Is Awesome Screenshot Browser Add-on, Really Awesome?

So, is Awesome Screenshot, a screen capture add-on for Firefox 4.0 (which I recently installed), Chrome, and Safari really awesome? If you’re an active Blogger and you have a need to capture web graphics, or you’re the type of web enthusiast who likes to share unique content, then I think you’ll agree that it just might be.

Using Awesome Screenshot by activating its Browser toolbar push button icon

(which launches the add-on’s toolbar), you can capture a visible part, a selected part, or an entire web page. You then have the option to annotate the screen capture with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and even text.

Sample Capture

Saving the image to your Hard Drive, or sharing – by uploading the image to the Pict image hosting site, is a snap. In the following illustration, I’ve uploaded the sample capture to http://awesomescreenshot.com/0879qyp64, which, when clicked, (try it), opens the following.

This neat add-on doesn’t stop there though. You can share your capture on Twitter, Facebook, or Google Buzz – and even email it with Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail.

Fast facts:

Capture

• Capture visible part
• Capture any region
• Capture the whole page
• Crop any portion and show crop dimension

Annotate

• Annotate it with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and text
• Erase the sensitive information with blur tool

Share

• One-click Upload the screenshot to awesomescreenshot.com
  and get a sharable link
• Hard to guess URL to allow private sharing
• Share the link to Twitter, Facebook, email etc.

To see  Awesome Screenshot in action, watch this YouTube video.

Compatible with: Firefox 4.0, Chrome, Safari.

Download at: Mozilla, or the developer’s site.

Note: No restart required for Firefox 4.0 add-on.

Just a quick word on Firefox 4.0, which I’ve been running for a few weeks.

Contrary to most of the hype I’ve been reading regarding Firefox 4.0 which attempts to reposition Firefox 4.0 as the “reinvention” of the Browser, it’s simple not so.

Yes, there are major differences under the hood in this latest version, some of which you may find valuable, but in terms of productivity increases, I doubt if an average user will notice. For example, I have a very high end Video Card which Firefox 4.0 is designed to take advantage of – I have yet to see any improvement in performance based on this.

The following type of pseudo scientific testing is misleading, and really just twists reality out of shape – “performance tests on the Kraken, SunSpider and V8 benchmarks, for example, Firefox 4 blew away previous versions of the browser, with performance results between three and six times better.” The test results may be accurate, but unless you can count in milliseconds, I doubt if you’ll notice any appreciable increase in speed.

Nevertheless, if you’re a Firefox user, you do need to upgrade for security reasons. But don’t expect that you’ll be walking into a new and exciting Browser world.

With all the new releases, upgrades, and what have you in the Browser market in the last few weeks, and the accompany trumpeting of “were the best”, “we’re the fastest”, “we’ve got the best technology”, ad nauseam – it very much reminded me of children bragging in the school yard.

It would be helpful for average users if certain tech journalists, and the product developers, stopped trying to “sell” browsers as if they were used cars, it seems to me.

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Replace Gmail’s Ads With Rapportive – A Free Social Network Tool

If you use Gmail, then you know that it can be difficult to ignore the mass of Ads which Google salts into your Inbox pane. I hear from many Gmail users that they find these Ads both annoying, and distracting. On the other hand, it’s fair to say, that there are those who find the Ads provide useful links and products.

There are a number of ways to stop these Ads from running, if you find them annoying. If you’re a Firefox user install the WebMail Ad Blocker add-on. Or, if you’re a Chrome user install the Chrome extension – Hide Gmail Ads. Instead of the Ads, you will be left with white space.

Rather than simply letting the white space sit there uselessly, you can put it to work. Rapportive, a Browser plugin which is compatible with Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, replaces Google’s Ads with available information on the sender and the email address, which can include – who they are, where they’re located, what they do, and any additional information which is available from social network sites.

It wouldn’t be reasonable (given privacy considerations), to show Rapportive at work using a contact as an example, so I’ve used a test email to myself to illustrate.

