![Netgear Nighthawk X10 Wireless AD7200 Router Review [Updated]](/Image/CropThumbnail/?width=58&height=58&imageFile=/ContentImages/Article/2568/thumbnail/default/thumbnail.jpg)
Items tagged with Antivirus
Computer security has always been somewhat of a hot topic, though it has intensified in recent weeks in the wake of the global WannaCry ransomware outbreak. In response, Microsoft has issued a series of updates to Windows, including legacy versions no longer supported such as Windows XP and Windows Vista. Microsoft also used the heightened focus on PC security as an opportunity to explain its stance on antivirus software and how Windows 10 handles third-party AV programs. You might recall that Kaspersky, one of the more popular third-party security outfits, took Microsoft to task over the way Windows...
Read more...
The folks at Kaspersky, one of the biggest antivirus companies on the planet, are not too pleased with Microsoft's recent Windows design cues. Last year, the company filed a complaint against the Redmond company with Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), and recently, it did the same thing in Europe. Any mention of Windows and "monopoly" make this complaint easy to figure out without even looking at it. Kaspersky has a beef with how Microsoft promotes the use of its Defender antivirus / anti-malware app over third-party solutions. One issue in particular is how Windows acts as a bit of a...
Read more...
Security researchers at Cybellum, a PC security firm in Tel Aviv, Israel, have discovered a rather nasty new zero-day attack that allows remote attackers to hijack popular antivirus programs and turn them into malicious agents. The technique is called DoubleAgent, named after the fact that a compromised antivirus agent might give the illusion that it's protecting a PC when it's actually installing malware. "DoubleAgent exploits a 15 year old vulnerability which works on all versions of Microsoft Windows, starting from Windows XP right up to the latest release of Windows 10. The sad, but plain fact...
Read more...
Microsoft has a long and somewhat bumpy road in the antivirus field. Even its latest AV solution, Windows Defender, has not always garnered praise, though that is beginning to change. A recent blog post by a security expert who heaped praise on the default security software in Windows has prompted others to come out and speak in favor of using Windows Defender instead of a third-party solution. "At best, there is negligible evidence that major non-MS AV products give a net improvement in security. More likely, they hurt security significantly; for example, see bugs in AV products listed in Google's...
Read more...
Third-party antivirus developers aren't happy with the way Windows 10 seemingly goes to great lengths to kick AV programs to the curb in favor of Microsoft's own built-in Defender software, and that has led to an antitrust investigation in Russia. Among the various complaints, the Russian antitrust authority will see if Microsoft abused its position of dominance by rushing the OS to market. Russia's antitrust suit echos the complaints Eugene Kaspsersky shared in a lengthy blog post blasting Microsoft for how it treats Defender versus third-party AV programs. Kaspersky, who is the CEO of Kaspersky...
Read more...
Cybersecurity expert Eugene Kaspersky just channeled his inner Howard Beale to let Microsoft know he's mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore. If that reference is too old, we can kick things up a decade to Twisted Sister, as all that's missing from his strongly worded and scathing blog post calling out Microsoft for unfairly favoring its own Defender antivirus software over third-party solutions is the 1980s band's hit song playing in the background. While Eugene himself doesn't bring this up, there are quite a few parallels between the song "We're Not Gonna Take It" and his message to...
Read more...
AVG has long been considered one of the so called good guys in security software. It drew fan support for offering a no cost version of its antivirus software, which traditionally has worked quite well, but its reputation as a champion of the average Joe is now in jeopardy over a revised privacy policy. As part of the new single-page privacy policy, AVG explains that it may collect and sell non-personal data to third parties. Such data might include a user's browsing and search history (including meta data) so that AVG can "make money from our free offerings" and "keep them free." This kind of...
Read more...
It's said that real life is sometimes stranger than fiction, and that couldn't be any more truer when it comes to John McAfee, a former programmer for NASA and founder of McAfee Associates, a computer antivirus company that's now owned by Intel. His story contains drugs, an unsolved murder investigation, foreign government conspiracies, and even a faked heart attack, some of which he'll discuss during a Dateline NBC special titled "The Fugitive Millionaire" that's set to air on Thursday, March 26 at 8pm/7c. We have the inside scoop. NBC Universal provided HotHardware with a few excerpts of the...
Read more...
Recent years have seen software publishers increasingly moving from boxed software to a subscription model. Adobe moved its famous Photoshop software and related programs to the subscription-based Creative Cloud in 2012 and hasn’t looked back. Microsoft still offers boxed versions of its Office software, but it has been heavily promoting the Office 365 subscriptions. Now, Symantec is heading to the subscription model with its flagship Norton computer security products. The new Norton Security pulls multiple Norton products into a single subscription that will run you about $80 per year. Symantec...
Read more...
Symantec, which has been making antivirus products for decades (including Norton, the first piece of software most people would try to remove from a new PC), is getting out of the antivirus game, sort of. Brian Dye, Symantec's senior vice president for information security, told the Wall Street Journal that in Synamtec’s view, antivirus is dead. "We don't think of antivirus as a moneymaker in any way," he stated. That doesn't mean the company is completely abandoning Norton, but it is heading in a new direction. Basically, instead of primarily focusing on keeping the walls secure, Symantec...
Read more...
In the quest to quell all the malware that persists in the world, you need a good antimalware solution, but one is not just as good as the next. In a new report, Dennis Technology Labs compared 9 of the top anti-malware products from various companies to see which handled the onslaught the best. Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 topped the list, boasting 100% “Legitimate Accuracy” and 99% “Total Accuracy”, while ESET Smart Security 7 wasn’t far behind with 100% and 98% respectively, and third place went to Norton Internet Security with 97% and 97%. Bringing up the rear...
Read more...
You can debate all day long how much of a threat malware truly poses to Google's Android platform, but if you want to err on the side of caution, there are antivirus solutions available to you. The most popular appears to be AVG's free AV app, which just leapfrogged over 100 million downloads on Google Play. That's an impressive achievement and one that puts the app in the same company as WhatsApp, Skype, Twitter, and others that fall into the 100-500 million downloads club. Even more impressive than making it into the 100-500 million downloads category is being the only the AV app represented...
Read more...
You probably carry with you or have at home a USB thumb drive filled with malware removal tools and other security software. After all, once word gets out that you know a thing or two about computers, the requests from family and friends to fix their PCs come fast and furious, and a self-assembled toolkit can make these repair jobs easier and less time consuming. Security firm Malwarebytes has taken this idea and built what it calls a USB-based "Techbench," which is essentially a professional grade anti-malware USB stick. You plug the Techbench into an infected PC and it will get busy automatically...
Read more...
One of the reasons to considering upgrading to Windows 8 is the improved security Microsoft baked into its latest operating system. This is especially true if you pair the touch-friendly OS with an antivirus or Internet security suite program, a point that's underscored by the latest results published by AV-Test.org, an independent testing firm located in Germany. For the first time, AV-Test examined antivirus protection in Windows 8, testing more than two dozen programs, including Microsoft's built-in Windows Defender 4.0 engine. Remarkably, all 26 programs put under the microscope were awarded...
Read more...
