Spam, encryption to drive security spending

New ways of tackling spam and a general need for better overall IT security are pushing a growth in spending for security products, according to one market research firm.

In a new study, The Radicati Group Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., said security products are now at the top of the list for IT spending, while spending for other technologies is still somewhat sluggish. The study said total revenue from enterprise security products will grow from $2.9 billion in 2004 to $6.6 billion in 2008 -- an average rate of 24% each year.

"It's a market that has picked up steam," said Sara Radicati, the company's president and CEO. "In the past we had predicted 10% to 15% growth."

One of the trends cited by the study is the move away from products that do one task and toward software suites that tackle a whole range of security problems. Revenue for such security software suites is expected to jump from $185 million in 2004 to $492 million in 2008, the research firm said.

Clearswift Ltd.'s Mimesweeper, Tumbleweed Communications Corp.'s Mailgate and CipherTrust Inc.'s Ironmail are all examples of products that combine various technologies such as firewalls and antivirus and antispam software , Radicati said.

The all-in-one product segment has an advantage in that it is more convenient and can be less costly to operate. "It simplifies the overall management infrastructure and they are easier to install," she said. "The downside is they may be less specialized than a point [product]. Point [products] will always be a tad ahead."

Antispam software is experiencing steady growth, too. Revenues are expected to increase from $979 million in 2004 to $1.7 billion in 2008 -- an average rate increase of 16% over four years.

Antispam technology in general is experiencing an evolution. Microsoft is making some moves in this regard with the planned release of Sender ID technology built into Exchange Edge Services, which is due out in 2005. Sender ID, a draft specification that is currently before the Internet Engineering Task Force, is designed to help reduce the problem of domain spoofing and protect against phishing schemes.

"Everyone is realizing that the real issue isn't just spam but the integrity of Internet communications," Radicati said.

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Antivirus researcher Gullotto leaves Symantec for Microsoft

Microsoft has hired one of the industry's top antivirus researchers to run its nascent antivirus research and response team.


Vinny Gullotto, who had been at Symantec Corp. since earlier this year, started work at Microsoft this week. His charge at Microsoft will be to help the software giant get its virus response team up to speed with those run by the major antivirus vendors.

Gullotto will be the general manager of Security Research and Response, a separate unit from the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC); both teams fall under Microsoft's Security Technology Unit.

Gullotto has more than a decade of experience in the antivirus industry , and has been well-traveled as of late. Until late 2005, he was the vice president of McAfee Inc.'s Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT). He left McAfee to join Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec this past spring and helped run its well-known Symantec Security Response unit.

He is one of a handful of virus researchers, including David Perry at Trend Micro Inc., Vincent Weafer at Symantec and Nick FitzGerald of Computer Virus Consulting, who have been at the forefront of antivirus research during the last decade.

Microsoft's hiring of Gullotto is yet another sign of how seriously the Redmond, Wash.-based vendor is taking its move into the antivirus market. It launched its Windows Live OneCare antivirus and antispyware suite in May and will include those protections in Windows Vista, due for release this fall. This move has ruffled a lot of feathers among the antivirus vendor community, most of whom have been Microsoft partners for years. Hiring Gullotto away from Symantec is unlikely to smooth any of those bad feelings.

Symantec declined to comment on Gullotto's departure.

Gullotto is not the only high-profile security researcher that Microsoft has hired lately. Adam Shostack, a well-known security and privacy expert and author who worked at pioneering privacy-software developer Zero-Knowledge Systems, joined Microsoft in June and is working on the Security Development Lifecycle, a set of software design theories designed to help developers build software that can withstand attacks.

Microsoft for several years has used the MSRC to work with antivirus vendors , customers and industry organizations during virus and worm outbreaks. But now that Microsoft has its own antivirus offering, the company apparently has decided it is time to start a dedicated in-house virus response team.

"Microsoft is very excited that Vincent Gullotto will be joining Microsoft as the general manager of Security Research and Response and we look forward to working with him in his new role," a Microsoft spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Technorati : Antivirus and Anti-Spyware, Shield Deluxe 2009

Symantec to release security software that protects consumers during online transactions

A new security program should prevent personal data leaks when consumers are conducting online transactions, protecting valuable financial information .