While Rapportive may not be for everyone, for socially active users I see it as a worthwhile “keep in touch” tool, since it keys in on social networks. At a personal level, since I receive quite a number of emails from technology companies every day, I’ve found the information Rapportive provides, very helpful.

I now have much more information regarding the company, and company contact person, than I had access to previously, which allows contact on a more personal level – always a good thing in business.

Operating Systems: Windows XP, Vista, Win 7.

Requirements: Gmail account; Firefox, Safari, Mailplane, Chrome.

Download at: Rapportive

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LastPass Password Manager – Secure Your Passwords and User Names

Popular guest writer, Glenn Taggart, tells you why he made the move from free KeyPass, to free LastPass, to protect his usernames/passwords, while online.

I finally got fed up with trying to remember all of my darned passwords for the various websites I visit. I think I’m somewhere around 30 different usernames and passwords.

Being a freak about security, I don’t have the same password, or username, for anything. Also, my passwords are long and not the type that I can remember since they all have letters, numeric, and various characters in them. My philosophy on passwords is – if you are gonna try to crack me, you’re gonna spend some time doing it.

I still recommend you encrypt your financial usernames/passwords (if they aren’t the type you can’t remember), and keep them local, as opposed to online in the cloud. For the non financial usernames/passwords, I highly recommend you use LastPass.

LastPass is a great local and cloud application that can sync your usernames/passwords from computer to computer. You load in the information and LastPass will autofill both your username and password.

All you have to do is set up one username and one password to access LastPass. LastPass is encrypted, so it would be pretty difficult for someone to access your information without your username and password.

I use three computers on a regular basis – Laptop, home desktop, work desktop. With LastPass, all of my usernames and passwords are a click away.

I know many of you use KeyPass. I have been trialing both programs, and have decided LastPass is my favorite.

LastPass integrates well with all browser platforms and is free to use!

Fast facts:

Automatically log into your websites.

Fill complex website forms with a single click.

Share logins and confidential data with friends.

Seamlessly synchronize your data across multiple computers.

Generate secure random passwords.

Login using an on-screen keyboard.

Create One Time Passwords to use when traveling.

Watch the video on LastPass Basic Instructions: Provides basic introductory instructions on how to use LastPass.

System requirements: Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Server 2008, Win 7.

Download at: LastPass.com

Guest Writer: This is a guest post by Glenn Taggart of The Crazy World of G, one of the hardest working people I know, who brings a background as a high level super user, to the Blogging world.

Drop by Glenn’s freeware page.

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AntiTroy Fake Antivirus – PandaLabs Takes a Look

Courtesy of Panda Security: This week’s PandaLabs report looks at a new fake antivirus and two Trojans.

Removal help for AntiTroy fake antivirus, follows later in this article.

AntiTroy is a new fake antivirus. This type of malware passes itself off as legitimate security applications in order to steal users’ money, by tricking them into believing that they will eliminate threats – that in reality do not exist.

As soon as AntiTroy is installed, a warning is displayed, indicating the
computer is in danger. It then simulates a system scan reporting a series of infections to scare users into buying the fake  antivirus solution.

When the scan ends, AntiTroy displays a window offering a solution which requires activating the fake antivirus. However, to activate the product, users must pay a fee to the supposed anti-malware vendor.

After this, users receive a code they must enter in the program. Once they do this, the malicious code stops displaying warnings about threats. This aims to
make users believe they have actually bought an antivirus product, whereas, in reality no infection has been removed and users are no more protected than they were before.

Apart from paying for a non-existing solution, the bank details entered could be stolen by cyber-crooks.

Banbra.GMH is a banker Trojan. It is usually inserted in an email that claims to contain photos of a party.

On downloading, the supposed photo, a file called “convite.zip” is downloaded, which contains an executable with the same name.

When run, it simulates an error claiming the program to view the photo must be closed, and it then stops running. Before doing so however, it releases another executable and a DLL.

This second executable will be started in each user session and will register the DLL as an Internet Explorer plug-in, creating two files from which it collects  bank details entered by the user in the browser, to be sent to cyber-crooks later on.

