Ramblings, ideas, problems, and solutions

Category: Anti Virus

  • Removing Personal Security

    I’ve recently had a few users call in, telling me that they’ve been infected with Personal Security, a rogue anti-spyware program from the same family as Cyber Security. Luckily, it’s pretty easily removed. Here’s how:
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  • Resolving “Database is outdated” messages in AVG when there is no available updates

    I’ve been a happy user of AVG Free for a long time. Granted, it’s never been exactly easy to get, but a google-search does the trick. Having run version 7.whatever for some time, I got a message that they’d soon stop supporting it, and that I should upgrade to version 8. All fine and well, I did so, and after another google-search found the free version, which I downloaded and installed.
     
    Now, I don’t mind paying for quality products, but frankly, there are so many good, free anti-virus solutions out there, that I really don’t see the need to pay for one (and the ones you pay for are in my experience usually inferior as well…).
     
    So, back to my story. I had “upgraded” to AVG Free 8, and updated the databases when, in the corner of my eye, I saw the following message:
     
    Your computer may be at risk etc.
     
    Naturally, I updated the signature files, but my system tray still looked like this:
     
    Updated, still annoying
     
    I browsed around the web, and found that I wasn’t the only one experiencing this problem. Browsing around some more, I found a FAQ hosted with Grisoft, telling me that: (more…)

  • Securing transfer of Anti Virus policies

    Fighting and defending against computer viruses is one of the largest challenges facing businesses and individuals in the IT world of today. To guard against this, most people have anti-virus software installed on their computers. However, even though you have anti-virus software installed, how can you be certain that the policy-files are the ones your anti-virus supplier has supplied? What is done by the different developers to secure the transfer of these files? What sort of knowledge and access would be needed to hack through the protection?
     
    I’ve asked these questions to a few of the leaders in anti-virus software development. Only two answered my questions; here’s what they said:
     
    Norman

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