Some features of Symantec's Norton Confidential include the ability to detect and remove malware, which Symantic refers to as "crimeware," such as keylogging programs that can steal credit card numbers, login names and passwords. During a secure purchase made with a credit card, Confidential will block any program that is trying to access the keyboard and monitor display.

Other features include an electronic wallet that can store credit card and online purchase information in an encrypted file, which will allow consumers to auto-fill transaction forms and keep their data in a secure place on their PC. It will also store a safe list of SSL certificates used by a few e-commerce sites and high-traffic banks. This means Confidential will not only alert users to sites that are unsecured, but it will be able to confirm that the site they are visiting is genuine, thereby helping combat pharming sites.

Not only will Confidential be able to eliminate the malware that it has been programmed to recognize, but it will also be able to recognize other malware using new behavioral technology from WholeSecurity, which Symantec obtained last year.

"[WholeSecurity software] is a complement to Symantec's antivirus software , and it's also the first Symantec product to work with other antivirus products from other vendors," Symantec product manager Olivia Schmelzle said.

Norton Confidential is set to beta test in July and go on sale in October

Technorati : Antivirus and Anti-Spyware, Shield Deluxe 2009

BT presses the accelerator for broadband speed

BT offers millions of customers the chance to boost their broadband speed for free with the launch of faster headline speeds of up to 20Mb/s and the BT Broadband Accelerator .




BT Retail broadband customers already enjoy download speeds of up to 8Mb/s, but in enabled areas that will leap to up to 20Mb/s to deliver consistently faster broadband all day and night even at peak times. Upload speeds will also increase from up to 448Kb/s to up to 1Mb.




Unlike other broadband providers, BT Retail is offering the faster speeds at no extra cost. The cheapest broadband option is just £7.78 a month for the first three months.




Faster speeds will initially be available through 549 exchanges serving 10 million - or 40 per cent - of the UK's homes and businesses. Coverage will increase to 55 per cent by March 2010.




The BT Broadband Accelerator - a speed booster pack worth £15 - will be free for BT Total Broadband customers who order it online, with postage of just £1.20. The BT Broadband Accelerator includes a small plate that customers, who have more than one phone socket, can easily insert into their main telephone socket to reduce the impact of electrical interference; this may increase broadband speed by 1.5Mb. It also comes with an easy self-install guide as well as a comprehensive 10-step guide on how to optimise broadband speeds and will help customers get the most out of their broadband connection.




BT research shows that one of the main causes of slow broadband is customers' home wiring. The BT Broadband Accelerator plate, also known as the I-Plate, isolates a redundant wire in the socket which can slow connections. Although speed improvements are likely, they cannot be guaranteed. Even if it does not improve speed the device can help stabilise broadband lines making them even more reliable.




John Petter, managing director of BT's Consumer division, said: "The BT Broadband Accelerator can make a big difference to the speed of your broadband. We think it is so important we've taken the decision to offer it to our customers for just the cost of the postage.




"Between that and us more than doubling headline speeds for millions of homes and businesses, most customers should start to see a rapid boost in the performance of their connection. We have a track record of not charging customers any more when we increase the speed and this time is no different. BT broadband customers won't have to pay any more to get higher speeds.




"These two moves demonstrate our commitment to helping the UK move closer to the kind of widely-available speeds published in the Digital Britain report."


ADSL2+ - BT Consumer




New customers or re-contracting BT Total Broadband customers in an enabled exchange area will automatically be eligible for up to 20Mb/s broadband service from as little as £7.78 per month. Customers will be able to order or simply find out when they can get up to 20Mb/s and what speed they can expect via BT.com. Existing customers will be asked to sign a new contract.




The BT Broadband Accelerator will be offered free to BT Total broadband customers who order it online.


ADSL2+ - BT Business




New or re-contracting BT Business Broadband customer in an enabled exchange area will automatically be eligible for the up to 20Mb/s service. Orders can be placed by customers direct online, or via any offline business sales channel. Customers will not pay any more for the new service, which offers up to 20Mb/s downstream speeds. The upstream (customer to exchange) line speed will improve to 1Mb/s.