Finally, Kates.D is a Trojan that modifies the Windows settings. It blocks access to websites, redirecting users to another site and monitors network traffic. Additionally, it searches for and ends processes related to antiviruses and computer security programs.

Kates.D is difficult to recognize, as it does not display any messages, or warnings, that indicate it has infected the computer.

More information about these and other malicious codes is available in the Panda Security Encyclopedia. You can also follow Panda Security’s online activity on its Twitter and PandaLabs blog.

AntiTroy Removal Instructions:

If you feel you have the necessary skills, and you want to try your hand at removal, then by all means do so.

The following free resources can provide tools and the advice you will need to attempt removal.

411 Spyware – a site that specializes in malware removal. I highly recommend this site.

Bleeping Computer – a web site where help is available for many computer related problems, including the removal of rogue software. This is another site I highly recommend.

Malwarebytes, a very reliable anti-malware company, offers a free version of Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, a highly rated anti-malware application which is capable of removing many newer rogue applications.

SmitFraudFix, available for download at Geekstogo is a free tool that is continuously updated to assist victims of rogue security applications.

What you can do to reduce the chances of infecting your system with rogue, or malicious, software.

Be careful in downloading freeware or shareware programs. Spyware is occasionally concealed in these programs. Download this type of program only through reputable web sites such as Download.com, or sites that you know to be safe.

Consider carefully the inherent risks attached to peer-to-peer (P2P), or file sharing applications.

Install an Internet Browser add-on that provides protection against questionable or unsafe websites. My personal favorite is Web of Trust, an Internet Explorer/FireFox add-on, that offers substantial protection against questionable or unsafe websites.

Do not click on unsolicited invitations to download software of any kind.

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Get Cooliris – You Don’t know What You’re Missing

If you don’t have Cooliris installed on your computer, you could be missing out on the best of what the web has to offer.

Web 2.0 has given us new and exciting ways to utilize the and interact with the Internet. I have to admit, when I stop to consider the benefits of Web 2.0, and the applications that got us here, one of the first applications that comes to mind is Cooliris.

Sure, we have Twitter and FaceBook, but in my view, these are just two of the social utilities that have been overhyped to the max, and which continue to be, along with many other social networking applications, natural gateways for cybercriminals.

Cooliris, on the other hand, is a wonderfully fluid and superbly crafted free add-on for Safari, FireFox, and Internet Explorer, which allows me to interact with the Internet in ways I never considered possible on a web browser.

What the developers have to say:

“It’s simply the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop. Effortlessly scroll an infinite “3D Wall” of your content without having to click page to page, whether you’re on Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Kodak Gallery, or any supported site. Or channel surf the latest news, TV episodes, movies, and music videos – all from within Cooliris”.

Expand your own Internet horizons, download and install Cooliris, and while you’re at it, if you’re a FireFox user, download Cooliris Previews (almost 9,000,000 downloads to date). You’ll be glad you did.

Fast facts:

Search

It’s the fastest way to search Google Image Search, YouTube, Flickr, Hulu, online retailers, and other sites. Zip through search results on the 3D Wall with our search function. Switch engines effortlessly without having to re-enter the search term.

Works with hundreds of sites

Cooliris is built around the industry standard Media RSS format, and works on hundreds of sites across the Web.

Slideshows

Double clicking an image or pressing the toggle button brings you to full screen slideshow mode. There, you can play, pause, fast forward, and rewind at will.

Channels: News & Entertainment

Hulu, ESPN, BBC, SonyBMG, MSN, and more …Catch the latest news, sports, and entertainment. Even enjoy full-length movies and TV episodes.

Preferences

Customize the look and feel of Cooliris – modify the number of rows, background image, wall angle, slideshow speed and more!

Local File Support

Quickly find and view photos stored on your computer. Enjoy images from your Hard Drive, Desktop, iPhoto, and more.

