One Year Later: Must-Have Windows 7 Downloads – What an impressive first year the Windows 7 operating system enjoyed, receiving almost universal praise from critics and users alike. Of course, even the most nimble, secure, and versatile OS has room for improvement. That’s why we’re following up our popular Best Windows 7 Downloads with another collection of essential apps and utilities, all designed to help you make your 7-powered PC even better. And believe it or not, they’re all free.
Are Seven-Inch Tablets the New Sweet Spot for Tablet Buyers? – Acer and HP are set to swell the ranks of 7-inch tablets with new offerings. Compact versions may be the next tablet battleground.
How to Track Hurricane Irene – I had the good fortune to be on the out banks of North Carolina last weekend and not this one. Until I went, all I knew about Cape Hateras was that it regularly gets pounded by hurricanes. The weather was great last weekend, but as Irene bears down on it all I can hope is that the good folks I met down there have the good sense to get out. If you live on the east coast, you should check out all the ways to monitor the storm’s progress.
Microsoft Drops Stealthy Regenerating Supercookies from MSN – Researchers from Stanford and UC Berkeley recently publicized information about supercookies that continue tracking users even after the browser cookies have been deleted. Microsoft has removed the tracking cookie from MSN.com that could stealthily track users on the site even after the user deleted all cookies from the Web browser.
Illegal keygen for well-known AV solution leads to infection – An illegal key generator for the recently released latest version of the TrustPort Internet Security solution brings big trouble to unsuspecting users, warns BitDefender. Bundled with the keygen is a Trojan that injects itself into explorer.exe and adds a list of exceptions to the locally installed firewall, in order to finally deploy a backdoor on the targeted computer.
Essential Gmail and Google Apps keyboard shortcuts – Bill Detwiler helps you work faster and smarter in Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar with must-know keyboard shortcuts.
Bogus emails delivering scanned documents carry malware – Emails posing as scanned documents sent from a Xerox WorkCentre Pro photocopier are again being sent out by malware peddlers, warns Sophos.
Malware With Zeus Bank Fraud Features Discovered in the Wild – Shortly after the source code for the Zeus banking Trojan was leaked earlier this year, security researchers predicted malware developers would add Zeus features to existing malware to create complex and sophisticated variants. Researchers identified two such samples this week.
Company News:
RIM Announces Music Service for BlackBerry Messenger – RIM today announced BBM Music, a BlackBerry Messenger-based music service. According to RIM, BBM Music is a cloud-based music service that enables BlackBerry Messenger users to discover and share music through a community-based music library.
Microsoft updates free security tools – Microsoft enhanced three of its free Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) tools – Threat Modeling, MiniFuzz, and RegExFuzz.
HP offers free apps to TouchPad tablet owners – Hewlett-Packard created a small sensation with the fire sale of its TouchPad tablet. Now it’s adding to the appeal of a $100 tablet with an offer of free apps.
Cyber threat protection for enterprise networks – Damballa released Failsafe 4.2, an advance in detecting criminal command-and-control behavior in corporate networks. Failsafe pinpoints corporate assets under criminal control, terminates the criminal communications and provides all the evidence a security or incident response team needs to prioritize and organize their response.
Off Topic (Sort of):
Detect Fake Online Reviews by Knowing the Right Words to Look For – Sometimes there are more obvious tell-tale signs of fake online reviews, but product manufacturers are getting more creative. As the New York Times points out, you sometimes need to dig a little deeper into the actual language to detect an impostor.
When hackers become The Man – An older generation of hackers has grown, gotten good jobs, and started raising kids. What do they have to say to the new kids on the block?
Booktrack: Sound effects, mood music for e-books – Booktrack brings new meaning to the term “audio book.” There is no voice reading the text to you, but the iOS app adds ambient sounds, soundtrack music, and sound effects that are triggered by events in the text.
Keeping up with the hackers (chart) – The number of hacking events of late is making our heads spin at CNET. There have been scores of computer attacks, network intrusions, or data breaches over the last several months. And they seem to be a daily occurrence.
Today’s Quote:
“Almost everything: all external expectations, all pride all fear of embarrassment or failure. These things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”
– Steve Jobs
Today’s Free Downloads:
f.lux – This utility changes your monitor’s color temperature at night–and may help you help avoid insomnia.
Microsoft Security Essentials – Microsoft’s free utility fights viruses and other malware, and does a surprisingly good job of it.
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