Thursday, September 6, 2007
I just had, by mistake, a plug-in called Intelligent Explorer attach to my browser. What a nightmare! I have another article on this topic, but this brings home a point. Spyware or adware items are continually infecting computers. Most computers have no protection from them. Most frightening is the frequency of them. From the InfosecWriters web site, "According to a 2004 survey by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance, 91% of users questioned were familiar with the term spyware. Only 53% believed their computers were infected, but a scan found that 80% of their PCs had some type of spyware installed on them." It goes on to say, "...The average number of spyware components per computer was 93 with one computer having well over a thousand."
What is Spyware?
Butte College (www.bctv.butte.edu/support/spyware.html) offers this definition:
"The term 'spyware' is broadly defined as any program that gets into your computer without permission and hides in the background while it makes unwanted changes to your user experience.
Spyware is generally not designed to damage your computer. The damage it does is more a by-product of its main mission, which is to serve you targeted advertisements or make your browser display certain sites or search results.
At present, most spyware targets only the Windows operating system (Internet Explorer)."
To be fair, spyware can be harmless, for example tracking cookies don't do much. While such things infringe on your privacy, they don't really harm anything. Others, however, are extremely dangerous.
So what do you do about it?
No spyware program seems to do everything, but there are a lot of goods solutions out there that can help. Here is a list of some of the top Spyware tools to look at:
1) Try Ad-Aware 6.0 Professional from LavaSoft (there is also a free version with less functionality)
2) Spybot Search & Destroy from PepiMK Software
3) Xoftspy form Pareto Logic
5) Spyware Guard from Javacool Software is a free program
4) Pest Patrol (now part of Computer Associates by acquisition)
5) McAfee Anti-Spyware
One thing is for certain: you do need to take spyware seriously. For some reason, too many people out there think anti-virus solutions are the end-all solution. They are not.
And, when all else fails?
Finally, as drastic as it seems, if your computer has been infected with a large number of spyware programs, the only solution you may have is backing up your data, and performing a complete reinstall of the operating system.
If you would like more information visit http://www.officialspywarereview.com
Why Choose Flash for Games?
What is your definition of a game? Is it something you go outside with your friends to do with a ball or a bat? Is it something that purple box and the many different video game discs are for? Is it played on a board with fake money and cards that can send you to jail? Clearly, there are many varying ways for people to think and consider what games really are. One of the more popular gaming experiences online these days is becoming flash games. These often-free games, which normally do require players to be online, are fun and easy to use, with a simple gaming nature that appeals to every person looking for some fun. In this article I will compare the different sorts of games mentioned.
So a common outdoor game, the first example that will be used, is baseball or basketball. In these games you go outside and use equipment bought beforehand to play a game with set rules with friends or colleagues. There are a number of problems with playing a game this way, however. The first is that you usually need a good number of people, who surprisingly enough are not easy to get, to play a game like baseball or football outdoors. The second is that the equipment required to play this game, a mitt, bat, and ball, can often be expensive to purchase. And the third is that weather conditions can easily put a hamper to your fun quickly.
So how about playing video games on your Nintendo or Playstation system? While these consoles surely support better games with more clear graphics and good controls, there are several problems with this sort of gaming as well. The cost can be severely high. New systems tend to run at a couple hundred dollars, with much more needed for games and additional controllers. Not everyone has five hundred dollars lying around to spend on games. The second problem, especially for Nintendo and older systems, is the lack of an ability to find other people to play with or compare your skill to. Online play is not always supported, and if it is it costs additional money. Clearly video game consoles are not perfect either.
What about board games? We all know the popular titles like Monopoly, Life, and Scrabble. Surely these types of games will be good fun for everyone? Not really, there are many aspects which don't bode well for board games as well. As with outdoor sports, board games require additional people to play the game with that need to be in the same location as you. It can be very hard to find someone to play Monopoly for hours upon a time. They also encourage cheating, as humans can easily add more money to their Monopoly cash flow and so on.