The BT Business Total Broadband tariff also remains the same and includes BT Openzone Wi-Fi minutes. BT Business Option 3 customers also receive free mobile broadband and other business services worth over £750. BT Business Total Broadband is available from £12.50 (ex VAT) per month including 24/7 UK freephone business support. Businesses also have the flexibility to build their own communications package by bundling their broadband with calls to UK landlines, mobiles and international numbers from only £27.50.




The BT Broadband Accelerator will be offered free to customers in instances where BT believes performance can be improved.

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How to Back Up Your Data-the Options

Backing Up Your Business Data or Personal Files is an Essential Part of the Modern Day Workflow

Backing up your business data or personal files is an essential part of the modern day workflow. There are choices on how you can best store your information, from data back up services online to the traditional cd or DVD burning solution. Data back up systems can also be employed in the form of external hard drives.

External Hard drives.

When choosing this option, there is a need to avoid cheap external hard drives.

The best way to go with external hard drives is to do the necessary research and find out what are the top 10 external hard drives. It is advisable to go with a reputed name like Seagate or Western Digital for reliability. For your most valuable data, I would suggest burning DVD or copies as a stable data backup solution. The reason for this is DVD's are very reliable if taken care of. If you are not too worried about the sensitivity of your information, then you might consider a data backup company. There such services if one Googles "backup online".

USB Flash Drives

The chief limitation of using a USB flash drive is the amount of storage you get. Unless you are backing up small files such as Spreadsheets and Word files, the USB flash disk will not be too much use for backing up your movie collection. USB Flash Drives have grown in capacity over the years, now carrying up to 16GB (from the paltry 250 MB of yesteryear.) One might want to consider researching the best 64gb USB flash drives.

The major fall back on USB flash drives is loss of the device due to its size. This is however counter-balanced by its portability.

Recovery of data.

It is always a good idea to invest in backup disaster recovery software . This usually enables a personal recovery solution if you lose your data but your drives are not damaged. For a price you could get a very good backup and recovery system installed onto your computer. This facilitates the whole process of data back up.

Considering the fact that information files are getting larger and larger. From movies and bought online (iTunes for instance). To personal projects such as home videos. There is a need to consider how you would want to back up your data. All systems of backing up have their own hang ups (External hard drives may fail, DVD's and CD's may become scratched etc), therefore choice of what system to use will greatly depend on what value you put on your data.

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Useful Instructions for Ghost 14

Norton Ghost 14 from Symantec is a software program that allows you to back up your computer drives, folders and files. With Ghost, you can establish a backup process to make copies of anything you want on the computer in case something important gets damaged or lost. Ghost 14 supports works with Windows Vista or XP Service Pack 2.

Installation

Ghost 14 requires 250 to 300 megabytes of hard-disk space. You need 256 megabytes of RAM for Ghost Agent and the user interface and 512 megabytes for Symantec Recovery Disk. You must be logged onto your computer with an administrator account to install the program. Load the installation CD. Once the browser panel appears, click on "Install Norton Ghost ." Be sure to check on the box accepting the terms of the license agreement, then click "Install Now." You can select "Custom Install" and select which programs you want installed--options are User Interface, Backup and Recovery Service, CD/DVD Support, Recovery Point Browser and LiveUpdate. Click "Finish" to complete the installation. You must restart the computer before you can run Ghost. To start the program after installation, click on the Norton Ghost icon in the system tray or go to Start/Programs/Norton Ghost in the taskbar.

Backing Up Drives

To define a drive backup, click on "Run or Manage Backups" on the Ghost Home page, click on "Define New" and select " Back up my computer ." Select the drives you want backed up, then choose "Define a new backup" or "Add drives to an existing backup." Select the type of recovery point the backup will create--a set or independent point. Go to the Backup Destination page and choose a folder field location or a network share to store the recovery points. You can also rename the recovery points and choose two off-site locations where you want to to copy the points. In the Options page, you can give a name for your backup, choose its compression level and test if the the files/recovery points are corrupt. Select whether you want the backup to run at a scheduled time period--you need to customize this if you chose an independent recovery point. You can choose to run the new backup immediately by selecting "Run Backup Now." Otherwise, click "Finish."

