Privacy, Security & Environment

 

 

PCs Save The Planet

I am sure that you are doing your bit to help save the planet, driving less often, switching things off when they are not being used, recycling and so on but have you ever wondered how much energy your PC is wasting? Wonder no longer, and maybe save yourself a few pounds with a freeware application called Granola. It’s an energy saving utility that promises to cut your PCs consumption, but without sacrificing performance or usability. It works by using the DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Settings) feature in most PCs under 5 years old, basically by taking control of the CPU, running it at full speed when it’s working hard, but throttling it right back when it is idle or engaged on undemanding tasks. It might not sound much but the developers reckon it could knock over £30.00 a year off your electricity bill, reduce your carbon footprint by more than over 200kg of CO2 and improve a laptop’s running time by around 15%. Users are also encouraged to sign up for an online account and add their energy saving contribution to the Granola community. It’s free, it might even save you a few bob, so what have you got to lose?

09/08/10

 

AdAware Up the Stakes

AdAware was one of the first free anti malware programs and it continues to do a good job though it has been rather overshadowed of late by flashier and more refined freeware offerings, like Microsoft’s Security Essentials. So rather than throw in the towel they’ve made it faster and the new improved AdAware Free has extra features, including a ‘core’ virus scanner, real time protection, new rootkit and malware removal tools, it also has a scheduler and a download guard specifically for Internet Explorer. Mind you, it’s also got a lot bigger and the download is a whopping 122Mb, so don’t try it on a dial-up connection…

15/07/10

 

Hunt Down the Hijackers

No, it’s not just another malware cleaner, HiJackFree from Emsisoft is a really powerful tool that shows you clearly what is running on your computer, the good and the bad stuff, tells you exactly what it is and what it is doing, and most importantly, lets you stop it or remove it if its not supposed to be there, or causing problems. HiJackFree monitors all running processes and associated modules, control all Services, you can view all open ports, manage LSPs (layered Service Providers) and control all Explorer and browser plug-ins and manage all of your autoruns. Maybe it’s not for absolute beginners but it’s easy to use and understand and if you suspect your PC has been infiltrated this is one weapon you definitely want to have in your armoury.

28/06/10

 

Senf and Sensibility

Senf is an unlikely sounding name for a security tool but if you deconstruct it you come up with SEnsitive Number Finder and that pretty well sums it up. When this freeware application is running it scans your PC looking for the files and folders that may contain private and personal numbers that you wouldn’t want to fall into the wrong hands. In particular it looks for credit card and social security numbers and so on. It’s not terribly smart, and not as discriminating as Identity Finder, which we looked at a while back so expect it to throw up a lot of irrelevant hits but it is thorough and there’s always the chance it discover a long-forgotten file that you would rather not have hanging around on your system.

10/06/10

 

Safer Sticks

It seems that every week or two there’s a story in the press about some idiot loosing a USB flash drive full of state secrets or thousands of personal records. It shouldn’t happen, and it doesn’t have to, flash drives will inevitably get lost or left lying around but the data they contain can be easily made inaccessible by encryption. That’s where a free utility called USB Safeguard comes in, simply load it on your drive and you can opt to encrypt the whole drive, selected files, or shred the lot. The program is really easy to use; it asks to nominate and confirm a password, which it helpfully offers to store on you PC, then all you have to do is click the button to encrypt the whole drive, or drag and drop the files or folders you want to protect. Decryption is equally straightforward, just pop the drive into your PC, you will then be asked for the password and to select the files or folders that you want to unscramble.

06/05/10

 

Predatory Protection

Here’s a brilliantly simple way to protect your PC when you are away from your desk or office. It’s called Predator and it works a bit like an old style security dongle. The idea is that once the program has been installed a ‘key’ is loaded onto a USB flash drive. When the drive is removed the screen blanks, the keyboard and mouse are disabled and the PC is safe from interference. When you come back just pop in the drive and enter the optional PIN code and Windows is up and running again. It’s foolproof; well almost, just don’t lose your key…

29/03/10

 

Tinkering With Passwords

I am sure that I don’t have to remind you how important it is to create really strong passwords if you are going to do your banking and buying online. It’s no good just using the kids or pets names and don’t commit the cardinal sin of using the same passwords or PINs for everything. Yes, I know it’s difficult to remember them all, but it’s really important, so here’s an easy way to create a strong password, and recover it if you forget. It’s called WinTinker Easy Password Generator and this is how it works. You enter your easy to remember password into the box and the program (downloadable Windows and on-line version available) jumbles it up and substitutes characters, making it practically unguessable, though just slightly recognisable. If you forget it just go back to the program and tap in your memorable password and it will be recreated.

11/03/10

 

Avast! 5.0 Me Hearties

‘Tis the season for updates and the latest old favourite to get a makeover is Avast!, one of my favourite anti-virus packages. Avast! Free 5.0 is the new version and it is faster and lighter on resources than previous incarnations. Highlights include a new Behavioural Shield and Code Emulator features, which look for suspicious activity that may not be covered by current virus and malware signature libraries. There’s also a new, easier to navigate interface, you can switch off the annoying voice using the new Silent/Gaming mode and if you like what you find, you can upgrade to the paid-for Pro version which has, amongst other things, a new Sandbox facility that keeps tricky programs and dodgy downloads in quarantine until they can be checked out.

21/01/10

 

Devious Drives

Here’s a useful little privacy tool for those who want to keep files and folders on their PC safe from prying eyes. It’s called NoDrives Manager and the idea is very simple; using a spot of Registry editing it makes one or more drives attached to your PC completely invisible to Windows Explorer and all of your programs. In fact they are still there, but only you know that, and they can still be accessed as normal but you’ll have to manually enter the drive letter, path and file name. If you want them back them to reappear all you have to do is fire up the program and enter your password.

04/01/10

 

Total Protection

How safe is that file that you have just downloaded? Hopefully if it contains any viruses or malicious content your security program will pick it up, but there’s always a chance that something new might slip through the net, so what can you do? Here’s one solution, download a little utility called Virus Total Uploader. It installs as a Context Menu item, which basically means that when you right click on a file in Windows Explorer then go to Send To, and you’ll see it on the list. All you have to do is click on the Virus Total icon and it uploads the file to an online file checker, which scans it for nasties. If the file has been checked before you, and it passes the test, you’ll get the OK in just a few moments, if it’s something it hasn’t seen before it may take a few minutes, and if it gets a clean bill of health you can go ahead and open, use or install it. It doesn’t claim to be infallible but if all you want a quick and simple health check on an unknown file, this is certainly worth trying.

