gHacks technology news » kaspersky

Kaspersky Asks For Internet Police And Passports

Martin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:55:48 +0000

In an interview with Vivian Yeo of Zdnet Asia Eugen Kaspersky stated that he would like to change the design of the Internet after being asked what he would change if he had the power to change three things related to IT security. According to him the biggest problem in IT security these days is anonymity. His solution: Changing the design of the Internet by introducing regulation–Internet passports, Internet police and international agreement–about following Internet standards”. He knows that those standards are only as good as the acceptance rate globally which is why he suggests to “cut off” countries that do not agree or do not pay attention to the agreement.

The problem that he sees with today’s form of identification – which is IP based – is that it is sometimes not possible to identify the person behind the connection at a specific time thanks to Internet cafes or hacked computers.

Most users will probably say bollocks and move on. Others will find flaws in his suggestion. If you look at real life examples you will notice for instance that people are anonymous there as well. You can phone someone from a public phone anonymously, you can send someone a letter without revealing your name. You can shop anonymously and talk to people without revealing your identity.

What’s your thought in the matter? The full interview is available at the Zdnet Asia website.

Tags: eugene kaspersky, internet design, internet security, kaspersky

How To Run Commercial Antivirus Software Without Paying For It

Martin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:54:20 +0000

This article is not about illegal methods of obtaining software products. But read on if you are interested in how you can protect your computer with the latest antivirus software without having to pay for it. The principle is simply. Most antivirus companies are offering test versions of their products. These versions can usually be tested for 30 or 90 days. All you need to do to protect your computer with antivirus software is to install a new product every 90 days. This means that you need four antivirus products, preferably the most reliable ones that are offering 90 days of testing. You start again with next year’s edition of the first antivirus software that you started with. If there are not enough 90 day trials you switch to 30 day trials instead or use a free antivirus software to fill gaps in the 12 month cycle.

The following links point to antivirus software programs that can be downloaded as trial versions. These trial versions can be used for either 30 days or 90 days without payment.

Which antivirus software developers are offering 90 day trials?

McAfee VirusScan Plus [link]
McAfee Internet Security [link]
McAfee Total Protection [link]
Norton Antivirus [link]
Norton 360 [link]

Which antivirus software developers are offering 30 day trials?

Kaspersky Antivirus [link]
Kaspersky Internet Security [link]
Bitdefender Antivirus [link]
Bitdefender Total Security [link]
Bitdefender Internet Security [link]
ESET Smart Security [link]
ESET Nod32 Antivirus [link]
Trend Micro Internet Security Pro [link]
Trend Micro Internet Security [link]
Panda Security Antivirus [link]
Panda Antivirus Pro [link]
F-Secure Internet Security [link]
F-Secure Antivirus [link]

Please let us know in the comments if we have missed a product.

Some notes: This article does not rate the antivirus software programs. There might be free programs out there that are comparable to the listed antivirus products. The only problem with this method is that users need to install different antivirus software regularly. This not only means more work for the user but also the requirement to get used to new software products.

Many antivirus companies are running promotions every now and then that offer longer trial versions for download. This will obviously help tremendously.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Tags: antivirus, bitdefender, f-secure, kaspersky, norton, panda, security-software, symantec, trend micro, virus

Analyze Computer Systems With Kaspersky’s GSI Parser

Martin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:47:36 +0000

GSI Parser is a service offered by Kaspersky that is made up of a client for the Windows operating system and an online module. The client is being used to collect information about the computer systems it is run on. This includes suspicious files, outdated system drivers, unknown files and infections. Running the tool takes less than a few minutes on most computer systems. A zipped report is generated in the end that contains a text file with all the information that have been gathered during the system scan. Cautious users might want to check the information in the text before starting the second step in the process.

The report then needs to be uploaded to the GSI Parser website once the report has been generated. The online parser will analyze the report and display various information about the computer system in the web browser.

