Spyware Doctor Starter Edition – The Best Secondary Malware Tool

As I wrote recently, Spyware Terminator is my current application of choice for active real-time protection in the spyware wars that we, as computer users, are involved in any time we log onto the Internet.

Having tested virtually all of the major anti-spyware apps over the last year or more, I’ve settled, for now, on Spyware Terminator primarily due to this strong real-time protection against spyware, adware, Trojans, key-loggers, home page hijackers and other malware threats.

As we know however, there is no one anti-malware tool that is likely to identify and remove all of the millions of rogue malware that infest the cyber world. So to ensure maximum safety, it’s important to have layered defenses in the ongoing fight against malware.

An excellent choice, as a secondary line of defense, is Spyware Doctor Starter Edition from PC Tools. This free version of the award winning program, with its easy to employ interface, is used by millions of people worldwide to protect their computers; it’s reported there are a million+ additional downloads every week.

I have been able to establish through various forums and user groups, that the free version and the paid version have identical detection rates. However, the most important real-time protection functions are disabled in the free version.

File protection is the only real time protection that operates in the free version and unfortunately, this level of real-time protection is inadequate in the current Internet environment.

I would not recommend then, that you use this free version of Spyware Doctor as a stand alone security application since it simply will not offer you adequate protection. Instead, use it only as an on-demand scanner.

Despite this real-time protection shortcoming in the free version, Spyware Doctor has an excellent reputation as a first class security application, and I highly recommend that you add this free version to your security toolbox to be used as a secondary line of defense.

Quick Facts:

Spyware protection

Adware protection

Scan and Remove

Smart Updates

Limited OnGuard Protection Note: Be particularly aware of this limitation.

You can download the free Spyware Doctor Starter Edition via Google Pack, or better yet download this application at Download.com and save yourself some hassle.

System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Download at: Download.com

Free Windows Clipboard Extender – Great for Students, Bloggers/Writers

Ever wonder what utility you use the most on your computer? I started thinking about that question just last week, and I was surprised to find that the most used of all the utilities on my system is a clipboard extender; Yankee Clipper 3.

Writing a Blog article on a daily basis, which involves much editing, I need a Windows clipboard extender which gives me much more versatility than the standard Windows clipboard offers.

This neat little application handles Text, Rich Text, Pictures, and of real importance to me URL’s. A great feature is the ability to launch copied URL’s directly from within the program.

I prefer simple programs that are functional, easy to understand and use, and that don’t involve extreme learning curves; Yankee Clipper 3 with its Windows Outlook interface qualifies in every way.

This is a worthwhile program for students, and Bloggers, or in fact anyone who needs or wants to save time by collecting, managing, and reusing everything that was copied to the Windows Clipboard.

Features:

Saves 200 Text and RTF, 20 BMP and Metafiles, and 200 URL clipboard entries

Has the ability to save and re-use “boilerplate” clippings

Unlimited boilerplate collections can be created

URL aware- links copied to clipboard can be instantly launched

No size limits for clippings

Prints any text clipboard entry

Clippings can be dragged & dropped

Strips unwanted “quote” characters (“<“,

System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP

Languages: English; French; German; Italian

Download at: Intelexual.com

Free Belarc Advisor – Profile/Troubleshoot/Diagnose Your PC

In order to effectively maintain your computer and proactively deal with problems that may occur, it is essential that you have as much information about your system as possible.

If you need help from a computer support group, from a tech support line, or from a computer knowledgeable friend, you will need to provide specific and accurate details of your computer. Without these details, it can be very difficult for even the most knowledgeable computer tech to be time efficient.

So it is important for you to create a detailed profile of your computer system before problems occur, and retain a printed copy of the report. Generally, creating such a profile can be very time intensive. But all is not lost!

Belarc Advisor is a program that automatically generates a detailed report of the hardware and software on your computer. It records essential information such as, operating system and processor details, the amount of RAM installed, and drive specifications.

The report also includes a comprehensive list of the software installed on your system, as well as software license numbers and product keys. In addition, it lists the status of the Microsoft hotfixes on your system. If any hotfixes need reinstalling, you will be advised of this.

Critically important is the category in which your computer is given a security rating based on the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmark test which involves testing for: System Security Status, Virus Protection, and Microsoft Security Updates.

The results are displayed in a formatted HTML report. The report is clearly formatted for ease of understanding and divided into appropriate categories. Hyperlinks within the report allow you to quickly navigate to different parts of the document, find out more about a particular hotfix entry, or see where a listed software product is installed.

I have been using this program for 5+ years and find it invaluable for troubleshooting and diagnostics.

