It's no longer enough for antivirus software to scan files on your PC. You need someone looking over your shoulder and telling you whether it's safe to click that link; whether the popup for that software update is legitimate; and whether that download from your favorite social network is actually a tool created by organized criminals for stealing your personal information. You need an all-in-one Internet security suite capable of identifying, blocking, and cleaning up after a wide array of malware.

We examined 13 security suites for this story. To handle our expanded Internet security testing, PCWorld contracted for the services of AV-Test.org, a respected security testing company. We looked at traditional signature-based de­­tection (which indicates how well products can block known malware) and at how well the suites cleaned infections and blocked brand-new, live malware attacks.

In many respects, the suites we looked at produced closely bunched results, but they did vary in the efficacy of their protection and in the extra features they offered. Ultimately, we picked Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2011--the most balanced of the suites--as our overall winner.

New Threats for a New Year

Malware has migrated to social networks, so this year's Internet security suites put more emphasis on stopping Web-based attacks. Norton Internet Security 2011, for example, has Norton Safe Web, a feature that hooks into your Facebook stream (with your permission) to scan your Facebook links and proactively block malicious ones. Other suites this year look for techniques that cyber-criminals use in attempts to poison SEO (search en­­gine optimization), loading up on popular search keywords to make malware-compromised sites appear higher in search results. A suite may flag any such sites in search results as unsafe or questionable.

Another threat is the resurgence of banking-related malware. Though some suites protect against certain types of banking-specific malware--Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 offers a virtual, on-screen keyboard that lets you bypass traditional keyloggers, and in our tests, Panda, followed by G-Data, offered the best detection rates for known banking-specific malware-- no suite targets the relatively new "man-in-the-browser" attacks, in which the malware doesn't activate until you have successfully logged into your bank account.

Practically all suites offer some method to prevent malware from downloading through your browser without your consent. For example, a Website might pop up a fraudulent warning that your PC is infected and that you must buy a particular (but fake) antivirus program to remove it. Or it might trick you into downloading Trojan horses disguised as the latest version of Adobe Reader or Flash. Most security suites now monitor browser downloads and filter out this bogus software.

In the past two months, fake anti-virus scareware has morphed into variants pretending to be generic security products, disk utilities and the trusty defrag tool, according to researchers.

Recently, researchers at GFI Software have noticed an increase in the number of fake security software scams purporting to be disk utilities that fix disk errors. Instead of listing Trojans, these security alerts pretends to find disk fragmentation or file system integrity problems.

“Fake AV authors have added a new branch to their rogueware business,” Desai said. He expects to see more variants of both fake anti-virus and utilities in the coming months.

The rogue products initially looked like a generic security product, addressing a range of system issues with names like HDDDDiagnostic, PCoptomizer and Privacy Corrector, according to GFI. Since then, there’ve been a series of “defragger clones” with names like UltraDefragger and ScanDisk that claim to find read/write errors on the hard disk drive, according to the blog.

The fake disk defrag and scanning utilities started showing up in mid-October, according to Deepen Desai, senior researcher from SonicWALL’s threats team. He noted that new variants are often “A/V resistant” because legitimate security products may not be able to immediately identify the files as fake. Rand Abrams, director of technical education at ESET said these variants are “not yet as popular as they will become.”

Scareware refers to software that displays legitimate looking pop-up windows and dialog boxes claiming serious problems with the user’s computer. Often posing as anti-virus or anti-spyware software, the messages list several malware infections and scare the user into purchasing anti-virus software immediately to fix the problem. Some known variants mimic Microsoft Security Essentials or McAfee, while others have real-sounding names such as Security Tools or Pest Detector.

Fake utilities are generally marketed differently from fake A/V, said Larsen. The potential victim is generally already searching for a disk utility or trying to resolve an issue when the scammer says, “’Here’s what you were searching for,’ and hand them a malware payload instead,” said Larsen.

Users should be wary of any error messages coming from software they didn’t install, and should not purchase or install any software that suggests downgrading the Web browser to an older version, according to GFI Software’s researchers.

There are even some variants that detect legitimate anti-virus software and prompt users to uninstall it, according to Sophos researcher Chester Wisniewski.

Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, will be unveiling its latest line of corporate online security product at next week's GITEX Exhibition in Dubai, from the 17th until the 21st October 2010.
Kaspersky Lab will introduce its line of corporate solutions. Many visitors will get the chance to meet with Kaspersky Lab's leading experts in anti-threat intelligence, research and innovation fields.
Tarek Kuzbari, Managing Director, Kaspersky Lab Middle East said: "GITEX is a key event that we look forward to every year, during which we showcase our latest technologies, meet with potential customers and recruit more channel partners.
"In a world where day to day communications are immersed in texts and tweets, GITEX provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with the key stakeholders of the IT industry and beneficially exchange ideas with all participants. We are glad to announce we have a delegation of senior executives coming from our headquarters in Russia to share with us their expertise and insights on the ICT businesses," continued Tarek Kuzbari.

