If you think that you’re the only user on your computer and nobody is watching what you’re doing on the PC or what kind of websites you visit, you may be wrong because there is a possibility that your Internet Service Provider or the government is monitoring your online activities. More and more users are aware of the privacy risk and are willing to spend a little bit of money in subscribing to a VPN service to protect their privacy by encrypting the Internet connection.

Once you’re on a VPN connection, all your incoming and outgoing data is encrypted and routed to the VPN server. This effectively prevents your ISP or the government from monitoring your online activities. Unfortunately nothing is perfect because there is always the possibility of a leak that will reveal your real IP address. Let’s say you’re downloading sensitive material through BitTorrent and you think that you’re safe because you’re connected to a VPN. When your VPN connection suddenly disconnects, you are instantly routed back to your normal connection and your BitTorrent client will automatically resume downloading through your direct Internet connection.

This is why some people still receive DMCA infringement notices from their ISP even though they are connected to a VPN. There are some VPN service providers like LiquidVPN that solve the problem by implementing a kill switch feature known as Liquid Lock whereby all connections are automatically blocked when it detects a disconnection. Another well known method is by terminating the selected application when the VPN disconnects. If you’ve already subscribed to a VPN service that doesn’t come with a kill switch feature, here are 5 ways to implement one yourself to prevent the potential IP leak without messing with confusing firewall configurations.
(more…)

Kaspersky is well known for their antivirus and internet security software which effectively protects the computer from cyber threats such as malware in real time. It is not unusual for Kaspersky to be rated as one of the best if not the best by independent antivirus testing groups such as AV-TEST, Dennis Technology Labs and Virus Bulletin’s VB100. As good as it is, unfortunately Kaspersky does not offer a free version of their antivirus software unlike AVG, Avast and Avira for personal and non-commercial use.

They do however offer a free on-demand scanner called Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, also known as AVPTool that can scan system memory, hidden startup objects, disk boot sectors, email, and hard drives for malware. Since it is an on-demand scanner, it does not automatically protect your computer in real time but you can use it to run a full scan whenever you want without fearing that it will conflict with a different antivirus software that is installed in Windows.

The only annoyance that we find in Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is it does not come with an auto updater to download the latest virus definitions which means you are advised to download the new installer at 137MB in size whenever you want to run a scan with the latest signature database. An updated installer with the latest virus definitions is created every 2 hours.

In this article we’ll show you how to manually perform an incremental update for the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool virus definitions to prevent redownloading the huge installer, saving both time and bandwidth.
(more…)

Security experts consider keylogging as the most dangerous threat because it allows cyber criminals to capture everything you type on your keyboard. This includes passwords so that they can gain access to your online accounts such as your email, banking, forums, websites and etc to steal valuable information. If keystroke logging is not damaging enough, your webcam, screen, clipboard and microphone can also be secretly captured and logged without your knowledge.

There are a couple of different methods to protect yourself against keyloggers. First you can use an on-screen virtual keyboard where your mouse will be used to select the keys when entering your password instead of typing it from the physical keyboard that is logged. A good antivirus can also recognize some of the known and unknown keyloggers through virus definition or heuristic analysis. Finally, a dedicated anti keylogging tool that constantly monitors the behavior of running applications and notifies you if it detects any potential keylogging activity.

In this article we’ll be putting 3 anti keylogging programs named Zemana AntiLogger, SpyShelter Premium and DataGuard AntiKeylogger to the test with real keylogging tools that are popular and widely being used to determine the effectiveness of each program.
(more…)

There are many different types of computer malware and the ones that use rootkit technologies are the worst because they are hardest to detect and remove. Rootkit technology is able to hide its presence from the most basic tools built into Windows such as Task Manager, to your most trusted firewall or antivirus software and you won’t even know that it’s there. This is achieved through installing and loading kernel-mode drivers which can allow the malware to run with higher privileges.

Although 64-bit Windows operating systems are generally safe from rootkit infection because by default the operating system only accepts signed driver files, there were previous cases where legitimate digital certificates were stolen by hackers and used to sign rootkit drivers to bypass security software and Windows defenses. Antivirus software was not much of a help either because the Stuxnet worm successfully stayed infected on the computers for years before it was discovered by VirusBlokAda, the developer of VBA32 antivirus software.

Since antivirus software are far from being perfect in catching rootkits, we’ve put 15 dedicated anti-rootkit tools to the test and see if they are able to detect the 3 different keyloggers (All In One Keylogger, Invisible KeyLogger Stealth, Elite Keylogger) that uses rootkit technology which we have installed on our test system.
(more…)

Antivirus companies require a lot of manpower, time and resources for their software to keep up with the latest malware created by the bad guys who are always trying to be a step ahead. This is why a large proportion of antivirus software packages are subscription based that require an annual renewal payment in order to continue downloading the latest definition and engine updates. Fortunately there are quite a number of reputable and popular antivirus companies such as AVG, Avast, Avira, Ad-Aware, ZoneAlarm etc, that offers a freeware version of their antivirus software for computer users to install and protect their computer from malware.

