Webmail clients like Gmail, YahooMail etc. have some of the best-in-industry Spam Filters and protect you fairly well from all sort of spam. But if you prefer to use Desktop Email Clients like Outlook 2000/XP/2003/Express, Eudora, Mozilla Thunderbird, IncrediMail, Pegasus Mail, Phoenix Mail etc., then your choices are very limited.

Off-course, you may use features like “Rules” in Outlook, to filter out some of the spam in your email client, but the this method of spam protection is not very effective in this era, when the spammers are constantly changing their spamming tactics with each passing day.

Spamihilator is a neat freeware application that runs in the background and capable of filtering most of the spam messages trying to reach your inbox. It has some nice built in filter, working on different algorithms, which tend to perform better and better and learn as per your preferences.

Some of the basic filters that  are used in Spamihilator are following:

Learning Filter: This is the most important spam filter of Spamihilator, which recognizes more than 98% of all incoming spam mails. The best part is that it also has a Training Area, to increase the recognition rate continuously.

Spam-Word-Filter: It constantly keeps on looking for some of the most used words for spamming and decides the fate of the incoming message based on that.

Link Filter: It keeps on searching incoming messages for links to spam websites.

Besides these, Spamihilator includes a huge list (about 40) of plugins, which you can download and integrate with the basic Spamihilator package, to increase its effectiveness and add more features. Some of the important and most used plugins are as follows.

DCC-Filter: DCC Filter sends a secure checksum of every incoming mail to the network and receives the number of users who also sent the same checksum. Because of that, it is able to recognize unsolicited bulk mail.

POP3Notifier: It frequently checks your e-mail accounts for new messages and shows a small notification

Attachment Filter: It marks an email as spam if it has an attachment who’s file type is in the blocked list.

Despite all these good features, I suggest that with the installation of Spamihilator in your system, you should keep on looking if any non-spam message has landed in the inbox of Spamihilator my mistake. You can easily mark it non-spam and it will make Spamihilator more effective in future.

After all, everybody can commit mistakes, but it is important to learn from your mistakes. The best part is that Spamihilator becomes more and more effective in reducing spam as you go on using it.

Download Spamihilator

[This is a guest post by Silki Garg. She advises on how to eliminate spyware, online threats and malware detection, on her Internet Security Blog. A visit to her Blog is highly recommended. You’re sure to find something of interest.]

FreeFixer is a free tool that will scan your computers for Namespace Service Providers, programs, registry, Browser Helper Objects (BHO), Internet Explorer toolbars, registry startups, autostart shortcuts, running processes , services, application modules and Drivers installed on the computer. All the entries that are scanned are listed, the white listed entries are colored in Green as these are recognized by FreeFixer to be safe. The entries that are not recognized by FreeFixer are in grey in colour, but the issue here is that FreeFixer does not know that if this entry is safe or unsafe. You would have to find out whether this entries are safe or not.

(click to enlarge)

In the above example we can see that FreeFixer lists the Google updater entries and nVidia drivers service in grey category but we know that these software are absolutely safe. So if you delete them you will causing more damage to your computer but FreeFixer has provided the ‘more info’ option using you which can find more details about an entry.

Once you hit the more info button it looks up in FreeFixer’s library provides more details about that entry, we would also suggest that you do a Google search about the entry which you are not sure about and find out more about it. The entries that are listed can also be saved as a file so that you can send it to a computer geek and seek his opinion on that. FreeFixer is an amazing tool that can be used by us for finding out potentially dangerous or unsafe software. This software is updated frequently by the authors and we recommend that you always a latest version before you start the analysis.

Download FreeFixer

Via KillerTechTips

Every one of us now use a flash drive to transfer files across computers, hence the USB flash drive has become a carrier of viruses, trojans, malware and worms. They exploit the computer using the Windows autorun capability that kicks in whenever you plug in a USB flash drive. Earlier this week we saw how we can get protected from these threats using iKill.

USB Firewall is another freeware utility that protects your computer from viruses, trojans, worms and malware by scanning the autorun.inf file. USB firewall runs in background when ever you plug-in your USB flash drive it scans and alerts you if any possible threats is found. If a threat is found it alerts you and you can delete the threat.

The main difference between iKill and USB Firewall is that in iKill you can automate this process where the iKill will delete any executable that is found in the autorun.inf file. We have tested USB Firewall in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Download USB Firewall

USB Pen/Flash drives act as mobile carriers of Viruses, Trojans and worms as they are used across different computers. If you plug in a USB flash drive that is infected to your computer then the virus would automatically get executed and infect your computer using the AutoPlay feature of Windows. One of the best ways would be to turn this feature off in Windows but if you want to use Auto Play feature and still get protection from virus, trojans and worms then it is advisable to have the autorun.inf file scanned and if required deleted from the USB flash drive.

iKill is a free utility that you can use to scan the autorun.inf file for any executables that it may run from the USB flash drive. If any executables are found then it will prompt you delete the suspected file. When in Auto Protect is enabled iKill deletes the executables that is found in the autorun.inf automatically without prompting you.

