ParetoLogic Launches the Latest in Anti-Virus Technology

According to a recent report from SecureList, viruses and other malware attempted to execute over 540 million infections globally in the second quarter of 2010. To protect their users from these malcious threats, ParetoLogic has launched latest defence against viruses, spyware, adware, and other malicious software. ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS version 7 offers enhanced threat detection and removal and adds new features to improve the user’s experience. As well as redesigning the interface, developers also dramatically improved scan times and system resource footprint.
Version 7 of ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS has two significant technological advances. The first one delivers enhanced rootkit removal. Rootkits act as “burrowing” malware, and entrench themselves so deep in a users system that they are some of the most difficult to remove.
“ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS now gives users state-of-the-art protection against these dangerous potential threats,” said Elton Pereira, Cofounder, President and CEO of ParetoLogic. “We know that infections are on the rise, and paired with heuristic detection, our software will keep people safer than ever.”
So-called heuristic detection is the most recent development in security software, and the second of ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS 7’s advances. Rather than relying on a database of found and catalogued malware samples, heuristic detection is behavioral based.
There are a large number of different types of malware, but their actual goals and methods of operation all follow a similar pattern,” explained Jean Taggart, Security Analyst at ParetoLogic. “Heuristic detection is able to recognize a suspicious file or process, even if that specific piece of malware was never programmatically analyzed, or examined by a malware researcher. This is achieved by looking at behaviour, or common traits.”
The ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS update also adds Windows 7 support and a sleek interface to match the popular new operating system. Additional software improvements resulted in shorter scan times, and a lighter system footprint. These upgrades allow users to scan their system without slowing down their other applications or tasks.

Norton and Trend Micro Simplify Security with New Releases

One of the biggest burdens of protecting yourself against viruses, spyware, and other threats has been the degree to which security software can be problematic itself. Norton and Trend Micro are both announcing new versions of their software today with a focus on providing security that you can welcome onto your computer–and better yet, largely ignore once it’s there–rather than stress over.
Symantec’s products once had particularly bad reputations for being a resource-sapping, in-your-face hogs. The company has spent the past couple of years paying penance by reducing the load that new versions put on your system and the demands they place on your attention. It says that its 2011 editions are faster than both their predecessors and its competition, and that it’s reduced the number of alerts they’ll bother you with. They also snitch on other programs, via System Insight, a feature that monitors running applications and identifies ones which may be bogging you down.
Norton uses community-based reputation–judging files in part by whether other Norton users have downloaded them without problems. Other new features include protection against dangerous downloads that works in a comprehensive range of browsers, IM clients, and e-mail programs; and the ability to manage other browser-based Norton services from within the Norton dashboard. And the Norton Bootable Recovery Tool now lets you easily prepare a CD-ROM, DVD, or USB drive to undo damage to computers so crippled by an attack that they can’t even start up.
Norton 2011 is available in two versions. Plain-jane AntiVirus 2011 costs $39.99 for a version that covers up to three PCs for one year. Norton Internet Security, which adds a firewall, antispam, parental controls, identity protection, and other features, is $69.99 for up to three PCs.
Symantec is also touting several free security downloads it offers, including Power Eraser, which is designed to remove “scareware” that’s often maddeningly difficult to shake, such as malware which poses as real antivirus software.

Trend Micro, meanwhile, has given its security products a new name: Titanium. More important, it’s given them a new approach: Instead of making you download signatures to your PC to detect viruses and other dangers it’s put most of the detecting in the cloud and aimed to prevent dangerous files from ever reaching computers in the first place. The company says that this dramatically reduces required resources.
As with Norton 2011, the goal may be to be unremarkable, but there’s a lot of information and settings if you want them:
This cloud-based strategy, Trend says, is particularly effective against zero-day attacks–ones so new that security companies haven’t created and distributed fixes for them.
Trend’s basic package, Titanium Antivirus+, is $39.95 for one PC or $59.95 for three. Titanium Internet Security adds antispam, parental controls, and other features for $49.95 for one PC or $69.95 for three machines. And Titanium Maximum Security tops that off with 10GB of online backup, system optimization, a secure erase utility, and other features for $59.95 for one PC or $79.95 for three. Unlike Norton, Trend doesn’t include a firewall with any of its versions, choosing instead to integrate with the one built into Windows.

