Eset has released the first public beta downloads of their excellent Smart Security suite. It's available for both 32 and 64-bit Windows systems.

The list of enhancements in the new version is lengthy, including:

• a new device driver has been added which can remove malware at boot time
• improved scanning of files over 2gb, network files, and Microsoft Office documents
• hardened kernel service that better resists malicious tampering attempts
• scanning of SSL-encrypted SMTP and POP3 email, as well as IMAP mail
• support for Windows Live Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird
• better support for Windows Vista's UAC
• a "Watch Activity" pane shows File and Network Activity and can graph by hour, minute, or second
• addition of a text-mode UI with keyboard navigation

Among numerous new features and improvements to the antivirus/malware protection, the suite now also includes Eset's SysInspector, an excellent system diagnostic, monitoring, and reporting tool. Antispam and firewall features are also included in the package, as is the SysRescue tool which can create bootable rescude media.

Though Eset has yet to announce an official release date, my Beta 4 install license reports that it will remain valid until March 2, 2009.

[via CyberNet]

Microsoft announced yesterday that Live OneCare, its anti-virus/malware application, will be put to rest on June 30, 2009. A replacement offering is slated for release around the same time.

Currently codenamed Morro, the new program will be completely free. Microsoft's aim is to "[..]focus on getting the majority of consumers the essential protection they need by providing comprehensive, real-time anti-malware protection, covering such threats as viruses, spyware, rootkits, trojans, and other emerging threats, in a single, focused solution."

That's a fairly altruistic mission statement. Even though Microsoft has received plenty of praise for apps like SteadyState and Live Writer, the public still doesn't perceive Microsoft as a company that gives away good software for free.

And then there's last month's software report by NPD, which showed Live OneCare actually outselling McAffee Virusscan. It's done fairly well in terms of sales, so why change now?

The move makes sense in at least one way: protecting their own OS from malicious applications. Work never stops when it comes to finding exploitable weaknesses in Windows. If the new product is widely adopted and works at least as well as other free protection offerings (like Avast, AVG, Avira, Comodo), Windows might appear a bit more secure.

For full details, visit the Live OneCare team blog.

[ via BetaNews ]

ZoneAlarm has been around for years, and is still one of the most popular Windows firewall programs around (about 1.6 million CNET downloads to date).

As reported on gHacks, Checkpoint will be giving away the 2009 Pro version tomorrow - complete with one year of updates. We're not sure about the exact URL for the promotion, but gHacks thinks it will probably be associated with this address.

ZoneAlarm Pro adds anti-spyware protection to ZoneAlarm's firewall product. Pair that with your favorite antivirus program, and you have a full security suite!

The latest version of the ZoneAlarm family has received good reviews. CNET Australia reviewed ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2009 and said, "ZoneAlarm Internet Security 2009 provides top-notch fundamental security protection that is light on system resources, allowing you to work unencumbered." It's also a perennial favorite of PC World, winning Editor's Choice awards four years in a row.

If you're not a fan of ZoneAlarm, you may want to check out Comodo's latest offering.

We'll see if the Checkpoint servers can cope with the increased demand. I'm sure we all remember what happened with the Codeweavers giveaway last month.

Update: at 6am Pacific, this page will be changed to offer the free Pro version.

Update: It's 6am Pacific, and still no link. The traffic has started. As I expected, their servers weren't able to handle the influx and there's a "we're sorry!" message up now.

Update: It's Live! Go and get it!

One frustrating problem I have to fight with on customer computers is damaged antivirus and internet security program installs. Much of the time there's no simple way to get rid of them once something has gone wrong, and they can cause all kinds of headaches.

Fortunately, some of the companies are good enough to provide uninstall tools to help us out.

McAfee: MCPR
While I was putting this post together, their web site starter throwing random errors at me. You should be able to download the remover from this page. If not, get it directly from McAffee or Softpedia.

Norton: Norton Removal Tool
Back when I first used SymNRT (the old name for this app), it did a pretty good job of cleaning things up. I'll warn you in advance: Norton Removal Tool will probably miss some files, folders, and registry keys. Still, it will at least get the program out of your way. It's availble through this Symantec article, or directly from the Symantec FTP or MajorGeeks. [download] and run a quick registry sweep to tidy up.

