Can Creating Your Own Encryption Keys Prevent NSA Spying?

Could we prevent NSA spying if every user was able to create their own encryption key? The NSA has been retrieving data from some of the largest companies for years, and that is because they were able to gain access to their servers (with or without permission details are still not known), and that means that they could in theory bypass encrypted information. What If we allowed every user to create their own encryption key.

When you encrypt something on lets say Google they have a set algorithm that will scramble those letters into nonsense data. Except to a programmer, who could in theory reverse engineer the algorithm. While this is very unlikely it is technically possible which would mean that if they did not know about the snooping a programmer managed to reverse engineer the algorithm and therefore know every encrypted piece of data. Now this is common with poorly built algorithms which are open to many flaws, but is it possible that every tech company made the same mistake or that there was some sort of work around.

Therefore if anyone had the ability to create their own encryption key would it be possible to block all of that snooping? For instance if everyone could write and disguise their own password could they get past it? The answer to this is yes and no, and it can be both. The reason is they cant discover every ones password UNLESS they all started to use the same formula. For instance a password of 123 is encrypted as abc, and this other guy is 456 with a password of def, then it would be possible. The best way for this to work is if everyone had their own unique system or tied it to something random. Famous equations can be reversed engineered easily.

For us to do this, we would literally have to rewrite most of our current security solutions, because the idea would take so much time, and resources but would it pay off.

The idea sounds amazing on pen and paper, however most users are lazy. Most people refuse to use 2-step verification why would they write their own encryption key? Security? Privacy? The fact is both of these would improve, but how do you convince the consumer to do something like this, and that is why the idea has not been explored. The average users do not care enough to actually work on something like this.

Comodo an internet security firm has started to use this in their cloud back-up service. They give 5 gigabytes free, so this might be something to look into if you wish to secure your documents under your own lock and key.

Visit Their Site: Here!

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Bitdefender Photon Is Released

Bitdefender's new products are released under the code name of photon. This new name comes from their new scanning technology. We are very glad to see these changes, and the new scanning technology should be tested by AV-Test not only did they bring new scanning technology, but there is another nice feature that most of us will use, and that is known as Bitdefender Wallet.

Features
- Faster and better detection rates from scanning. Bitdefender has worked to fully incorporate this new technology. Bitdefender released small pieces of it in the 2013 Total Security, but now the full technology is now integrated into their engines.

- Wallet: Bitdefender has added a similar service to key pass which Bitdefender can store all of your passwords and credentials. Bitdefender will take the passwords from many popular browsers, and encrypt them so that no one can access them. This means that you won't need any sort of third part service to store your passwords.

- New widget. The little widget that is on your desktop has been completely redone. You have access to your virus scanner, firewall, notifications, and the Bitdefender interface all from their widget.

Summary
This new technology does make the program a lot faster than it used to be, but the interface does have issues loading. Not to mention that the new scanning technology is only for people paying for their products, however they might add it to the free version. The idea appears to be on the table, but the free Bitdefender is not a priority as of now.


Issues
- Sometimes the program will not update the notifications if you have performed a scan.
- Interface will crash occasionally, and you will need to close it.


Video Review/Setup

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Virus Total Uploader Review

Apple G5s at the Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2006, de:HTW-Dresden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Virus total which was bought by Google has a great tool, which allows any user to submit a download up to 32mb to be scanned by 40+ antivirus engines. The best thing about this tool, is it allows you to scan downloads before they get on to your computer, and it lets you know whether it is safe for you to continue with that download. This tool is a great way to improve your computer's security while also not using a lot of space on your computer. However there are some issues with this product, and we will go over them.

Features

Submit before download: This allows a download to be submitted before it touches the hard drive. What virus total did was allow the download to pass through the memory so that your computer is safe from any malicious files during the scan.

Submit Any File: Virus total also allows you to submit any file or folder up to 32mb for scanning. This is a great way to make sure that you don't have any form of ransomware on your computer. For instance if you downloaded a new toolbar and want to make sure it is safe. You can upload it right from your computer and virus total will scan the item to tell you if it is safe or if it has been detected as malware.

Upload a Process: Virus total can submit a process running on your computer. So if you believe that their is a malicious item running. This is such a useful tool especially if you don't know what is running on your computer.