Backing Up Folders/Files

Go to "Run or Manage Backups" in the Home page, click on "Define New" and select " Back up selected files and folders." Select the files and folders you want backed up. Type in a name for the backup in the Name box and a description in the Description box. Use the "Browse" button to find a location for the backup. On the Advanced page, you can add a password or encryption and remove folders from the backup. If you want the backup to run on a schedule, click "Schedule" and select the dates for the backup to run. You can now choose "Run backup now" or end with "Finish."


Restoring From a Backup

To recover a file or folder, select "Recover My Files." In the left pane of the window that appears, select "File and Folder" and search for the specific item by typing its name into the search box. Select the items you want, click " Recover Files " and choose to restore them to their original folders or to save the recovered files to another folder. To recover a drive, click on "Recover My Computer" from the Tasks page, select a recovery point and click "Recover Now." You can simply click "Next" to recover the drive, or you can customize the recovery by selecting "Custom." You can now check for system errors, verify if a recovery point is valid, restore the original disk signature and assign a drive letter to the partition.

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Key Member of Original Norton AntiVirus Software Team Brian YoderJoins CyberDefender as Vice President Engineering

LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)

CyberDefender Corporation (OTCBB: CYDE), an award-winning provider of PC security , Antispyware/ Antivirus Sof tware , PC Optimization, PC Support, and Identity Theft Prevention solutions, announced today the appointment to the position of Vice President Engineering of Mr. Brian Yoder, a software developer since the late 1970`s, and an early member of the Peter Norton Computing/Symantec (SYMC) team.

Mr. Gary Guseinov, CEO and Chairman of the Board of CyberDefender, commented,"As we continue to invest in accelerated growth, I`m extremely pleased we have been able to attract Brian to our senior management team. He is an expert in Internet security software , having been a key contributor and early member of the teams that initiated the original Norton AntiVirus product and developed all of the classic Norton applications. In addition, he has been a successful entrepreneur with startups in areas ranging from software development tools to video games and automatic language translation systems. In these roles, he also has been a successful recruiter over the years of top talent and has managed engineering teams with up to 130 participants."

Mr. Yoder stated, "I`m a fan of CyberDefender and the products they have produced based on their early NETWORK technology. Going forward, I believe my long experience building mass market commercial applications spanning many technology platforms such as Windows, Unix, Macintosh and mobile devices, can be instrumental in extending CyberDefender`s customer reach into these areas."

In addition to his commercial activities and successes, Mr. Yoder is a founder of the Art Renewal Center, an art education foundation which provides scholarships for students, manages the world`s largest online painting gallery and also operates the prestigious ARC Salon Contest.

About CyberDefender Corporation

CyberDefender Corporation, based in Los Angeles, believes that its Internet security technology offers the earliest possible detection and most aggressive defense against Internet security attacks. CyberDefender uses a patent pending secure peer-to-peer collaborative threat protection network (the earlyNETWORK), to combat spyware, viruses and identity theft. Products employing the

earlyNETWORK include CyberDefender Early Detection Center and MyIdentityDefender. CyberDefender also offers PC optimization utilities and Live Premium Technical Support services. CyberDefender products are fully compatible with Microsoft's Vista Operating system and available at http://www.cyberdefender.com. To date, more than 15 million consumers have used

CyberDefender products.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not statements of historical or current fact, such as CyberDefender's expectation of future revenue growth and profitability, constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unknown factors that could cause CyberDefender's actual results to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause CyberDefender's results to be materially different from the forward-looking statements include whether CyberDefender will be able to find financing when and as it needs it and whether CyberDefender's revenues will eventually exceed its expenses. The forward-looking statements contained herein are also subject

Technorati : Antivirus and Anti-Spyware, Shield Deluxe 2009

Install a Scanner Into Photoshop CS3

Properly speaking, scanners are not installed in Photoshop CS3 ; they are instead installed on your computer. You can then designate Photoshop CS3 as the external editor or viewer for your scanner, or, from Photoshop, you can import images through that scanner. For either of these options to work, the scanner must be properly installed on your computer.

Check if you already have a scanner correctly installed on your computer. (If you have previously installed a scanner on your computer, it may be ready to go in Photoshop CS3 .) To check, open Photoshop and go to "File > Import." A menu should pop up to the right. If your scanner is listed, either preceded or followed by "TWAIN" or "WIA," proceed to Step 4. If not, check to see that the scanner is properly connected; then restart Photoshop. If it's still not listed in under the "File > Import" menu, go to Step 2.