17/12/09

 

See Your Key

Several times, when I’ve been asked to solve a problem or help setup a friend or relative’s Wi-Fi system or laptop I’ve fallen at the final hurdle when I get to the point when I have to enter WEP or WPA encryption key. Either it’s been thrown away, with the box that the router came in, or the piece of paper it was written down on has been lost. Yes, I know most routers can be reset to the factory defaults without too many problems but it can be a messy business if there’s more than one PC on the network. Here’s a way to extract the WEP/WPA keys that are stored on a computer, it’s called WirelessKeyView and it recovers all of the keys stored by the Windows Zero Configuration service. You can then save them to a text, html or xml file, so they won’t go missing again!

19/11/09

 

Lockdown Your Laptop

Here’s an interesting way to protect the security of your laptop. LAlarm is a small program that monitors your PC, sounding an alarm or sending you a email or SMS alert if it is stolen, tampered with or moved from its normal area of operation. The theft alarm senses if a USB memory stick or the power lead is removed, the perimeter alarm checks the user’s IP address so if it is connected to another network, wirelessly or by cable, it sounds an alarm or sends an alert. You can also program a variety of responses to an alarm, like enabling the webcam, to record an image of the thief and automatically destroy sensitive data on the hard drive if it is stolen. It’s a clever idea, ideal for business users and students, and a lot less cumbersome (though obviously not as secure), as wire and cable locks that tether the PC to an immovable object.

04/010/09

 

Free Virus Protection from Microsoft goes Live

As reported earlier this year Microsoft’s very own free anti virus program, Security Essentials, has now finished its beta trials and is ready for download. The finished version doesn’t look significantly different from the beta but behind the scenes a various bugs and quirks have been fixed. First impressions are very good, it’s reasonably fast, unobtrusive and doesn’t hog resources and according to the experts provides a high degree of protection. Only time will tell if there are any gaps in it defences but if you’re a reasonably low risk user (you avoid dodgy websites, pirate downloads and opening unexpected attachments), and you’re unhappy with your present anti-virus program then it’s worth giving it a whirl. Incidentally, despite warnings about not getting along with other AV programs it didn’t seem to mind sharing disc space with Avast! and AVG on our test machines.

01/10/09

 

Big Red Boss Button

Uh oh, watch out, here comes the boss and you’re busy updating your Facebook profile. Fear not, just click the ‘Don’t Panic’ button on your desktop and the offending apps are quickly and discretely hidden from view, from the Task Manager as well, if you’re really paranoid (or you have a really tech savvy boss…). Don’t Panic is a highly configurable ‘Boss Key’ program that hides selected applications at the click of a mouse or press of a keyboard shortcut, of course I can’t condone it’s use, you should be working, but we’ll let it slide for those very rare occasions when you do a spot of private surfing on company time, it could just keep you out of trouble.

28/09/09

 

Hard Times for Hard Drives

Now that many of us are using external hard drives, or internal slaves, and disposing of old PCs, the problem of how to ensure security and safely remove personal data from those drives is becoming ever more important. There are plenty of programs that provide the nuclear option, of destroying all of the data on a drive or PC, but what if you just want to erase one drive or one partition? That’s not so easy, and what if you absolutely, positively have to make sure that all the data you’re destroying is completely beyond recovery? Needless to say it can be done, and here’s how. It’s a freeware program called Hard Drive Eraser. It’s easy to use, just tell it which drive or partition you want to zap, choose which of the four powerful shredding algorithms you want to use, (DoD, US Army, Write Zeros or Peter Guttman – the later for the terminally paranoid), then let it get on with the job.

21/09/09

 

Warning! New Microsoft Update Email Trojan

Microsoft never sends out updates by email so you should instantly bin this latest threat, which has been doing the rounds over the last 24 hours, I’ve already had about 50 of them sent to me. It’s really easy to spot, the Subject line says ‘Critical Update for Microsoft Outlook and if you open it, it says: Update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express (KB910721). Obviously it’s nothing of the sort though it looks very plausible and has none of the usual clumsy spelling and grammatical errors. If you click on the link you will be taken to a spoof website and instantly download a nasty Trojan, though there are some reports suggesting that the payload may have changed in the past 12 hours. Either way don’t open it and do not on any account click on the link, and at the risk of repeating myself, remember that, Microsoft never sends out updates for Windows by email.

24/06/09

 

Identify Yourself

I’ve been wittering on about privacy and security for years with scare stories about hackers and identity theft but have you ever wondered what, exactly, there is on your computer that could be useful to a fraudster? You probably have no idea, it could be anything from PINs and passwords to credit card details, your date of birth, bank and credit card numbers, passport and National Insurance info, the list goes on and it’s all useful stuff to felons but the point is, without knowing what’s on your PC, you don’t know how much of your identity is being exposed. That’s where Identity Finder comes in, it will show you, in just a few seconds, what information is on your drive, and if you feel it is too much of a risk, you can make it go away by shredding it, or protect it by encrypting it.

11/06/09

 

Laptop Locator

What would happen if your laptop went missing or was stolen? In all likelihood that would be the last you’d ever see or hear of it again, but maybe not. If a freeware application called Prey was installed there’s a fair chance that it might be able to call home, possibly to let you know where it was, or maybe send you a photograph of the thief. Prey is a simple program that runs silently in the background. It builds up a detailed picture of its whereabouts, the status of the computer, running programs and connections plus information about the network it is connected to. It also takes a snapshot of the desktop, and if it has a built-in webcam, it records and image of whoever is using it. The first time it is is able it connects to an network or wi-fi hotspot and sends this data back to a website or email address that you specify.  Needless to say, one of the first things a thief will do is format the drive, but there’s a chance that before they do they will have a poke around to see if there’s any valuable personal data on the machine, and that could give Prey enough time to send back the evidence that might help you to recover your property. It's available for WIndows, Mac and Linux, unfortunately the Windows version hasn't been translated into English yet, but it's all pretty obvious.

08/06/09

 

A Meaner Cleaner

At the risk of being accused of obsessive-compusive behaviour, here’s yet another cleaner utility that removes all the bits and pieces on your PC that can compromise your privacy. It’s called FCleaner and so far I’m impressed! We are of course talking about all of the data your PC keeps about what you get up to. There’s the obvious stuff, like Internet History, cookies and of course the notorious secret and hidden Index.dat files.  FCleaner goes much further, though and it also empties the Recycle Bin, Clipboard, Memory Dumps, Chkdsk file fragments, temporary files, log files, Recent Documents, Run Histories, old Prefetch data, Explorer MRUs and much more, In IE it removes the cache, cookies, history, auto saved form info, download folder, types URLs, not to mention index dat. It also scours and wipes clean Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome and the log files in a host of popular applications. And as if that wasn’t enough there’s also a Startup manager, an uninstaller, and a very useful selection of tools. It’s powerful. So use it with care and only go into the Advanced section if you know what you are doing. Definitely worth your serious consideration if you want to keep your doings private and your PC clean!