Issues

You may only submit 32mb at once: The issue with this is the website allows you to submit up to 64mb so why not allow us to use the full 64mb that we get from the website?

You can only submit 1 file at a time: The biggest issue with virus total uploader is that you may only submit 1 file or folder at once. This can greatly slow down the time it takes to check a new program which is why I recommend that you only submit the install file.

Why Did Google Buy It?

Google bought the company for it's relationship with antivirus companies. What Google needs to do is start using this scanner for all of the Android apps that are submitted. If they fail on any of the tests then they should have to resubmit the app after the issue was resolved. Google has not done with the company and has basically let it sit there which is very sad, but there might be a reason for it. When Google first bought the company they did not really announce it so everyone knew and that might because they have something cooking with it. Maybe they are going to shut the idea down, who knows but what I do know is that Google needs to start utilizing this tool.

Related articles

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• What Is A Trojan:JS/Seedabutor.B
• Trojan.Zbot!gen41

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5 Security Tips to Help You Maintain a Secure Website

You might not think that your site holds potential value for a hacker, but if you think you run a secure website, you might want to think again. Cyber criminals hack websites every day, and they are becoming more sophisticated with their techniques, making website security of paramount importance. Many website security breaches are out to get access to your email to send out spam or to create a temporary web server to circulate illegal files. If you want to be proactive and safeguard your domain and online reputation, here are five essential security tips you should follow:

1. Ensure Your Software Is Always Up To Date

This applies to server operating systems and any software your website’s content management system might use. If there are security holes in your software, it is much easier for criminals to gain access to your site. If you use a CMS or third party software, you should be particularly careful about your updates.

2. Pay Attention and do Routine Checks

A hacker could use scripting code to run malicious code on your website, send your data and do routine checks to ensure the validity of your pages and other data within your site.

3. Don’t Give Too Much Information Away

This is especially important when it comes to password-protected access areas of your website. Your error message should not indicate whether the user got the email or the password wrong, otherwise the hacker has a better chance of working the right combination out.

4. Maintain Your Passwords

Every website user must use a strong and complex password as part of your website’s security protocol. The minimum recommended requirement is usually at least eight characters, incorporating a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers, if you want the passwords to provide a decent level of protection. All users should also change their passwords on a regular basis.

5. Beware of File Uploads

Allowing website users to upload forms to your website could compromise your website security in a significant way. Even if the file itself seems safe, it could contain scripting which could make your website vulnerable to security threats. Image files pose one of the greatest threats and should be treated with care. As a website owner or manager, the question you should be asking yourself if whether the risk is worth the benefit. While there are steps you could take to minimize your risk and handle the files carefully, the safest route is not to allow them to be uploaded in the first place.

This Article Is Brought Was Written By Enrica. View There Website Here

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360 Mobile Security Review

android (Photo credit: Saad Irfan)

Qihoo has released a new app for Android, and it is named 360 Mobile Security. This app as you can guess is an antivirus for your phone that uses a strange tactic to find malware. Qihoo uses their engine, and a cloud based engine to scan your phone. The best thing about this for you is better detection rates, and more ways to check the app for malware.


Features

Antivirus Scanner: This is the obvious item for every antivirus software on the market. It comes with a quick scan, and a full scan.

Antivirus Protection: 360 Mobile Security will actually monitor your device for malicious apps, acts, and messages that might contain malicious links. So as you can guess this is a very powerful antivirus and that is true, but there is more.

Vulnerability Scanner: This is the strange item, this app will scan your device for vulnerabilities found in the OS custom or from Google and protect those vulnerabilities.  I used on Jellybean 4.1.2, and it found 2 vulnerabilities, they were mostly the spam messages, and now it protects me from those.

Those are all of the features for this app. Considering it was released last night this is a good start for them. I have submitted a report to them regarding new things that they can add to the APP, and we will see what happens. This app can go either way, it will either be the next big thing or it will end in disaster and will be shunned out.

Is It Safe?
Yes the app is safe, I was testing their antivirus on my computer, and the only issue was a false positive from VIPRE. The mobile app is safe and later today their Antivirus Software will be safe. This is according to 40+ antivirus companies so who knows but yes I am using the app right now because I want to see were this is APP is heading. While the app is new and lacks features, it does have a powerful AV engine. I recommend that you check it out on the Android market place.

