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Reacting to reports that Chinese hackers have installed spyware in computers belonging to the German government, Chinese premier Wen Jiabao called the matter a “grave concern” and offered his government’s cooperation to resolve it, reports PCWorld.com. The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported the hacking Saturday. Jiabao made his comments Monday at a press conference [...]
Microsoft’s free Windows Defender anti-spyware and -adware software ships as standard with Windows Vista and is available as a free download for Windows XP SP2. If Windows Defender had presented itself strictly as an anti-adware program, we’d be less hard on it, but Defender’s website asserts that the software provides ‘Spyware protection for free’, and [...]
Unlike viruses and worms, spyware does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware exploits infected computers for financial gain. This White Paper profiles spyware and prescribes the various ways organizations can meet this web threat head on. Spyware may be considered to be responsible for a whole host of present-day crimes; but not [...]
As we discussed in our recent antivirus roundup, “Virus Stoppers,” several antivirus products are effective at fighting Trojan horses and backdoor programs–typically classified as spyware–as well as adware. So the question arises: Are specialized antispyware tools particularly effective at fighting today’s threats? To find out, we looked at six well-known programs. We tested five–Grisoft’s AVG [...]
Many Americans who go online do not know much about Internet threats and scams, according to a Microsoft-commissioned study conducted by Harris Interactive in May 2007.Nearly six in 10 Internet users said they had little or no knowledge of current threats or scams. About one-fifth of online adults had been the victim of at least [...]
Losses from computer viruses and other computer threats are more than $13 billion a year. Consumer Reports just tested 25 different software programs that promise to protect computers. Some just target one threat. Others, called “suites,” offer a combination of solutions to protect computers from spyware, spam, and viruses. Artificial viruses were created by an [...]
Computer science Professor Kenneth Kung teaches safety outside of a gunshot-distance range. The World Wide Web works outside of University Police jurisdiction and his 15 students learn to open their eyes to predators potentially a continent away. Computer security necessitates knowledge, not muscle. The problem is a lot of the knowledge can be as big [...]
Some time back a friend had been using a computer with a pirate XP program in it. Miraculously this 80-year old lady remained ignorant of this fact until I stepped in to iron out her numerous system problems. I noted first and foremost that someone had ticked a box preventing any connection to Microsoft [...]
More than 42% of PC users neglect to defragment their computers, according to a client-sponsored survey conducted by online opinion polling and market research service provider Vizu Corporation. This failure to conduct routine computer maintenance can adversely affect system performance for both home and enterprise users, slowing operations such as bootup, file retrieval, Web browsing, [...]
In 1988, the Jerusalem virus appeared and swept across much of Europe. At the time, Peter Norton did not believe that viruses would ever be a serious problem for individual computer users. So says Patrick Evans, MD of Symantec SA, who cites Norton’s famous quote: “Viruses are like alligators in the sewers of New York, [...]
Q: I downloaded Windows Defender and have Windows XP. I also have McAfee AOL security suite. I disabled the spyware program in the security suite. I receive errors from MacAfee saying I am not fully protected. Should I re-enable the spyware suite with MacAfee? My hunch is that the spyware program integrates with their other [...]