Category: Security

The WebRep plugin from avast! is a browser add-on for Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It is similar to WoT plugin and tells you about the reputation of a website. If a website is known to be malicious in nature, then it warns you so that you can avoid visiting it. avast! WebRep is automatically installed in your browsers when you install any of the avast! security products including avast! Free Antivirus or avast! Internet Security.

Many of the malicious files use different tactics to stay hidden from the user. One of the basic trick they use is to switch on the hidden file attributes so that for most of the users they are not visible. The freeware program Hidden File Finder makes it very easy for you to search for hidden files and folders on your PC and delete them.

The most common way of malware infection these days is through infected USB keys. The infected USB keys have a malicious autorun.inf file on it that is specially written to run the malware as soon as you insert the key to a USB port on your PC. Once your PC is infected, it keeps infecting the new USB keys that you plug into your computer. Antirun is one of the tools that can protect your PC against autorun virus and remove the malicious autorun.inf files upon detection.

The participation of teenage children on social networking sites has become a norm in modern life. On the social networks they not only interact with their friends but also sometimes with strangers. They may talk about inappropriate matters, approached by cyber criminals and also can be bullied online. To prevent these things from happening, you can use Avira Social Network Protection which scans the social network of your children and alerts you when a suspicious activity occurs.

You can hide folders and files by changing their hidden attributes in Windows File Explorer, but this way of hiding files is very insecure. Just about anyone can reset the file attributes or change the File Explorer settings to view all files irrespective of their attributes. A better and more secure way to hide the files is through the free WinMend Folder Hidden software. It can hide folders and files quickly from local partitions and removable portable disks drives.

When you find about a new website, the first thought that comes to your mind is if that website is safe to visit. Its perfectly normal to be a little careful about unknown websites because some of the websites are used for drive-by-download malware infection. In addition to protecting your PC with a standard anti-virus product, you can check if a website is safe to visit or not, using the free Comodo Web Inspector service.

Bots are malicious software that infect your computer and let it be controlled by cyber-criminals remotely. When a bot malware like SpyEye, Zbot, Zeus etc., infect your computer they take over your PC and allow the cyber-criminals through a command and control center. The free software BotRevolt blocks the known IP addresses used by these bots and thus disrupts the bot activity for an infected Windows machine.

Sality is a family of polymorphic malware that has been around since 2003. It can infect all the executable files on your PC, connect to the internet through P2P mechanism to download more malware, setup malicious proxy servers on your computer, send spam to your contacts and so on. It uses advanced techniques to avoid detection. Fortunately some instances of Sality malware can be cleaned while other infected files which have been damaged beyond repair can be removed.

Virut is a botnet malware family that has been infecting computers since it first appeared in 2006. Through these years it has modified and updated itself with advanced anti-detection techniques so that it does not get caught by regular antivirus products. It uses many polymorphic and encryption techniques that make it so difficult to detect. But by using the right tools, you can detect and remove it from your system very easily.

SecureAge SecureAPlus is a combination of standard antivirus and application blocker. It can not only detect and remove malware, viruses, trojans, rootkits etc. from your computer, but it can also whitelist which applications you want to run on your PC. It uses the free ClamAV antivirus engine and definitions along with its own application whitelisting technology.