Related articles

• Top 5 Free Android Antivirus Apps
• Kaspersky Mobile Security Review
• Android Smartphone Security

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Why I Left Avast Antivirus

I have left avast antivirus because it has given me a lot of troubles over the years and I am sad to say that I don't see myself going back for a long time. While the program has a lot of features it has constantly given me some sort of error or something was broken, and I am kind of sick of it. So while I do recommend the program I have to say that I am going to stop using the program. But that does not mean I am going to some half baked crappy software so I have found another program that I wont announce until tomorrow.

Why I Left

This program has given me a lot of troubles whether it was the network shield not working to having failed updates and having to reinstall. My time with avast has been long and I will still give them credit but they don't seem like they are for me anymore.

1. Avast web rep this little tool used to go inside of my web browsers and provide me website protection but have avast 8 was released it stopped working and kept crashing Google Chrome.

2. Avast Clean Up tool was a nice idea however this was a very poor uninstaller because i cold still find left over files from bad uninstallers and this tool did not seem to help in anyway. Not to mention their ratings for the toolbars made no sense they gave the Mcafee Site advisor a bad name because they recommended it to be uninstalled and this was wrong because it is a very trusted toolbar. BUT WHAT MAKES IT WORSE IS there seems to be no way to vote on the toolbars like it was automatically determined by some program.

3. The BSOD of avast 7. This was caused from their network shield conflicting in Windows 8 and caused a blue screen of death,

4. avast 8 software updater and the constant update of Mozzila thunderbird. Every time I went to the updater I caught it trying to update Mozzila thunderbird, and it would not work saying I needed to do it manually.

5. Avast 8 broken update package. When this happened I knew I was going to leave the program because I had enough with the issues. 

Why I Still Like It

The program has amazing detection, and the customization of this program is something that we all have to admire. The features that are included in this program make it a greater convenience then many other programs however I feel that it was getting to cluttered, and it was going no where. With their protection modules because I never saw any major updates headed to them and their updates don't seem to be released often. They release a couple after a major update such as 8 and then they come back with the next version 4 more big updates and nothing.

It has android support, this is the only antivirus program that I will ever use for my android phone because it is very secure and they are adding a lot more features that make it milestones better than any other antivirus program for the android device. They had a large update today where they added a file system shield and more to the protection and I am thinking this is amazing because it is.

Great community, the community that Avast has developed is full of very nice and helpful people that are hard to come by on many other products. The people on the forums want to be there they like helping people and that is something that a lot of companies don't seem to worry or care about now a days.

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How To Secure Google Chrome

Now I have used Google Chrome for a long time, and I have thrown it up against tests but what it lacks is URL protection. It does not have a built in url scanner from any antivirus company so it is highly vulnerable to them. So today I will be giving some extensions and toolbars that can protect you from unsafe links. I did this with Internet Explorer and Firefox, but not all of those were compatible for Google Chrome. You will be able to see my full in depth explanation below.

Settings

The first thing to do is to make sure that you have the optimal settings for the browser so that it is more secure. Now click on the lines at the top of your browser and go down to the settings tab and click it. The first thing to do is make sure that your default browser is how you like it Google, Bing, Yahoo are the most common if it is not one of these and you would like it to be go down to where it says Search. Now click on Manage Search Engines then click on the default or add your own through the second box. 

Now you will need to go down to where it says advanced settings and click it to open up those settings. Now go to were it says privacy and click every box EXCEPT the do not track box. This you could say is the incognito option, but it can cause issues on some websites. Now this is all you have to do in the settings so get ready to download some extensions an add-ons. Please remember you do not need all of these but because 1 or 2 is just as good.