Belarc Advisor is free for personal use.

Operating Systems: Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me, 98, and 95.

Browser Requirements: Internet Explorer, Netscape Opera, Mozilla, and FireFox.

Download at: Download.com

Free Screen/Image Capture Tool – MWSnap

Are you tired of using the clunky Windows Alt-Printscreen command for capturing screen shots, but you don’t want to pay up to $40 to get more control over this function? Do you need more options and functionally when snapping screen shots?

Well the good news is you don’t have to pay a penny to download and install a great little application that will allow you to do more than just capture screen shots and that will give you the options and functionally you need.

MWSnap is an almost perfect freeware screen capture utility for windows.

Capture Functions:

A window or menu

Variable rectangular area

A fixed-size rectangle

An auto-extending list of fixed sizes – snapping images for icons/glyphs

Additional Features:

Image editing – basic image editing options

Saving files – auto-save or manual save

File formats – jpg, gif, png, and more

Multi-Lingual – English, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish

Graphical tools – zoom, ruler, color picker and a window spy

Fast picture viewer or converter

Clipboard copy/paste

Printing

Auto-saving, auto-printing

Auto-start with Windows

Minimizing to system tray

This application is an excellent choice for everyone from casual to experienced users. I find this program invaluable and I use it daily to create high-quality screen captures for presentations, documents and most particularly my Blogs.

MWSnap does not require installation and does not need any special drivers or system files.

MWSnap is freeware, but the author will gladly accepted donations.

System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP

Download at: Download.com

Hooked on the Internet? – One Shrink’s Opinion!

According to Dr. Jerald J. Block, M.D., in an editorial published on The American Journal of Psychiatry website, Internet addiction is an “increasingly commonplace compulsive-impulsive disorder” and should be included in psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental disorders, the DSM-V.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is an American psychiatric handbook that lists categories of mental disorders and the criteria for diagnosing them.

Despite its controversy in certain quarters, controversy in part caused by a perceived need to add new mental illnesses, it is used worldwide by clinicians and researchers as well as insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers.

So how do you determine if you qualify as an Internet addict? Well according to Dr. Block’s statistics, if you exhibit any of the following symptoms while online or offline; excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations or excessive email or text messaging, you meet at least one or more of the criteria needed to establish Internet addiction.

Hold on now, before you become concerned with your “excessive email or text messaging”, (I wonder who defines excessive and under what circumstances), apparently you also must exhibit the following:

Withdrawal – including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible. (I can see how some people might feel mildly depressed when their system goes down.)

Tolerance – including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use. (I qualify here, although not necessarily in terms of hours of use.)

Negative repercussions; including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue. (I might qualify here – there are days when I definitely get tired of looking at a computer screen.)

When I was reading this editorial, naturally I began to compare my normal daily email activity with that of my friends – I generally get up to 80 or more emails daily (excluding spam), and at least 35 or more frequently require a personal response. Is this excessive? Who says so? Should I be concerned that I might run the risk of becoming an Internet junkie?

I know I’m being facetious regarding my email, but there is a larger problem here.

My problem with this issue is not Dr Block’s research since he does go on to say that 86 per cent of “internet addicts” also have some other form of a mental disorder. I’m sure that mental illness is a complex and mystifying subject that includes a multitude of variables. My real problem is with those people who use, or more properly misuse, these types of studies to achieve their own ends.

There are always individuals/groups/organizations waiting in the wings ready to pounce with great gusto on established or emerging technologies. It seems that computers/connected devices will continue to be the target of modern day Luddites – a term used to describe those opposed, in some form, to technological progress and technological change.

It seems to me that we are, more and more motivated to become a guilt driven society with the result that we are often forced to second guess many aspects of our lives. On the other hand, there are those who will insist that Western civilization has historically always been guilt driven; perhaps those who hold this philosophy are right.

Interestingly in the footnotes to Dr Block’s article the following statement is appended: “Dr. Block owns a patent on technology that can be used to restrict computer access. Dr. Freedman (no identifying information), has reviewed this editorial and found no evidence of influence from this relationship”.

Cell Phone Fraud – Protect Yourself from Vishing

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. National White Collar Crime Center, Vishing attacks are on the increase.

Yes, you’ve heard of Phishing, but what’s this Vishing you ask?

The IC³ (Internet Crime Complaint Center) describes Vishing as an attempt to persuade consumers either by email, text message, or a telephone call, purportedly from their credit card/debit card company, to divulge their Personally Identifiable Information (PII), claiming their account was suspended, deactivated, or terminated.

