From computers and laptops to a notebook or an iPhone; all of these and many more gadgets are around today to help us to access the internet wherever we may be. Antivirus protection is becoming a necessity.

We can be sitting at home, on the train to work or out on a Saturday night, but with the latest gizmos we can always access the net but this begs the important question: do you have the best antivirus to stop you from being phished?  

Antivirus PC software sometimes come installed on new computers and internet related equipment purchased but the phishers are changing their style everyday so you have to as well.

Phishing is the latest word for a type of computer hack where the hacker attempts to gain sensitive information like log-in details and passwords. It is totally illegal but finding the guys, girls or groups that carry out these types of scams is tricky so you need to make sure you are fully secure with up-to-date antivirus PC software.

How do I protect myself online?

If you are looking online for some of the top security PC software you will come across many companies that offer various protection packages.  

As well as using security PC software you may want to level some commonsense that will be invaluable when surfing the net. Many of us use social networking sites and phishers have been targeting the likes of Facebook and Twitter as a new way of gaining information.  

You can do a lot to protect yourself online and here a few ideas: 

• Limit your personal information you post on social networking sites.
• Do not accept friend requests from people you do not know.
• Never give personal information via these types of sites, even to friends.

 If you are concerned about internet security and are looking for antivirus PC software check out these special offers on antivirus software

Guest Article by Louise Goldstein

Norton has compiled a list of the top US kids online searches last year and near the top of the pile was the somewhat predictable searches for “sex” and “porn” which were number four and five respectively with those aged 18 and under.

Norton, which is the anti-virus software made by Symantec, make the point that whilst parents may live in hope their teenage offspring are searching for things like the blockbuster movie hit New Moon, or in the case of the seven and unders Sesame Street, their kids will also be finding out a few other things as well.

However, the good news is that the top three kids’ searches in 2009 were YouTube, Google and Facebook.

But Norton advises parents to be aware of what their children are searching for, as each of the first three choices above can of course lead to highly inappropriate content. They are also recommend using a software package to help parents keep an eye on their kids online searches. The Norton OnlineFamily is one such choice for those parents keen to get help.

And when the stats are shown for those searches including the words Sex and Porn, there seems little differences between the boys and the girls. For example, although for boys the search term sex came in at number four, for girls it was only one less at number five. In case you were wondering, girls put the search words Taylor Swift in at number four.

As for the boy’s top 25 searches, they were mostly concerned, apart from the adult related words, with social networking and shopping sites, and games. The girls also had a panache for social networking sites, but were more interested in music, TV, film and celebrity sites.

Not surprisingly perhaps, recently deceased pop mega star Michael Jackson was the most popular celebrity search last year with kids, coming in at number 12, with Taylor Swift at number 13. Other top celebrity searches included Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Lil Wayne, Megan Fox, Eminem, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, the Black Eyed Peas, the Jonas Brothers, Rihanna, and Chris Brown.

Marian Merritt, Norton Internet Safety Advocate, said:
“When it comes to online threats, parents need to be concerned about more than just their child running into inappropriate content. What makes OnlineFamily.Norton unique is that it gives parents insight into kids’ online activities and what interests them most so that parents can ensure they have a discussion with them about topics they’re curious about, as well as protect them from cyber threats.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Learn how to control your kids surfing here

The online leak of the Microsoft free tool which helps law enforcement agencies to retrieve forensic evidence in the first ‘rush’ of a crime scene is perhaps not as serious as first thought.

This site ran a story a while back which announced that Interpol’s Global Security Initiative (GSI), which focusses on international security challenges, has been given free use of Microsoft’s Computer Online Forensics Evidence Extractor (hence COFEE) to help the fight against cyber crime.

COFEE help scene of the crime officers gather computer evidence in-situ and quickly. This type of evidence is regarded as volatile and not as efficiently collected as traditional forensic evidence. Microsoft hoped that by giving Interpol, and others, COFEE, it would go a long way to help combating the spread of cyber crime.