Add-Ons and Extensions

Bitdefender Traffic Light again this product has managed to make the list because of it's protection but also because it is so non intrusive. The best thing is that it is in the Chrome Webstore so we do not need to go and download some other program from another website.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/trafficlight/cfnpidifppmenkapgihekkeednfoenal?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

Web Of Trust this is my favorite because there are millions of people who can update the safety of a website based on their own experiences and it scans everything even Google Images. It is truly a must have extension and it is the best one on this list.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wot/bhmmomiinigofkjcapegjjndpbikblnp?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

Better Pop up blocker: This is an amazing blocker and blocks more than the built in one that is in Google Chrome. Now it will still show ads which is good for companies such as Google and it blocks the intrusive ones that get in your way and "pop up". This is one of the best tools for protection because there are still a lot of website that use insecure ads and have pop ups. 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/better-pop-up-blocker/nmpeeekfhbmikbdhlpjbfmnpgcbeggic?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

Mcafee Site Advisor: This free program is a toolbar that can scan all of the websites that are in your Google search and want you be for you click on them whether they are safe or not according to Mcafee. This is one of the most trusted scanners, and they are constantly adding new sites to the list.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Summary

These programs are meant to add an additional layer of security, and it works great in conjunction with your antivirus. This is why they are created your antivirus you could say is your download protection while the extension or toolbar is meant to protect you from unsafe sites. So if you use any combination of these tools you should be perfectly safe from online threats. AT THE VERY least get web of trust, better pop up blocker, and one other form of security program.

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How To Secure Internet Explorer and Firefox

When it comes to internet security there are those who know what to do and then there are those who don't. Now many people claim that they don't need any antivirus software because they believe in their own judgement when it comes to security. However, they are generally wrong and have some sort of malware on their computer. The most common way to get malware is from going to a malicious website. But there are tools beyond antivirus that can tell you whether or not a website is safe. Today I will be giving you tools that can warn you about unsafe sites.

Internet Explorer / Firefox

Internet explorer has been known to be insecure over the years though it has gradually gotten better and today I will be giving you the tools that can protect you from threats. firefox from my own experience has good default settings however it seems to lack anyways so you will be looking for some sort of extension to help you.

Before we go into downloading programs please make sure that you are running with the default settings for internet explorer because they offer a good security and will still display everything that you want it to. Now the next step for you is to determine what antivirus program do i have? Because there are some programs that come with built in browsers protection, but there are many that don't. But lets just say that your program does not provide any internet protection well there are many add-ons that you can download to protect yourself from these online threats BEFORE you encounter them. So here is a list of programs that you can use from TRUSTED antivirus companies.

Tools

Now many people do not trust such programs however there are ways for you to get around the use of the bar but still get the protection. For instance you can hide certain toolbars but the website rating will still be displayed. So in other words DONT USE THE DEFAULT SEARCH IN THE TOOLBAR. It is unnecessary, and it's privacy has been in question. However it can still protect your browser while you use your favorite search engine/
http://www.avg.com/us-en/special-toolbar-first-run-tlbrc-v2-mcr7


The most used tools are Mcafee's Site Advisor, and it is the most trusted because it offers you good security and it allows the community to contribute to it by becoming a web master. Now you still do not have to use the default search engine that it gives you but still get the protection by using Google or Bing.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/mac.html?q=promo

The next toolbar we have is the Ad-Aware security toolbar which offers more then the other browser and is updated a lot more than the other ones, and it offers more features. Now the toolbar might be a little confusing, and it only works on internet explorer and firefox according to their site.
http://toolbar.lavasoft.com/info.aspx

The last one and is by far the easiest and the best one is the Bitdefender Traffic Light. Which scans all urls and warns you if they are safe or not. Now the best part is that is all it does there are not toolbars it just scans stuff which is why I recommend this or the Ad-Aware one the most.
http://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/trafficlight.html

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Keep Your Computer Safe For Free

There are millions upon millions of malware samples that are out there and not many people have the proper tools to keep their computer safe. So today I will give you the tools that can keep your computer safe from most malware and absolutely no cost to you. I will also explain to you why you need these products to keep your computer safe along with your personal information. 

Avast! Free Antivirus

As we all know by now when it comes to free antivirus I recommend avast! antivirus. This top of the line free protection is unparalleled in the amount of features that you get for a free antivirus. You will get the basic protection including internet along with the files. But avast has gone above by including a number of shields and it is an award winning antivirus who scores about 85% or higher in independent tests while in lab testing it scores closer to 90%. This is really good especially for a free antivirus product that comes with only the basic. 

