Virus protection

If you are heavy firefox user ( like me ), there is good news in terms of security. McAfee SiteAdvisor is available as “extension”. It is good thing. . I recently installed extension on my firefox and it has been very helpful.
If you are IE user, it is not that bad. Plugin is available for IE too.

What is it ?

McAfee SiteAdvisor helps protect you from all kinds of Web-based security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser exploits, phishing, online fraud and identity theft. Their automated testers continually patrol the Web to browse sites, download files, and sign-up for things with e-mail addresses. As you search, browse, download or register online, SiteAdvisor’s safety ratings help you stay safe and in control.

It is FREE to use. I think that it is great tool to help identify “bad” sites. We do need some sort of database to do so.

How does it look?

McAfee SiteAdvisor icon

Here is screen shot of search result page

McAfee SiteAdvisor in action

Green color: Good to go !

McAfee SiteAdvisor: Green color- Good to go
Red Color - Use caution

McAfee SiteAdvisor: Red color - Stop

If you are not using it, I will strongly recommend it to use it.

Download links

From download.com ( For firefox )

From download.com ( For IE )

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Filed under News, Virus protection, Reviews

YES, you do ! ( And you need a good one )

After recent incident of hacking of my email account, first thing I did was to buy “Spyware doctor” ( an Anti-spyware software ) to help me out.

If you are not using one yet, THINK AGAIN.

I wrote in my previous post that I will be doing some research on available products in market. I did some and here is quick summary

Available products

Boy! there are so many. Not surprising that so many companies are working hard to fight spyware and from business perspective there is enough market as well as challenge to solve spyware issues. It provides encouraging environment for both - Hacker and protectors

Almost all of anti-virus companies offer anti-spyware software or application as part of complete Internet security suite. However, there are many companies, which just focus on anti-spyware.

Here is long list I found

Ad-aware SE [ Company: Lavasoft ]
Spybot S&D [ Company: SaferNetworking ] - Free software. Works well.
Pest Patrol [ Company: CA ]
Spy Sweeper [ Company: Webroot ]
Windows Defender [ Company: Microsoft ]
CounterSpy [ Company: Sunbelt]
AntiSpyware [ Company: McAfee ]
Anti-Spyware [ Company: TrendMicro ]
Spyware Doctor [ Company: PC Tools ] - I personally tried this.
SpyCatcher [ Company: Tenebril ]
Spyware X-term. [ Company: StompSoft ]
X-Cleaner [ Company: Xblock.com]
SUPERAntiSpyware [ Company: SUPERAdBlocker ]
ewido anti-spyware [ Company: ewido/Grisoft ]
Ashampoo AntiSpyware [ Company: Ashampoo ]
ZeroSpyware [ Company: FBM Software ]
Spyware Fighter [ Company: SPAMFighter ]
Spyware Terminator [ Company: Crawler]

Spyware Doctor did over all good job and found couple of spywares, which can be potentially harmful. It instantly fixed it and now I hope they will not come back.

How do they work ?

I will be posting this in separate post or page.

Detailed comparison/Review

Guess what ! There are many good folks out there who are trying fight spyware and doing something about it. I found that few others have already done detailed analysis of products available in market.

I found following comparision page quite informative on SpywareWarrior’s website

http://spywarewarrior.com/asw-features.htm

Based on this page and work done by Suzi Turner, here is recommended list.

In addition, there are other “freeware” scanners that you may find useful:

Spybot Search & Destroy - If you are techy, I am sure that you will know this one . In “free” category this is the best I have seen so far. If you don’t use ANY anti-spyware as of now, PLEASE, at least start using this one.

Be Safe

Spyware & Malware