Sharing

Share stuff with friends by dragging and dropping content from the 3D Wall. You can share as many items as you’d like, and even add a personal message.

3D Window Shopping

Window shop some of the world’s largest retailers by comparing products visually on the Cooliris 3D Wall. Highlight an item to learn the price or click the shopping cart icon to jump to the corresponding product page of the retailer.

Jump to Page

A picture tells a thousands words, but sometimes you just want to see the detailed story behind it all. Cooliris makes that easy. A click of a button lets you toggle between Cooliris and the corresponding web page of any item.

System Requirements: Windows XP, Vista, OSX: Mac OS X: 10.5-10.6.x (operates in 32-bit browser mode), Linux: Ubuntu 8.04+, Fedora 10.0+, OpenSuse 11+

Download at: Cooliris

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Cooliris – A Cool to the Max Browser Add-on

If you don’t have Cooliris installed on your computer you’re missing out on the best of what the web has to offer.

Web 2.0 has given us new and exciting ways to utilize the and interact with the Internet. I have to admit, when I stop to consider the benefits of Web 2.0, and the applications that got us here, the first application that comes to my mind is Cooliris.

Not Twitter, and not FaceBook, which, in my view, are just two of the social utilities that have been overhyped to the max, and which continue to be, along with many other social networking applications, tremendous gateways for cybercriminals.

Cooliris, on the other hand is a wonderfully fluid and superbly crafted free add-on for Safari, FireFox, and Internet Explorer, which allows me to interact with the Internet in ways I never considered possible on a web browser.

The developers of this free Internet Browser add-on, as well as being the developers of Cooliris Previews, a tool I couldn’t function without, on the Web, are a very talented group of people with true insight into how to create and develop tools to expand our internet horizons.

Expand your own Internet horizons, download and install Cooliris, and while you’re at it, if you’re a FireFox user, download Cooliris Previews. You’ll be glad you did.

Fast facts: (from the Cooliris site)

Search

It’s the fastest way to search Google Image Search, YouTube, Flickr, Hulu, online retailers, and other sites. Zip through search results on the 3D Wall with our search function. Switch engines effortlessly without having to re-enter the search term.

Works with hundreds of sites

Cooliris is built around the industry standard Media RSS format, and works on hundreds of sites across the Web.

Slideshows

Double clicking an image or pressing the toggle button brings you to full screen slideshow mode. There, you can play, pause, fast forward, and rewind at will.

Channels: News & Entertainment

Hulu, ESPN, BBC, SonyBMG, MSN, and more …Catch the latest news, sports, and entertainment. Even enjoy full-length movies and TV episodes.*

Preferences

Customize the look and feel of Cooliris – modify the number of rows, background image, wall angle, slideshow speed and more!

Local File Support

Quickly find and view photos stored on your computer. Enjoy images from your Hard Drive, Desktop, iPhoto, and more.

Sharing

Share stuff with friends by dragging and dropping content from the 3D Wall. You can share as many items as you’d like, and even add a personal message.

3D Window Shopping

Window shop some of the world’s largest retailers by comparing products visually on the Cooliris 3D Wall. Highlight an item to learn the price or click the shopping cart icon to jump to the corresponding product page of the retailer.

Jump to Page

A picture tells a thousands words, but sometimes you just want to see the detailed story behind it all. Cooliris makes that easy. A click of a button lets you toggle between Cooliris and the corresponding web page of any item.

Favorites

Keep track of the best items in Cooliris by adding it to your own custom feed!

Maximize/Restore

Toggle between full screen and tabbed mode.

System Requirements: Cooliris currently supports FireFox (Windows XP/Vista and Mac), Internet Explorer, and Safari (Mac), iPhone

For a Cooliris video preview checkout YouTube

Download at: Cooliris

How to Protect Your Child on the Internet

There is little doubt that the Internet neighborhood can provide a rich educational and cultural experience for children of all ages and backgrounds.

But, would you drop your child off in a neighborhood where more than half of the buildings were adult stores, and was potentially full of predators? Well of course you wouldn’t.