Now this is important because this is the main force of your security if this fails there are only a few things that you can try to stop an infection. Your computer will need any 1 antivirus product. Emphasis on one you CAN NOT use more than one at the same time it can cause confliction and can cause many strange and indescribable issues. They are indescribable because they are truly random.   

You can download avast through this link Avast!

Comodo Firewall

This is what as hailed as the best firewall on the market, and it is free. This is actually true in my opinion now it can be difficult for the inexperienced user but if you ever need help I can answer the question in the comments below or you can contact someone at Comodo for free who can walk you through it. It is very powerful because it blocks any unknown process' from inbound or outbound connection making it far superior than that of the default windows firewall. Please read the notes at the end of this article for important hints to avoid issues with your PC.

A firewall is what blocks your computer from hackers by blocking their connection to your computer. Now Comodo takes it to another step if the connection is unknown then Comodo can scan it with their products and if it unsecure you will find out. This is what stops the infiltration of hackers and is the main protection from hackers if this fails your antivirus product might detect the insecure file. 

You can download Comodo Firewall through this link Comodo Firewall

Spybot Search and Destroy OPTIONAL BUT CAN STILL HELP

This product is a living legacy when it comes to anti spyware protection now over the years it has been losing to its competition Super AntiSpyware however this comes with many free protection modules. It comes with many in browser detection for insecure cookies and internet files, and it protects your computer from downloading scams such as the Babylon toolbar which is not and should not be trusted in any way.

Spybot  comes with protection from insecure files which is the main reason that it is better than that of super antispyware. This is why I recommend it more than that of its competition. But if you are looking for additional protection from spyware and adware then this is definitely the product that you are looking for. 

You can download Spybot Search and Destroy through this link Spybot Search and Destroy

Comodo Kill Switch OPTIONAL BUT CAN STILL HELP

This little program is very similar to your task manager but say you downloaded a program that is containing a piece of malware well that is no problem for the kill switch. This program shows its rating from Comodo's own scan rating if it is unknown then it will be stated. 

This program does not protect but is a second check to see if your computer is having an unsafe process running. 

You can download Comodo Kill Switch through this link Comodo Kill Switch

Malwarebytes Optional

If you still feel you are not secure well then you can use Malwarebytes which is the go to scanner for detection. You won't need this if you used another 4 products, but this product is too good not to include it in this list. 

You can download it here Malwarebytes

*****Important Notes****

When you set up the Comodo firewall, please remember to turn off your windows firewall or it can cause confliction. 

When you download avast please remember to turn off any other antivirus program you may be running.

When you download Spybot please set avast and Comodo as exclusions so that they are not scanned. 

When you have downloaded Spybot please exclude it on avast and Comodo so that there is no confliction between them. 

When you install avast please restart it before installing Comodo

When you download and run Malwarebytes DON'T CLICK THE FREE PRO TRIAL.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask me in the comments below.

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Can Any Company Compete With 'Avast!'?

There are many companies that claim to be the best antivirus product on the market. However can any of the  major companies compete with Avast and their unique system of processing viruses. Avast! is a very small company in terms of employees, and they argue that they don't need hundreds of employees because they are supported by the users. Now you will be wondering what that means to you and whether or not you should use the product. So click the link below as I attempt to explain why many antivirus companies can not compete with avast!

What Is The Technology?

Avast uses a very important piece of technology that when its zero day protection finds a newly released piece of malware can be sent into the avast labs and it will be checked if it is malicious and if found to be malicious it will be sent out to their update system and will be released in the next patch. Now Avast still has people who actively find malicious sites and links that are generally shared through Facebook and other social networking sites. This is the issue that a lot of companies are running into is that the world's most popular antivirus product only gets better with more people using it. So many companies such as Lavasoft  Bitdefender  and Avg are trying to get more people to use their products but when it comes to features the fact remains that avast has more features than these products.

So Why Does This Make It A Threat To Other Companies?

The answer to this is simple and the best way to answer it is with a question. How do you compete with the worlds most used antivirus that gets better when there are more people using it. Now that does sound like a threat considering the fact that they have over 177 million downloads. So they are constantly getting new samples for their antivirus engine.  So yes 'Avast!' is a threat and other companies are going to need to step up their game because 'Avast!' is going to be the big man around town. So if you are another antivirus company you can not cling to your high scores on the av-test.org website because people are not going to spend money for extra features that they can get from avast which is free.