In one scenario, recipients are asked to contact their bank by calling a telephone number provided in the e-mail, or alternatively, by an automated telephone recording. When the potential victim calls the telephone number, they’re greeted with “Welcome to the bank of …” and then requested to enter their card number in order to resolve a pending security issue.

In the email scam attempt, in order to persuade the recipient that it is not a scam, the fraudulent e-mail sets out all the caveats the potential victim should be aware of in dealing with this type of email. Who would consider that a scam artist would warn you that a bank would not contact customers to obtain their PII by e-mail, mail, and instant messenger?

To further convince the recipient of the validity of the email, it goes on to state that the recipients should not provide sensitive information when requested in an e-mail, and not to click on embedded links, claiming they could contain “malicious software aimed at capturing login credentials.”

Would this convince you that this email was genuine? It just might.

A new version of this scam recently reported to IC³ involves the sending of text messages to cell phones claiming the recipient’s on-line bank account has expired. The message instructs the recipient to renew their on-line bank account by using the link provided.

These types of attacks against financial institutions, and consumers, are occurring with such frequency that IC³ has called the situation “alarming”.

Minimum safety precautions you should take.

Consider every email, telephone call, or text message requesting your PII as a scam.

Never click on embedded email or cell phone links.

When contacting your bank; use a telephone number from your statement, a telephone book, or another independent source.

You can read more on this issue at the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Free Secunia Software Inspector – Confirm You’re Patched!

If you are a security conscious computer user you are, most likely, generally well armed when it comes to ensuring your system is not open to compromise, or exploitation, by malware in the wild.

It is probable you have protected your machine with an appropriate defense system including a firewall (either software or hardware), a sound and effective malware suite (including anti-virus and spyware), and an additional protection layer against zero-day threats with the installation of an application such as ThreatFire 3 developed by PC Tools.

You can relax and you can consider yourself relatively safe, or perhaps even invulnerable, right? Well, maybe not. Sure, most of use Microsoft’s Windows Update so that we are current with operating system critical updates, and security fixes. You can determine whether or not you are running the latest WUA by visiting Windows Update.

But, where many of us may still be vulnerable is in the lack of consideration we have given to the vulnerabilities that exist in our currently installed applications.

Some recent application vulnerabilities include, Mozilla FireFox, Apple iTunes, QuickTime, Skype internet phone, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.02, 6.03, Sun Java Run-Time, Macromedia Flash 7, WinZip 8.1, AOL Instant Messenger 5.5, Windows/MSN Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger 6.0, Bit Defender, and RealPlayer.

So, wouldn’t it be great if there was an application that could do the job of ensuring that all installed applications were either patched or up-to-date? Well, there is; and it’s free.

The Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) from Secunia constantly monitors your system for insecure software installations, notifies you when an insecure application is installed, and even provides you with detailed instructions for updating the application when available.

ZD Net, one of my favorite web sites has stated “Secunia Personal Software Inspector, quite possibly the most useful and important free application you can have running on your Windows machine”.

Installing this small free application will definitely assist you in identifying possible security leaks; give it a try.

Quick Facts:

The Secunia PSI is free for private use.

Allows you to secure your PC – Patch your applications – Be proactive

Scans for Insecure and End-of-Life applications

Tracks your patch-performance week by week

Direct and easy access to security patches.

Detects more than 300,000 unique application versions

Provides a detailed report of missing security related updates

Provides a tabbed report which indicates programs that are no longer supported – programs with all known patches – insecure programs, etc.

Provides a Toolbox offering a set of links which helps you assess a problem and how you can resolve it.

System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Download at: Download.com

Glary Utilities – Perfect Collection of Free System Tools!

Glary Utilities, a free all-in-one utility, is a terrific collection of system tools and utilities to fix, speed up, maintain and protect your PC. Personal experience with this application for the last 10 months has convinced me that a typical user can really benefit by having this application on their system.

With this free program you can tweak, repair, optimize and improve your system’s performance; and its ease of operation makes it ideal for less experienced users.

You can quickly find the tool you’re looking for: disk cleaner, uninstall manager, secure file deletion, memory optimizer, registry cleaner, duplicate file finder, tracks eraser, empty folder finder; a very convenient feature for those of us who like to test drive new software. Prior to making important changes to your system, Glary Utilities creates a backup copy first, a very important feature.

As well, you can manage and delete browser add-ons, analyze disk space usage and find, fix, or remove broken Windows shortcuts, and manage startup programs.

