Posted Apr 24th 2008 9:00AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Security, Windows, Freeware

A few months ago, Grisoft updated its AVG anti-virus suite to version 8 and bundled linkscanning, anti-spyware, and anti-rootkit software to boot. Now Grisoft's popular freeware anti-virus application is getting some of the same features. AVG Free 8 is out, and not only does it protect your system from viruses, but you get spyware detection as well.

AVG Free 8 doesn't have all of the features you get in the commercial version of the application. There's no rootkit protection or linkscanner. And there's no email or instant messaging integration. For those features you'll have to shell out $35 or $55 for the standard or "internet security" versions. But as freeware antivirus applications go, AVG is packed with features like real-time protection, daily updates, and complete system scans at regularly scheduled intervals.

Update: As several readers have pointed out in the comments, when you install AVG Free 8, you will likely find a bunch of advanced features like linkscanning and email protection. The AVG web site has a comparison chart showing that these features are included in the commercial version but not the free version. It's not clear if Grisoft is including free trials of these functions or if the chart is wrong.

VirusTotal scans email attachments via... email

Posted Mar 13th 2008 5:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Security, E-mail

If you're not sure whether or not it's safe to download that email attachment your nice new friend from Nigeria sent you, odds are you shouldn't. But if you want a second, third, and 14th opinion you might want to forward your email to VirusTotal.

All you have to do is hit the forward button, and send your message to scan@virustotal.com. Change the subject line to SCAN and delete anything in the body of the message you don't feel like sharing. Note that there's a 10MB file size limit, and if you forward a message with multiple attachments, VirusTotal will only check one.

VirusTotal will scan your file using a variety of anti-virus tools including AVG, ClamAV, Kaspersky, and McAfee. When it's done, VirusTotal should send you an email letting you know the status of your file. But it may take a while to get that response if the server is busy.

You can also upload files directly to VirusTotal's main page for a quicker scan. But that only works if you've already got the potentially infected file on your computer.

[via Digital Inspiration]

Flipping the Linux switch: The anti-virus question

Posted Feb 14th 2008 10:00PM by Kristin Shoemaker
Filed under: Security, Features, Linux, Open Source

We were at a major electronics retailer a few days ago, gazing lovingly at the little ASUS Eee. We were not alone. There were three other people poking, prodding, and tapping the tiny machine.

We watched as a couple approached the little machine with a salesman. They jiggled the keys. They ran their fingers on the touchpad. They asked why the user interface wasn't as familiar as their home machine.

"Linux," said the salesman. (He was ever so helpful.)

The next question, "Does it come with anti-virus?"

That certainly stumped the salesman. He answered a non-answer, really. "Linux," he said, "It has Linux anti-virus."

For the record, the Eee, which runs a form of Xandros, does in fact have anti-virus. We are pretty sure the reason for this is two-fold. One, it puts some people's minds at rest to have something called "anti-virus" on their computer. Two, it does isolate and quarantine viruses -- viruses that might not affect Linux itself, but could easily be passed on to a Windows machine.

That's not to say there aren't viruses that can target Linux. Historically, there have been some. And there are browser exploits, of course, that no operating system is completely immune from. However, viruses, as we think of them in the Windows world, are highly unusual.

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: The anti-virus question

Download AVG Anti-Virus Pro for free

Posted Dec 26th 2007 2:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Security, Windows, Commercial

We wouldn't be surprised if you only know AVG for its free anti-virus software. Along with Avast! Avira, and a few other companies that don't start with the letter A, AVG provides a full-fledged virus protection suite free of charge. But AVG also provides a "professional" version of its software that comes with some advanced features like extra scanning and scheduling options.

For example, the free version only lets you schedule a single virus database update per day, and one computer scan a day. You can schedule multiple events with the Pro version. You also get higher speed downloads with the Pro version.

AVG Pro usually goes for $29.95, but Computeract!ve is giving away free licensed copies through Jan 17, 2008. Good luck getting their download link to work, but fortunately CyberNet has pointed us to a couple of mirrors.

Is your Anti-Virus software slowing down your Vista boot time?