04/06/09

 

Wipe Yourself Clean

As you may know I am concerned about PC privacy and I’ve been banging on for years about the secret and protected log files in your computer that record just about everything that you do. To that end I’ve recommended a succession of programs that erase these sneaky files, starting with the groundbreaking Spider, which first appeared almost ten years ago. Sadly Spider couldn’t make the transition form Windows 98 to XP so for the past few years the job has fallen to the excellent Crap Cleaner (CCleaner) and it still does an excellent job, but here’s a new cleaner for you to try, it’s called Wipe and very good it is too. It really gets into all of the little nooks and crannies, clearing out scores of pieces of personal data that Windows and your applications leave behind, including, of course, the notorious index.dat files. It’s highly configurable and very thorough so do check what you are deleting. If you want to keep yourself to yourself this one is definitely worth investigating!

18/05/09

 

Conflicker Checker

Contrary to some of the stories circulating in the more excitable sections of the media millions of PCs didn’t suddenly blow up following the much-anticipated reactivation of the Conflicker C virus on April 1st. In fact, at the time of writing nothing much seemed to have happened and the world moved on to more important matters. Nevertheless, this virus, and its ilk do present an ongoing threat, especially for PC owners who do not keep their security software and Windows Updates current. By the way, if you have any concerns about Conflicker C and malware in general and you think your PC may be infected I wouldn’t ask Google. I typed in ‘Conflicker C Removal’ a couple of days ago and the first three hits all led to websites carrying the virus!

 

If you have been lax with your security updates then your best bet is to download the free Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, which scans your PC for Conflicker and a raft of other nasties, but in the end the best way to avoid becoming infected is to install a decent anti-virus program and regularly sweep your PC with cleaners like AdAware, A-Squared and Spybot.

02/04/09 

 

Scupper the Snoopers

I am sure that you know that Windows spies on you, but in case you’ve missed my many warnings over the years, you may be interested to learn that your PC keeps a record of every website you’ve ever visited, from the day you switched it on, in secret, hidden and protected files called index.dat. We’ve looked at several free utilities that can clear these files, and I’m happy to continue to recommend the excellent CCleaner as the most comprehensive privacy tool available, but there’s a new kid on the block. It’s called Index.dat Analyzer, and its main selling point is that it lets you see what’s in your index.dat files, with details of the web address, plus times and dates and it allows you to selectively delete what you find there, just in case there’s something you want to keep. It’s simple to use and of course, completely free.

05/01/09

 

IE Vulnerability, Emergency Patch

Just days after a new security loophole in Internet Explorer was published on a Chinese website the hackers and crackers set to work and to date thousands of websites have been compromised. Just by visiting the site (using IE) you can download a Trojan and other nasties, which are designed to steal online game passwords but the payload is changing all the time. The vulnerability is in an IE dynamic link library (dll) file called oledb32 and Microsoft is rushing out a patch, which it started releasing last night.

 

The chances of UK web users copping an unfortunate one are pretty slim (unless you visit a lot of Far Eastern porn or gaming sites) but you might want to switch to Firefox for a while, until the fuss dies down. If you don’t receive MS updates, or you want to keep your PC safe then you can download a temporary emergency fix from Prevx: http://www.prevx.com/ie7.asp, which unregisters oledb32.dll. It shouldn’t make any difference to most sites but you can use it to re-register the file when everything settles down or after you’ve installed the patch

18/12/08

 

Unforgettable USB Drive

If the media is to be believed Government employees are a forgetful lot, losing laptops and leaving CDs and USB drives containing sensitive data all over the place. It’s easily done; though and short of chaining a USB drive to your wrist sooner or later you are going to inadvertently leave one plugged into a PC. Here’s a simple little freeware program that might help jog your memory. It’s called Flash Drive Reminder and all you have to do is download the zip, extract it and copy a couple of small files to your drive. In fact there are two versions, Standard displays a reminder message when you plug the drive into a PC, and another when you log off or shut down the PC; the Quiet version just displays the logoff and shutdown messages.

11/12/08

 

Destroy After Reading

How often have you wanted to say that? Oh well, maybe it’s just me but here’s something for budding secret agents, or anyone who want to send someone a private message that can only be read once, after which it will automatically self-destruct. It’s called Privnote and the idea is you write your message in the box provided, click the Create button and it generates a one-time URL or web address. You send this to the recipient, they visit the site, read the message and when they close the browser window it’s gone forever (unless they copy the message). The URL only works once, so they (or anyone else) cannot go back and view it again. And there’s one last trick, if you enter your email address it will automatically notify you when the message has been read.

24/11/08  

 

Crackdown on Clickjacking

A new, or rather a newly revised threat may be coming to a browser near you. It’s called Clickjacking and it can affect all browsers. It first appeared a few years ago but little was heard of it after the first warnings. It looks like it might be back though the threat level is still quite low at the moment but these things can quickly spiral out of control. Here’s how it works. If a hacker can get access to a website they can fiddle with buttons and graphics so that if you click on what appears to be a legitimate link what actually happens is you are directed to a phoney or fake site where you unwittingly enter personal details, or in a worse case scenario, clicking the link downloads malicious software onto your PC. Of course the same kind of thing can be found on less reputable websites.

 

Microsoft and Mozilla have released fixes in the past but there is a way to stop clickjacking in its tracks, on Firefox at least, and that’s to install an add-on called No-Script. This creates a white list of trusted sites by blocking any attempt to run an unapproved or suspicious script within a web page. If the site is blocked by NoScript all you have to do is click on the ‘S’ logo that appears in the bottom left hand corner and decide whether to allow the page to load. It’s a bit of a chore, but if you take security seriously, or you visit the odd dodgy website then it will give you some extra peace of mind.

20/10/08

 

One Click Encrypt

We are all concerned about privacy and security but relatively few PC users actually ever get around to doing something about it. Now there’s no excuse, a small freeware utility called EncryptOnClick can encrypt any file on your PC in just a second or two. Just open the program and select the file, tap in your password or PIN and its done. The file is compressed and scrambled using strong 256-bit AES encryption, which will keep most nosey parkers at bay. The program is small, under 4Mb, and it fits easily on a USB pen drive, so you can protect your files when you are on the move.

31/07/08

 

Double-Quick Data Destruction

If you sell or otherwise dispose of your computer you must delete all of the data it contains. This is vitally important, not just from a security standpoint, but it’s also technically illegal to sell on a PC with Windows and many commercial programs installed unless you also transfer the licences, though this is almost impossible to do.

