Clean Up With Click&Clean Firefox and Chrome Extension

If there’s one thing regular readers here seem to agree on it’s – CCleaner is an awesome application. You can count me in the “awesome application” appreciation group. This free system cleaner is still my “go to” application for simple system cleanup.

CCleaner users know, that running this venerable utility can help keep a system clean by emptying the Recycle Bin, Temporary Setup Files, Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Old Chkdsk Files, Temporary Files, Temporary Offline Files, Offline Files, and more.

Generally, I would run CCleaner once a day – if I could remember to do so. I’ve now discovered a “no need to remember” way to launch CCleaner automatically, whenever I close my Browsers – either Firefox, or Chrome.

Click&Clean is a free Firefox and Chrome extension which not only does a major cleanup job on Browser activity in its own right (see fast facts), but the application can be set to launch CCleaner automatically (for a deeper and more secure cleaning), on Browser shut down. Additional external applications (rather than CCleaner), which can be set to run automatically include – Wise Disk Cleaner Free, Computer Janitor, and BleachBit.

Setup is simple and straightforward. From within the options menu, you can choose which external application you wish to run.

For convenience, you can add an extension icon to the Browser’s navigation Toolbar, as illustrated below.

Fast facts:

Delete your browsing history
Clear records from your download history
Remove cookies and Empty cache
Delete temporary files
Remove Flash Local Shared Objects (LSO)
Delete private data when Firefox closes
Automatically close all windows/tabs
Clean up your hard drives and Free up more disk space – including secure file deletion
Launch external applications, like CCleaner, Wise Disk Cleaner etc. on Windows – or Janitor, BleachBit, etc. on Linux

System requirements: Windows XP, Vista, Win 7, Linux, Mac

Download the Firefox version at: Mozilla

Download the Chrome version at: The Chrome Web store

The Chrome version has several additional features not available in the Firefox version.

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WordPress: This is your 2,407th post. Woohoo!

And, You’re Surprised You Got Screwed On Facebook?

It’s a holiday weekend here in Canada, and in honor of Queen Victoria’s birthday, I’m taking the sun, drinking some beer, and ogling the passing scenery. All of that hard work has drained me of the energy I need to write a fresh article.   

So, given the circumstance, you’ll allow me (I’m sure), to take the easy way out and repost an article (through the magic of connected devices), originally published on August 28, 2010.    

Not a day goes by, it seems, when Facebook and the opportunities it presents for cyber criminal activity, isn’t in the News. Not mainstream News, of course, since cyber crime rarely involves sex, or violence.

Mainstream media, where salacious and violent news reports rule the airwaves, determined, it seems to me, it had nothing to gain by advising you of the following, very unsexy, non violent, Facebook threats – all from this week incidentally.

‘LOL is this you?’ spam spreading via Facebook chat

Facebook scam: “I may never text again after reading this”

How to Spot Facebook Scams Like ‘Dislike’

Facebook Fires Back at ACLU’s Criticism of ‘Places’

Facebook Warns of Clickjacking Scam

But, throw Facebook and sex into the equation, and mainstream media are out of the gate as if shot from a cannon.

The discovery, that a pedophile ring which used Facebook as their communication channel had been broken up, and the perpetrators arrested, made headlines around the world, just yesterday.

And why not? This is the kind of news event that allows the media to exhibit their moral outrage and indignation. But, when it comes to occurrences that can effect you, if you are a Facebook subscriber, for example – no outrage; no moral indignation. Curious, no?

Maybe I’m missing something here. It’s unlikely, but still I wonder if there’s consensus in the mainstream media community, that Facebook users who become victims of cyber criminals are getting exactly what they deserve?

At one time, I gave the benefit of the doubt to victimized Facebook users, since most typical computer users (I believed), made assumptions that sites like Facebook, and other social networking sites, were essentially safe, and harmless – that Facebook, and others, were looking out for their users interests.

I’ve long since given up on this rather naive view of Facebook users lack of culpability in any harm they were exposed to though. I find it difficult to be supportive of people who throw common sense out the window, and behave irrationally on the Internet.

Given the state of the current, and increasing cyber criminal activity on the Internet, it’s almost certain that exposure to cybercrime on Facebook will continue to escalate, and with it, the dangers that this presents.

Note: As of today’s date – May 22, 2011 – the incidence of cyber criminal activity on Facebook continues to escalate dramatically.