As a long-time fan of Comodo Firewall, I was glad to see the company developing a more complete Internet defense application. On October 28th, they released Comodo Internet Security.

Why the move? To quote from the press release, Comodo's president Melih Abdulhayoglu believes that "Safe computing on the Internet should be a right, not a privilege." He continues, "We are offering an advanced, intelligent Internet Security package at no charge in order to promote a safer, trusted Internet for everyone."

So far, I'm every bit as impressed with Internet Security as I was with their standalone firewall. Apart from rolling the usual antivirus and firewall features, Comodo's new product sports a number of interesting features and very low resource utilization.

The program's main window is uncluttered and informative, providing a vitals like the status of protection systems and updates, and the present level of network activity. It also features links to quickly lock down your system or set the program to install mode (which tells it ramp down the activity alerts temporarily).

3 out of 4 doctors recommend reading Download Squad every day. But if you've been a bit too busy to keep up, here are a few of our favorite stories from the past week. Read them over and call us in the morning if you don't feel better.

• Lesser known weapons to trick out your malware arsenal
  You probably know all the big names in antivirus, anti-spyware behavior. But just because companies like Norton, Symantec, McAfee, Spybot, and AdAware get all the attention doesn't mean they're the only games in town. We have a roundup of some of our favorite anti-malware applications you probably haven't heard of, but should definitely check out.
• 10 tools to pimp out your FriendFeed
  Apparently we've been feeling all listy this week, because in addition to a list of anti-malware tools, we published a list of 10 tools to spruce up your FriendFeed page. Whether you want to filter the info that shows up in FriendFeed, or to read FriendFeed on your mobile phone, we've got you covered.
• VLC Media Player 0.9.0 pre-release adds Last.fm support and more
  VLC is already one of the most full-featured video players around. And it happens to be free and open source to boot. This week the developers pushed out a preview version of VLC 0.9.0 with one new killer feature: integrated support for streaming music service Last.fm.
• Ask DLS: Web browsing for the color blind
  Between 8 and 10 percent of males have some degree of color-blindness, but surprisingly few web designers take this into account. If you have problems distinguishing colors on web pages, you might want to check out the Colorblind Web Page Filter, which attempts to adjust the color scheme of any web site to make it easier to read based on the type of colorblindness you experience.
• Opera Mobile 9.5 beta released
  Opera is doing its part to keep Windows Mobile users from throwing jealous glances at their iPhone-owning friends. Opera Mobile 9.5 beta hit the streets this week, and it offers a Mobile Safari-like drag, drop and zoom interface, super-fast page rendering, and other features to make browsing on a handheld device just a little bit more pleasant.

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.

Avira has released AntiVir Personal 8.1, a free antivirus appliation. Like popular free antivirus applications from Grisoft and Avast!, Avira offers a free basic security suite in the hopes of convincing some users to spring for a commercial version. The main difference between Avira and the competition, as far as we're concerned, is that Avira AntiVir will occasionally pop up nagware asking you to upgrade.

Pop ups aside, Avira AntiVir is pretty powerful, and the latest update brings a few improvements like increased scan speed and a redesigned visual interface. Another new feature, which isn't available in the free version, is the ability to create a system rescue CD.

Unlike some other antivirus applications, you can install AntiVir without uninstalling or even turning off your current antivirus program, which is always a plus.

[via gHacks]

Symantec has introduced Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection for Mac, a new software package that combines Norton AntiVirus 2008 for Windows with Norton AntiVirus 11 for Mac.

This package was designed for Mac users who have Windows installed on their machine, either as a separate partition (Boot Camp) or through the use of virtualization software such as Parallels and VMWare Fusion.

You've got to hand it to Norton: like some sort of Corporate Kamasutra, they position themselves in every way imaginable in order to suck up the bucks in the ever-competitive anti-virus market. While this is really just a shrewd repackage of existing products, the marketing and the sticker price (a reasonable $69.95) should convince a lot of users to pony up the dough.

