It is important to keep your computer free from malware for a better and a safer computing experience. There are 10 tips i would like to share that are a bare minimum for safe computing.

1. Updated antivirus
• Keep an updated antivirus in your PC. You can go for AVG free online edition and download it from download.com. It is useful and has the auto update feature
  
2. Anti spyware
• Keep an anti spyware installed. Most of us think an antivirus is OK. But some antiviruses don't come with an antispyware.
  
3. Don't download EXE files
• You might get an exe file in your email as attachment or while downloading a software. Be careful while doing so. You can be downloading a possibly deadly virus.Check out the website/source you are downloading and when you are 100% sure, then only download it.
  
4. Go for a routed traffic
• If you are connecting to the internet through a broadband service and you do not have a router, go get it. They are cheap
  
5. Allow OS auto updates
• Let your windows or your MAC OS be updated. They contain bug fixes and also seal several loopholes that might allow the hacker to break in to your PC.
  
6. Activate the hardware firewall
• Your router should support SPI. SPI is Stateful packet inspection, whihc distinguishes the good internet traffic from the bad harmful ones
  
7. Don't mix multiple firewalls
• 2 is better than 1 does not go well with firewalls. It does not increase your safety quotient. It just calls for headaches.
  
8. Go for one antivirus
• Again the same thing. Go for one antivirus. Two will just slow your system and add headache
  
9. Use a bi-directional firewall
• It comes standard with Mac OS and Windows Vista. The old windows users can get a third party firewall(check point's zone alarm)
  
10. Don't use auto fill for filling passwords
• Auto fills can be a disaster waiting to happen to your email account. Better remember your password and write it somewhere.This becomes even more vulnerable, when using a shared or an office based PC. You can use the master password in Firefox. In Internet explorer you can go to content tab and then to autocomplete settings to disable.

Malware has managed to get off the planet and onto the International Space Station (ISS), NASA confirmed today. And it's not the first time that a worm or virus has stowed away on a trip into orbit.

The attack code, which space news site SpaceRef.com identified Monday as "W32.Gammima.AG," infected at least one of the laptops used on the station, an international effort headlined by the U.S. and Russia.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Kelly Humphries declined to identify the malware, saying only that antivirus software detected a worm on July 25.
The first public report of malware about the ISS was logged on Aug. 11. In NASA's daily status report on the station, the agency said that Sergey Volkov, the ISS commander, was "working on the Russian RSS-2 laptop" and "ran digital photo flash cards from stowage through a virus check with the Norton AntiVirus application."A week later, on Aug. 21, Volkov "checked another Russian laptop, today RSK-1, for software virus by scanning its hard drives and a photo disk."

The next day, Volkov transmitted antivirus scanning results from the laptop to Earth, and U.S. astronaut Greg Chamitoff scanned another computer for possible infection. NASA also said in Friday's report that all laptops on board the ISS were being loaded with antivirus software.

"All A31p laptops onboard are currently being loaded with [the] latest [Norton AntiVirus] software and updated definition files for increased protection," said NASA.
source:Computer world

Scientists across the world are devising new techniques and are exploring other protocols to serve one purpose, a high bandwidth. Internet service providers are competing with each other to provide higher bandwidths to customers at competitive prices. The world is on the internet highway, where the speed limit is continuously increasing. We live, talk and socialize on the internet. Some of us met their life partners on the internet. Wow! what a life changing experience. Amidst all this positivity and development, there have been many people who have been affected. Some positively and a few negatively. The most affected people have been the movie producers. Their movies have been stolen, ripped and are available for download on forums across the world. For the internet user with a high bandwidth and a less price, it would take a few minutes to download the DVD rip of a movie. A movie once downloaded, will surely be circulated across and once his friends see the movie, they wouldn't actually spend money to go to the theater to watch them. If you are more patient, a week or two (maximum) after the movies release, pirated copies are available for less than $1. With high bandwidth comes the risk of huge file transfers (illegal). Recently some chinese suckers (hackers), hacked Indian defense websites, stealing vital information. I feel hacking is an achievement (of evil) in itself and hackers being the lord voldermort (the evil guy) of harry potter. Some times this evil is used by us, when we use and watch pirated stuff. It will take some hard work and smart effort by the antivirus and web security companies to curb the ill effect of high bandwidth

In computing, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets.
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The sheer volume and complexity of computer viruses being released on the Internet today has the anti-virus industry on the defensive, experts say, underscoring the need for consumers to avoid relying on anti-virus software alone to keep their home computers safe and secure.