If you let your child explore the Internet unsupervised, or without having communicated to your child information about potential on-line dangers, this is close to what you’re doing.

According to the FBI in the United States, the following are some of the most important positive actions, you as a parent can take, to enhance your child’s safety on the Internet.

Communicate, and talk to your child about potential on-line dangers.

Spend time with your children on-line. Have them teach you about their favorite on-line destinations.

Keep the computer in a common room in the house, not in your child’s bedroom.

Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider and/or blocking software.

Since computer-sex offenders are a very real danger on the Internet, the FBI suggests that you instruct your children to:

Never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on- line.

Never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or an on-line service to people they do not personally know.

Never give out identifying information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number.

Never download pictures from an unknown source; there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images.

Never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing.

An important aspect of ensuring that your child is safe while using the Internet, (recommended by the FBI and child safety experts/organizations), is the installation of parental control software. Parental controls will provide you with the advantage of being able to:

Block access to materials (text and pictures) identified as inappropriate for kids.

Permit access only to materials specifically approved as safe for kids.

Specify what types of materials are appropriate for your child.

Monitor your child’s activity on the Internet by storing names of sites and/or snapshots of material seen by your child on the computer for you to view later.

Set different restrictions for each family member.

Limit results of an Internet search to content appropriate for kids.

Enforce time limits set by parents.

A free solution, available as a download from the Internet is Parental Control Bar, a browser toolbar which works on the most popular Internet browsers.

Parental Control Bar is provided free of charge to the public by WRAAC.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free, effective internet control tools.

Parental Control Bar Features:

Child/Parent Mode

This status indicator makes it easy to tell if your computer is in Child-Mode or Parent-Mode. When in Child-Mode, control features are enabled and web sites are blocked based on your parental settings. When in Parent-Mode, control features are disabled and you, the parent, have unrestricted access to the Internet.

Parental Password

A single password makes it easy for you, the parent, to enable or disable Child-Mode. There is a hint to help you remember your password, or if you forget it completely have it sent to a parental email address.

Help Menu

Clicking this button opens the toolbar menu where parents can access tutorials, help menus or change your password.

Change Parental Settings

Clicking this button opens the parental settings menu where you can specify the types of content you wish to block your family from accessing in Child-Mode. You can also manage your personal list of ‘blocked’ and ‘child-safe’ sites from this menu.

Easily Block Adult Sites

The toolbar helps block a significant amount of adult-oriented websites. In addition, you may select specific sites to block by clicking this button. Once you have added a website to the ‘blocked sites’ list it is only accessible in Parent-Mode

Parental Alert

When the toolbar is in Child-Mode, this parental alert blocks your child from accessing adult-oriented websites (based on your parental settings).

Add Web Site to Safe List

Clicking this button adds the website you are currently visiting to the ’safe site’ list. Once a website is added to the ’safe site’ list it can be accessed from either Child-Mode or Parent-Mode (regardless of site label).

For parents looking for a cost-effective tool to help give their children controlled freedom on the Internet, Parental Control Bar is a safe way to go.

System requirements:

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Internet Explorer 5.5 and above

FireFox 1.5 and above

Safari 10.4 and above

Download at: WRAAC.org

For more information on Internet safety issues for parents and /children/teenagers, I encourage you to visit CNET. This site includes information on the following.

Developing safe and smart Internet citizens

Parents, tech outdo lawmakers on Internet safety

Parental controls that keep tabs on young Web surfers

User-generated videos challenge parental controls

Growing concerns over cyber bullying

Readers address online safety for kids

Cooliris Browser Add-on – Awesome Picture-in-a-Picture Web Surfing

Cooliris is a wonderfully fluid and superbly crafted free add-on for Safari, FireFox, and Internet Explorer, which will take you to places you never thought possible on a web browser.

If you want Picture-in-a-Picture browsing, with a cool free browser add-on that that gives you the power to preview links and rich media content without clicking the link, or leaving your current page, then Cooliris is for you.