But reports from various sites online say that Microsoft does not regard the leak as a major leak. It is said to be investigating the circumstances behind it, but pointed out that COFEE is fundamentally an application which contains a collection of digital forensic tools which are common throughout the world. In other words, it is not ‘secret’ code which will unlock forensic tricks and techniques for the criminal community.

What’s more, those in the know said that the leaked version of COFEE was incomplete, with maybe less than 50% of the programme out there. Which leads watchers of the saga to the conclusion that COFEE is about procedure and technique in the heat of the incident, rather than a magical code which allows the police to get the upper hand.

Indeed, some experts have stated their disappointment that COFEE was not better than they had expected. Some went as far as to suggest that other similar programmes on the market would do a better job.

Some cynics have also stated that maybe Microsoft is deliberately downplaying the incident to avoid any embarrassment over its leaking which is not a great advertisement for the company, or the product. Also, others have challenged Microsoft’s relaxed attitude, given that maybe some criminals could learn from the leak and adapt their browsing and internet use accordingly.

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

Have you ever checked to see how your web site is ranking in all the search engines? It can be a painstaking, laborious task when done manually and, what’s more, there isn’t a simple way of tracking how you’re doing over time without investing in quite costly software solutions. Until now.  Enter www.CuteRank.net.

CuteNet is a FREE tool for tracking web site rankings on multiple search engines over time and it’s a great little time-saver for website administrators, SEO professionals and Bloggers.

Download a copy now and start saving time on manual ranking checks.

I discovered this tool recently and I’m already hooked after just a few weeks. Fast, reliable and very easy to use, it’s a great little tool for any web site owner interested in keeping track of their SEO rankings. It even exports data, the interface is very clean and professional and it is one of the fastest solutions I’ve tested to date.

Here is a full list of CuteRank’s features:

Check website ranking on multiple search engines
With a single click, CuteRank is able to check rankings of multiple sites for multiple keywords on multiple search engines (including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, and AOL)

Check if your website ranking went up or down
CuteRank will automatically compare the most recent two ranking results and mark the difference, so that you can see whether your website ranking went up or down.

Check which page ranks the best on search engines
You may have different pages ranking on different search engines, CuteRank tell you which page ranks best on which search engine.

Track your website ranking performance over a long term
CuteRank allows you to track your website ranking performance as long as one year, in a vivid graph.

View detailed keyword ranking history on multiple search engines
CuteRank not only allows you to track ranking performance in a graph, but also allows you to view detailed ranking history on different search engines.

Automatically update keyword rankings on system startup/on schedule
CuteRank is able to automatically update keyword rankings on system startup or on a scheduled date time, all you need to do is to edit your site and keyword and let CuteRank do the rest for you.

Export website ranking results for future use
CuteRank allows you to export your website ranking data in a certain period as .csv and .pdf formats for future analysis and report purposes.

View a csv format sample
View a pdf format sample

Article by Alan Potts

One of the biggest computer security companies has published a list of the most dubious websites for 2009.

Symantec, the company behind the Norton range of anti-virus products has identified the ‘Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer 2009.’ These are 100 sites with the most threats detected by the site ratings service Norton Safe Web as of August 2009. They represent the ‘worst-of-the-worst’ say Symantec, based on the number of threats detected by Norton Safe Web.

Symantec say that it’s no surprise that some 50% of the worst websites are those that feature pornographic content. But what did surprise them was that many of those in the top 100 did feature innocent subject matter, including deer hunting, catering, figure skating, legal services and buying electronics.

And the most common threat found on the top 100 dirtiest sites was malware, followed by security risks and browser exploits. What’s worse, is that simply visiting one of the worst sites could risk exposing a computer to infection and identity theft, even without clicking on an item, or downloading a file.

“This list underscores what our research shows – there has been exponential growth in the number of online threats that are constantly evolving as cybercriminals look for new ways to target your money, identity or assets. In 2008, most new infections occurred while people were surfing the Web1,” said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec. “Norton Safe Web provides visual ratings that let consumers know about potential risks before visiting a site. Armed with this information, consumers are empowered to make informed decisions about which sites to visit.”

