“Antivirus firm AVG unveils LinkScanner for Mac” plus 2 more |
- Antivirus firm AVG unveils LinkScanner for Mac
- Outpost Antivirus Pro 7.0
- Good picks for antivirus, spyware
| Antivirus firm AVG unveils LinkScanner for Mac Posted: 15 Jun 2010 04:46 AM PDT A company that provides antivirus offerings for PC users is bringing a free link checker to the Mac. AVG Technologies plans to unveil a Mac version of AVG LinkScanner, a free download that scans Website links for potential threats. AVG says its LinkScanner application checks Web pages in real-time, posting a warning to users if the software finds a Website that could pose potential problems. "Every single time you click on a link, any time you're accessing information on the Internet, we scan it, looking for malware and phishing attempts," J.R. Smith, CEO of AVG, told Macworld. AVG's software doesn't rely on blacklisted sites that have been flagged for potential harmful content. Rather, the application uses real-time checking to alert users to potentially problematic sites. The company relies heavily on a large user base - tens of millions of users, according to AVG--to ensure users are surfing to secure Web pages. Mac users have lived largely free of malware and viruses, as malware creators have focused on attacking more widely used platforms. That figures to change as the Mac becomes a more widely used system, thanks to the growth of both OS X and Apple's mobile iOS. But the real threat is posed by the growth of social networking sites that increase the risk Web surfers could fall prey to phishing and other malicious attacks. "We're not here screaming that Macs are vulnerable," said Smith, adding that like any platform the Mac OS has its vulnerabilities. Rather, Smith continues, the threats posed by attacks via social networks threaten users regardless of platform. "We're protecting people in some cases from themselves." Look at the increasing prominence of shortened URLs, Smith said. Savvy Web surfers used to be able to look at a URL and spot a potential phishing attempt; condensed URLs make that harder to do. "You can't see [the full URL]," Smith added. "You can't be your own policeman." The free download of AVG LinkScanner is designed for Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6; it runs on Mozilla Firefox 3.x and later as well as Safari 3.x and later, including the newly released version 5 of Apple's Web browser. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2010 03:20 PM PDT Some Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Good picks for antivirus, spyware Posted: 15 Jun 2010 10:14 PM PDT I was reminded of this as numerous readers wrote in, complaining about the three free spyware/antivirus programs my geek recommended. Yet each of these programs is extremely popular and well-regarded. CCleaner is one of the most respected programs, with nearly 4,000 people giving it an average rating of 4.5 stars (out of 5) on http://down load.com . MalwareBytes is just as well-rated and even more popular, and Ad-Aware gets very good reviews and has hundreds of thousands of downloads. Yet for some of you, these programs aren't helpful. My husband experienced this. A couple of years ago, he downloaded Kaspersky, which was then the highest-rated antivirus program; people raved about it. But Kaspersky made his computer so slow he could barely uninstall the program. So as with many things, finding a malware program that works is a matter of trial and error. Our favorite is the free Microsoft Security Essentials. It identified a Trojan worm that came off my husband's thumb drive the other day, quickly quarantined it and got rid of it. The scans are quick, and it doesn't slow down computer startup. You can find it at www.micro soft.com/security_essentials . It'll ask you to uninstall other antivirus software; go ahead and do so - you should never run more than one antivirus program at a time. Other readers had a bone to pick with me regarding programs I said were free, but didn't seem to be. CCleaner is free; you can make a donation to the development of the software, but there's no charge required. It appears that the readers who were told they must pay to use CCleaner were tricked into downloading rogue software masquerading as that program. This problem showed up on the CCleaner userforum over the winter, and geeks tracked the problem to a banner ad with a large "download" button right next to the legitimate download on a third-party download page. If you want to try again, you can safely download it from the developer at www.piriform .com/ccleaner . The same problem popped up (pun intended) for readers who thought they had downloaded Ad-Aware Free but received a notice after the initial scan that they had to pay up for the program to remove all of the threats identified. Also good: Lavasoft Like CCleaner, Lavasoft's Ad-Aware Free program is 100 percent free for home, noncommercial use - no strings attached. The program has a great reputation, spawning copycats trying to capitalize on its success. Lavasoft maintains a "Rogue Gallery" of malware masquerading as legitimate security software at www.lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/ rogues/latest . "If users are not aware of, or cautious of, these rogue programs, it can be quite easy to fall for a fake," company spokeswoman Erin Earley says. The download.com page for Ad-Aware Free features a large ad for a different security product, she points out, so pay attention to what you're clicking on. To download the legitimate software, Earley instructsusers to go to lavasoft.com and click on the green "Download FREE" button. Click on the gray "Download" button on the left, which will take you to download.com. Finally, click on the "Download now" button on the left featuring a square green graphic. Legitimate downloads on this site feature that green graphic. Two final notes: Some readers fell victim to an ill-placed line break that added a hyphen to MalwareBytes' URL. The download is at malwarebytes.org. And my apologies for not providing a better link to Startup Optimizer. You can try this URL to find the program I was referencing: tinyurl.com/geekstartupop timizer . Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
) is a good example of this approach. Others work on capturing those users who like to see exactly what's going on and take full control of all settings. That crowd will surely prefer Outpost Antivirus Pro 7.0 ($24.95 for 3 licenses, direct), the latest offering from Russian security company Agnitum, Ltd. It turns out, though, that cranking up the product's security settings means drowning you in popup warnings about tons of perfectly valid programs.
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