If only Macs needed an antivirus solution...then this product would be invaluable (okay, we were just trying to rile a few feathers with that last remark).

Norton Antivirus Dual Protection for Mac requires OS X 10.4.10 or higher on the Mac side, and XP or Vista on the Windows side.

[via Macworld]

AVG is ready to pull the trigger on their new Anti-Virus suite, AVG Anti-Virus 8.0. From first looks, it's going to be a pretty major update.
For starters, AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 will offer more than its standard Anti-Virus protection. Popular tools AVG Anti-Spyware, AVG Anti-Rootkit, and LinkScanner, previously stand-alone applications, are now integrated into AVG Anti-Virus 8.0. The code base has seen a significant overhaul as well, in the hopes that inevitable system slowdowns caused by AVG's real-time protection will be lessened.

AVG Anti-Virus remains one of the most popular free Anti-Virus solutions on the market, and this update will no doubt solidify their dominance. At the time of this writing, however, it's not exactly clear if the free edition will be updated at the same time as the paid edition, so if you aren't one for waiting, you might have to pay to see 8.0.

The full version of AVG will continue to offer an enhanced feature set, including tech support, greater scheduling capabilities, and support for newer multi-processor core chips.

Look for the update Thursday.

[via CNETnews]

In its ever-continuing quest to prevent piracy, the RIAA announced in a State of the Net conference on January 30th, that it likes the idea of filters on the end user's platform that will detect if a user is doing anything illegal with copyrighted material.

Why would anyone want to install such a filter? In a video excerpt from the conference over at Public Knowledge, an RIAA representative points out that users will install filters that benefit them such as antivirus software - therefore, copyright filters could be bundled with anti-virus software, integrated into modems, or put together with some sort of package from an ISP, to help detect copyright violations. The purpose, of such filters, would be primarily to create a workaround that prevents users from using encryption to avoid detection.

The question of the day then: how much money would the music industry have to pay anti-virus/spyware/malware companies to cover the cost of customers switching to alternatives that come without the copyright filter?

[via Techdirt]

Symantec has just released a beta version of Norton 360 version 2.0, the latest update of the all-in-one protection suite for the PC.

Norton 360 version 2.0 claims a host of new and updated features:

• Faster performance of virus scans
  
• Faster boot times
  
• New browser protections
  
• New identity protections to manage passwords and sensitive information
  
• Support for new backup destinations including HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, and even iPods
• Comes in three flavors: apple, cherry, and tutti-frutti (okay, so we made this one up; just making sure you're paying attention out there)
  

The beta site has been refreshed with all the necessary information. You'll even see some fresh new fonts, Symantec's attempt at connecting with our hipster generation.

If you want to be a beta tester, no problem: the Norton 360 beta is available to all. You'll want to uninstall all previous Norton Antivirus solutions prior to installing the beta. And you know this already, but we'll say it anyway: Windows only.

The gaffe came in the form of a routine virus update this past Wednesday night. Kaspersky mistakenly identified Explorer as an infected file. For those not familiar with Windows' internals, Explorer serves as the core of the Windows interface, handling the Desktop, Start bar, and file management. Without this core component, Windows becomes inoperable.

Realizing their mistake, the company pulled the flawed definition about two hours later. However, untold numbers of customers were already experiencing the quarantine, and in some cases deletion of explorer.exe. While this isn't the first time a virus company has make a false positive, it is none the less a serious mistake that will certainly mean serious downtime for some organizations. Or at least, the organizations that haven't switched to Linux or Mac by now.

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]

Symantec has collected evidence of an attack in progress from a new bot that is exploiting multiple bugs that have been around for a few months. Including a bug in Symantec's very own antivirus scanning engine. There have been seven exploits for seven different vulnerabilities from Spybot.acyr that were found in Microsoft Windows and in Symantec's antivirus application. The vulnerability has been around since May 2006, and customers that have updated their applications since then will remain unaffected. Symantec is monitoring a spike in traffic recently with activity mainly lying in .edu domains. Symantec is asking that all customers update their products to the latest available security updates to prevent against any possible attacks.