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CNET’s 2010 Top 10 Downloads Tell A Tale!

This year, CNET has delivered more than ONE BILLION downloads, and recently plucked its 2010 top 10 downloads from this amazing number of served up applications. Reportedly, there are now 1.2 billion Internet users, so the CNET numbers are impressive indeed!

After reading the published list, I must admit, I was more than a little surprised. Of the top ten downloads, five are anti-malware applications.

In fact, the top 6 are:

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition – 84,317,112 downloads.

Avast Free Antivirus  – 52,648,408 downloads.

Avira AntiVir Personal Free Antivirus – 42,165,868 downloads.

YouTube Downloader – 30,068,100 downloads. (the odd man out).

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – 25,799,006 downloads.

Ad-Aware Free Internet Security – 20,375,957 downloads.

Followed by:

Advanced SystemCare Free – 19,544,950 downloads.

WinRAR – 19,431,244 downloads.

TeamViewer – 15,722,955 downloads.

Camfrog Video Chat – 14,155,432 downloads.

I have somewhat of a problem with this list, and it’s this. Where are the productivity applications, and why are Internet security applications (a quarter of a billion downloads), so prominent on this list?

Let me blue-sky this for a moment:

It seems to me, that this list speaks more broadly to the intolerable exposure to cyber-criminal activity we now face, than any survey which tracks cybercrime, or the impact of cybercrime, on Internet users. In a sense, the CNET list is an indictment of the conditions now prevalent on the Internet.

In a relatively secure Internet environment, we should expect productivity applications to hold a prominent place in a list such as this.  After all, one benefit of computer ownership, including Internet connectivity, is an expectation of increased productivity, which might then lead to a focus on downloading applications which serve that purpose.

Undoubtedly, computer security, on or off the Internet, but especially while surfing the Net, has to be a priority. But, it appears to me, that we may well be so concerned with bolstering our anti-malware defenses, that productivity applications, and perhaps productivity itself, takes second place and gets short shift.

Frankly, I’m astonished that more Internet users aren’t asking the following questions; amongst many others?

How much longer are we prepared to put up with this “Wild West” Internet environment which leads to users installing a cornucopia of anti-malware applications?

How much longer are we expected to accept disruptive personal attacks by cyber-criminals?

How much longer are Governments going to allow organized criminal gangs to impact the daily lives of their citizens – citizens they are sworn to protect – without taking appropriate action?

If we continue to accept the status quo, we can expect that next year’s CNET top 10 downloads will be virtually unchanged.

Let’s not accept the status quo. It’s long past the time that we looked for accountability for the horrendous security conditions that exist on the Internet. It’s time to make some NOISE! It’s time to demand ACTION! It’s time to demand CHANGE!

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Screwed On A Social Network? – Who’s Fault Is It Really?

Not a day goes by, it seems, when Facebook and the opportunities it presents for cyber criminal activity, isn’t in the News. Not mainstream News, of course, since cyber crime rarely involves sex, or violence.

Mainstream media, where salacious and violent news reports rule the airwaves, determined, it seems to me, it had nothing to gain by advising you of the following, very unsexy, non violent, Facebook threats – all from this week incidentally.

‘LOL is this you?’ spam spreading via Facebook chat

Facebook scam: “I may never text again after reading this”

How to Spot Facebook Scams Like ‘Dislike’

Facebook Fires Back at ACLU’s Criticism of ‘Places’

Facebook Warns of Clickjacking Scam

But, throw Facebook and sex into the equation, and mainstream media are out of the gate as if shot from a cannon.

The discovery, that a pedophile ring which used Facebook as their communication channel had been broken up, and the perpetrators arrested, made headlines around the world, just yesterday.

And why not? This is the kind of news event that allows the media to exhibit their moral outrage and indignation. But, when it comes to occurrences that can effect you, if you are a Facebook subscriber, for example – no outrage; no moral indignation. Curious, no?

Maybe I’m missing something here. Could it be that there’s consensus, in the mainstream media community, that Facebook users who become victims of cyber criminals are getting exactly what they deserve?

At one time, I gave the benefit of the doubt to Facebook users, since most typical computer users (I believed), made assumptions that sites like Facebook, and other social networking sites, were essentially safe, and harmless – that Facebook, and others, were looking out for their users interests.

I’ve long since given up on this rather naive view of Facebook users lack of culpability in any harm they were exposed to though. I find it difficult to be supportive of people who throw common sense out the window, and behave irrationally on the Internet.