Check if your scanner is properly installed. (If your scanner doesn't show up in Photoshop, it may not be properly installed.) If you are using a PC, go to the "Control Panel > Hardware > Scanners and Cameras." If you do not see your scanner there, use the installation software that came with your scanner to install the scanner. You will need to restart Photoshop CS3 for the program to recognize the new scanner.

Make sure your scanner's driver software is up to date (if your scanner is listed under "Scanners and Cameras"). Go to "Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manager" and click on "Imaging Devices." Right-click on your scanner and select "Update Driver Software." Search online for the updated driver software. A restart may be required.

Your scanner should now be properly installed with current drivers and ready for use to acquire images for Photoshop.

Import an image using TWAIN, which is a standard software protocol that connects software applications and imaging devices (such as Photoshop and your scanner), by simply going to "File > Import" and click on the "TWAIN" option. Follow the instructions on that screen to scan your image.

Import an image using WIA (Windows Image Acquisition), according to Adobe Photoshop help, by choosing "File > Import > WIA Support." Select a destination on your computer for saving your image files. Click "Start." Select your scanner. Choose the kind of image you want to scan. Click "Preview" to view the scan. Crop if necessary. Click "Scan." The scanned image is saved in BMP format.

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How to Prevent an email virus

Many times a virus can be taken care of with some simple steps to prevent the computer from becoming infected. An email virus can cause people in your address book to become victims too

Step 1

Go to the computer and engage to your IPS (Internet provider service). You are now online to activate all computer skills you will need to prevent an email virus from attacking your personal address book.

Step 2

You are going to add a fictitious email address to your address book, so you prevent becoming infected with an email virus . You are doing this to protect yourself and everyone in your address book. Press the add on icon to complete this task. Insert Aaaaaaaaa Aaaaaaaaa or any other series or any number of the letter a. use the capital "A" for the first letter and the capital "A" for the first letter of the second bunch of the letter a in both groups. Now you have your name inserted into your contact list with these 2 groups of the letter a.

Step 3

Insert this fictitious name into your contacts. View to make sure it is the first name in your address book in your computer. You can also do this for your laptop computer at home or work too. Click the add button making it official that you are adding Aaaaaaaa Aaaaaaaa.

Step 4

Next add a fictitious email address using appropriate configuration such as aaaaaaaa.aaaaaaaa@someserver.com. You can make up any server except the ones you know exist. All the other personal information can be left blank since this is all you will need to prevent you and all your contacts from an email virus.

Step 5

If a hacker or some unknown tries to enter your computer address book, they will begin with the first person in your address book and fail.

Technorati : Antivirus and Anti Spyware, Shield Deluxe 2009

How to Download Free Anti Spyware

Windows Defender


Find Windows Defender. This anti-spyware program not only offers protection from spyware, it also has a popup blocker and has a simple setup to allow you to schedule your maintenance.

Download Windows Defender. Locate their web page. Once you are there, you will see a big banner that says, "Get It Now". Click on that and it will take you to another page.

Click on "Continue". The Microsoft website will automatically scan your computer for a legitimate copy of windows. Once you pass this test you will be taken to the download page.

Spybot Search & Destroy


Step 1 Locate Spybot Search & Destroy. This free anti spyware program is designed to remove spyware, run in the background so you are always protected and, if you share your PC, it can cover your tracks so others cannot see what you have been doing.

Step 2 Download Spybot Search & Destroy. Go to their website and click on your language of choice. This will take you to another page with news and information about the free program. On the left-hand side of the screen are a few options. Click "Download". You will see a few programs that you will want to obtain.

Step 3 Click on "Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.0" to download the program first. Choose any location you wish to download from. Then click "Download Now". Your file will begin downloading right away. Use the same steps to download the update files.

Trend Micro HouseCall

Step 1 Find Trend Micro HouseCall. This is an online scanner that not only is a built-in anti-spyware program but also checks your computer for viruses and adware.

Step 2 Go to the Trend Micro HouseCall website. Click on "Scan Now. It's Free!". When the new window pops up, click on "Launch HouseCall Free Scan".

Step 3 Choose a Java platform or download special files to your computer. Each method is fine, and you do not need to worry about downloading their plug-ins. At this time, HouseCall is only supported by Firefox and Internet Explorer.