The report is divided into various tabs on top. A summary is displayed on the first page to give the user information about possible problems. The detailed reports in the other tabs usually consist of files and paths plus some additional information like the name of a program or developer. Some details can be clicked on to get more details in a popup window.

Kaspersky’s GSI Parser displays many information in the various tabs which might sometimes be hard to interpret for inexperienced users. They are usually a good start to perform additional research on search engines to find out more about a specific file or problem.

Tags: check computer, check windows, computer system, computer systems, gsi parser, kaspersky, windows software

Anti Virus Software Removal Tools Overview

Martin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:00:36 +0000

Uninstalling anti virus software on a computer system is sometimes not a trivial task as they tend to add their components deep into the system to provide protection from various threats PC users face these days. The need for anti virus software removal tools arises if the default uninstallation fails. This usually leads to a messed up computer system that could throw all kinds of errors at the user. It could also break other anti virus software either during installation or usage.

So called anti virus removal tools have been created to effectively remove traces of anti virus software from the computer system. They usually run a series of processes that delete files, Registry settings and other parameters or options that have been installed by the antivirus software during installation.

Below is a collection of anti virus software removal tools that have been created by the developers of the programs to aid their users if they encounter difficulties uninstalling it.

Did we miss antivirus software uninstallation tools in the list? Let us know in the comments.

Tags: anti virus, anti virus software, antivir, antivirus, avast, avg, kaspersky, mcafee, microsoft, norton, panda, removal, symantec, virus software, Windows

Kaspersky Application Vulnerability Analysis

Martin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 10:40:00 +0000

We usually do not cover commercial software here at Ghacks. There are only a few exceptions to that rule. One is if we got our hands on the software and are allowed to give it away for free, another if the software has a feature that is worth writing about. Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 seems to have such a feature (the very same feature is also available in Kaspersky Antivirus 2009). It is called Application Vulnerability Analysis. The analysis will compare the versions of installed software with the latest one in a software database much like the software updaters like Sumo do.

The emphasize of the analysis lies on vulnerabilities. The module can scan the default program folders of a Windows installation and will check the installed software against a software database on the Internet. It will display all software programs with known vulnerabilities. Not all locations are scanned by the module. A full system scan on the other hand will include the application vulnerability analysis for all files of a computer system.

The module will list all vulnerable applications of a computer system in a table. The table includes the name of the software program, the severity of the vulnerability and a link to a website containing more information. A double-click on the link will open the security advisor in the default browser that contains details about the security vulnerability including affected software products, the impact if the vulnerability would be exploited and a link to additional information.

The scanner is not working perfectly all the time. It did for instance report a vulnerability in Open Office 3 that only affected Open Office 2.0 to 2.4. Kaspersky’s application vulnerability analysis is nevertheless a step in the right direction. While the operating system itself is still a main target for attackers many tend to exploit security vulnerabilities in common applications (web browsers, email clients, office suites) as well. It is probably safe to assume that other companies will include a similar module in their applications in the future.

Tags: kaspersky, kaspersky antivirus, Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, kaspersy vulnerability analysis, security-software, vulnerability analysis, windows software

AVG Remover

Martin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:20:00 +0000

Software companies that release specialized tools to remove their software programs from a computer system are usually regarded with suspicion by many users. Many feel that there should not be specialized uninstallers as the regular uninstaller should be able to handle the uninstallation as good. The question that comes up is why they do not make the specialized uninstaller the default one.

AVG Remover has been specifically designed to remove the antivirus software program AVG Antivirus from a computer system. It will remove all parts of the AVG installation from a computer system including all Registry settings and files on disk. The program has been designed by AVG software developers as a last resort. They let us know that the AVG Remover tool “is the least option to be used in case the AVG uninstallation / repair installation process has failed repeatedly”.

The software program could therefor prove to be useful to remove AVG after a system crash or some other catastrophe that rendered the default uninstaller useless.

Similar tools exist for Kaspersky software in the form of KAV Remover and the Norton Removal Tool.