Posted Dec 10th 2007 2:00PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Security, Windows, Freeware

One of our biggest complaints with Windows Vista is that it takes far longer to boot up and shut down than Windows XP installed on an identical system. When Microsoft first announced the feature set for Vista, one of the things they claimed was that you would actually have shorter startup times, but we later discovered that what they meant was that there would be power saving features that would make it easy to put your PC into sleep mode when you're not using it and quickly resume.

But if you're a Vista user that likes to completely shut down your computer, you've probably gotten used to waiting a while for it to start up when you next hit the power button. It turns out that part of the problem might not be with Vista itself, but in 3rd party software that doesn't play well with Vista. For example, although we've long been fans of AVG Free Edition anti-virus software, Ed Bott and Dwight Silverman both suggest that it could have a dramatic impact on Vista startup times.

So we went ahead and uninstalled AVG and lo and behold, our system did seem to boot up more quickly. Of course, there are various ways to measure boot speed. For example, you could stop the timer when you first see your Windows desktop. But for many users, what really counts is the moment when you can start clicking on programs and expect them to respond or the moment when your internet connection is ready, allowing you to launch a web browser, chat program or other online applications. And we have to say, the time between the desktop showing up and our internet connection working has gone up significantly since uninstalling AVG.

Our tests were completely unscientific, so we don't have a lot of numbers to share with you. And our system still takes 80 to 90 seconds to startup with Vista, while we can boot Windows XP on the same system in about half the time. But now we're curious. If you're using AVG on Vista, have you tried uninstalling it to measure the impact on your startup times?

We still highly recommend AVG Free if you're using Windows XP. But if you're using Vista, you might want to check out some free alternatives like Avast!, AntiVir, BitDefender, or ClamWin.

PCLive: free security suite for Windows

Posted Oct 15th 2007 7:30PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Security, Windows, Commercial, Freeware

PCLive Security is a full featured security suite for Windows. It helps protect you from viruses, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers, and adware. Oh yeah, and it happens to be free. While there are several other free security applications out there, none come with quite so many features in one package.

PCLive Security includes the ClamAV antivirus engine, a bi-directional firewall, and a pop-up and adware blocker.

There's also a paid version that includes technical support, hard drive maintenance, and file optimization features for $4.95 per month.

PCLive Security runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista machines. On the downside, the installation process takes forever, and once PCLive Security is up and running it seems to be a bit of a resource hog. Oh yeah, and it will try to uninstall any other anti-virus software on your PC when you run the installer.

[via WebWare]

ZoneAlarm ForceField protects your browsing session - DLS Interview

Posted Sep 27th 2007 7:00AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Internet, Security, Features, Windows, DLS Interviews

ZoneAlarm has launched a public beta of a new security tool that basically puts your web browser into a sandbox. Visit sites you know are unsafe, check your bank statements on a computer that you know is infected with viruses and spyware.

We caught up with ZoneAlarm Director of Consumer Product Management John Gable at ShowStoppers in New York, and he told us a bit about the new product. ZoneAlarm ForceField sets up a "virtualized surfing" system, that prevents your PC from downloading malicious code from the web. It also prevents keylogging, blocks spyware, and scans downloads. There's also a private browsing feature that immediately erases all details of your browsing session once you shut down the browser.

ZoneAlarm ForceField is free while in beta, but will cost $30 when it's officially launched next year. The program works with Internet Explorer and Firefox (but not Opera), and is Windows only.

AOL replaces free Kasperky anti-virus software with McAfee

Posted Aug 9th 2007 5:15PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: Security, Freeware, AOL

There are a variety of great, free anti-virus programs out there, including ClamWin, Avast! and AVG Free. For the past year or so, this blog's parent company, AOL has also been offering a free anti-virus program, based on powerful Kaspersky software.

For some reason, AOL has decided to stop offering the popular Kaspersky-powered Active Virus Shield, and has instead replaced it with McAfee Virus Scan Plus.

The anti-virus software is still free, although you'll need an AOL screen name in order to download the program. The McAfee suite includes a firewall as well as anti-virus features. But if you're running Windows XP or Vista, you might as well just use your operating system's firewall.

Oh yeah, and don't expect to install McAfee Virus Scan Plus on top of your existing anti-virus software just to take it for a test run. When we tried that, we were told it couldn't run without uninstalling AVG Free.

