Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – February 23, 2012

The Best Free Antivirus for 2012 – Even if your budget doesn’t include any money for antivirus protection, you’ve got plenty of good choices for free antivirus.

Five apps to wipe data from your Android phone – If your phone gets lost or stolen — or if you decide to return or recycle it — you need to wipe it clean of your private data.

5 Free Android Security Apps: Keep Your Smartphone Safe – Whether or not Android’s openness makes it an easy target for malware writers, these apps can help protect your handset.

Lifehacker: Everyone’s Trying to Track What You Do on the Web: Here’s How to Stop Them – It’s no secret that there’s big money to be made in violating your privacy. Companies will pay big bucks to learn more about you, and service providers on the web are eager to get their hands on as much information about you as possible. So what do you do? How do you keep your information out of everyone else’s hands? Here’s a guide to surfing the web while keeping your privacy intact.

Google’s New Privacy Policy: How to Stay Off the Grid – The Electronic Frontier Foundation is recommending that privacy conscious users delete their Google Web history before the search giant’s new unified privacy policy kicks in. Google Web history is Google’s online log of all your search activity, and some browsing history.

Trojan hijacks often-used DLL file for stealthier approach – Instead of adding itself to the Startup list – a move that is obvious both to AV solutions and savvy users – it takes a library file (comres.dll) commonly used by a number of popular browsers, communication apps and networking tools, copies it and changes it so that every time it is called the malware springs to life and, finally, saves it in the Windows directory folder.

Indian govt to ask Yahoo, Google to route emails through servers in India – Web mail service providers such as Google, Yahoo, and others will be asked to route all emails accessed in India through servers located in the country – even if the mail accounts that receive and send them were registered outside it, reports The Times of India.

YouPorn passwords available for download, thousands of users exposed – Want a free password for one of the world’s most popular adult websites? YouPorn, one of the world’s most popular porn video websites appears to have been caught with its pants down.

New Zeus/SpyEye makes bots function as C&C servers – According to Symantec researchers, a previous build already moved towards replacing the bot-to-C&C system with peer-to-peer capabilities so that the bots receive configuration files from other bots, and this new one has finalized the transition.

Alleged fraudster has until next week to decrypt her hard drive for prosecutors – Prosecutors are keen to discover what is on the encrypted laptop of Ramona Fricosu, a Colorado woman accused of committing financial fraud. The case has raised interesting questions of whether you can be forced by law to hand over your password, or decrypt your computer.

Company News:

Nokia Prepping Low-Price Windows Phones: Report – While Nokia decided last year to use Microsoft’s Windows Phone as its primary smartphone operating system, the Finnish phone maker apparently isn’t ready to wholly abandon its old software platform, Symbian.

Juniper Networks acquires Mykonos Software – Juniper Networks has acquired Mykonos Software, a provider of Intrusion Deception Systems that protect websites and web applications. Under the terms of the agreement, Juniper acquired Mykonos Software for a cash purchase price of approximately $80 million.

OnForce Teams with Apple to Offer Small Business IT Support – Through novel partnership with Apple, OnForce retools its service model to shepherd small business customers through their IT configurations.

Barnes & Noble Targets Kindle Fire With 8GB Nook Tablet – Barnes & Noble on Tuesday unveiled an 8GB version of its Nook Tablet for $199 and dropped the price of its Nook Color e-reader to $169.

Webopedia Daily:

PayPal SMS Security Key – A service that enables PayPal customers to use their mobile phones to authenticate transactions through a service that lets customers use SMS messaging to get a randomly generated access code to log into their accounts. The PayPal SMS Security Key is an extension of PayPal’s current Security Key service, which uses a hardware token. However, unlike the current service, which charges customers $5 for the token, the new service is free. Customers will have to pay their carriers’ charges for SMS services.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Re-think everything for mobile or you’re toast – Mobile devices are about to dwarf computers and the mobile web will have to take off the training wheels. Is your company ready?

Google Working on HUD Glasses for 2012 Debut – Citing several anonymous Google employees, the Times said the glasses would debut by the end of 2012 and cost between $250-$600. They’ll reportedly be Android-based and include a small screen that would stream content via either a 3G or 4G connection right before the user’s eyes. The eyewear would also feature GPS and motion sensors.

Star Trek inspires tech, careers, and hope for humanity – By mixing science with lessons of hope for a humanitarian future, Star Trek continues to inspire technological innovations, career choices, and good deeds.

Today’s Quote:

“Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one’s own opinion.”

–     Ambrose Bierce

Today’s Free Downloads:

TweetDeck – TweetDeck is now available in a Web-based version that runs on Apple’s Safari or Google’s Chrome browser and a desktop counterpart. The versions sync nicely, so that the information you enter when using the Web version appears when you log into the desktop version, and vice versa.

Sobees Desktop – This slick-looking application offers an easy way to manage Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. Still in beta, this “social media manager” still has some kinks to work out, but shows plenty of potential.