 

Active KillDisk remains my favourite method for deleting the data on a drive, but here’s a new one, called Darik’s Boot and Nuke, and this program really lives up to it’s name! Just boot the PC using a CD, DVD, pen drive or floppy and it totally destroys all of the data on every drive it finds. UI suspect this will be of interest to anyone who needs to lose a lot of data in a hurry, when the authorities come a-knocking but it has plenty of entirely respectable applications, particularly for anyone selling or recycling a computer. Just be careful how you use it, there’s no going back once it has started…

24/07/08

 

New AVG Annoyance

It’s hard to get too upset with AVG, after all they have been providing us with top-notch virus protection for free these last few years, but the release of AVG version 8 has annoyed a lot of otherwise loyal users. Over the last few weeks popups have been appearing that appear to suggest that AVG was no longer free and to stay protected you had to upgrade to a paid-for version. The fact is AVG 8 is still free for personal use, but of course AVG would rather you purchased the better-specified commercial version – well, you can’t blame them for trying. For the record the free version can be downloaded from http://free.avg.com

 

The latest problem is a component in AVG 8, called Link Scanner, which has been driving some website owners potty. The idea is when you do a web search it pre-checks all of the links, looking for malicious sites. The trouble is websites get bombarded with fake hits from PCs running AVG 8, clogging up the web with pointless and wasteful traffic. Some users also suggest that the Link Scanners slows their PC down, which could well be the case on older machines.

 

Anyway, you can disable Link Scanner from AVG’s Control Panel, but this slaps an ugly red exclamation mark over the AVG icon in the System Tray. The simpler solution is to go back to AVG website and download the program again. Run the installer, follow the prompts and this time you will see a Select Startup Type window. Check Add or Remove components, click Next and a few clicks later Component Selection appears. Uncheck Link Scanner, click Next and finish the installation. When you next open the Control Panel Link Scanner will be no more.

10/07/08

 

Clever One-Click Clean Up

As I am sure you know I have been waffling on for years about how your PC monitors your web surfing activities and logs every website you’ve ever visited, from the day you switched it on, in a hidden and protected file called index.dat. Regular readers may also recall a couple of utilities I’ve been recommending to wipe these files. Back n the days of Widows 98 my cleaner of choice was Spider, sadly it was never updated for XP but then along came Crap Cleaner – CCleaner, as it is now known – which does a brilliant job. Now we have a new utility that works with CCleaner, called Click&Clean,. Basically it lets you put a quick-launch icon – appropriately enough a toilet roll – on your Internet Explorer or Firefox toolbar. You need to have CCleaner installed on your PC first, and the new icon has to be added manually, so don’t forget to read the instructions. One click and it launches CCleaner and your tracks are covered.

 

I see only one small problem and that is the browser has to be closed in order for CCleaner to work, so the trick is to remember to click the toilet roll just before you exit your browser.

03/07/08

 

Bird Passes The Word

I don’t know about you but I’m always struggling to think up new passwords for websites and the myriad of other things I need to gain access to these days. As we all know using simple words, such as names and places for passwords is just asking for trouble as they can be easily guessed by someone who knows you, or about you, or cracked using ‘brute force’ dictionary methods, so here’s something else to try. It’s called Password Bird and all you have to do is enter a special name, special word and a special date and from that it creates a good quality random-looking alphanumeric password, but made up from bits of your special words and numbers, which should make it a little easier to remember  

23/06/08

 

Keep It Clean!

We all know that when you use a PC you leave a trail, half a mile long, in ‘log’ and ‘dat’ files and Registry entries detailing everything you’ve been doing, from the files and programs you’ve opened, to the websites you’ve visited. It’s no small concern as it can include sensitive and personal information, like passwords and PINs for example. It’s not too difficult to keep your own PC’s record keeping in check, with a free utility like CrapCleaner (see Software section) but what happens when you’ve been using someone else’s computer?

 

This little program, called CleanAfterMe is what you need to tidy up after you. It’s a small freeware application that you can keep handy on a USB memory stick and when you run it you have the option to delete all of the data and changes you may have left behind during the session. If you are a regular user of other people’s computers and value you privacy and security then don’t leave home without this really handy utility.

19/06/08

 

Rooting Out Rootkits

We’ve spoken about Rootkits before, they’re nasty little pieces of malware that can open up your PC to hackers, but are also really difficult to detect and eliminate because they hide inside legitimate applications and files. McAfee, the anti-virus people have come up with a new Rootkit removal tool, called Rootkit Detective. It’s still in its pre-release beta version but it seems stable enough and compared with other Rootkit removal tools we’ve tried, it’s blindingly fast. Although it didn’t find any infections on our office PCs it did flag up a few files, belonging to uninstalled applications, that shouldn’t be there, so it’s definitely worth a try, especially if you have any concerns about the security of your PC.

29/05/08

 

Home is where the Webcam is

There have been a number of well-publicised cases of home-owners with security camera setups, spotting villains breaking in to their houses on their laptops while they were on holiday. In most cases this involved the use of some pretty fancy kit, but here’s a simple, and so far free system that can do exactly the same job, without the need for any expensive hardware or software. It’s called Home Camera and all you have to do is download a small piece of software, hook up your USB webcam, and you can monitor the image from up to 4 cameras anywhere on the world on any PC running a standard web browser. If your camera supports motion detection it can send you an email alert and an image to your mobile phone. Home Camera is still undergoing Beta testing, which is why it is free, but when the service begins in August it will still only cost around £8.00 a year, and anyone who signs up for the beta trial is promised a good discount.

25/05/08

 

Laptops Aloud

It’s not long until the holiday season begins and with the widespread availability of Wi-Fi in hotels and airports, and Wireless Hotspots all over the place I’m guessing that a lot of you will be taking your laptop with you on your travels this year. The only trouble is they’re so nickable, all it takes is a momentary distraction, and it’s gone. Well, this little freeware utility isn’t going to stop you doing something daft, but if might just alert you to the fact that someone is interfering with it, and if it does get pinched, they won’t be able get at the data stored on it, at least not easily. It’s called Laptop Alarm and the idea is you launch it when your laptop is unattended, Windows is automatically locked, and if anyone messes around with it, unplugs the power cable or moves the cursor, it starts shrieking. It’s no good if they try to mute the sound either, because it overrides the volume controls. As I said it’s free, so what have you got to lose, apart from your laptop…

12/05/08

 

 

Key to Security

One of the scariest threats to your PC and personal security is the keylogger. These are tiny malware programs that can get onto your PC by a variety of means, in some cases all you have to do is visit an infected website. Once on your computer it sits silently in the background, recording every keystroke you make, and sending the data back to the mothership, where it is scanned for passwords and PINs, which can be used to empty your bank account or set up phoney accounts. This little freeware program, called AntiKeylogger can’t help you if you are already infected, so check your PC before you install it, but it will stop any new ones from working. Unlike most programs of this type it doesn’t try to detect an infection, instead it interferes with the mechanisms that all keyloggers use to record data, so there’s no need for it to be regularly updated with signature files, providing you with near effortless, long term protection.

21/04/08

 

Lock Your Windows, With a Cellphone

If your PC or laptop has a Bluetooth adaptor, and your cellphone is similarly equipped, then here’s something that might interest you. It’s a free utility called BtProx, and the idea is you can lock your PC, so no-one else can use it, unless you, and your cellphone are in the immediate vicinity. As I’m sure Apple Mac fans will remind me, it’s not exactly a new idea, but no matter, its a simple and effective way to protect your computer, though, just make sure your phone battery doesn’t run out, or you will be in trouble…

14/04/08

 

Phishing Fixer

If you are fed up sifting through fake phishing messages purporting to come from banks, credit card companies and financial institutions, ebay and PayPal trying to extract your details, then help is at hand. It’s called Iconix email ID. It’s an add-on for Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Live, Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo webmail and GMail that automatically identifies and flags up messages that come from legitimate sources.