We tested iKill Windows XP and Windows Vista and found it working perfectly. This software requires Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 to be installed in the computer.

Download iKill

PC Tools Firewall Plus is a powerful personal firewall for Windows that protects your computer from intruders and controls the network traffic in and out of your PC. This firewall software is compatible with Windows Vista 32-bit, XP, 2000 and Server 2003. This is one of the few firewalls that is compatible with Windows Vista.

Features of PC Tools Firewall Plus 2.0.0.24:

• Application blocking and control.
• Advanced packet filtering rules and you can create your own packet filtering rules.
• Regular automatic Updates.
• Real-time protection and comprehensive network shielding.
• It works on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003
• Best of all it is free.

To get your free copy all you need to do is go here and enter your name and e-mail address, within few minutes you will get your registration code.

[eminimall products="windows vista"]

My View:
I was using Kerio Personal firewall in Windows XP and was very much used to the advanced functionalities it offers. When I started using Vista the only firewall that I could use was the built in firewall and I did not like it much as it lacked features. This free firewall is for all who those want advanced firewall functionalities to use in Windows Vista. I would recommend this firewall to Windows XP users as well.

Download PC Tools Firewall Plus

Mirror for PC Tools Firewall Plus

Given below are the few screen shots of this PC Tools Firewall Plus in action (Click the images to enlarge):

Apple Video iPods which were shipped after September 12, 2006 are found to be infected by a trojan called RavMonE.exe. The number of iPods expected to be infected this trojan is less than 1%. Mac OSX users don’t have to worry because this trojan does not affect Mac OSX, this trojan propagates via mass storage devices so it is better you scan your newly purchased iPods with an antivirus. Most of the antivirus software which are upto date will detect and clean this trojan from your ipod. If you don’t have antivirus installed in your system, then download Mcafee Stinger which is a freeware and is capable of removingRavMonE.exe.
My View:

Apple’s statement:
As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.

Looks like Apple’s quality control department has failed and they are blaming Microsoft Windows for this issue.

Today when I was logging in to my Yahoo Mail account I noticed the Anti-Phishing feature of Yahoo mail:

On clicking that it takes to a page which says: Protect users on this computer against password theft with a sign-in seal. A sign-in seal is a secret message or photo that Yahoo! will display on this computer only. Look for it every time you sign in to make sure you’re on a genuine Yahoo! site. If the message, photo, or colors are different, you may have landed on a phishing site.

There are two methods to create your secret seal:
1. Create a Text Seal
2. Create a seal using Image

Create a Text Seal Method:
Here you enter a 21 alpha numeric characters that you easily remember and the seal is based on these characters and displayed for that particular computer.
(Click on the image to enlarge)

Create a seal using image:
Here you just upload a image of your choice which yahoo will resize and create a seal for you with that image. As usual I used a James Bond logo as my yahoo seal.

(Click on the image to enlarge)

After you save the seal, you should see the seal which you created whenever you visit a genuine yahoo site. You can see below the seal which I have created for my computer.

So folks go ahead create a seal for your self and protect yourself from phishing. Well I found this feature of yahoo very useful. Have you created a Yahoo seal for yourself?

If you come across zCodec, which claims it is a video codec offering superior video and audio quality then don’t install that codec as it is a malware. The beauty is that this malware is freely available for download in the website zcodec.com. When you visit this site in firefox with google toolbar installed it also gives a warning there by confirming that this is a malware.

So guys and gals better stay out of this site as well as this codec.

What is zCodec Malware?
ZCodec is an adware program that passes itself off as a video codec.
It accesses an IP address on the Internet in order to download and run a certain file at random. This file can be of any nature. For example, ZCodec could download the Trojan Ruins.MB, which uses rootkit techniques in order to hide itself. Or, it could install an online casino. ZCodec also changes the DNS configuration and monitors if the user accesses any of several adult websites. ZCodec can be voluntarily downloaded from a certain website.

How does this zCodec malware work?
ZCodec creates the following files:
An EXE file, in the directory C:\ Program Files\ HQ CODEC. This file is deleted once it is run.
Another EXE file, with a random name, in the Windows system directory. This file is injected into the Internet Explorer process, in order to be activated whenever the user uses this web browser.
If by chance you are infected with this malware you can find the removal method here.