Symantec calculated that the average number of threats on the Dirtiest Web Sites list is an incredible 18,000 per site. Indeed, 40 of the 100 Dirtiest Web Sites have more than 20,000 threats per site.

And below is a sample of the Dirtiest Web Sites:

• 17ebook.com
• aladel.net
• bpwhamburgorchardpark.org
• clicnews.com
• dfwdiesel.net
• divineenterprises.net
• fantasticfilms.ru
• gardensrestaurantandcatering.com)
• ginedis.com
• gncr.org
• hdvideoforums.org
• hihanin.com
• kingfamilyphotoalbum.com)
• likaraoke.com
• mactep.org
• magic4you.nu
• marbling.pe.kr
• nacjalneg.info
• pronline.ru
• purplehoodie.com
• qsng.cn
• seksburada.net
• sportsmansclub.net
• stock888.cn
• tathli.com
• teamclouds.com
• texaswhitetailfever.com
• wadefamilytree.org
• xnescat.info
• yt118.com

Avoid the above like the plague.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Who’s the most dangerous celebrity in cyberspace? Whose name is most attached to those websites and downloads that might just contain a virus? According to computer security company McAfee, top of the charts for 2009 is Jessica Biel.

Ms Biel is not only the top celebrity internet search request because of her much admired figure, but also because of her high profile relationship with mega-star Justin Timberlake. But, for example, McAfee reckon that almost half of the sites promising Jessica Biel screen-savers were identified as containing malicious downloads with spyware, adware and potential viruses.

Interestingly, McAfee discovered that web searches for political celebrities like Barak and Michelle Obama were less likely to lead to sites that contain viruses. They ranked 34th and 39th respectively.

It’s a well known ploy for cyber criminals to use celebrity ‘come-ons’ to get people looking up certain sites. This is the third time that McAfee has compiled its annual list using its SiteAdvisor technology for celebrity names that produces the largest number of risky sites and overall risk percentage, when searched on the Web.

“Cybercriminals are star watchers too. They latch onto popular celebrities to encourage the download of malicious software in disguise…” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs. “Consumer’s obsession with celebrity news and culture is harmless in theory, but one bad download can cause a lot of damage to a computer.”

Number two in the hit parade is pop music diva Beyonce who has been in the second slot for two years now. Inputting Beyonce ringtones into a search engine yielded a dangerous web-site linking to a distributor of adware and spyware.

The others were, in order after Biel and Beyonce:

3. Jennifer Aniston. It was discovered that over 40% of Google search results for screensavers featuring this favourite Friends star contained some evil viruses, including one called the Fun Love virus;
4. Tom Brady. Many fans of American Football try downloading free files of this New England Patriots star in action, but they should watch out, because many are infested with a Trojan.
5. Jessica Simpson. Be warned, a video download of this star can lead to serious computer health problems;
6. Gisele Bundchen. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the world’s top supermodel is a target for the cybercriminals. And many searches of this celebrity’s name ends up with links to some dubious websites;
7. Miley Cyrus. Links to many harmful sites containing spyware.
8. Megan Fox/Angelina Jolie. Equally risky, as searches for these names often lead to risky websites;
9. Ashley Tisdale. Look for screensavers for this popular High Street Musical star and you might get more than you bargained for, including malware downloads;
10. Brad Pitt. Although this famous film star has fallen from last year’s top spot, a search for his name still resulted in a large number of red and yellow ranked websites;
11. Reese Witherspoon. Search for this name and you can enter a number of risky websites, plus many of the downloadable pictures contain malware.
12. Britney Spears. Such a popular search is bound to attract its fair share of nasties and if you search for this pop diva, then watch out. McAfee found one site promoting Britney Spears wallpaper had more than 50 potentially infected downloads;
13. Rihanna. Fans of Rihanna ringtones had better take care – they are some of the most sought after – but McAfee warns users that they are some dubious sellers out there who seem intent only on collecting personal information and selling it on;
14. Lindsay Lohan. Many of the Lindsay Lohan screen saver sites are infected with Trojans, viruses and spyware.
15. Kim Kardashian. She may be one of the biggest reality stars for many months, but many Kim Kardashian wallpaper and screen savers are home to a fair amount of lurking malware.

