ADV: Free Anti-Virus Scan
85645
If your computer is slowing down or crashing, you may have a virus. Scan now to find out!  Detects viruses, spyware and worms. Includes free spam and popup blockers.
744672
Windows security holes patched; tool to rid PCs of malicious software now available.
623775
Beats out competitor for right to scan 187 million MSN Hotmail accounts for viruses.
274144
(InfoWorld) - They just don't make malware like they used to. Or at least like they did earlier this year. Even low-quality malware, however, is taxing the resources of security companies, since it is being detected in ever-higher numbers. Over the last six months, the technical creativity of malware has fallen along with the ability to cause massive damage, such as that created by the MyDoom and Sasser worms of years past, wrote Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst for Kaspersky Lab, in a recent report. Gostev's lab intermittently sees highly technical malware, but most is "the same unending stream of Trojans, viruses and worms," he wrote. In many cases, hackers simply take existing malware and create variants, by tweaking the older code to evade antivirus software. At times, the process is simple trial and error. Malware writers use online scanners such as Virustotal , which check to see if their new code will be detected by antivirus software, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure. If the code is detectable, they can make a slight modification and run it through the scanner again. "I'd like to tell you that we're winning this war," Hypponen said. "But frankly, I'm not so sure. We need new kinds of solutions." Because much of the code is not new, it tends to remain effective for shorter periods of time before antivirus companies detect it. Still, the time it takes to identify and create a signature for a new virus, which can range from a few minutes to a few hours, is often long enough for hackers to infect computers. "Antivirus companies are working at the limits of their capabilities in terms of speed," Gostev wrote. To be sure, some malicious hackers are doing creative work. This year saw some sophisticated phishing attacks, and virus writers have been branching into relatively new areas like instant messaging and social networking sites, noted Christopher Boyd, security research manager for FaceTime Communications. But the trend overall, he said, has been "quantity over quality." Kaspersky Lab in Moscow is on the front lines of the battle. Its analysts added 2,000 signatures to their database in January 2005. Last month they added 10,000 signatures -- a five-fold increase, said Stanislav Shevchenko, head of the lab. The virus analysts work 12-hours shifts, pulling up screen after screen of rolling lines of code. Automated tools analyze some pieces of malware, but human analysis is still needed for others. A good analyst should process an average piece of malware within 5 minutes, Shevchenko said. But some of the rarer, more creative code is harder to crack. Polymorphic viruses -- ones that can change their byte sequences to throw off antivirus software -- can take up to a week to analyze, Shevchenko said. The signatures are added to a database used by Kaspersky's antivirus engine, which is licensed by other security vendors such as Juniper Networks, ClearSwift , and F-Secure. The increase in the volume of malicious code can be attributed in part to the impunity enjoyed by malware writers, said Eugene Kaspersky, head of antivirus research. Despite efforts by law enforcement agencies to strengthen international cooperation, most malware writers are never punished. "It's quite safe for them," Kaspersky said. "If they are clever enough, there is almost no risk for them at the moment." The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the country's KGB intelligence agency, frequently ask Kaspersky Lab for information, said Kaspersky spokesman Timur Tsoriev. The FSB, however, approaches Kaspersky less these days since the agency has bolstered its in-house expertise, Kaspersky said. Kaspersky said his lab focuses less on finding the root of criminal activity than protecting the company's customers. But the burden of rising online criminal activity directly impacts security companies, he said. "If there is no help from the police and if they don't reduce the number of criminals, I'm afraid the detection for all antivirus products will go down," Kaspersky said.
94834
When your antivirus, spyware stopper, or firewall keeps you from getting your work done, find an alternative.
371886
By Anne Krishnan, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.  Feb. 14--Q: I have discovered a Web site that allows free downloads of programs such as WinZip. How do I find out if sites like this are legitimate and if the software is safe?   T.W.
385332
Microsoft releases two free programs designed to help users keep PCs free of viruses and spyware.
652
Virtual virus hits Second Life &gt;&gt; Advertisement &lt;&lt;  ALERT: "How A Hacker Launches A Blind SQL Injection Attack Step-by-Step"!" - White Paper  Blind SQL Injection can deliver total control of your server to a hacker giving them the ability to read, write and manipulate all data stored in your backend systems! Download this *FREE* white paper from SPI Dynamics for a complete guide to protection! https://download.spidynamics.com/1/ad/bsq.asp?Campaign_ID=701600000004c29
564167
Viruses and worms just keep getting smarter and more devious. While the best defense is not opening e-mail attachments, you still need a solid antivirus program.
412274
Microsoft gives away a security firewall with its latest operating system. Many high-speed Internet service providers offer free anti-virus protection for subscribers. And several Web sites distribute free toolbars to warn of Web scams.
263416
Majority of Home Computers Infected with Spyware  Donât ever let anybody tell you otherwise, the Internet is not a safe place to take your computer systems without adequate protection. It wasnât too long ago that anti-virus and firewall software could provide your systems with more than enough security to safely cruise ...
647538
ClamWin Free Antivirus version 0.36 introduces faster checking for new virus database files using DNS queries. Please upgrade to the new version in order to reduce load on virus database servers.   It also fixes couple of annoying bugs such as:      * Failure to detect HTML viruses;     * Failure to operate correctly if a user name or profile folder name contains non-English characters (this often happened on a non-English version of MS Windows);     * Hanging and consuming 100% processor time when scanning a file with .. or .... in the file name;  Other changes are:     * upgraded to python 2.3.3     * upgraded to pywin32-203     * upgarded to py2exe 0.5.4     * upgraded to innosetup 4.2.7  This latest release can be found here:  https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105508&package_id=113616
455054
Trend Micro, a rival anti-virus firm to Symantec, made an announcement stating that it will offer its anti-virus and anti-spam security software for free to users until June, 2005.
187566
Infected computers can be used as &quot;zombies&quot; to send spam or launch attacks on Web sites. Spreading Trojans via chat rooms is not unusual.
191524
Google has released a free search tool which sits on the PC desktop and can search its host computer for virtually anything. Launched on Thursday, it blends a search of hard-drive files, emails, recently visited
480779
Malware arrives in the form of a game, disables antivirus protection.
166352
Over the past month, a new type of malicious software has emerged, using a decades-old technique to hide itself from antivirus software.