Anti-Malware

In it’s latest meeting in Helsinki, The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organisation (AMTSO) has adopted two new sets of guidelines for testing the perforance of security software and for testing entire security suites.

Security software testing organisations such as AV-Test.org and Virus Bulletin who test and rank security software for its effectiveness are often at odds with the security companies who produce the software. It is hoped that the agreement forged between leading security companies and the researchers will put an end to these long standing arguments.

Part of a series of documents on ATMSO’s website, the guidelines aim to introduce a set of standards widely accepted within the industry to help rank security software by effectivenessm, and althought they are no mandatory, many testing organisations have already agreed to adopt them including AV-Test.org, AV-Comparatives, Virus Bulletin, ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs.

Asked what he thought of the outcome, ATMSO board member and director of malware intellengence for ESSET, David Harley had this to say:

We’re just trying to get people to think harder their methodologies so that they actually make sense. It doesn’t mean you can’t do things different ways, it just means you have to try and conform to a rationality.

John Hawes from Virus Bulletin also commented on the guidelines:

We’ve already started implementing some of the ideas developed while discussing and designing this document, with some major expansions to the performance data we report in our comparatives in recent months and more improvements on the way.

We’re also hard at work developing a new style of test which will allow us to measure the full range of features in many of today’s security solutions.

Although the ATMSO has come to an agreement with these leading vendors, it has been critised in the past by others in the industry for lack of transparancy because many of the organisations members are comprised of security software vendors and may not entirely end the fueding between parties. AMTSO chairman and manager of Sophos’ threat lab commented that:

What we are trying to do is get everyone involved to think more widely about decisions made in designing tests. In this case we are talking about testing a whole product and not just part of a product, which can be very misleading, and also about measuring performance where it is so easy to create a performance test that is really just meaningless.

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More than 40 security product vendors including McAfee, Symantic and Kaspersky have pledged their support for a new project aim at creating a standard system for testing security software.

The proposed system would outline how tests should be carried out including:

• The type of malware used
• The method of analysis
• Accurate support for a conclusion
• Procedures for studying and disclosing new malware

In recent years some security software firms have been calling for an updated standard to be established as current test are often criticised for their inability to accurately access certain types of anti-malware programs.

It is hoped that the proposed standard will allow independent testing groups and security firms alike to research the effectiveness of anti-malware software with greater accuracy and neutraility.

McAfee senior vice president Jeeff Green:

While there have been many great security software reviews in the past, many poor reviews have confused or misled people.

This is a significant milestone that should skew the balance towards fair and scientific testing, providing users with a true viewpoint on the security protection vendors provide.

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Spyware blocking software has quickly become one of the mandatory tools used in internet security. It is no longer just users that are targeted, but corporate websites are under constant attack.

In the last few months we have seen popular Australian websites such as Daily Deals be infected with malware by hackers – a costly exercise for any business with the potential to lose Google ranking, have Anti-Virus plug-in display “this website is potential unsafe” warnings or a PR disaster.

These high traffic websites are the perfect target for criminal hackers as if they successfully penetrate a servers defences, which is often doing automatically they can distribute their malicious code to hundreds of thousands of users in a short time span.

Spyware has evolved quickly and now takes many forms such as:

• Websites and banner advertising serving up malware
• Spyware, Spam, Phising & Viruses
• Instant Messaging & Skype malware
• P2P file sharing malware
• Hijacked Facebook accounts & malicous Facebook applications

The criminal creators of the spyware are constantly innovating to gain an advantage over security vendors. Web attacks have seen a dramatic increase is recent years which has meant large websites such as Facebook have had to take more precautionary measures with the way users distribute links amongst themselves.

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By: Jason Bell

Did you know that you can easily maintain a healthy, high-speed computer, just by taking a little initiative and performing a few PC performance tips? Let me show you how!

Keep Your Windows Updated

Microsoft releases regular updates to incorporate new features and patch up any security vulnerabilities in their products. These security vulnerabilities are usually exploited by hackers and other malicious software to attack your system. To prevent this, you must regularly install Windows updates on your computer. If your computer is always connected to the Internet, you can enable the Automatic Windows Update feature by using the Security Center option in Control Panel. By keeping Windows updated, you are one step closer to preventing a faulty Windows registry and the slow PC performance that follows.

Get Rid of Viruses, Spyware And Malware

Anti-malware tools, such as anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are a must for all Windows users. This is because in addition to adding malicious data to your computer, malware programs, such as Trojans and spyware also slow-down your system by exhausting the system resources. They are also responsible for undesired spam e-mails, popup ads, and other unwanted activities that hamper your work and cause slow PC performance. To prevent this, you must choose an anti-malware tool that:

• Offers a live update feature – this helps to ensure that your system is protected against the latest malware.
• Provides real-time protection – helps by blocking any external malicious intrusions to your system.
• Enables scheduling full-system scans – provides you with peace of mind by performing regular full system scans to ensure that your system stays free of malicious information that cause the dreaded PC performance problems.

Clean the Registry

Faulty Windows registry problems can occur due to an accumulation of massive junk information are one of the major causes of slow PC performance. This junk information gets in the registry due to:

• Frequent Adding/Removing of programs installed on the computer.
• Downloading and installing unknown and unsecure program files from the Internet.System crashes.
• Faulty software and device drivers.
• Malfunctioning hardware, such as bad RAM or a faulty CPU.
• Malware infections.

To prevent this junk information from harming your computer, you need to regularly scan the registry with the help of reputable PC repair software program. Using this software will weed out all this unwanted information from the faulty Windows registry. We highly recommend a program called Registry Easy, although there are a variety of suitable PC repair programs out there.

Clean the Hard Disk

As your PC gets older, it fills up with an abundance of files and programs that you no longer need. As a matter fact, there may be several programs (spyware/adware) that may be installed even without your knowledge. The first step in cleaning the disk is to get rid of all these unwanted programs. You can uninstall these programs either by using the Add or Remove Programs option in the Control Panel or by using a reliable third-party uninstaller tool. Next, clean up the unwanted files by using the Disk Cleanup tool. Finally, use the Disk Defragmenter tool to further optimize the hard disk by defragmenting all fragmented files. A clean and defragmented hard disk speeds up data access and thus improves the slow PC performance that has been affecting your computing experience.

Author Resource:-> The Windows registry has been an area of confusion for most PC users. Luckily, they no longer need to deal with the the slow PC performance that a faulty Windows registry can cause. If you are one of the many who suffer from this same problem, there is a new website with an abundance of PC performance tips and software. For more information, including a free scan of your Windows registry, visit www.quickregistrycleaner.com

Article From PROPERTY INVESTOR LANDLORD

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The latest update for Snow Leopard includes a patch to defend Mac users from a trojan horse that has been widely distributed by attackers diguising themselves as iPhoto, the photo management software that is shipped with new Macs. The security form Sophos said on Friday the infected software opens a back door on the users machine.

10 months since Apple debuted some basic malware scanning tools into the Snow Leopard OS they have quietly distributed this signature update. The 10.6.4 update added a scanning signature for another Trojan, which Symantec has labeled as “HellRTS.

Some security experts have criticised Apple’s attempt to hide the malware update which only encourages Mac users to be unaware of such threats.

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