[via CyberNet ]

Microsoft Anti-Spyware targets Norton Anti-Virus

Posted Feb 13th 2006 2:55PM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Security, Windows, Microsoft

The Washington Post's Brian Krebs is reporting that a recent update to Microsoft Anti-Spyware "flags [Norton Anti-Virus] as a password-stealing program and prompts users to remove it." If the user removes the files as instructed by Anti-Spyware, Norton Anti-Virus ceases to function and cannot be reinstalled without some dicey registry editing. Oops. Microsoft says it's working on a fix for the problem.

Google to introduce paid TV downloads

Posted Jan 5th 2006 1:15PM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Google

Ars Technica is reporting that tomorrow Google will be announcing a new video service that will "allow users to buy video content for pre-determined prices," and they're also planning to announce partnerships with CBS and the NBA. Ars has lots of juicy speculation, including whether they'll be offering downloads or only streaming video, if they'll use Flash video as Google Video currently does, and if this means we'll finally see the long-rumored Google Wallet. Google also plans to announce Google Pack, a software bundle which, says Ars, will include the obvious Google software like Desktop Search, Picasa, Google Earth, Google Talk, and more, but also some third party tools including "Google-tweaked" versions of Firefox, Acrobat Reader, Symantec anti-virus software, the malware remover Ad-Aware, multi-network IM client Trillian, and RealPlayer. I agree with Ars: Those last two choices are very curious indeed.

McAfee fined $50 million

Posted Jan 5th 2006 12:20PM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Business, Security

Veteran security and anti-virus company McAfee has agreed to pay a $50 million fine for inflating its revenues by $622 million between 1998 and 2000—131% in 1998 alone. According to Red Herring, "McAfee consented to pay the multimillion-dollar penalty to the SEC without admitting or denying the allegations of the complaint." The SEC will distribute the fine among investors.

[Via Slashdot]

RSS feeds the next virus medium?

Posted Jul 14th 2005 3:28PM by Jordan Running
Filed under: Internet, News, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Virus alert! Makers of firewall and anti-virus software are warning that RSS feeds could be the next big thing for spreading viruses. In this article from The Register, Trend Micro's marketing manager says, "RSS feeds point to HTML pages and as such, they can be made to point to HTML-exploits or malicious JavaScript. It certainly can be a possible way of distributing malicious code over the internet to the subscribers of the RSS feed." Zone Labs, makers of ZoneAlarm, agree.

Personally, I don't buy it. It's not unlikely that such a vulnerability will be found in RSS readers in the near future, but as pointed out in the article, to be a useful medium for spreading a virus an RSS feed has to be very popular. But in order for a virus to get into a popular RSS feed, whomever is publishing the feed would have to insert the virus intentionally, or accidentally create a situation in which a third party could. Though not impossible, it seems like an unlikely confluence of circumstances.

Do you think Trend Micro and Zone Labs will be touting RSS scanning features in their upcoming anti-virus and firewall products?

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Brad Linder	118	13
2	Joey Celis	53	0
3	Jay Hathaway	50	17
4	Drew Olanoff	30	23
5	Lee Mathews	20	25
6	Christina Warren	15	4
7	Kristin Shoemaker	14	12
8	Nancy Messieh	8	0
9	Danny Mendez	6	3
10	Emily Price	5	0
11	Alan Silcott	4	7
12	Adam Maras	4	1
13	Dolores Parker	3	6
14	Ian Dumych	3	1
15	Jason Clarke	3	0
16	Todd Ritter	3	0
17	Patrick Beeson	2	5
18	Nik Fletcher	2	0
19	Gordon Finlayson	2	0
20	Victor Agreda, Jr.	1	2

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AVG 8.0 Free released, now with protection from spyware

VirusTotal scans email attachments via... email

Flipping the Linux switch: The anti-virus question

Download AVG Anti-Virus Pro for free

Is your Anti-Virus software slowing down your Vista boot time?

PCLive: free security suite for Windows

ZoneAlarm ForceField protects your browsing session - DLS Interview

AOL replaces free Kasperky anti-virus software with McAfee

Microsoft Anti-Spyware targets Norton Anti-Virus

Google to introduce paid TV downloads

McAfee fined $50 million

RSS feeds the next virus medium?

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