I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fan of Malwarebytes. It's easily the best free malware removal app in my toolkit, and it's the first program I turn to when cleaning up an infected system. The Malwarebytes team has worked incredibly hard since their application burst onto the scene, and countless technicians and PC users appreciate the phenomenal work they've done.

Now, for the past few weeks I've been reading numerous blog posts about how IOBit is giving away their security software for free. The offer was timed to coincide with the launch of Windows 7, and has popped up in my Google Reader several times since.

How do the two relate?

A few weeks ago, Malwarebytes staffers came across an interesting post on the IOBit forums. The post detailed a keygen for Malwarebytes and reported it using the same name MBAM reports. The crew dug further and found more evidence of copycat detections.

To confirm their suspicions, a fake signature implanted in the Malwarebytes database.

"The final confirmation of IOBit's theft occurred when we added fake definitions to our database for a fake rogue application we called Rogue.AVCleanSweepPro. This "malware" does not actually exist: we made it up. We even manufactured fake files to match the fake definitions. Within two weeks IOBit was detecting these fake files under almost exactly these fake names."

If this is proven to be true, I certainly hope that Malwarebytes is successful in prosecuting IOBit. For another company to use a tactic as underhanded as this - let's face it, it's outright theft - to build a product and label it as their own is appalling.

IOBit are, of course, defending themselves in their forums. They respond:

"We have never used the database of any other companies. And hope Malwarebytes stop spreading malicious rumors for hyping itself[...]A legal letter will be released later, which will prove that there is no problem with Intellectual Property Rights.

For the sake of avoiding dispute and possible problems, we have deleted all disputed items in our database temporarily, and have updated IObit Security 360's database."

Nevertheless, IOBit's reputation is taking a beating now on WebOfTrust - Malwarebytes supporters have been all too happy to head over and vote down IOBit's trust, privacy, and vendor reliability ratings.

Sxipper is a Firefox (1.5 or 2.0) add-on that allows you to set then forget your personal details. All your logins will be kept safe behind your own personal guard dog. It strikes me a lot like roboform, but is free for use and stores all your info for work, personal, openID, and all your other identities. Sxipper lets you hand-pick the color and icon for your profile, and even import a v-card. If you watch the video above, you'll notice that it is only 18 seconds long. This is how fast it is to use Sxipper. I remember hearing about Sxipper a while back when it was just a twinkle, and thought it was a great idea, so it is really cool to finally see it in action. Sxipper is a bit more powerful than most password managers, and aims to be your one stop shop for protecting all your personal information by logging you in securely. The biggest benefit is not having to fill-in forms, and selecting what type of information you want to share with a website. It won't be long before you will be entering in all your favorite bugmenot logins, so you don't even have to go look those up either. Sublime.

Source: Sxipper

Worried about unsavory individuals lurking around your office or home and jacking your computer gear? Have no fear! With the help of your Windows PC, webcam, some free software, and this handy tutorial from Simplehelp, you can set up a reasonably sophisticated DIY security system. The core of the tutorial is Dorgem, an open source utility that captures images from your webcam and can save images based on "storage events," e.g. every 30 seconds or every time it detects motion. Since having photos of your intruder on your computer isn't very useful after the computer is gone, Dorgem has the ability to send the files to an external server via FTP or HTTP, or hand the files off to another program. The tutorial also covers more advanced techniques, like setting up multiple webcams and hiding your webcam from sight.

Is it just me, or is the market for novel anti-theft apps for laptops exploding? Undercover is a program for Apple laptops from Orbicule that does a number of things to help you recover your laptop in the event of its theft. When the laptop boots, Undercover checks Orbicule's web server to see if you've reported your laptop missing. Once it knows it's been stole, Undercover begins doing all sorts of things, including sending Orbicule its IP address, taking photos of the perpetrator and its surroundings with the built-in iSight camera, and sending screenshots so you can see what the thief is up to. If the laptop can't be recovered, or if it can't connect to a network, Undercover will simulate a "hardware failure" by gradually dimming the screen, which Orbicule hopes will prompt the thief to unload the laptop on someone else. Software like this is really no match for a savvy thief, but most aren't, so for all it promises Undercover's $30 price tag doesn't seem so expensive. There's also a money-back guarantee if Undercover fails to save your laptop, but $30 hardly seems like much consolation in that event.

[Via Undercover]

Your MacBook Pro has a built-in tilt sensor and camera. Since using Apple products for their intended purpose (like, say, running Mac OS X), here's a cool way to repurpose those features: iAlertU is theft alarm software that monitors your MacBook's camera and tilt sensor and, if it thinks your laptop is being manhandled while you've stepped away to grab another latte, sounds a loud alarm. Currently iAlertU is in beta, and Evan Blass over at Engadget says that it's not perfect, but actually works pretty much as advertised. You can see a video of it iAlertU in action at YouTube. The arming and disarming sound effects are pretty cute.

Over at Mac Geekery they've got a cool guide to making your laptop (in this case a Mac) delete your important files in the event that it's stolen. The meat of the thing is a shell script that periodically checks a remote web server for a file called "youve_been_stolen," and if it finds the file it quietly deletes the files in your home directory. You can also make it alert the new owner that it's stolen and any other shenanigans you can think up. This method could be extended pretty easily Windows, but you'll have to figure it out yourself. Just make sure you've got your important files backed up somewhere, 'cause you're even if you get your laptop back you won't be getting them.