In sites like www.playedonline.com you can play free online games. With a collection of over 1700 games, you're sure to find something you love. Play Tetris, Play Pacman. You can even Play Chess. And these are just some of the classics. You can compare your best scores with others all around the world, while playing a variety of games that costs you nothing! If you are looking for games to pass time with and have fun playing online games, free flash games is clearly the way to go. The site mentioned above has many different types of flash games that you can play for no charge as long as you want.
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Vision Backup 10 – Complete single server network backup for only £45
Secure, reliable single server network backup, including Microsoft SQL and Exchange, for only £45 with additional server licenses available.
St.Albans, UK, 12th April 2006 - Microplus, the best of breed software distributor, announce the distribution of Vision Backup 10 - Enterprise; the complete backup and restore solution developed by VisionWorks Solutions. Vision Backup 10 is a flexible and easy-to-use backup solution that completely protects personal accounts, documents and photographs saved on home PCs; while being powerful enough to schedule backups of all critical business data on local and remote enterprise networks.
Data loss is a serious concern on both a personal and business level. The loss of personal accounts and treasured photographs is devastating, extended downtime and loss of company data can result in a business closure. Vision Backup 10 offers users the choice of performing a full, incremental or differential backup depending on their specific data protection needs. Create a comprehensive server/network backup, specify file types for backup and schedule backups for specified times, on system start-up or user logon.
Save time and avoid unnecessary inconvenience with Vision Backup's remote backup capabilities. Create remote machine backups across any sized network without having to visit, install and configure any software on remote machines. Vision Backup 10 crawls through networks finding all critical data and copying it to a wide range of storage media, including CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-R/DVD-RW, FTP/SFTP/FTPS, Tape, Flash Devices and USB Hard Drives. Backups saved on removable media can be stored in secure offsite locations as part of an effective business continuity plan.
Vision Backup 10 uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption to prevent unauthorised access and guarantee complete protection for data backup. Encrypted backup files can also be compressed to significantly reduce the amount of storage space they require. Vision Backup 10's functionality also enables users to verify data, automatically delete backups after a set number of days, index backup/restore, straight file copy, send reports via Email/Log/Net Send, estimate backup size and Backup/Exclude files by file extension.
Vision Backup 10 is a highly affordable backup solution costing just £45 for a single server license, which includes unlimited free clients. FREE downloadable plug-ins are available for backing up individual files or folders, My Documents & Settings folders, web browser bookmarks and favourites, entire mailboxes and contact lists for Outlook Express, Eudora, Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird email systems.
VisionWorks Solutions has also developed File Access Manager, an add-on product that expands Vision Backup's extensive backup capabilities. File Access Manager runs silently in the background giving Vision Backup access to all exclusive, open or in use files, guaranteeing business continuity and real time data protection, without interrupting operations. File Access Manager works with ANY backup software to prevent dangerous gaps in data protection if users suffer a fatal system failure.
About VisionWorks
VisionWorks Solutions Inc. is a privately held company that provides software solutions to the Enterprise, Government, Education and Home sectors. The company strongly believes in research and development (R&D) and invests a significant amount of pre-tax profits into areas such as Network, Encryption and Web service technologies. VisionWorks continues to focus its efforts to better its software products, enabling people and businesses throughout the world to achieve and surpass their goals. For further information about VisionWorks visit www.vwsolutions.com.
About Microplus
Established in 1995, Microplus are leading providers of high quality IT consultancy services, web design and best-of-breed software distribution. Microplus deliver cost saving, real business solutions that significantly enhance productivity to small businesses, leading companies, government departments, local authorities, military organisations and charities in the UK and Ireland. For more information about any of Microplus' services please go to www.microplus.co.uk or call +44 (0) 1727 799670
For further press information contact: Alison Hunter on: alisonh@microplus.co.uk or visit www.visionbackup.co.uk for images.
