beforeyoukillyourcomputer.com Saving computers one at a time from their owners

Ad-Aware provides protection from known Spyware including: Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components.

What’s New in 2008:
* Improved Threat Detection
o Spyware, Adware, Trojans & Hijackers
o Fraud Tools & Rogue Applications
o Password Stealers & Keyloggers
* Enhanced Rootkit removal system
* Faster Updates & Faster Scans
* Less Resource Usage for optimal computer performance
* Easy to Download, Install and Use
* Lavasoft ThreatWork submission tool
* Compatible with Windows Vista (32- and 64-bit)

More feature details:
* NEW! Extensive Detection Database - Bigger and better detection to guard your privacy against malware attacks.
* Advanced Code Sequence Identification (CSI) Technology - Precise detection of embedded malware including Trojans, worms, spyware, bots, and other forms of deceptive malware.
* NEW! Enhanced Rootkit Removal System - Rootkit detection technology to find and remove hidden threats.
* TrackSweep - Control your privacy by erasing tracks left behind while surfing the Web on multiple browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera, with one easy click.
* Easy to Download, Install & Use - Effortlessly maneuver the complexities of malware detection and removal with our new user-friendly interface.
* NEW! Lavasoft ThreatWork - Directly submit suspicious files for analysis via ThreatWork, an alliance of global anti-spyware security volunteers actively fighting online threats.

PCs are under constant attack from viruses, spyware and identity theft. Every day you hear about a new threat to your PC. They’re coming faster than ever before, they’re getting harder to stop and traditional antivirus products are not able to keep up.

Will your antivirus software catch the latest malware that just came out today? In most cases, no, because it simply does not know how to detect it yet. But ThreatFire’s ActiveDefense technology does, and has proven to provide up to 243% more protection when combined with traditional AntiVirus products.

Download PC Tools ThreatFire 3.5.0.21

Ad-Aware provides protection from known Spyware including: Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components.

With the release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes the fight against Spyware to the next level.

With Lavasoft’s all new Code Sequence Identification (CSI) technology, you will not only be protected from known content, but will also have advanced protection against many of their unknown variants. To further protect you, Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition also has the capability to scan and list Alternate Data Streams (ADS) in NTFS enabled volumes. In combination with the new scanning engine, Ad-Aware SE will scan your computer faster and more thoroughly than ever before!

Download Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.3 (FH)

Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn’t intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don’t see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies. Spybot-S&D is free, so there’s no harm in trying to see if something snooped into your computer, too

Download Spybot Search and Destroy 1.5.1

With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware 2007 easily can clean your system, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web.

Ad-Aware 2007 includes a redesigned engine, improved code sequence identification, incremental definition updates, one-click Web-history cleanup, multiple browser support, and other new features. Version 7.0.2.1 adds Windows Vista (32-bit) compatibility.

Download Ad-Aware 2007 7.0.2.1

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

- Fixed IE7 history cleaning in Vista.
- Fixed bug in clipboard cleaning.
- Added Safari cleaning.
- File system access optimizations.
- Updated several translations.
- Updated installer engine.
- Minor stability improvements.
- Minor bug fixes.

Follow-up to last night’s post.

It’s a time limited option to the first 5000 people that upgrade according to this page.

You can also get the link by updating your definitions on the Ad-Aware 6 program.

A product comparison chart is available here.

Many users get by just fine by using the free version and it is quite good. We currently use it along with Spybot: Search & Destroy. Together, most spyware is detected and dealt with. However, we decided to purchase the Plus version to test out the other features. If you’re one that is constantly bombarded with spyware and have to take your computer to the shop to get cleaned (cleaned for the shop is wiping out everything and starting over) this may be for you.

After many beta releases Lavasoft has today released the latest Ad-Aware.

What’s New in Ad-Aware 2007 Free?

* Redesigned Engine – Benefit from superior program flexibility and more accurate scanning methods with all-new program architecture.
* Improved Code Sequence Identification (CSI) Technology – Boost your privacy protection with precise detection of embedded malware, including known and emerging threats.
* Incremental Definition File Updates – Save precious time and resources with smaller update files resulting in faster download times.
* TrackSweep - Control privacy by erasing tracks left behind while surfing the Web on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera, with one easy click.
* Multiple Browser Support – Choose Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera with expanded browser support.
* New Straightforward User Interface – Effortlessly maneuver the complexities of malware detection and removal with our new user-friendly interface.

More Key Features

* User-Controlled Spyware Removal - Decide for yourself what to delete from your system and what to keep.
* Extensive Detection Database – Stay protected with regular updates from the extensive library of identified and analyzed spyware.
* System Restore Point – Easily revert back to your clean system to recover from a spyware attack.

Download Ad-Aware 2007 7.0

The House has just passed the Internet Spyware Prevention Act of 2007—otherwise cleverly known as “I-SPY”—in order to lay the smack down on spyware purveyors whose actions are already illegal and who are currently being pursued by the Federal Trade Commission. Wait, what?

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) is the Congresswoman from San Jose who introduced the bill, and she said in a statement yesterday that “I am pleased that my first stand-alone bill to pass this Congress is one that both protects Americans on the Internet and fosters continued technological innovation.” Let’s break that sentence down.

Lofgren wants to stress that she is capable of getting things done in Congress—hence the self-serving reference to “my first stand-alone bill.” Fair enough. “Protecting Americans on the Internet” is pure pandering; it sounds utterly unobjectionable but means little because the government already has the authority to prosecute spyware companies. “Continued technological innovation” is a reminder that Lofgren’s district includes plenty of Silicon Valley tech companies who were less than thrilled about a competing House proposal called the SPY ACT. That bill is much longer, and from a business perspective, mo’ longer, mo’ problems.

So does the I-SPY Act do anything useful? It does provide $10 million a year through 2011 to the US Attorney General in order to “discourage the use of spyware and the practices commonly called phishing and pharming.” It also defines spyware as code that is “copied onto the protected computer” and intentionally used to obtain personal information or to damage the security of a personal computer.

The bill explicitly does not prohibit any form of lawfully authorized intelligence activity, though, so if a judge ever signs off on a CIA advertising-affiliate program that encourages drive-by downloads, there’s nothing consumers can do about it. Fortunately, this scenario is… unlikely.

Google Ads, provided by Advertisers through the advertising service known as “Google Adwords” has been the leading front in Online advertising for thousands of publishes and advertisers world wide, used on blogs and sites owned by millions of bloggers, it may come to cause some discomfort with the recent news of some Google Ads containing spyware, is it Google’s fault? Some may think so.

Google, being the publisher of the ads is now rethinking there method of approval for the desired ads to be published, with the news of some of their advertisements being “hi-jacked” with spyware, it could cause potential users of the advertising to turn away and go to other sources. Google is well aware of this, and have already taken swift action.

“We cancelled the affected ads as soon as we were made aware of the problem,” Google spokesperson Diana Adair told ClickZ News in an e-mail. Google is not alone, if they are able to be penetrated like this, then the smaller companies could be as , if not more vulnerable. All Google really can do is delete the affected ads, and amp up their protection against this threat.

Source