McAfee announces Internet Security, Family Protection for Mac

While malware threats for the Mac may still be limited, there are plethora of other nasty to watch out for online. That’s why McAfee has released a pair of its popular protection products for the Mac: McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Family Protection. These products permit Mac users to surf the Internet safely.
If you’re just looking to keep your own surfing habits from getting you into trouble, McAfee Internet Security can protect you from dangerous Web sites telling you if a particular online shopping site has been checked over by McAfee. It can also scan e-mail and IM attachments from Mail and iChat to make sure nobody tries to slip you a mickey while online, and can repair many files without damaging the contents.
In addition, a dedicated Secure Search tool allows you to make sure that phishing sites don’t find their way into your results; a two-way firewall keeps an eye on all the traffic entering or leaving your PC as well as locking down outside access to protect from hackers; and all the while McAfee Internet Security can scan for both Windows and Mac malware.
McAfee Internet Security runs $80 and covers one Mac for one year—after that, you’ll need to buy a new copy as there's currently no upgrade pricing available.
That’s good for your own personal Web surfing, but if you’re more worried about what your kids might be getting up to, there’s McAfee Family Protection (also available for the iPhone and iPod touch).
McAfee Family Protection covers up to three Macs for a year for $40. As with Internet Security, you’ll need to shell out for a new copy after that due to any lack of upgrade pricing at present.
These products available now and require Mac OS X 10.5 or later. They also come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and 30 days of free tech support.

Kaspersky Lab offers Threatpost app for iPhone

Threatpost, billed as Kaspersky Lab's independent, online news destination for the IT Security community, is now available to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users.
Threatpost assures the latest security news editorials, stories, podcasts and video conversations. "Business people are always on the go and may not have the opportunity to sit down and read the latest security news via traditional web sites," said Dennis Fisher, co-editor Threatpost.
Available from the Apple iTunes App Store, Threatpost is free and requires the iPhone OS 3.1.3 Software Update or later.
"This is why the Threatpost iPhone application was developed. It is a single source for all of the news and information that security professionals need to stay ahead of what’s happening in the industry. It’s our hope that with this application, we're providing a valuable service to professionals in our industry."
Available from the Apple iTunes App Store, Threatpost is free and requires the iPhone OS 3.1.3 Software Update or later.
Kaspersky Lab is the largest antivirus company, offering protection against potential threats including viruses, spyware, crimeware, hackers, phishing and spam.

McAfee New Online Family Protection for Apple iPhone

According to data released by Admob in 2010, 65 percent of iPod touch users and 13 percent of iPhone users are below the age of 17. Furthermore, twice as many kids own an Internet-enabled mobile device versus a computer1.

Today McAfee also released results from its Secret Life of Teens survey which provides a detailed snapshot of online teen behavior. It reveals that 85 percent of teens go online somewhere other than at home and under the supervision of their parents, nearly a third (32 percent) of teens say they don’t tell their parents what they do while they are online, and 28 percent engage with strangers online.

McAfee® Family Protection iPhone, iPod touch and iPad Edition offers Web site and search filtering. The program will automatically block age-inappropriate sites, such as known pornography web sites. It also includes location tracking for Apple devices that are equipped with GPS. McAfee Family Protection iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad Edition is available for download now at the iTunes App Store and McAfee.com for $19.99.

New Google Earth to see World

Google is unleashing a new version of Google Earth, version 5.2. It’s the biggest update since Earth 5.0 added the oceans and Mars in February of 2009–and while it’s not that big, it’s got one major cool new feature and one modest-but-useful one. Google gave me a sneak peek of the new version last week.

The major cool new feature is aimed at folks who like to go adventuring and take a GPS navigation handheld along. If you tote a GPS unit such as the ones from Garmin and Magellan to track a hike, bike ride, sailing trip, or any other excursion, you can shift the data to Google Earth once you’re home. In the past, doing so engaged creating thousands of points of geographic information, but the new version of the software can create simpler plots of where you were at any given point in time. And it lets you view this data as birds-eye animations that track where you went, recreated with Earth’s wealth of geographic photography and 3D imagery. You can also share the reconstructions with other Google Earth users or publish them using the embeddable version of Earth.

For now, the feature only works with data captured by standalone GPS units supported by Google Earth–it’s compatible with hundreds of models–but the idea of it tying into Google smartphone apps like Latitude and the mobile version of Google Earth itself is intriguing.

You can dress up your reconstructions by importing a vehicle model such as a bike or boat from Google’s 3D Warehouse, but this requires massaging a text file by hand, and therefore isn’t for Google Earth newbies. It would be neat if a future version of Earth made it a point-and-click process.

Virus in Windows Mobile Games

Hackers have placed viruses in video games for Windows Mobile smartphones, automatically calling premium numbers to ring up charges.

The infected games, 3D Anti-Terrorist and PDA Poker Art, are embedded with malicious code that dials premium-rate services in Somalia, Italy and other countries, racking up hundreds of dollars in charges. Victims typically don't know they've been hit until they get their wireless bills and see the surprise fees.

Microsoft investigated the problem and advised users to visit their site for instructions on how to protect their device.

A quote said by spokesman "We encourage customers to follow all of the steps of the 'Protect Your Computer' guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software".

Hackers have increasingly focused on smartphones amid the surging sales of high-end devices. Earlier this month, security firm Symantec, best known for its Norton antivirus software for personal computers, announced a new family of products to protect smartphones.