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Ways to Find Free DVD Burning Software

DVD burning software is essential for anyone who wants to transfer movies or video off a computer and on to a writable DVD disk. The information below will provide you with the steps necessary to find free DVD burning software .

Getting Started

Starting out you will need to be sure that you have your virus protection program running. It is possible for your download to contain a virus or malware, protect yourself from this happening by using a trusted and reliable anti-virus program when making your download.

Freeware

Go online and search for DVD burning freeware . Freeware is free full versions of software that is available for download online. There are many such versions of DVD burning software online. Upon finding the program you want, simply download just as you would any other software.

Free Demo Versions

Access your web browser and conduct a search for free demo versions of DVD burning software . For your convenience I have included a few sites that offer free demo versions of such software. Most demos have time limits on how many days you can use them. These limits are usually capped at about 2-4 weeks of usage. Consider trying a few different demos to see which ones work best for you.

Ask Around

If you know someone who has a DVD burner, chances are they have DVD burning software to go along with it. Ask anyone in your family or circle of friends if you can borrow their DVD burning software .

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Quickly Re-Touch Photos With PicTreat

Even with their fancy features, digital cameras aren't immune from taking the odd bad picture. Now what happens when you want to fix a photo (like red eye, pimples, bad lighting) and free online photo editing sites just aren't cutting it with their basic features? Sure you could always use Photoshop if you're a master of its many tools, but what if you need to change your Facebook profile photo right away, and you don't have Photoshop? A site called PicTreat will instantly enhance your photo for free, and you can even sign-in using your MySpace ID or Facebook Connect.

Found a useful website you'd like to share? To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group, read more.

Technorati : Adobe, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Photoshop，Adobe Photoshop CS3 download

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware: MS Escalates the Fight Against Malware

Redmond Joins Fight Against Spyware

When it comes to fighting spyware, even Bill Gates would rather buy it than build it.

In December 2004 Microsoft purchased the anti-spyware technology created by GIANT Company Software, and by the first week in January it had released a beta version of Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware, well ahead of its expected 2006 delivery date.

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware

Microsoft's entry into the spyware arena comes not a moment too soon. A November 2004 study by research firm IDC estimates that 67 percent of consumer PCs are infected with some form of spyware. "Spyware" refers to any software that is covertly placed on a PC and that secretly gathers user information without the user's knowledge, typically for advertising purposes.

Beyond being a privacy threat, spyware can be a real nuisance, spawning pop-up windows not just when the user is online but even when the PC is not linked to the internet. A number of other notable players already have staked out their claims in the marketplace, including Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. As usual, Microsoft's entry into the arena ups the ante considerably.

The beta version of Microsoft's anti-spyware offering essentially repackages the same set of tools offered by GIANT, tools that already have proven their efficacy on this complicated battlefield. The beta works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

The beta program detects existing spyware through a rapid scan of a PC's files and memory. A scanning scheduler sets regular times for full scans, while an online spyware library contains information about the spyware that is detected. The anti-spyware program also keeps tabs on the impact of spyware, with reports that alert the user as to applications that are running, current Internet Explorer settings (which can be altered by spyware), and unwanted networking activity that may be linking the PC to unwanted internet destinations.

Technorati : Shield Deluxe 2009, Shield Deluxe 2009 Antivirus and Anti-Spyware

Top anti-spyware software

KOLKATA: In June, Praveen Rai in Mumbai saw his coffers swell by Rs 90,000 while Akhilesh Bagla a Kolkata businessman sat baffled as the same amount


exited his bank account overnight. Though Bagla had done nothing apart from some e-banking, Rai sitting on India's other coast had successfully hacked into the businessman's account, to commit possibly the first e-fraud in the city.

Although the rise in online presence and transactions pose a potential risk to users, there are ways to safeguard your identity and information on the internet, ethical hacker and cyber security expert Ankit Fadia explained in the city on Friday.

"There are solutions that can substantially reduce the risk. Installing a firewall for your personal computer, as well as installing a good anti-virus and anti-spyware can provide significant protection," Fadia said. He was speaking at a seminar at the Heritage Institute of Technology.