Key Facts:

Disk Cleaner Removes junk data from your disks and recovers disk space

Registry Cleaner scans and cleans your registry to improve your system’s performance

Shortcuts Fixer eliminates the errors in your start menu & desktop shortcuts

Startup Manager manages programs which run automatically on startup

Memory Optimizer monitors and optimizes free memory in the background

Tracks Eraser erases all traces, evidence, cookies, internet history and more

File Shredder erases files permanently

Internet Explorer Assistant manages Internet Explorer Add-ons

Disk Analysis provides detailed information files and folders

Duplicate Files Finder searches for space-wasting duplicate files

Empty Folders Finder removes empty folders (I love this feature)

Uninstall Manager completely uninstall programs

System Requirements: Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

Download at: Download.com

Evonsoft Computer Repair – Free, Simple, System Utility for Novices

System utilities that incorporate multiple functions such as a Registry Cleaner, Junk File Remover, Privacy Cleanup, and in some applications, even more functionality, can be intimidating to new computer users.

New users are very often unfamiliar with both the technology itself, and the technical terms involved in using this type of application.

While it’s true that more advanced users want/need much more control than a one click system utility provides, this type of utility can be the ideal solution for a new user.

Evonsoft Computer Repair is one such advanced system utility for Windows that allows the user to safely remove spyware, clean the registry, sweep for privacy issues, and clean junk files with a mouse click.

According to the developers, with 1 click, Evonsoft Computer Repair will scan your computer and provide a list of the errors found by the application. You will then have the choice of cleaning each item individually, or allow the application to repair the errors automatically.

In my own testing, I found that the application was extremely fast and that it worked as advertised. I did find however, that the lack of a clear explanation left me feeling slightly uncomfortable. I suspect that more advanced users might also feel the same way.

On the other hand, this lack of explanation might be the very feature that the new user will find most appealing about this application. Most new computer users, in my experience, don’t want to know the details; they just want the job done.

Quick Facts:

Scans and removes spyware and adware

Cleans your System and should boost performance

Repairs your PC and keeps it tuned

Very easy to use

Free – no adware, spyware, or viruses

System Requirements: 32-bit Windows Vista, XP, 2000, and 2003 Server.

Download at: Download.com

Free EncryptOnClick – Simple, Secure, File/Folder Encryption

Financial data and other privileged information on a computer can easily be subject to intrusive viewing by those not authorized to do so.

Not many of us, it seems, bothers to lock our computers while we’re temporarily away from the machine creating a perfect opportunity for others to peek at our most sensitive and confidential files.

Quick tip: Press the Windows Key + L which, in Windows XP or Windows Vista, will lock your computer by displaying the Profile screen. When you click on your icon and type your password, you again have access to the PC.

Of course, it is not only those with physical access that can probe a computer for sensitive and confidential information. Internet malware attack statistics show, more and more, that this type of information is targeted by hackers/information thieves, for the purpose of identity theft.

Can it happen to you? The short answer is – you can count on an attempt. The reality is; there is no such thing as a totally secured internet connected computer. All internet connected computers are subject to attack.

To reduce, or eliminate, the security threat of sensitive data exposure, the most prudent course of action is data encryption. Essentially, data encryption is a secure process for keeping your sensitive and confidential information private. It is a process by which bits of data are mathematically jumbled with a password-key. The Encryption process makes the data unreadable unless, or until decrypted.

EncryptOnClick is a free program that lets you securely encrypt and decrypt files. The program is very simple to use, and features military grade 256-bit AES encryption. After you have launched the application, simply select the target file/folder you want to encrypt. Following the easy interface, type a password for that file/folder which will then be encrypted. To open the encrypted file/folder at a later date, you must type the correct password.

Quick facts:

• A very secure encryption and decryption method is used (256-bit AES encryption).
• Files are both compressed & encrypted, which results in a smaller file.
• Password protected.
• Will encrypt single files or all files in a folder.
• Very simple to use interface.
• Can be used on a USB key.
• Fully Unicode enabled so filenames in any language can be encrypted.
• OnClick will encrypt, decrypt, compress, and uncompress files which can also be opened and decrypted using third party programs like WinZip 9 (provided the correct password is used).
• Will detect if you’re decrypting a file that is in a temporary folder, and if so will prompt you to see if you would like to decrypt it into a different folder.
• Command line parameters can be used.
• Complete help file.

Free technical support, online forums, knowledge base, and FAQs at 2BrightSparks

Tip: Use on a USB key by copying the files EncryptOnClick.exe, EncryptOnClick.exe manifest, ExceedZip.dll to a named folder on the USB key.

Tip: If you need more encryption power checkout the review and download link for TrueCrypt on this Blog.

System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Download at: Download.com