So, be warned, when downloading your favourite celebration digital wallpaper, screen savers, images, or ringtones, ensure that you are using bona fida websites, otherwise you might get a bit of a shock.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The cybersecurity giant McAfee has released details of its network security strategy to give enterprises a secure and cost effective security solution.

McAfee’s new network security strategy has been developed to address the needs and desires of business and enterprises. Many of these concerns are focused around the slowdown in today’s economy, which appears to be driving cybercriminals to be more and more of a threat to businesses’ cybersecurity.

In conjunction with Purdue University, McAfee has discovered that businesses worldwide are losing an estimated one trillion dollars a year through cybercrime. Malware is on the rise, with McAfee reporting that in the year 2008 they saw more new malware than in past years combined.

McAfee has therefore responded to the growing concerns and worries of its consumers, by ensuring that their security solutions are cost effective and come from a single vendor.

Dan Ryan, executive vice president of Network Security Business Unit at McAfee, said: “From conversations with our customers, it is clear that enterprises spend an enormous amount of time, money and administrative overhead managing multiple security products. McAfee’s comprehensive line of network security products eliminates the need for multi-vendor solutions and ensures the absolute lowest total cost of ownership available today.”

The McAfee strategy integrates all areas of McAfee’s portfolio of products, including: network firewalls, web and e-mail security, data loss prevention, and McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator provides a centralised security management console. The security is maintained by McAfee’s global threat intelligence, which is powered by McAfee Avert Labs.

Chris Christiansen, vice president, Security Practice, IDC: “Organizations must take a more unified approach to security. The days of managing network defence, Web and messaging security and data security as separate activities simply won’t succeed in today’s economic and threat environment. Effective Network Security must have global intelligence and must be integrated into the broader organizational security management infrastructure. Vendors that deliver these levels of integration in a complete suite will be successful as this will lower overall cost of ownership for organizations. For the next three to five years, reducing cost of ownership will drive security investments.”

McAfee is delivering their strategy within their Network Security Business Unit.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

McAfee, a world leader in computer security, has announced the release of McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator 4.5 software to advance its protection to businesses and governments.

The drive to keep protection to maintain cybersecurity in some of the most vital areas of national and business security, comes as McAfee Avert Labs releases data showing attacks on businesses increases 500% over the last year.

On top of this, McAfee’s research also indicates that some large company or enterprise networks can use as many as 200 different security providers to try to keep their computers secure. This naturally dilutes the power of any of these providers to keep a company network secure, as well as costing the business significant amounts of money.

The McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator 4.5 software is therefore an answer to some of the main problems of business and its cybersecurity today.

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator satisfied four main elements that McAfee believed all organisations should take into account when securing their network, including an integrated defence and real-time threat intelligence with in-the-cloud protection.

McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator has a number of additional highlights to ensure it can maintain the security of even the largest networks, for example:

• Improved enterprise scalability: new architecture is multi-layered, featuring: load balancing, failover support, with awareness of multiple servers to improve policy management and reporting.
• Enhanced Web-based, customizable interface: streamlined navigation and reporting enhancements provide a visibility of the organization’s security. A more powerful and intuitive interface means end-to-end visibility across the whole security environment
• Improved workflow and automation framework: this helps to minimize vulnerabilities and save administrator time. Automated protection is based on user profiles instead of just the system or device. As well as this a new help desk ticketing integration with HP OpenView and BMC Remedy helps to automate any workflow tasks.

Matt Fairbanks, senior vice president of product and solution marketing at McAfee, said: “IT organizations want to consolidate and standardize on a strategic security partner to deliver the highest protection levels while driving down cost. With McAfee’s unmatched network and systems security portfolio, powerful compliance technologies, real-time Global Threat Intelligence, and a security management platform based on ePolicy Orchestrator, McAfee is transforming the way businesses approach security.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

McAfee, a leading name in computer security, has announced the release of McAfee Total Protection Service. The service is one of the industry’s very first Security-as-a-Service solutions, which offers constant protection without needing investment into infrastructure on-premise.