Tags: antivirus, avg, avg remover, kaspersky, kav remover, norton, norton removal tool, norton uninstaller, symantec

Kaspersky Anti-Virus KAVRemover

Martin — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:07:37 +0000

Is it a good or a bad sign if a company starts to create specific uninstallers for their software programs to remove them complete from computer systems they had been installed on? A joke comes to mind that is saying that the Norton Removal Tool is the best product of all Norton applications. Kaspersky apparently has their own removal tool called KAVRemover (via Megaleecher) which can remove specific Kaspersky products from a computer system.

The removal tool is compatible with Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0\7.0\2009, Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0\7.0\2009, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Workstations and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Servers. If the removal tool is run on a 64-bit operating system it can only remove Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2009.

KAVRemover can be executed right after the download has finished. It opens up a captcha that has to be identified correctly before the removal starts. A reboot of the computer is required after the removal process has ended.

The product check can be skipped at the command line in case there are traces left on the system of a Kaspersky product that the check did not discover automatically.

The syntax would be to run kavremover9.exe and add the product that should be removed as a parameter. Here is the parameter list:

kav6
kav7
kav2009
kav2009×64
kis6
kis7
kis2009
kis2009×64
kav6fs
kav6wks

The command kavremover9.exe kis2009 would remove all traces of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 from the system.

Tags: anti virus, antivirus, kaspersky, kaspersky anti-virus, kaspersky remover, kaspersky tools, kaspersky uninstall, kavremover, windows software

Kaspersky Rescue Disk

Martin — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:15:53 +0000

Malicious software, like viruses or trojans, can damage a system in a way that it becomes impossible to boot into the operating system that was infected by the software. The Kaspersky Rescue Disk is a standalone bootable CD that can be used to scan the system for malicious software without having to boot into the operating system first.

The approach has a few advantages but also a disadvantage. The advantage is obviously that you can use it to remove known viruses, trojans, worms and other malicious software even if the computer cannot be booted into the operating system anymore. And since it is a standalone client it is not dependent on an installed anti-virus client but can be used on any computer that can be booted from CD. This also means that the program is independent from the installed operating system.

The disadvantage of the approach is that the virus definitions cannot be updated that easily and that it normally means that the full boot disk would have to be downloaded and burned to CD again meaning that this would have to be done regularly to stay up to date.

The good news is that you can download the Kaspersky Rescue Disk freely from an Kaspersky FTP and burn it to CD or DVD using a CD burning software like Nero.

The computer has to boot from the media and the boot sequence can be set in the computer BIOS. Make sure that the computer checks the DVD drive for a bootable device before it pulls the data from the hard drives.

The interface of the Rescue Disk is straightforward. It basically allows you to scan the computer for malicious software and offers ways to remove any that are found. This does not give a guarantee that the computer can be booted again after the cleanup though. A damaged file normally does not get repaired by anti-virus software.

Tags: anti virus, kaspersky, Kaspersky Rescue Disk, rescue disk, Security, trojans, worms

Free Kaspersky Anti-Virus for 1 year

Martin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:03:58 +0000

I have the feeling that this offer wont last long so you better hurry up. A free registration at the Chinese Kaspersky forum will reward the user with a Kaspersky Anti-Virus key that is valid for one year. The only catch, if you can speak of a catch, is that the website is in Chinese and that users have to navigate and register an account on that website.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus sells for $39.95 regularly and is considered by many magazines to be one of the best antivirus solutions available. The key works with the English version of Kaspersky as well so don’t worry about that. The key will be send to your inbox after finishing the registration at the Chinese forum.

Raymond posted a nice registration walkthrough and I recommend that you check out his website and use it as a guide to make your way through the registration process. Once you got the serial number you can download Kaspersky Antivirus 7.0 and use the serial number that was send to you to activate the software.

Tags: anti virus, antivirus, kaspersky, trojans, virus

gHacks technology news » kaspersky

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