FREE Total PC Security Software Developed by Security Experts July 17, 2008
Posted by Jeffrey Vergara in : Downloads, Windows , add a commentBlink Personal provides home PC protection plus Internet Security. Including all-in-one antivirus, antispyware, antiphishing, identity theft protection, plus personal firewalls.Blink’s interface is intuitive and easy to use because it resembles Windows XP’s streamlined Control Panel, and icons include summaries of configuration details.
Blink Personal Features:
Firewall - Controls network traffic to and from this system, permitting or denying communications based on a set of rules. Virus and Spyware Protection - Performs in-memory protection and disk scanning for computer threats such as viruses, worms, trojans, adware and spyware. Intrusion Prevention - Monitors network activities for malicious or unwanted behavior and reacts in real-time to block or prevent those activities. Vulnerability Assessment - Scans the local machine and identifies missing patches, misconfigurations and poor security settings. System Protection - Provides proactive, host-based security against zero-day attacks.
Is Blink FREE?
There are 2 versions of Blink, the Personal and Professional edition. The Blink Personal Edition normally cost $24.95 and the Professional edition cost $29. Currently eEye is giving away their Blink Personal edition for you to use for a year if you live in the United States and Canada, or for 30 days if you live outside of these countries. I’ve tried setting my clock few months ahead and it tells me that my license has expired. The weird thing is when I hit the back button and then the Next button to re-enter the old serial number, it allows me to use Blink Personal Edition again.
Is Blink effective against computer security threats?
I’ve tested Blink against a few public version of trojans which can be detected by other antivirus program and it can immediately warns me that a backdoor is found. Unfortunately Blink is unable to detect any backdoor when I tested it with private version of trojan. A private version of trojan is meant to avoid being detected by an antivirus program. If the antivirus fails to detect it, then I can say that its heuristic detection is not that good. One thing I can be sure of is Blink can protect you from most of zero day exploits and vulnerabilities.
Is Blink light on system resources?
From the official website, it mentioned that Blink is extremely lightweight and the Blink endpoint protection agent runs at around 60MB. From Sysinternals Process Explorer, I see that there are 4 processes that belongs to Blink. All 4 processes takes up 124MB memory usage! That is a freaking bloated internet security software and they dare to say that Blink is EXTREMELY lightweight?
So there’s my review on eEye Blink Personal Edition. Now you tell me whether would you use Blink Personal Edition to protect your computer against internet security threats?
Source: Raymond.cc
How To Change a Windows XP Limited User Account Into a Computer Administrator July 17, 2008
Posted by Jeffrey Vergara in : Tutorials, Windows , add a commentOne of the place that I work at has a few hundreds of computers and it is shared by students. Each student has their own user account which is a limited user account. Sometimes the lecturer there will complain to me that the administrator password has been hacked and changed by the students. This can be easily done if they did not set a security password for BIOS and allows the student to boot up the computer with a CD that is equipped with a tool to reset any local user account’s password. When the teachers reported to me that the students managed to turn a limited user account into a computer administrator, my guess was the students reset the administrator password, login as admin and changed the account type to administrator.
But I was wrong. It turns out that the students did not reset the admin password and they were able to do it without logging in to Windows as administrator. After a little searching, I found a free tool that can change a Windows XP limited user account into a computer administrator.
PCLoginNow is an easy-to-use tool to reset local administrator and other accounts passwords on Windows system. No need to reinstall the system. It resets Windows passwords and Windows security settings instantly. All version of Windows are completely supported. It’s an incredible CD for Home users and Businesses. And most of all, it’s the most popular and safe solution for removing your Windows password until now.
Besides the abilities of resetting passwords, PCLoginNow can also help you maintain, change accounts policy setting and properties. You can easily upgrades an general account to administrator level, lock or unlock those accounts you don’t need anymore, And moreover, all of these are done without booting your tedious, time-consuming Windows System.
The most powerful feature PCLoginNow have is to support Syskey. SYSKEY is an optional feature since Windows NT 4.0 SP3. It is meant to protect against offline password cracking attacks so that the SAM database would still be secure even if someone had a copy of it. Even though the system registry is protected by Syskey, PCLoginNow can easily bypass this mechanism and reset the Windows passwords.
FREE BitDefender Rescue CD July 17, 2008
Posted by Jeffrey Vergara in : Downloads, Windows , add a commentBitDefender Offers FREE Rescue CD with Ability to Auto Update Virus Definition
The best is to use BitDefender Rescue CD because it has the ability to automatically update its virus definition if it finds an internet connection whenever you boot up the computer with the Rescue CD. As far as I know, BitDefender is highly sensitive in detecting both known and unknown virus.
BitDefender Rescue CD is similar to Kaspersky and Avira’s one. You’ll have to download the ISO image (bitdefender_2008_RescueCD_v2.iso) and burn it to a CD or DVD. Then boot up the computer with the disc and you’ll get a screen that looks like the image below.
Hit the “ENTER” key on your keyboard and it’ll start loading Linux from the CD. At the final stage of loading linux files, BitDefender will automatically try to update the scanner and virus definition. This is automated and you don’t need to configure or run anything. If you have a fast internet connection (broadband), you’d need to wait for about 10 minutes for the update to complete. If it stalls for a long time and your modem/router adsl LED is not blinking, then I suggest you to try boot up the CD again.
Once the scanner and definition is updated, it’ll automatically launch BitDefender Antimalware Scan interface. All you need to do is to click the Start button and it’ll start scanning your local hard drive for virus.
The free BitDefender Rescue CD also contains other useful third party utilities such as ChkRootkit for scanning for rootkis, Nessus Network Scanner as remote network security scanner, Mozilla Firefox, Partition Image, GtkRecover and etc… Now we have Kaspersky Rescue CD, Avira Antivir Rescue System CD and BitDefender Rescue CD. Now I’ll try to figure out whether it is possible to combine all 3 CD or ISO into 1 disc.
Tip: If for some reason the Linux is unable to mount and read your hard drive which is preventing BitDefender scanner to scan your files, you can run “Terminal Emulator” from the desktop and type the command ntfsfix.
Source: raymond.cc
FREE KasperskyRescue Disk July 4, 2008
Posted by Jeffrey Vergara in : Downloads, Windows , add a commentClean Virus Without Booting in Windows
Some virus are very destructive or badly coded until it affects Windows stability. One of the worst thing that could happen is you’re unable to boot in to Windows and not even Safe Mode. That makes it harder for tech people to troubleshoot the problem and ended up in reformatting the hard drive to reinstall Windows.
Kaspersky Rescue Disk offers a safe way to remove viruses from a computer without the risk of getting infected. Boot from the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to scan and remove threats from an infected computer without the risk of infecting other files or computers. All you need to do is the download the ISO file, burn the ISO image to a CD, insert it into the infected system’s CD-ROM drive, enter the PC’s BIOS, set it to boot from the CD and reboot the computer.