Category: Security

Windows comes with Notepad which is easiest and lightweight text editor for all kinds of text files. But it is not secure. If you want to save your text information securely without having to encrypt and decrypt the files using external tools like AXCrypt, then you can make use of the free SafePad program. It is lightweight like Notepad, has rich text features like Wordpad and saves text files in encrypted format automatically.

The Internet today is full of malicious websites

When a malware infects your computer, it can disable various critical components like registry editor, task manager etc. Even after the malware is removed, these components remain disabled. Although you can manually edit various settings in your computer to re-enable these components, but it is a very tedious task. Now you can enable these disable components easily using the Quick Disaster Recovery.

ESET, the leading security company from Slovakia, has introduced a new rogueware removal tool called ERAR which is short for ESET Rogue Applications Remover. This tool is a standalone application for Windows and can help you remove rogueware. Rogurware is rogue security software that masquerades as a real security software (anti-virus or anti-malware) and deceives the user by showing that it can remove viruses, trojans and malware only if you pay for it.

Sometimes when you re-install Windows in a multi-boot system, the Windows setup overwrites the boot sector and MBR and you have to boot from the Windows DVD/CD and fix the MBR. You can save yourself from this trouble by backing up your hard disk MBR and then restoring it when needed using HDHacker. HDHacker is a stand-alone micro-utility that saves, visualizes, and restores the MBR (from a physical drive), the BootSector (from a logical drive) or any specified sector from any disk (even removable disks).

Usually you upload suspicious files to the VirusTotal site and see if it is malicious in nature. The VirusTotal site not only checks an uploaded file for malware but it also analyzes its various aspects like the file type, the compiler type, resources embedded, PE sections and more. If you want to analyze the suspicious files right on your desktop then you can use the freeware tool called PeStudio which can give you detailed information about PE (portable executable) files similar to VirusTotal.

When you connect to a website, your computer first resolves its IP address using the DNS query. Then your browser connects to it and that website is opened in the browser. In order to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks or your ISP eavesdropping on you, we usually use the HTTPS protocol to encrypt any data being downloaded or uploaded to a website. But what about the DNS queries? Your ISP would still know which website you tried to open. This is where DNSCrypt software comes in.

Sometimes, when you try to move, delete or rename a file or folder, Windows refuses to do so and shows a message that the file(or folder) is in use by another program. This is because the handle to that file (or folder) is opened by a program intentionally or by mistake. Some malicious programs do this intentionally so that you cannot remove their files. In any case, you can use the freeware EMCO Unlock IT to detect and remove any locked resources, files or folders.

Malware writers are always looking forward to new ways of targeting their victims. New types of malware are being released into the wild everyday on the internet. If you are lucky and smart, then you would have installed an antivirus product to fend off such malware attacks. But if you get infected through some unfortunate event, then you should use a specialized software. SUPER AntiSpyware is such a free software.