 

Incoming emails are checked against a database of registered senders – 300 so far -- and if it passes the test an icon appears next to it in your Inbox, so you can see instantly if it is genuine or not. It’s all free, the software only takes a few moments to install and as far as I can see the only minus points are that the sender’s list is biased towards US companies – it could do with some UK banks and building societies on the list -- and they’re still working on compatibility with other popular email clients.

07/04/08

 

Virtually Infallible Protection

How would you like to completely protect your PC from viruses, malware and the myriad of nasties floating around the Internet?  Of course you would, but even with the best security software available there’s always the chance something will get through, but maybe there is a solution…

 

What we have here is a freeware program called Returnil Virtual System that creates a sacrificial ‘mirror’ or clone of your system on a virtual partition on your hard drive. Your PC boots into the virtual system, so your original system remains isolated and protected. If something does make it through your defences no harm is done, you just reboot and any changes the malicious software has made are automatically erased and you reboot into a newly created system.

 

It’s a bit like The Matrix, a PC within a PC, spooky and quite tricky to get your head around at first but once you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense and your PC will become virtually bullet-proof.  

31/03/08

 

Free Software Security Program on Test

If you don’t mind being an unpaid guinea pig then head over to the Secunia website and download the Beta (Release Candidate 1) version of Personal Software Inspector, which checks all of the programs on your PC and tells you if any of them represent a security threat, or are past their use by date. If there is a problem it offers to help you find patches and updates. The program flagged up 8 programs on my well used office PC, none of the alerts were serious and about half of the programs I knew to be no threat at all, so it’s not infallible and I suspect there’s still some work to be done but it’s reassuring to have a second opinion, and it could just find something nasty that you or your other security software has overlooked.

27/03/08

 

Free Wireless Security Checkup

How safe is your wireless network? If the answer is you don’t know, then you really should head over to the Pure Networks website and carry out their free Network Security Scan. Of course it’s a prelude to selling you something, in this case an application called Network Magic, and there’s a link to a free trial, but there’s no obligation and it really is worth the visit for the free security scan. It raised a couple of issues on my system, which until now I thought was pretty tightly secured.

20/03/08

 

Free Lightweight Virus Scanner

Traditional thinking suggets that you should only have one anti-virus program on your PC. That’s normally good advice as they can have problems with each other’s ‘signature libraries’, which usually contain inert samples of virus code, but here’s one that seems to get along with other AV programs, on my test bed PCs at least.

 

It’s called  EAV Antivirus Suite Free Edition v5.61, and as the name suggests, it is a freebie.  Part of the reason it is so amenable is the fact that it focuses on Windows, where most infections are likely to hide and it keeps a constant check on incoming files. It is also very small, the download is less than 2Mb and signature updates are tiny but that doesn’t mean it is necessarily ineffective. Several users have reported that it has found infections missed by other more elaborate programs. It also has a number of useful tools, geared towards deep-cleaning Internet Explorer and Windows. It’s not without a few rough edges, though, it doesn’t check emails, the menus appear to have been written by someone with only a passing acquaintance with English, and there’s no automatic scheduling or update facility, but these are relatively minor niggles, it works, it seems to get on with other AV programs and it’s free.

13/03/08

 

Surfing with Onions….

A growing number of people, concerned about personal privacy and security are opting to get off the grid but that’s always been a bit difficult with the Internet. It knows where you are, and what you are doing, but there are ways to become totally anonymous.

 

One way is to use TOR, or The Onion Router. It’s a network of virtual connections or relays, dotted around the world, operating in complex ‘layers’ (that’s where the Onion bit comes in) that stops you from being identified or tracked when you are online. Ironically much of the development work for TOR was sponsored by the US Naval Research Laboratory but now it’s gone independent, and it is free to use. All you have to do is download a piece of software, which handles your connection to the network, and the encryption of data, and you are in business. It’s an ongoing project, and there are still a few wrinkles and speed issues – you may notice a slowdown on your browser -- but if you are exchanging or downloading sensitive or private material and want to be invisible then give it a try, but read the overview and introduction first.

21/02/08

 

Fancy Free Firewall Foils Felons

If you haven’t got a firewall on your PC (shame on you), you are using the less than adequate Windows Firewall in XP (and to a lesser extent, the one in Vista) or your current Firewall is squabbling with your applications or blocking email and web connections there here’s something else to try. It’s Comodo Pro, version 3, and it’s entirely free, and as far as I can see, there are no catches. It’s fully featured too, with all the bells and whistles you would expect to find on the best firewalls, with control over both incoming and outgoing connections, and plenty of configuration options, but it’s ready to go straight out of the box, with industrial-strength protection if you leave it in auto mode.

22/11/07

 

Slicker, Swifter SpyBot S&D

I have been recommending the SpyBot Search and Destroy malware cleaner ever since it appeared in 2002 and a brilliant job it has been doing too, though I have to say that it has been looking a little tired of late, so I am very pleased to report that a new version has just been released. Spybot S&D 1.5adds full Vista support, and in response to many requests, restores support for Windows 95.

 

After installation the first thing it does is create a Registry Backup, then it offers to Immunise your system, by tweaking your browser, to prevent it from downloading malware, and this version includes support for more browsers, including Firefox and some of the newcomers. After that it’s ready to scan, and there are some obvious improvements. It looks slicker and it runs quicker than previous versions, and like all new malware cleaners, or updates of old favourites, it’s geared up to detect the latest threats and is almost certain to find something on your PC that the others have left behind.

28/09/07

 

Fancy Free Firewall

Time was when ZoneAlarm ruled the roost for the free firewalls. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great program and does a brilliant job, and you can’t argue with the price, but some say that it has got a bit cumbersome over the years, and there have been one or two glitches along the way. I’m not saying R-Firewall is going to be any better but it’s another Free firewall, and like ZoneAlarm it is free. It’s also very sophisticated with several features you won’t find elsewhere, and because of that it looks a bit daunting, but don’t be put off, it’s worth getting to know, and definitely worth trying if you don’t get on with ZA.

01/08/07

 

Recycle with Freecycle

With so much attention focussed on recycling and carbon footprints I think it’s worth reminding you of a web service called Freecycle. Basically the idea is you give stuff away you no longer need to people who want it. Rather than throw unwanted items away, to clutter up landfill, or mess around with on-line auctions, simply let people in your area know that you have an old fridge, bed, sofa, piano or whatever, and it’s free to anyone who wants to come and pick it up. All it takes is a quick signup to your local group, and you are ready to go. As a subscriber you can also post a message on Freecycle for things that you want, it’s a great way to get rid of your old junk, and maybe acquire some fresh ‘treasure’ and it won’t cost you a bean, or harm the planet.