"It is a misconception that firewalls are only for corporate use. Using them on your personal computer can mean that criminals have a harder time trying to access your personal information," he revealed, while adding that regular updates for operating systems, anti-virus and anti-spyware softwares were essential.

Fadia also recommended the use of strong individual passwords for each website or online service by using a combination of alphabets, numbers and special characters. "It's not good having your name followed by your birthday as a password for protecting vital information. You should also instal and use a key scrambler, so that your typing patterns cannot be copied or tracked," he said.

On the cyber terrorism front, Fadia who had worked with international intelligence agencies in the aftermath of 9/11 said terror organisations were now improvising email accounts to exchange information.

"Terrorists can sign into a single email account from different parts of the world and save their messages in the draft form, which the others can then access. As the email never leaves the server, it becomes increasingly difficult for security agencies to track these conversations," he said.

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How to Back up Your iPod — Without iTunes

Buzz up!0 votes Your precious iPod-your friend, your status symbol, your companion during good times and bad. It comes with you wherever you go; until one day, it disappears without a trace. Here's a cautionary tale, plus some tips on how to preserve your tunes if this nightmare scenario happens to you.

For me, there's no better time for cranking my iPod than while cruising at 35,000 feet; nothing whiles away the hours faster than dialing up a few podcasts or the odd TV show. But what if you leave your ice-white buddy on the plane? Not good. Unfortunately, it just happened to Shiny Shiny editor Susi Weaser, who had about 3,000 tracks on her iPod that weren't saved on her PC and now faces the task of rebuilding her extensive music collection from scratch. Ouch.

The moral of the story, of course, is to back up your iPod . Now, most of us essentially do just that every time we sync our iPods using iTunes , but if you're a power user like Weaser and you have untold thousands of songs on your iPod from multiple sources, the standard iTunes sync won't cut it. Luckily, The Gadgets Page has compiled a thorough list of iPod backup utilities that promise to keep your music safe and sound. Even better, these apps can transfer songs from your iPod back to your PC if, say, the hard drive on your system suffers a meltdown (which happened to me last year).

Just remember that these backup programs aren't sanctioned by Apple, and that using them to rip songs from your buddy's iPod to your PC or Mac is, of course, a no-no.

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Basic Knowledge of Download Manager

A download manager is a computer program dedicated to the task of downloading (and sometimes uploading) possibly unrelated stand-alone files from (and sometimes to) the Internet for storage. This is unlike a World Wide Web browser, which is mainly intended to browse web pages, composed of a multitude of smaller files, where error-free moving of files for permanent storage is of secondary importance. (A failed or incomplete web page file rarely ruins the page.) The typical download manager at a minimum provides means to recover from errors without losing the work already completed, and can optionally split the file to be downloaded (or uploaded) into 2 or more segments, which are then moved in parallel, potentially making the process faster within the limits of the available bandwidth. (A few servers are known to block moving files in parallel segments, on the principle that server capacity should be shared equally by all users.) Multi-source is the name given to files that are downloaded in parallel.

Download managers commonly include one or more of the following features:

Pausing the downloading of large files.


Resuming broken or paused downloads (especially for very large files).


Downloading files on poor connections.


Downloading several files from a site automatically according to simple rules (file types, updated files, etc. - see also Offline Browser).


Automatic recursive downloads (mirroring).


Scheduled downloads (including, automatic hang-up and shutdown).


Searching for mirror sites, and the handling of different connections to download the same file more quickly (segmented downloading).


Variable bandwidth usage.


Automatic subfolder generation.


Download managers are useful for very active Internet users. For dial-up users, they can automatically dial the Internet Service Provider at night, when rates or tariffs are usually much lower, download the specified files, and hang-up. They can record which links the user clicks on during the day, and queue these files for later download. For broadband users, download managers can help download very large files by resuming broken downloads, by limiting the bandwidth used, so that other internet activities are not affected (slowed) and the server is not overloaded, or by automatically navigating a site and downloading pre-specified content (photo galleries, MP3 collections, etc.) this can also include automatically downloading whole sites and regularly updating them (see Mirroring).

Many download managers support Metalink, an XML file listing mirrors, checksums, and other information useful for downloading.

Technorati : Accelerator, Download Accelerator, Download Accelerator Plus, accelerate, download, download manager