Approximately 5.5 million malicious software programs were unleashed on the Web last year, according to AV Test Labs, a German company that measures how quickly and accurately anti-virus products detect the latest malicious software, also known as "malware." That volume, AV said, forced anti-virus firms to analyze between 15,000 and 20,000 new specimens each day -- more than four times the daily average they found in 2006, and at least 15 times as many the company recorded in 2005. In the first two months of 2008 alone, AV Test found more than one million samples of malware spreading online.

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In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, or simply trojan, is a piece of software which appears to perform a certain action but in fact performs another such as a computer virus. Contrary to popular belief, this action, usually encoded in a hidden payload, may or may not be actually malicious, but Trojan horses are notorious today for their use in the installation of backdoor programs. Simply put, a Trojan horse is not a computer virus in most cases. Unlike such malware, it does not propagate by self-replication but relies heavily on the exploitation of an end-user (see Social engineering). It is instead a categorical attribute which can encompass many different forms of codes. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse. The term is derived from the classical story of the Trojan Horse.

Story of the Trojan horse

In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, or simply trojan, is a piece of software which appears to perform a certain action but in fact performs another such as a computer virus. Contrary to popular belief, this action, usually encoded in a hidden payload, may or may not be actually malicious, but Trojan horses are notorious today for their use in the installation of backdoor programs. Simply put, a Trojan horse is not a computer virus in most cases. Unlike such malware, it does not propagate by self-replication but relies heavily on the exploitation of an end-user (see Social engineering). It is instead a categorical attribute which can encompass many different forms of codes. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse. The term is derived from the classical story of the Trojan Horse.

The end of the Trojan war came with one final plan. Odysseus devised a new ruse—a giant hollow wooden horse, an animal that was sacred to the Trojans. It was built by Epeius and guided by Athena, from the wood of a cornel tree grove sacred to Apollo, with the inscription:

The Greeks dedicate this thank-offering to Athena for their return home.

The hollow horse was filled with soldiers led by Odysseus. The rest of the army burned the camp and sailed for Tenedos.

When the Trojans discovered that the Greeks were gone, believing the war was over, they "joyfully dragged the horse inside the city", while they debated what to do with it. Some thought they ought to hurl it down from the rocks, others thought they should burn it, while others said they ought to dedicate it to Athena.

Both Cassandra and Laocoön warned against keeping the horse. While Cassandra had been given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, she was also cursed by Apollo to never be believed. Serpents then came out of the sea and devoured either Laocoön and one of his two sons, Laocoön and both his sons, or only his sons, a portent which so alarmed the followers of Aeneas that they withdrew to Ida.The Trojans decided to keep the horse and turned to a night of mad revelry and celebration. Sinon, an Achaean spy, signaled the fleet stationed at Tenedos when "it was midnight and the clear moon was rising" and the soldiers from inside the horse emerged and killed the guards and finally TROY was ruined by the GREEKS.

This story clearly shows how the TROJAN virus affects your system.


Source: Wikipedia

Posted on February 23, 2008.

What is NOD32 ?

• NOD32 is an antivirus package made by the Slovak company Eset.
• Versions are available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other platforms.
• A NOD32 Enterprise Edition is available that consists of NOD32 AntiVirus and NOD32 Remote Administrator.
• The NOD32 Remote Administrator program allows a network administrator to monitor anti-virus functions, push installations and upgrades to unprotected PCs on the network, and update configuration files from a central location.

NOD32 was born in the early 1990s when computer viruses were becoming increasingly prevalent.

What does it provide ?

• AMON (Antivirus MONitor) - scans files as they are accessed by the system, preventing a virus from executing on the system.
• DMON (Document MONitor) - scans Microsoft Office documents and files for macro viruses as they are opened and saved by Office applications.
• IMON (Internet MONitor) - intercepts traffic on common protocols such as POP3 and HTTP to detect and intercept viruses before they are saved to discs.
• EMON (E-mail MONitor) - An auxiliary module for scanning incoming/outgoing e-mails via the MAPI interface, such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Client.
• XMON (MS eXchange MONitor) - scans incoming and outgoing mail when NOD32 is running and licensed for Microsoft Exchange Server - ie, running on a server environment. This module is not present on workstations at all.

What makes it the best ?

• NOD32 is written largely in assembly code, which contributes to its low use of system resources and high scanning speed.
• NOD32 can process more than 23MB per second while scanning on a Pentium 4 based PC.
  It uses less than 20MB of memory in total.The physical RAM used is often just a third of that.
• According to a 2005 Virus Bulletin test, NOD32 performs scans two to five times faster than other antivirus competitors.
• In a networked environment NOD32 clients can update from a central “mirror server” on the network, reducing bandwidth usage since new definitions need only be downloaded once by the mirror server as opposed to once for each client.
• In addition to signature files, NOD32’s scan engine uses heuristic detection (called “ThreatSense” by Eset) to provide better protection against newly released viruses.

Also Visit: ESET website

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