Should I Use Avast?

Yes I do recommend that you use avast it is the world most popular antivirus and they are constantly working to make their products better than they were before. When it comes to many other antivirus companies they just improve what they already have and they don't really add anything new to their products. This is where Avast is different not only do they update and make previous items better they are also adding new functions even to their free antivirus suite. So yes if you are looking for a free antivirus product use Avast! It is growing very rapidly and it gives you the most bang for your buck.

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Is Internet Explorer Safe?

There are 3 main browsers used in the world today Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Google Chrome. Now out of these three Microsoft's internet explorer is hailed to be far more vulnerable than the other browsers. However times have changed I have run some tests and the results might be a little shocking. I will be testing the newest versions of all these browsers for the current date today March 1st 2013.

How Will You Best Testing?

I will be using a popular testing site called browser scope.org. I will only be testing the security of these browsers or else this post will be pages upon pages in length. To sum the test up so it is easy to understand the test scans for 17 different browser vulnerabilities. I will not bother breaking them down, but these are common vulnerabilities. When you see the results one of them is obvious while the others might leave you questioning the test's validity. This is just one test I can do many more, but that will have skewed results based on how I do it.

Google Chrome 16/17

1. PASS postMessage API
2. PASS JSON.parse API
3. FAIL toStaticHTML API
4. PASS httpOnly cookie API
5. PASS X-Frame-Options
6. PASS X-Content-Type-Options
7. PASS Block reflected XSS
8. PASS Block location spoofing
9. PASS Block JSON hijacking
10. PASS Block XSS in CSS
11. PASS Sandbox attribute
12. PASS Origin header
13. PASS Strict Transport Security
14. PASS Block cross-origin CSS attacks
15. PASS Content Security Policy
16. PASS Cross Origin Resource Sharing
17. PASS Block visited link sniffing

Very impressive results by Google Chrome as expected. It seemed to fail only on static html which is something on the page that does not change. For instance text  that does not change color or an image that does not change. While dynamic html can be anything such as a media advertisement or a video or you click a link and it changes purple. To sum it up: If the page never changes once it loads it is static. If there is anything changing on the website then it is dynamic.

Mozzila Firefox 13/17

1. PASS postMessage API
2. PASS JSON.parse API
3. FAIL toStaticHTML API
4. PASS httpOnly cookie API
5. PASS X-Frame-Options
6. FAIL X-Content-Type-Options
7. FAIL Block reflected XSS
8. PASS Block location spoofing
9. PASS Block JSON hijacking
10. PASS Block XSS in CSS
11. PASS Sandbox attributes
12. FAIL Origin header
13. PASS Strict Transport Security
14. PASS Block cross-origin CSS attacks
15. PASS Content Security Policy
16. PASS Cross Origin Resource Sharing
17. PASS Block visited link sniffing

That was a very sad result for a browser that claims to be so secure however lets see what it failed in. It failed with static html just like google chrome. 

This is to prevent from sniffing attacks. Which means that this is meant to protect you from getting spyware or maybe Adware. It means that it tries to prevent forms of cookies from taking important information. 

Block reflected XSS this is meant to prevent websites from injecting malicious code into your browser. This prevents it from staling important information.

Origin header: This protection is meant to protect you from getting important information from your web browser.

Internet Explorer 14/17????

1. PASS postMessage API
2. PASS JSON.parse API
3. PASS toStaticHTML API
4. PASS httpOnly cookie API
5. PASS X-Frame-Options
6. PASS X-Content-Type-Options
7. PASS Block reflected XSS
8. PASS Block location spoofing
9. PASS Block JSON hijacking
10. PASS Block XSS in CSS
11. PASS Sandbox attribute
12. FAIL Origin header
13. FAIL Strict Transport Security
14. PASS Block cross-origin CSS attacks
15. FAIL Content Security Policy
16. PASS Cross Origin Resource Sharing
17. PASS Block visited link sniffing

What is this possible Internet Explorer beat Mozzila Firefox at a security test. 

Strict Transport Security: This is  basically when you connect to the web server you connect to it briefly in a secure manner so that your information is safe. This is strange that it is not included in internet explorer I figured it would have been.