Although the free antivirus products are absolutely free to use, most of the time there is a catch where you will most likely find some features that provide additional protection being disabled. Other than that, the word “free” does not necessarily mean without limitations or restrictions. If you read the long and boring End User License Agreement (EULA) that is displayed during installation which most of us ignore and blindly click on the Agree button to continue the installation, it contains very important information to where you can install and use their free antivirus software. Most of the time a free antivirus is intended only for non-commercial, personal home use while academic institutions, business, commercial, corporate or government use is prohibited. You or your company can be heavily fined if it’s discovered you’re breaking the license agreement.

For your convenience, we’ve reviewed all of the free antivirus license agreements and compiled a list of those that can be used without restrictions. The URL to the official agreement and screenshot is also included as a proof to this research.
(more…)

A rescue CD is an additional tool provided by most antivirus companies to assist in removing difficult-to-remove malware without booting in to Windows. This is especially useful when the computer is so badly infected that Windows couldn’t be booted up, or is crawling really slowly and you can hardly run any diagnostic tools inside Windows to investigate and clean the virus.

A huge advantage in using a rescue CD compared to the antivirus installed on your computer is the chances of a successful removal is much higher because the malware is inactive since Windows is not even loaded in the first place. Unlike when a virus is active on the system, it can be very resilient and block any security tools from being run, making it really difficult even for experienced users to delete it from the system.

Rescue CD’s mostly come as an ISO image file that can be written to a compact disc (CD) or installed to USB flash drive which is then used to boot up the computer to run the live operating system in memory. Most of the rescue CD’s provided by the antivirus companies are free while there are a few that are exclusively available only to their paid customers. Here is an extensive list of 26 available rescue CD’s that can be downloaded and used for free.
(more…)

New malware is being created and released into the wild everyday, and it’s a fact that your antivirus software does not protect you 100% from everything. Sometimes it may take a few days for the antivirus analysts to get hold of the sample which will then be added to the latest virus definition. Within this time frame of unknowingly being infected by a new computer virus, probably all your sensitive information such as passwords, are already being stolen through a keylogger and the damage has been done.

A keylogger is a common feature found in most Remote Access Trojans (RAT). When either the offline or online keylogger mode is activated, anything that you type on the keyboard will be recorded and logged to a file or transferred instantly to the controller. The purpose of a keylogger is to steal the login credentials or probably to know who the user is talking to on the Internet. Whatever the reasons are, keylogging is an invasion of privacy and is against the law in some countries.

When an antivirus fails to detect the threat, a very effective extra layer of defense to keep your sensitive information safe is through keystroke encryption. Basically a keystroke encryption software works in a very deep level of the Windows operating system kernel to prevent the keyloggers from logging the real keystrokes, either completely blocking them or sending garbage text. Currently there are 4 pieces of keystroke encryption software available today. We’ve tested them against 13 different keyloggers and compared the features offered by these applications.
(more…)

There are a lot of reasons why WordPress is one of the most used content management system (CMS) today. It is easy to install and maintain, very user friendly and contains a lot of free themes and plugins which can be installed with a few clicks of a mouse button. However, it is also prone to being hacked if your website is running an outdated version of WordPress or plugin. About a year ago, a vulnerability has been found in the popular TimThumb PHP script that is widely being used to automatically resize images. The hackers gained access to many websites running WordPress with TimThumb and infecting all PHP files with eval(base64_decode code to redirect every visitors that comes from search engine to websites of their choice.

You can easily clean up the malicious gzinflate/eval(base64_decode codes from all PHP files by using this cleaner script to gain back the traffic from search engine but unfortunately using the script alone is not enough. You may notice that your website gets hacked again and again even if you’ve updated to the latest version of TimThumb because the hacker has already planted a few backdoors. The only way to prevent your website from being constantly hacked is to locate the backdoor and remove it from your server.
(more…)

Whether you’ve had a computer for years or only a matter of days, it’s probably a good bet you have heard terms like malware, virus, trojan, keylogger, worm, rogueware, fake antivirus, rootkit, ransomware, adware, spyware or dialer. Most users will wonder what the differences between all these different words are as the word virus is often used as a generic term to cover all types of malicious activity on a computer.

Basically malware is short for Malicious Software and all of the terms above fall into this category because they are all malicious. The different terms being used instead of just plain virus are to categorize what the malicious software is capable of doing. For example, a keylogger is designed to record whatever keys you press on your keyboard and then send that information to a remote location. A trojan on the other hand, allows a hacker to steal information or gain full access to your computer.