End Infected Processes

Step 1

Press "Ctrl" + "Alt" + "Delete."

Step 2

Click on the "Task Manager."

Step 3

Click on the "Processes" tab.

Step 4

Right click on "Antimalware Doctor.exe," and select "End Process."

Delete Infected Registry Values

Step 1

Click on the "Start" menu.

Step 2

Click on "Run."

Step 3

Type "regedit" (without the quotation marks) and click "OK." The Registry Editor will open.

Step 4

Locate the following registry values in the left pane of the Registry Editor and delete them. To delete a registry value, right click on it and select "Delete."

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Antimalware Doctor Inc\Antimalware Doctor"
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Antimalware Doctor"
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Antimalware Doctor.exe"

Delete Infected Files

Step 1

Click on the "Start" menu.

Step 2

Click on "Search Files and Folders."

Step 3

Search for and delete the following files. To delete a file, right click on it and select "Delete."

"enemies-names.txt"
"Antimalware Doctor.exe"

Lavasoft has just announced the release of new versions for its award-winning, Ad-Aware suite. Several modifications are to be mentioned as the company no longer treads the previous path.
Ad-Aware protection bunch comes in three different flavors, with the freebie leading the way, closely followed by the two paid editions. This time around, the freebie includes full antivirus protection: “Here at Lavasoft, it’s part of our founding principle that all computer users must have the power to protect themselves online. By continuing to offer the Ad-Aware Free version and now adding anti-virus protection, we are ensuring that our users throughout the world have a one-stop product that delivers core malware protection: anti-spyware, anti-virus and anti-rootkit,” says Johnny Widerlund, Senior Technologies Director at Lavasoft.
The Plus version has been replaced by a different suite, Ad-Aware Total Security, a complete set of tools bent on offering your system not just the best security against malware.
For increased protection against malware, Lavasoft select GData as their technology partner for Ad-Aware Total Security. Thus, the tool relies on two antivirus engines, which can work in tandem or separately. Among highlights of the bundle are easy-to-configure personal firewall, rootkit removal system, anti-spam protection, webmail protection, as well as protection against phishing attacks. Ad-Aware Total Security includes special features including parental control, backup and system tuning functions.
Ad-Aware Total Security also offers a comfortable file shredder designed to securely remove your data, in a manner that prevents its recovery. A simple drag and drop of the item on the file shredder desktop icon is enough to get rid of it.
The prices set by Lavasoft for the two products are $29.95 for a one-year single user subscription for Ad-Aware Pro, while Ad-Aware Total Security sells for $49.95. The difference between the two is pretty steep, the Ad-Aware Total Security representing a new turn in Lavasoft’s security products.

Facebook is undoubtedly one among the most popular social networking services in the world. Millions of people around the world use Facebook to connect to their friends, family and also to make new friends. But, knowingly or unknowingly users give out a lot of information about themselves on Facebook. Protecting your personal information on social networking sites is extremely important, as it is not only a matter of privacy but also an important step in preventing identity theft.

Facebook has been experiencing a lot of issues regarding the privacy and security of it’s users. However, a lot of changes have been made to the privacy controls thereby making it easy for the users to control every information they share with the world.

Facebook’s Privacy Options:
In order to protect your Facebook account it is necessary you change these settings.
1. On your Facebook homepage, click on Account (at the top-right) and select Privacy Settings from the drop-down menu.
2. The Privacy Settings page will open. Here you can customize the information you share on Facebook. If you do not know what settings to use, it is better you select the Recommended mode.
3. If you are using the Custom mode, it is important you know what information should be shared and what not. To use custom settings, click on Custom mode on the left and then select Customize settings.

Windows 7 based computer is undoubtedly most powerful operating system for today. It is really a massive improvement over Windows Vista. But with this powerful operating system become prone to start running sluggishly, developing errors and so much more. This is the major problem which even the most advanced computer system cannot escape. To fix this issue you should have a program tool that can resolve Windows 7 slow issues.

You should know that there is a section in all Windows based computer called registry. This part is the one of the most common culprits to start running slower. The reason behind this is that the registry is prone to develop corrupt files, missing files and receives a virus. Most of the programs are now available online which are specially designed to repair the registry file of Windows PC and make your PC much faster and optimized.

Some other reasons are also become the cause of your slow Windows7 such as virus, too much unused files etc. After repairing Windows 7 the speed of your system may increase. But this is not a fix solution of your problem. In order to resolve such issue from the root you need software that can speed up your system without performing any bulky task.

PC speed Maximizer is one of the best options to speed up Windows 7. This software allows you to optimize your PC in easy steps. It is specially designed to maximize the PC speed. It uses some powerful application to perform its automatic task.

Features:
1. It automatically optimizes your registry settings to prevent crashes and speed up your computer.
2. It removes privacy and temporary files to protect your privacy.
3. It automatically delete junk file to free disk space and improve performance.
4. Removes unnecessary programs from starting with windows to increase the speed of starting windows and free up memory and improve performance.