Despite my hardened view that Facebook users who fall victim to cyber criminals are not entirely innocent, I was still taken aback by the results of a  study conducted, and just released, by BitDefender.

For study purposes, BitDefender asked the participants to “friend” a test profile of an unknown, attractive young woman.

Selected stats from the study:

More than 86 percent of the users who accepted the test-profile’s friend request work in the IT industry, of which 31 percent work in IT Security.

The most frequent reason for accepting the test profile’s friend request was her “lovely face” (53 percent).

After a half an hour conversation, 10 percent disclosed personal sensitive information, such as: address, phone number, mother’s and father’s name, etc — information usually requested as answers to password recovery questions.

Two hours later, 73 percent siphoned what appears to be confidential information from their workplace, such as future strategies, plans, as well as unreleased technologies/software.

Study methodology:

The study sample group included 2,000 users from all over the world registered on one of the most popular social networks. These users were randomly chosen in order to cover different aspects: sex (1,000 females, 1,000 males), age (the sample ranged from 17 to 65 years with a mean age of 27.3 years), professional affiliation, interests etc.

In the first step, the users were only requested to add the unknown test profile as their friend, while in the second step several conversations with randomly selected users aimed to determine what kind of details they would disclose.

Additional details on this study are available here (PDF), as well as on the MalwareCity blog post.

Given the state of the current, and increasing cyber criminal activity on the Internet, it’s almost certain that exposure to cybercrime on Facebook will continue to escalate, and with it, the dangers that this presents. Given the type of behavior reveled in this study, cyber criminals are sure to have a field day.

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PandaLabs: April to June 2010 Malware Report – Trojans Lead The Pack

PandaLabs, the anti-malware laboratory of Panda Security, the company responsible for Panda Cloud Antivirus, released its quarterly report today, detailing cyber-threat activity from April to June 2010.

Some of the key findings include:

Trojans once again topped the rankings, accounting for nearly 52 percent of new malware identified by PandaLabs during the quarter.

Traditional viruses have continued their revival since the onset of 2010, now accounting for nearly 25 percent of all new malware, up from 15 percent in Q1 after showing a decline in previous years.

Taiwan once again remains in the No. 1 position for infection rankings by country.

The discovery of Tabnabbing in May poses a new and potentially dangerous phishing threat to users.

Social networking continues to be an increasingly popular threat vector.

Knowledge is power, and we, as computer users, need as much power as we can get in order to stay safe on the Internet. So, I encourage you to read the highlights of this just released report so that you are aware of the numerous vulnerabilities discovered over the last three months.

Download the PDF full report here.

About PandaLabs:

Since 1990, its mission has been to detect and eliminate new threats as rapidly as possible to offer our clients maximum security. To do so, PandaLabs has an innovative automated system that analyzes and classifies thousands of new samples a day and returns automatic verdicts (malware or goodware). This system is the basis of collective intelligence, Panda Security’s new security model which can even detect malware that has evaded other security solutions.

Currently, 99.4 percent of malware detected by PandaLabs is analyzed through this system of collective intelligence. This is complemented through the work of several teams, each specialized in a specific type of malware (viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, phishing, spam, etc), who work 24/7 to provide global coverage. This translates into more secure, simpler and more resource-friendly solutions for clients.

More information is available in the PandaLabs blog.

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$100 Will Get You Into Your Ex’s Facebook Page

Jealousy, nosiness, self esteem issues; whatever the motivation, or selling points – an online service discovered by PandaLabs promises to hack any Facebook account of your choice for $100, which is payable to this group through Western Union.

PandLabs has made it clear, after testing this service, that this is a real service which provides real results. As is usual with this type of service, Panda believes that it is “ likely that the cybercriminals behind this operation are members of an Eastern European Internet mafia” organization.

A word of caution – those individuals who are motivated to take advantage of this offer need to consider the consequences. And the consequences can be severe.

Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs has some advice that might dissuade those who would consider using such a service “ Once an intruder hacks into a Facebook account, all personal data published on the site can be stolen. Similarly, those accounts can also be used to send malware, spam or other threats to the victim’s contacts. In any event, this is criminal activity.”

So, if you don’t want to see a reservation at the “crowbar hotel” in your near future, then take a pass on this opportunity.

Now, if you really want to do this and not get caught, and you have a spare $100,000, then give me a call. LOL!

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

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