Category: Security

avast! Browser Cleanup tool can be used to remove unwanted toolbars and other add-ons from your installed browsers. avast! Browser Cleanup supports the three most popular web browsers – Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It works by collecting the information about your installed add-ons and then sending it to the avast! servers. Then it displays the add-ons with low rating and offers you to remove them.

The HOSTS file in Windows, Linux and Mac is used to locally map the website addresses to their IP addresses. This feature can be used to block malicious and inappropriate web sites on your computer. The free software Hostsman can automatically download and update your HOSTS file from the well known sources like MVPS Hosts, hpHosts etc. to block known malicious, phishing and attack sites.

Cyber criminals are doing everything to steal your passwords and login information for various sites (including your online banking accounts). They make use of special malware called keyloggers to capture your login credentials. You can protect your passwords from being stolen by using free KeyScrambler Personal. It is a free software that can scramble (or encrypt) your passwords as you enter them on a webpage.

Rootkits are one of the worst kind of malware that are specially crafted to hide their presence from the operating system and usually have the highest level of access to your computer. You cannot detect rootkits using the ordinary methods of detection. You need a special software like Bitdefender Rootkit Remover to detect and remove any rootkits hiding on your system. The Bitdefender Rootkit Remover tool can detect and remove known rootkits quickly and effectively.

We often come across situations when we want to delete some files in such a way that nobody can recover them. The reasons vary from the need to deleting private or sensitive data regularly to getting rid of unwanted files like malware left-overs. We have previously discussed many free ware tools to achieve this goal. Zer0 from KC Softwares is a similar tool that helps you delete selected files beyond recovery.

If you have not enabled the Automatic Windows Update feature, then you are taking a big risk of exposing your system to many vulnerabilities that have already been patched by Microsoft. But if you insist on installing the Windows updates manually, then a simple freeware tool called Protector Plus Windows Vulnerability Scanner can help you out. It can scan your system for patches (or hotfixes) that you have not installed and give you a list of vulnerabilities your system is open to.

A botnet is a collection of internet connected zombie computers which are being controlled by cyber criminals through the bot malware like SpyEye, Zeus and Palevo. The most common way of a PC getting infected by bot malware is through drive-by-downloads. When you visit a specially crafted website, it automatically downloads bot malware on your PC and infects it. The free Mirage AntiBot tool updates your HOSTS file to block such attack sites.

These days cyber criminals are trying to hide attack scripts inside the comments or advertisements of good websites too. If you are doubtful about a website, then you can scan it using the free Quttera URL Scanner. It can scan all the elements of the target site for malicious files and suspicious scripts. It can detect known as well as new types of injected malicious scripts.

Private Tunnel is a free VPN (virtual private networking) service from OpenVPN Technologies Inc. It allows you to spoof your IP address, encrypt your data transfer over the internet and block attack websites. It is very useful if you are trying to access the geographically locked content. For example, the BBC website allows to watch free TV online only if you are from the UK. Using Private Tunnel, you can spoof your IP address and make it appear to be from UK and access those TV shows.

Contrary to the popular belief that you stay anonymous on the internet, you are actually exposed as soon as you visit websites. Your IP address can be used to identify you and locate you geographically on the world map. OkayFreedom VPN is a free virtual private networking (VPN) service that allows you to spoof your IP address, surf the web anonymously and access the blocked sites in your region.