Marc Olesen, senior vice president and general manager of McAfee Software-as-a-Service said: “Total Protection Service is a key component of the McAfee Security-as-a-Service strategy. With this release, we’re broadening our SaaS offerings to enterprise customers. While small and mid-size businesses are very familiar with Total Protection Service, larger companies are realising the benefits of SaaS in helping them reduce operating costs while strengthening their security controls.”

McAfee’s Total Protection Service delivers integrated protection for all areas of computer usage, and access to SecurityCenter. This online console, managed by McAfee, allows a greater flexibility for administration and management of Total Protection. Administrators can improve and manage the protection with customised dashboards of the security environment.

The Total Protection Service indicates McAfee’s approach to computer security as a service which must be accessible but – just as fundamentally – should also be affordable. This is particularly pertinent in a world where the economic slowdown has meant many businesses cannot afford to maintain the security of their systems.

McAfee’s Total Protection Service is made affordable by online deployment, off-site infrastructure, and reporting in real-time. This also saves significant time for the business or enterprise which runs this new Security-as-a-Service solution. The Security-as-a-Service model means that McAfee manages the system remotely, so the infrastructure to provide a business with computer security does not have be installed and maintained on-site.

Evidence for the affordable element of McAfee’s Total Protection Service include the 50% cost savings on average that is recognised by McAfee customers.

To make sure that customers are kept safe from the wide variety of sophisticated cyber threats, McAfee’s Security-as-a-Service portfolio is powered by Global Threat Intelligence in real-time. This is gathered by McAfee Avert Labs, which utilise McAfee Artemis and TrustedSource. These are cloud-based technologies which help McAfee’s Security-as-a-Service update as new threats appear.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The computer security giant McAfee has identified which Internet searches are most dangerous to computer safety and which are the safest.

McAfee’s report, entitled ‘The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms’ claimed that dangerous Internet searches include searching for things such as free music or screensavers. These search terms are used by cybercriminals to ensnare web users and lead them to their own websites.

Once a web surfer has visited this website, they are vulnerable to downloads that infect your computer, such as spyware which can help reveal private bank details to hackers and other cybercriminals.

McAfee’s report also identifies that these dangerous search terms are changing with regard to the new global economic environment. With higher numbers of people being made redundant due to the economic slump affecting so many, cybercriminals are now using search results to target people looking to save money or find a job working at home.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Product Development & Avert Labs said: “Cybercriminals are smart. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, hackers will create related Web sites laden with adware and malware whenever a particular topic increases in popularity. Unsuspecting consumers are then tricked into downloading malicious software that leads them to blindly hand over their personal assets to cybercriminals.”

The riskiest set of search words, according to McAfee’s report, include keywords to the variation of ‘screensavers’. The research concluded that nearly six out of the top 10 search results for the keyword ‘screensavers’ contained some form of malware.

The riskiest search of the 2,600 most popular keywords that McAfee researched was ‘lyrics’, with the risk factor rising to one in two.

The research concluded, however, that the word Viagra was one of the least risky of keywords. The keywords with the safest risk profile included search words related to health and the current economic climate.

McAfee’s report also indicated global variations on these risks. Many of these countries had keyword categories that ended up exposing web surfers to the higher risk sites. 12 countries were exposed to an overall higher risk than McAfee’s average, including Mexico and India. McAfee’s report therefore pointed to cybercriminals targeting those outside of the U.S.

McAfee gave caution to home workers and to those looking to save money: if a result contains the word ‘free’ it has a 21.3% chance of infecting a computer with spyware, spam, adware and other malicious cyber threats. The search ‘work from home’ is four times riskier than the average risk given for all popular terms.

To protect against these vulnerabilities, McAfee SiteAdvisor Technology has been designed. This rates every trafficked site on the Internet to conduct automated tests. Web sites are ranked using coloured ratings, so that users are knowledgeable as to what they are clicking on. McAfee have also recently announced the Cybercrime Response Unit to help arm users against the threat.

Guest Article by Neil Camp