18/07/07

 

Remove those Rogues

Have you ever been tempted to respond to a pop-up ad for free software that promises to rid your PC of malware? Well don’t! Most of it is rubbish or ‘scareware’ and it will almost certainly report lots of ‘false positives’, and then offer to get rid of the nasties, when you cough up for the full version of the program.

 

In you have been caught you may find it difficult to get rid of the program and it will bug you endlessly. If so try RogueRemover; it seeks out and eradicates these nasty pieces of work, and it won’t cost you a penny! By the way, if you have any doubts about malware cleaner programs you can check them out on the most excellent Spyware Warrior website.

06/07/07

 

Squaring Up Against Malware

As regular readers and visitors will know for the past few years I have been recommending all PC users regularly scan their PCs with malware cleaners like AdAware and SpyBot, and more recently Windows Defender. They are all free and can help to keep your computer free of the little nasties that generate pop-up ads and spy on your web surfing activities.

 

Well now there’s a new kid on the block, called A-Squared Free and like the old stalwarts it searches out and zaps infections, but you have the option to put anything it finds into ‘quarantine’ first, so you can check it out, just in case it is legitimate. It also scans the Registry for traces but it doesn’t offer real-time protection. It is first and foremost a removal tool so you should use it in conjunction with other cleaners or you can upgrade to the more advanced, paid-for, A-Squared Anti-Malware 3, which wil lset you back around £20.

27/06/07

 

Beware Wi-Fi HotSpot Scammers

If you take your Wi-Fi enabled laptop with you on your travels then, like me, you are always on the lookout for a free Hotspot hook-up when hanging around at airports, hotels or cafes. If you do your homework and visit sites like free-hotspot.com. Before you go you should be able to find one. However, be on your guard if you are casually trawling for a free connection, you could be opening up your PC and its contents to a hacker.

 

Here’s how it works. A crook with a Wi-Fi laptop sets up shop by hanging around a legitimate hotspot. Their PC is logged on to the web and set up for Internet Connection Sharing. Along comes our weary traveller and the Wi-Fi monitor on their PC flags up the bogus connection as open and available. They think it is Christmas, click on it to log on and bingo, the two PCs are linked by an ‘ad hoc’ or peer-to-peer connection and the data on the victim’s laptop is exposed.

 

You can avoid it happening to you by firstly avoiding suspiciously free hotspots, and secondly by re-configuring Windows XP to only accept Infrastructure or Access Point connections. To do that right-click on the Wireless Connection icon in the System Tray (next to the clock) and select ‘View Available Networks’, now click ‘Change Advanced Settings and select the Wireless Networks tab then click the Advanced button and make sure that ‘Access Point (Infrastructure) Networks Only’ is checked.

14/02/07

 

Rooting Out Zombies

If you are a regular visitor to these pages you should know all about the current epidemic of zombification. For those of you that missed it, this is when a PC is hijacked and used with other PCs to spread Spam and viruses. Some experts reckon that as much as 80 percent of Spam could be coming from zombie PCs, working together in so-called ‘botnets’.

 

Some of these infections, which often hide in downloaded software called a ‘rootkit’, are extremely devious and may not show up on a routine anti-virus scan, so how can you tell if you have been infected? It’s not easy but if you know your way around Windows a built-in utility called Netstat can help, by displaying all of the attempts to use your PC’s network and Internet connections. To fire it up go to Run on the Start menu and type ‘cmd’ (without the quotes) and this opens a DOS-like window, at the flashing prompt type ‘netstat –an’ (again no quotes and the list of connections. It probably won’t mean much to you but check the list of ‘Foreign’ IP addresses, as this is where the rootkit infection will show its hand.

 

If you are not sure what to look for a free Microsoft utility called TCPView provides a slightly more informative insight into what’s going on and if you right-click on an item and select Properties it will tell you something about the ‘Process’ and what program it belongs to, and if you don’t recognise the name try Googling it.

28/01/07

 

Create Virtual Encrypted Drive

It’s gradually sinking in that we are all going to have to take computer security a lot more seriously. Many of us now use our PCs to store huge amounts of personal information, bank and credit card details and things we want to remain private. Firewalls and security software helps keep out hackers and other types of intrusion, but what would happen if someone stole your PC or laptop?

 

CryptoExpert 2007 Lite keeps your data secure. It creates a virtual drive (or drives) on your PC, which works just like a regular drive and anything you store in it is automatically encrypted. If you want to open the file then you need to enter a password.

06/12/06

 

AVG Anti-Spyware

As regular readers will know I’m a big fan of the freebie Spybot and AdAware malware cleaners and have been recommending them since they first appeared. Windows Defender (nee Giant AntiSpyware) from Microsoft, also free, does a good job and it’s going to be bundled with Vista. Well, to cut a long story short after a couple of weeks of intensive testing I’m adding another cleaner to the list and this one comes from our old friends at Grisoft, who are behind one of the best free anti-virus programs AVG Free. It’s called, appropriately enough AVG Anti-Spyware. It does a bang-up job and if I tell you that it picked up no less than 35 infected files, including one rather nasty Trojan, on a PC that had just been scanned by another well-known cleaner (no names, no pack-drill), then you can understand why I’m so impressed with it.   

22/11/06

 

Is your PC Spying on You?

Do you know what Windows or the programs on are downloading or uploading right now? Hopefully it’s all quite innocent, an update or a patch or some sort, though maybe your PC is passing on information you would rather remain private but whatever it is doing wouldn’t it be nice to have been asked before it made use of your Internet connection?

 

XP-AntiSpy is a little freeware utility that lets you decide what things Windows can download in the background.  It’s easy to configure and you can choose to switch off a range of function, including some that may consider ‘suspicious’ or just plain nosey, like a facility that lets websites identify your PC, you can disable error reporting, hide your PC on a network and much more besides. All of the options are the sort of thing you could do yourself, if you had the time and inclination to poke around the Windows Registry and all changes are easily undone.

03/11/06

 

Save your Secrets

We’ve all got secrets but one of the worst places to keep them is on your computer. Anyone with access to your PC can get at the files it contains, even if you’ve set up password protection there are readily available ways and means to open, extract and read files without booting Windows, so what can you do?