(Click pic for larger)

With Cooliris, just place your mouse cursor over your link, or over the Cooliris icon, and a customizable preview window of the website that the link points to instantly appears with the content; page view, image view, or even video.

You can fully interact with the preview window; play the video, click on links, fill out forms, and more. In fact, you can interact with the preview just as if you had the full page open. Opening the full page is easy; just click the Cooliris full page icon and you’re there.

(Click pic for larger)

Using Cooliris is a great way to save time and reduce the drudgery involved in trying to determine which search results are worth investigating. Cooliris lets you take a quick look at each link to see if it’s worthwhile investigating further.

I use this add-on frequently as I build a web page, or when writing a Blog posting, to ensure that all included links are working. Cooliris definitely increases my productivity; what a time saver!

It’s no wonder Mozilla lists this neat little tool as a recommended FireFox add-on, and also includes it in its most popular list of browser add-ons.

Quick facts:

Preview web links, images, and videos without even clicking

View photos in full-screen mode

Drag, click, and zoom into a “3D Wall” interface

Search for web images

Play a slideshow of image search results and photo albums

Fly through 1000s of images in a split second

Instantly send links to friends and family with just a click.

Automatically search Google, Wikipedia, or virtually any searchable website by right-clicking on any phrase

Customize Cooliris to control preview window activation

iPhone compatible

(Click pic for larger)

Expand your own Internet horizons, download and install Cooliris. You’ll be glad you did.

System Requirements: Cooliris currently supports FireFox (Windows XP/Vista and Mac), Internet Explorer, and Safari (Mac).

For a Cooliris video preview checkout YouTube

Download at: Cooliris

Free Internet Child Protection – Parental Control Bar

There is little doubt that the Internet neighborhood can provide a rich educational and cultural experience for children of all ages and backgrounds.

But would you drop your child off in a neighborhood where more than half of the buildings were adult stores, and it was potentially full of predators? Well of course you wouldn’t.

But if you let your child explore the Internet unsupervised, or without having communicated to your child information concerning potential on-line dangers, this is close to what you’re doing.

According to the FBI in the United States, the following are some of the most important positive actions, you as a parent, can take to reduce your child’s possible victimization on the Internet.

• Communicate, and talk to your child about potential on-line dangers.
• Spend time with your children on-line. Have them teach you about their favorite on-line destinations.
• Keep the computer in a common room in the house, not in your child’s bedroom.
• Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider and/or blocking software.

Since computer-sex offenders are a very real danger on the Internet, the FBI suggests that you instruct your children to:

• Never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on- line.
• Never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or an on-line service to people they do not personally know.
• Never give out identifying information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number.
• Never download pictures from an unknown source; there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images.
• Never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing.

An important aspect of ensuring that your child is safe while using the Internet, (recommended by the FBI and child safety experts/organizations) is the installation of parental control software.

Parental controls will provide you with the advantage of being able to:

• Block access to materials (text and pictures) identified as inappropriate for kids.
• Permit access only to materials specifically approved as safe for kids.
• Specify what types of materials are appropriate for your child.
• Monitor your child’s activity on the Internet by storing names of sites and/or snapshots of material seen by your child on the computer for you to view later.
• Set different restrictions for each family member.
• Limit results of an Internet search to content appropriate for kids.
• Enforce time limits set by parents.

ParentalControl Bar, a browser toolbar, is a free solution available as a download on the Internet. ParentalControl Bar is provided free of charge to the public by WRAAC.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free, effective internet control tools.

ParentalControl Bar Features

Child/Parent Mode

This status indicator makes it easy to tell if your computer is in Child-Mode or Parent-Mode. When in Child-Mode, control features are enabled and web sites are blocked based on your parental settings. When in Parent-Mode, control features are disabled and you, the parent, have unrestricted access to the Internet.

Parental Password

A single password makes it easy for you, the parent, to enable or disable Child-Mode. There is a hint to help you remember your password, or if you forget it completely have it sent to a parental email address.