Using the the word “virus” to include all types of malicious software is not very accurate, and “malware” is a more suitable term, a virus is after all just one type of malicious software. Thankfully most paid or free antivirus software looks for many different types of malware, not just viruses.
(more…)

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that has been gaining popularity lately and it is actually similar to kidnapping if put into real life cases. When a ransom is paid, the victim may (or may not) be released. Hackers have extended this idea to computers, basically creating malware that takes control of your computer by restricting you from using it, or it can also restrict you from accessing your important files such as documents and photos.

Locking up computers and asking for ransom is ineffective because it is easy to fix. Anyone who knows how to use a rescue disk to boot up the computer can easily remove the malicious file from Windows startup. It didn’t take long for the hackers to realize this and they’re now using a more effective approach which is taking your important file such as photos and documents hostage by encrypting them with really strong encryption that is virtually unbreakable.

Breaking an encryption algorithm is not something that a computer technician or engineer is capable of, so the probability of getting back your files by sending it to a computer shop is close to zero. If you do not have a backup of the files encrypted by the ransomware and the shadow volume copies have been deleted, here we have a few resources to search for the possibility of decrypting the encrypted locked files without paying the ransom.
(more…)

There’s no doubt that Free Antivirus software is incredibly popular these days, with many of the top rated ones being downloaded millions of times every year. The problem for the the antivirus companies that offer free products is the software package gets larger all the time to include new features that help to keep computers secure from the latest threats. In addition to the setup installer, the virus definitions you need to download are growing all the time as well to include all the known threats.

With the increasing bandwidth larger setup files and definitions are consuming, it’s perhaps understandable that some companies have resorted to offering a small “Web Installer” when you download the software. This either downloads the full setup file when you run it, or fully installs the software by downloading the required components in the background. The bandwidth an antivirus company needs to supply is reduced because every user downloads a small file and not the full 50-300MB unless they’re actually installing it.

If you’re a tech minded person or the computer you want to install the antivirus on currently has a limited or no internet connection, then the small file is of little use. Most free antivirus software that downloads as a web installer still has the full setup file on the website, but it’s usually away from the main download page in support pages or forums. Here we have some solutions for getting the full setup installer packages for the software in our Comprehensive List of Free AntiVirus that currently offers a web installer as the main download.
(more…)

Protecting your main email account is very important. Some of the effective methods to protect your email password is by using keystroke encryption software, a virtual keyboard, autofill browser extensions etc, but we still have to be prepared for the worst which is what if a hacker manage to get hold of your password? The answer is to use a two-factor authentication, also known as 2-step verification.

Recently you’ll find a lot of popular major online services such as Google, Facebook, Dropbox, LastPass, and Microsoft that allow you to set up two-step verification for your account. You can either setup your phone to receive SMS or voice call or install an authenticator app on your smartphone that generates a security code. On the surface, the above method seems safe but is actually ineffective against modern threats such as phishing and mobile malware that can intercept SMS messages.

A device that is safer to be used as a 2nd factor authentication would be YubiKey. Basically YubiKey is a small yet water and crush-resistant device that doesn’t require drivers or batteries to work. All you need to do is insert the YubiKey into a USB port and touching the sensor will automatically perform the 2nd step authentication.
(more…)

Browser cookies are probably the most important pieces of history data stored on the computer that can be used to keep a user logged on to a website, remember your flash video player volume setting, items added to shopping cart, and even to the extent of tracking the user’s web browsing habits. That is how sometimes you find a website showing an advertisement that is related to what you’ve just searched on the Internet.

Fortunately every web browser is capable of clearing the history browsing data which includes the visited websites, download history, form data, cache and cookies by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Delete keys. However, some websites use the more advanced tracking technique which is flash cookies that cannot be removed by clearing your web browser’s history data. Apart from that, flash cookies have the potential of storing an enormous amount of tracking information due to the default size limit of 100KB per website compared to only 4KB for HTTP cookies.

If you’re concerned about your Internet privacy and don’t want your online behavior to be tracked, we’ll show you a few different methods to clear your flash cookies and also how to permanently block flash cookies from being downloaded and stored into your computer.
(more…)

Any person who has started using a computer since Windows 95 would have at least heard of an antivirus software called PC-cillin. It was one of the very few pieces of antivirus software available for the Windows computer because back then there weren’t many computer viruses and the available ones weren’t that advanced if compared to the current malware that uses rootkit technology to stay undetected.

PC-cillin is now known as Trend Micro and just like any other antivirus company, they too offer several different paid subscription products such as basic antivirus, Internet security with firewall, and maximum/premium security with additional privacy protection, mobile device protection, and even system optimization modules.

The current 2016 version of Trend Micro Antivirus is at version 10 and it is known as Trend Micro Antivirus+ 10. If you haven’t noticed, their product title no longer carries the word “Titanium”. As far as we know, Trend Micro started adding the word “Titanium” to their product names when their cloud-based global threat intelligence was integrated into the software and advertised as a fully cloud based antivirus without relying on offline virus patterns.
(more…)