 

If you have to keep sensitive information on your PC the only sure way to protect it is to encrypt it. Windows XP Pro has got built-in file encryption but that doesn’t help XP Home users. Here’s something that will, it’s a freeware utility called Cryptainer LE. After installation it creates a secure container or ‘vault’ for your files on the hard drive and any files that are dragged and dropped or copied into it are encrypted, using a strong 128-but key. True, there are even more powerful systems out there -- check out Cryptainer PE with 448-bit encryption -- but it’s certainly good enough to defeat all but the most well equipped spooks with supercomputers from breaking into your files

26/10/06

 

Rooting Out the Nasties

You may not have heard of Rootkits yet, but you will. A Rootkit is a set of tools, for creating a stealthy wrapper, for concealing malware. The trouble is anti-virus programs and malware cleaners have trouble detecting Rootkits, which means your PC could be infected by trojans, keyloggers, sniffers and heaven knows what else. They’re fairly new and so far the threat appears to be relatively low, and they’re not very good at propagating but they are becoming more sophisticated so now would be a good time to start keeping an eye on your PC. Sophos, the anti-virus people have come up with a freeware Rootkit detector, called appropriately enough Anti-Rootkit and you should download and run it as soon as possible, to see what’s lurking on your system. If it finds anything suspicious it will tell you what it is, where it is hiding and if possible, remove it for you. 

29/09/06

 

Protecting Firefox Passwords

The Firefox Password Manager is a useful facility and it makes logging onto protected websites a doddle but it is not very secure. Anyone using your PC can access your websites and see all of your saved passwords without let or hindrance. To protect your security you should set a password for the Password Manager and you, (and anyone else using your PC) will be asked to enter the Master password at the first attempt to log on to a password protected website. To set it up open Firefox then go to Tools > Options and select the Privacy tab. Click Set Master Password and enter your new password and a bargraph ‘Quality Meter’ shows how secure it is likely to be, depending on length and complexity.

04/09/06

 

Free Storage, Leave That Laptop At Home

The next time you go flying you might want to think twice about taking your laptop with you, following the events of the past few weeks. If a terrorist alert licks off while you are waiting to check in there’s a good chance you laptop and all of your electronic goodies will end up going into the hold, with no guarantee you’ll see it again at the other end.

 

Loosing a laptop could be a major problem, especially if it contains a lot of personal, sensitive or irreplaceable data, and it may not be covered by your travel insurance if it’s lost of damaged, so leave it behind.

 

If you need a laptop you can hire one at your destination; take any data or files you’ll need on a flash drive or CD, or better still, upload it to the web and then you can get at it on a borrowed or rented PC, or in an Internet café. It needn’t cost you a bean, either. There’s 25Gb of free online storage at Streamload, no hidden fees, no credit card details, just sign up for an account and you can send files up to 25Mb and download up to 1Gb of data a month.

30/08/06

 

Lock Your PC with the Matrix

There are various secure and very sensible ways to lock your PC when you are away from your desk but here’s one for fans of The Matrix. This small system tray application, called Matrix Screen Locker is freeware and it does precisely that stopping unauthorised use of your computer and at the same time displaying the familiar screen-full of tumbling green characters. Stare at it long enough and you really will believe you’re seeing things… Control of your PC in the ‘real world’ is only possible when you enter the correct password, and no young Neo, it can’t be defeated by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del

14/07/07

 

SECRET TEXT IN PICTURE FILES

Terrorists and shady characters please look away because I am about to reveal a way of concealing documents inside digital photographs. It’s a technique known as Steganography. The idea is as old as the hills; secret messages have been tucked away inside familiar objects for centuries and this modern twist hides text in JPEG files. It’s a good way of hiding passwords and PIN numbers on your PC or you could use it if you’re travelling, to send a personal or private message in an email picture attachment.

 

All you need is a little freeware utility called JP Hide And Seek (JPHS) and the clever bit is the image doesn’t look any different and the file size is virtually unchanged. The hidden message is also encrypted and password protected so the chances of anyone finding it let along reading it is virtually zero.

06/07/06

 

PUT YOUR ANTISPYWARE TO THE TEST

How well is your security software protecting you? Usually the only time you’ll find out is when it detects an attack, or afterwards, when something has got through. A group of researchers called Intelguardians decided to put anti spyware tools to the test by designing a series of small and benign programs that attempt to probe a PCs defences. Each of the 20 or Spycar checks has to be carried out manually, by downloading a small file and clicking OK, at which point the program tries to install a Registry key, a piece of code, or change a setting. At the end of the tests you download a utility called TowTruck, which displays the score and resets any changes that may have been made. It’s difficult to say how meaningful the results are and how they relate to real-world situations, but a couple of programs we’ve been using for a while failed miserably so f nothing else it has prompted us to carry out a security review.

27/06/06

 

FLASH PROTECTION

We’re all using USB flash drives these days, and very handy they are too, for transferring data from one PC to another. But the next time you plug your drive into someone else’s PC just ask yourself, how clean is it? The ease with which you can move data around also makes it easy for viruses and malware to hitch a ride on your flash drive and back into your PC. The first thing you should find out when copying data onto your drive is whether or not the PC you are connecting to has anti-virus protection, you will be surprised how many don’t. One solution is to carry some protection with you, the freeware anti-virus scanner AntiVir can be run from a flash drive and it only takes up around 30Mb of space, which is nothing in these days of 1 and 2Gb drives. Select the Customise option during installation to load the program onto your flash drive, and you can run it from the Avcentre.exe file; to set up an immediate scan simply set one up from the Schedule tab and if there’s an Internet Connection available make sure you download the latest updates.

 

TRAVELS WITH MY DIGICAM

A couple of years ago, whilst on an overseas trip a digital camera containing scores of irreplaceable images was stolen from my hotel room. Now I’m slightly paranoid about losing another one and I make sure it’s safely locked up when I’m not carrying it, with the memory card stored separately from the camera, but my biggest fear is the safety of the images. They only exist on the camera’s memory card, so now at the end of every day I download new pictures to my laptop’s hard drive, and make a second copy on a USB flash drive, which I keep with me on a key ring. On my most recent trip I also uploaded several images to my personal web space and sent some prints to friends using TruPrint’s on-line digital printing service. They were delivered within 48 hours -- well before my return -- and at 10 pence each (plus 99 pence postage) were a good deal faster and only marginally dearer than sending postcards.

 

 

GET READY FOR THE 2038 BUG

Here's a quick heads-up for a potentially nasty little computer bug that could ruin your day on January 19th 2038… This one will only affect computers based on the Unix operating system, which includes some versions of Linux, and Windows 2000 machines running exotic applications may also be affected. The bug is similar to the notorious Y2K bug in that vulnerable computers will register the time and date incorrectly when the bug strikes. It’s all to do with the way Unix computers work out time. Instead of relying on an in built calendar they count seconds from the notional date the system was conceived, at GMT 00:00:00, on Thursday, January 1st, 1970, and like a car’s odometer going round the clock, on bug day it will run out of digits and the counter will roll over and probably reset to January 1st 1901 or another equally invalid date.

 

 

HOW SAFE IS YOUR WI-FI NETWORK?