Help Menu

Clicking this button opens the toolbar menu where parents can access tutorials, help menus or change your password.

Change Parental Settings

Clicking this button opens the parental settings menu where you can specify the types of content you wish to block your family from accessing in Child-Mode. You can also manage your personal list of ‘blocked’ and ‘child-safe’ sites from this menu.

Easily Block Adult Sites

The toolbar helps block a significant amount of adult-oriented websites. In addition, you may select specific sites to block by clicking this button. Once you have added a website to the ‘blocked sites’ list it is only accessible in Parent-Mode

Parental Alert

When the toolbar is in Child-Mode, this parental alert blocks your child from accessing adult-oriented websites (based on your parental settings).

Add Web Site to Safe List

Clicking this button adds the website you are currently visiting to the ’safe site’ list. Once a website is added to the ’safe site’ list it can be accessed from either Child-Mode or Parent-Mode (regardless of site label).

For parents looking for a cost-effective tool to help give their children controlled freedom on the Internet, Parental Control Bar is a safe way to go.

System requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.5+, FireFox 1.5+, Safari 10.4+

Download at: WRAAC.org

For more information on Internet safety issues for parents and /children/teenagers, visit CNET. This site includes information on the following.

• Developing safe and smart Internet citizens
• Parents, tech outdo lawmakers on Internet safety
• Parental controls that keep tabs on young Web surfers
• User-generated videos challenge parental controls
• Growing concerns over cyber bullying
• Readers address online safety for kids

Free KeyScrambler Personal – Defeat Keyloggers While Surfing

Cyber-crooks are relentless in their pursuit of your money and let’s face it – it’s all about the money. In the worst case scenario, your identity and your financial security can be severely compromised.

Despite the best efforts of AntiSpyware, AntiVirus, and other Internet security products, you still face substantial risks while surfing the Internet. One type of risk/danger that is rarely considered, or discussed, is the Keylogger.

A Keylogger is a form of spyware, which once installed on a computer, can record every keystroke that is made on that computer, and transmit those keystrokes back to a cyber criminal. The function of a Keylogger is to steal passwords, bank account numbers, and other personal information.

A Keylogger in action: The to_my_love.scr (to my love screensaver), is currently circulating on the Internet by way of a personal invitation email. Clicking “yes” when your computer asks whether you want to install this screensaver, installs a Worm/Keylogger on the machine.

This Keylogger is capable of stealing IM passwords, email passwords, bank account numbers, and confidential/financial information. Using IM, email, and other contact information from the now infected computer, the Worm/Keylogger goes on to infect other machines. That’s right, the computers of friends, family, and perhaps even co-workers.

Protect yourself with KeyScrambler Personal: KeyScrambler Personal is a free plug-in for FireFox, Internet Explorer, and Flock web browsers which protects all input you type into the browser from Keyloggers. This free version of KeyScrambler encrypts your keystrokes at the kernel driver level.

When you type on your keyboard, the input travels along a path within the operating system before it arrives at your browser. Keyloggers plant themselves along this path and observe and record your keystrokes. The compromised information is then sent to the cyber criminal who will exploit your passwords, bank account numbers, and other personal information.

By encrypting your keystrokes at the keyboard driver level, deep within the operating system, a Keylogger is beaten since it can only record the encrypted keys which are indecipherable.

Unlike AntiVirus and AntiSpyware programs that depend on recognition to remove Keyloggers that they know about, KeyScrambler will protect you from both known and unknown Keyloggers.

Quick facts:

Protects user input in all parts of the browser against key-loggers.

Protects login credentials, credit card numbers, passwords, search terms and more

Works with IE, FireFox, and Flock: Java, Flash, PDF Forms

Email protection including Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail.

No learning curve.

Protects against Keyloggers even on security compromised computers

Requires no effort on your part after installation

In the top 5 FireFox Extensions for security and privacy

System Requirements: Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)

Download at: QFX Software

For full, free, system Keylogger protection checkout “Are You Being Tracked? – Get Snoop Free Privacy Shield” on this Blog.