Content Security policy: This does not directly protect your computer but to put it in simple terms when you connect to a website and you are being set data your browser should check the site to see if it has this security "label". But basically this won't save your computer from infection, but it is something that a browser should have considering how much people do on the internet. 

Conclusion:

All of these browsers are safe to use but if you are looking for the most secure "average user" browser then go with Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. Also with independent test Google Chrome scores okay with blocking websites. When it comes to downloading Internet Explorer takes that prize with its built in Smart Screen Filter. I am not trying to insult any of the browsers but people need to realize that Internet Explorer is not as bad as people make it out to be. 

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Avast 8 Released

Today February 28th the long awaited avast 8 is now released to the public and is open to windows 8 however it does not seem to be supported on Macs at the time of this post. I will cover what makes this such an upgrade to avast 7 and talk about the new features that are included in this major update to the worlds most popular antivirus.

Free Features

Antivirus: As always all versions of avast get access to their award winning antivirus engine. Which has been rewarded time after time by av-test.org.

Remote Control: All of the avast products come with the ability to control your computer or have your friend control your computer to solve an issue. This is a great tool and to stop someone that is controlling your computer you just have to move your mouse and take manual control this can stop people from infecting your computer if you give someone the password to the connection.

Limited Software Updater: You do get access to the software updater you have to do it manually thought the automatic is for internet security and up.

Browser Cleanup: This is very simple if you install something that has a bad reputation like Babylon or an ask toolbar then Avast can help you get rid of it.

Pro Antivirus $39.99

Secure Banking information: Avast pro and above allows you to protect your banking information  which is a must have for today's growing use of online banking. It offers you a lot more protecting so your vital account information will not be stolen by some sort of online hacker.

Surf Risky Sites? They have another form of online protection, and they have improved their avast web rep to be in real time so that we are more secure than before. They have made the updates to the web rep stream in real time which is how they are now far better than before because you used to need to update the entire engine separately. But now you get all the updates in what they call near real time.

Internet Security $49.99

Sandbox: Avast Internet Security allows all users to load programs into the sandbox, and if it is found to be malicious in nature then you will not have to worry; avast will prompt you to delete it. This is a must have for today's growing use of trojans. 

Two Way Firewall: Avast internet security gives you a powerful to way firewall that blocks outgoing and incoming connections. This is far better than the standard windows firewall which only blocks inbound connections. This basically means that if a hacker is trying to get into your computer from another location he will fail. also if he already got into your computer then the firewall will block the connection.

Secures Personal Data: This is meant to protect you from getting your banking information and other forms of passwords from getting logged and it avoids you from going into a malicious site. This seems to be a little repetitive since they have already secured your banking information and it blocks phishing scams.

Blocks Phishing Scams:  This protects you from going to an illegitimate website and protects you from malware that gets in from your computer. It will also protect you from downloading fake antivirus programs that are trying to hijack your computer. These programs will try to force you to pay to remove malware that may not be on your computer in the first place, but now they have your account information and your money that you spent on the product.

New Avast Premier $69.99

Keeps Your Programs Updated Automatically: From what I was able to do in the beta this is a much needed work in progress because there are not a lot of supported programs when I was in the early beta I noticed that it only updated my browsers.

Lets You Remotely Control Your Computer: This can be thought of as a remote desktop which I did a full in depth analysis on what a remote desktop is. This can be thought of as another TeamViewer, but you are paying for it. So this can be a no dealer for you because there are many other free programs that do the same thing as this but for free.

Can Securely Wipe Your Hardrive: Personally I don't feel that this feature is necessary because a hard drive wipe is pretty secure in the first place however it is very secure in the sense that anyone can use this to do a proper hard drive wipe. So if you need to wipe your hard drive and don't know how to do it let this program do it for you because it makes it far better.  

In Conclusion

Avast 8 is far better than Avast 7 so you should upgrade as soon as possible. A far as buying the premier upgrade it is up to you if they work on the auto update feature then this will definitely be the best program that Avast has ever made the new features are great and they don't seem to slow down the computer that much considering they have reduced the amount of RAM that is needed for the program to run. But if you have the money get Avast Internet Security if you really want to buy the Premier version then you need to be willing to spend $70 on a 1 year license.

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