One way to find out is to switch off your router and launch your Wi-Fi configuration utility. This should have signal strength or ‘Site Manager’ options that will display all of the wireless networks and devices in your immediate vicinity. If any show up bear in mind that if you can pick up their signals, they can pick up yours…

 

In the early days Wi-Fi security wasn’t such a big issue and the chances of your network being hacked into, even if you hadn’t enabled WEP encryption, was fairly small, but now the world and his wife has got Wi-Fi and there is a good chance that one or more of your neighbours has installed a system, which could be a problem, for you and for them.

 

Your Wi-Fi monitor should tell you if your neighbour’s systems are encrypted or not; if you find one that it is open then you should alert them immediately. You can usually tell how close they are to you from the signal strength reading.

 

Even though you have enabled the strongest WEP encryption your system supports (and you have switched it on, haven’t you…). Be aware that WEP is not infallible and it is worth changing the key every few months. I am sure that your neighbours are decent, honest people, nevertheless do not enable file sharing on any more folders than are strictly necessary, never share a whole drive and pop along to My Network Places in Windows Explorer every so often, to make sure that all of the PCs listed as being present on your network are known to you.  

 

 

PROTECT YOUR PC

It’s all very well setting up accounts and passwords on your computer but as you may know there are ways and means to hack into files and folders once Windows is up and running. If you are concerned about the security of your PC, particularly if you are using a laptop, then you should enable the PIN or password facility in your PC’s BIOS program. Once set this will prevent the machine from booting up by any means, including boot discs and USB devices. To switch on BIOS security you will need to enter the setup program that starts immediately after switch on. On most machines you’ll see a fleeting message that says something like ‘To enter Setup press Delete’ or a combination of keys, otherwise consult the manual. Once the BIOS opens the security options menu is usually clearly displayed. If you use it take good care of your PIN as BIOS security can be extremely tough to crack!

 

 

PASSWORD OR PASSPHRASE

How safe are your passwords? Most of us do precisely the wrong thing and use familiar and easily remembered words and names that a hacker, or someone who knows you could probably guess. It’s also a mistake to use any word that appears in an English or foreign dictionary because there are lots of 'brute force' password cracking programs that simply plough through hundreds of thousands of common names and words in the hope they'll get lucky.

 

The ideal password should consist of a random mixture of numbers and characters, upper and lower case -- the more the better -- and changed regularly, but how on earth are you supposed to remember something like ‘K9xp5G49au9’? The answer is you can't, but there’s an easily memorised alternative and that’s a 'Passphrase', a simple three or four word combination -- preferably meaningless -- that can’t be easily guessed, or cracked. Something like ‘cat ties knot’ would be very difficult for a hacker or software to crack, and the spaces between the words make it even more impenetrable, but you should avoid well known phrases or sayings, like 'To be or not to be’.

 

 

SPYWARE BEWARE

There are now a staggeringly large number of free and paid-for adware and spyware clean-up tools and websites. Some of them are promoted through pop-up windows on web pages that suggest your PC may be at risk by displaying ‘hidden’ information about your computer that the web site has apparently managed to extract. In most cases these are scams, intended to scare you and the details shown are quite routinely made available by your browser (type of browser, PC operating system etc.) and do not represent any threat to your PC’s security. Some commercial programs do work well, and we’ve included a couple of them this week, but most should be avoided. At best they don’t work as well as Spybot or AdAware (see last week’s Boot Camp) but a significant number of them generate false reports and some of them deliberately infect your PC with spyware and adware, or worse, so beware! If you are concerned that you might have visited a dodgy site or downloaded a suspicious program then check them against a list of rogue products and suspect antispyware sites at: www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

 

 

SCAM REPORTS

In an ideal world there would be a mechanism for putting an end to scam emails but since most of those responsible operate overseas and use anonymous email addresses they are beyond the reach of the UK authorities. Email blocking and spam filtering software can help to reduce the flow but in the end only way it will stop is when people stop responding to them.

 

Various UK organisations keep a close watch on Internet fraud and if you are a victim or the target of a scammer then you can make a report to the SD6 Economic and Specialist Crime OCU (Organised Crime Unit). Its telephone number and email address can be found on the Metropolitan Police Fraud Alert website at: www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/index.htm. Other useful sources of information include the National Hitech Crime Unit:

www.nhtcu.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=12347, Home Office Internet Crime department: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/internetcrime/ and the Internet Watch Foundation: www.iwf.org.uk/

 

 

ROGUE DIALLERS

Premium Rate diallers work by forcing the PC to dial up expensive premium rate lines. The good news is that they do not work on broadband connections, however, if you have recently switched from dial-up to broadband you should disconnect the phone cable from your PC’s modem. If you have a dial-up connection you should constantly monitor your PC to make sure that it doesn’t log onto the Internet without your say so, and you should ask BT or your phone provider to put a block on premium rate numbers.

 

 

INSTALL A FIREWALL

If you are new to broadband then you must upgrade the security of your computer as the ‘always-on’ connection greatly increases the risks of virus infection and hacking. A good quality virus scanner is absolutely essential and you should install a firewall program that monitors all incoming and outgoing connections. The firewall included in Windows XP is not adequate as it only checks incoming connections and wouldn’t prevent a Trojan or spyware program hijacking your files and sending data from your PC. (An upgrade of the XP firewall is planned for later this year).

 

 

SPOOF TESTER

There’s a quick and easy to use spoof ‘tester’ at: www.secunia.com/internet_explorer_address_bar_spoofing_test/

You will probably find that Internet Explorer fails the test miserably and at the time of writing Microsoft had yet to release a patch. There several third-party fixes floating around the Internet but at least one of them contains adware components. My preferred solution is to change to a spoof-proof browser, like Avant Browser. It is freeware and has many useful extras, including a built-in pop-up stopper and tabbed windows; it can be downloaded from: www.avantbrowser.com/

 

 

POWER CUT PROTECTION

Considering the cost of a PC and the value of the data most of them contain it is a false economy not to install an Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS between your mains socket and the computer. They are not expensive, prices start at around £30 but the wrong type can be almost as bad as having no protection at all. UPS devices are normally rated by capacity, stated in volt-amperes or ‘VA’. Heavy duty models, for network servers and systems may be rated at upwards of 2000VA but for a single desktop PC and monitor a UPS rated between 300 to 500VA will normally be able to provide between 10 and 15 minutes worth of power. Many recent UPS have software that in the event of power cut will automatically save all of your data to disc before shutting the PC down.

 

 

HIDE FILES

Sometimes you might want to make certain files on your computer inaccessible, especially if you share your PC with others. There are plenty of password protection and encryption programs available for download, but sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. One easy way to protect a sensitive file is to rename it, and bury it deep inside Windows, or another unrelated application. Simply open Windows Explorer, right-click on the file and give it a new name with a fictitious three-letter extension – your initials perhaps -- then drag and drop it into a folder. Make sure you remember where you put it and check that you’re not using a genuine file type with the extension search engine at:  http://extsearch.com/

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All information on this web site is provided as-is without warranty of any kind. Neither PCTOPTIPS nor its employees nor contributors are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from your choosing to use any of the information contained herein.