The best mobile apps for business users
Useful apps tend to embed themselves deeply into people's work lives and stay installed on their devices for the long term. As a result it can be hard to get a definitive list of the best apps at any one time.
To try to remedy this, app quality company Applause has produced a report that ranks 130 business apps based on what people feel about them. Categories of apps ranked include communication, organization, work productivity, security and weather.
Pawn shop phones contain left over personal data
If you buy a used mobile phone you could be getting more than you bargained for according to security software company Avast. It seems that some phone owners are inadvertently pawning their porn.
Avast purchased 20 used smartphones from pawn shops in 4 cities -- New York, Paris, Barcelona and Berlin. The goal being to see if used phones are regularly being sold with previous owners’ personal information still retrievable on them.
Smart TVs pose huge security risks
Over the past few years we have seen everyday items such as refrigerators, lighting and heating systems and even kettles all of a sudden becoming "smart". In fact there are now more smart items on the planet than smart humans, or in fact any type of humans, with an estimated 13.4 billion devices currently connected to the Internet. This is not necessarily a problem -- until, of course, hackers start exploiting these devices to gain access to your home or work networks.
Most people would never even suspect that their television set could be hacked, yet this is happening, in research labs at least, with greater frequency. In one recent example, security company Avast demonstrated a hack of a Vizio Smart TV enabling root access to the TV’s underlying Linux operating system. Last year I also found that this flaw involving a maliciously crafted SSID value could be exploited with a USB device. After exploiting this flaw, the attacker has access to everything connected to the home network of their victim. Avast also demonstrated what a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacker (such as an intrusive government or ISP) could learn by monitoring network traffic from the TV set.
Sophos Home: super-simple free antivirus for Windows and Mac
Avira, Avast, Baidu: plenty of developers offer free antivirus these days, and it can be as reliable as the commercial competition.
It’s tough for a new product to stand out from the crowd, then -- but the new Sophos Home has found a way.
Malwarebytes exposes adware that disables antivirus
Malwarebytes has issued a detailed report explaining the various tricks Vonteera adware uses to compromise your PC -- and it makes for uncomfortable reading.
Unwanted adverts, unknown Windows services, modified shortcuts, forced installation of uninstallable Chrome extensions, even a way to prevent you running antivirus software -- it’s all here.
The performance impact of internet security products
Many people cite performance issues as a reason why they're reluctant to run or end up uninstalling internet security products.
Independent testing organization AV-Comparatives has released the results of its latest studies on a range of security products, focussing on how they impact system performance.
Check your Android device for 22 vulnerabilities
Google’s latest Android update has fixed another stack of security vulnerabilities, including yet more Stagefright issues.
This doesn’t mean you’re safe, of course -- OEMs can take a very long time to release their own updates, and older devices may not get them at all.
The secret life of lost smartphones
Have you ever lost a mobile phone and wondered where it went? Security company Avast had the same thought and deliberately 'lost' 20 phones to find out what happened to them.
Avast installed three security apps on all the phones, the free Avast Anti-Theft app, Lookout Mobile Security, and Clean Master. It then randomly placed 10 phones in San Francisco and 10 in New York. Each phone was marked with contact information on where to return the device if found.
6 tips on how to protect your mobile device
Because mobile use is becoming more popular, there are more and more security threats that are being designed specifically to target mobile platforms and operating systems.
As a result, many mobile users are starting to panic. Well don’t worry; here are the five best ways that you can protect the information stored on your mobile device.
NirSoft rates antivirus engines for false positives
If you regularly download small technical Windows tools then you’ll know they’re often incorrectly flagged as malware, even when from very trusted sources.
Which security companies are the worst offenders? Freeware developer NirSoft has released a report scoring Virustotal’s 57 antivirus engines for their response to its utilities.
How to uninstall antivirus
You don’t need an antivirus package any more? It should be easy: just run the uninstaller and try something else.
Sounds great, until the uninstaller hangs, crashes, or won’t run at all. And you can’t install a new version because it demands you remove the old one first.
The most effective malware removal tools
The security industry tends to focus on prevention, but even on the best protected system there's always a chance of zero day infections slipping through the net. It's therefore important that products have an effective removal capability too.
The latest report from independent testing organization AV-Comparatives focuses on 16 of the leading security tools and how good they are at removing malware from infected systems.
Over half of UK smaller businesses spend less than 2 percent of their IT budget on security
Smaller businesses often have a limited budget for securing their IT systems which can leave them uniquely vulnerable. Antivirus company Avast launched its free Avast for Business cloud offering aimed at SMBs earlier this year and has been surveying users to find out how they handle their security.
Among the findings are that almost three-quarters of respondents say that all of their employees use the internet. Yet despite the high number of data breaches 57 percent of SMBs in the UK invest only between zero and two percent of their IT budget on security.
Upgrading to Windows 10? Here are the compatible Antivirus products you need
On the eve of the Windows 10 launch, the excitement is starting to build. Many consumers are preparing for the upgrade. After all, for Windows 7 and 8 users, this will be a free affair.
For the most part, unless you are using something very obscure, most of your existing programs should work fine. Antivirus and security solutions, however, are not all certified yet. Installing security software that is not yet tested with the new operating system could prove disastrous. Don't worry, AV-Comparatives has done the work for you and releases a list of "approved" security software. Is yours on the list?
Mac security software on test
Not so long ago most Mac users would have told you that their systems didn't need any form of protection as they were inherently safe. But the world has become a more dangerous place and last year the iWorm malware is thought to have recruited some 18,000 Macs into a botnet.
Whilst experienced users who are careful about what they install and where they go online may still be justified in feeling safe using a Mac without additional protection, there's no doubt that non-experts need extra security. Particularly as cyber criminals have started to target Macs because they know more of them are unprotected.
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