Friday, December 19, 2014

BEWARE MALWARE


BEWARE MALWARE 


It can be said without any doubt that computers have revolutionised modern day industry and business at large. The advances brought about by computer technology in the past three decades was nothing short of astounding. And as such, we really have to take out hats off to the computer scientists, software engineers and technology integrators and those behind the scenes who are never mentioned, - the human capital who brought us this amazing technology. But, as great as this is, it also has its downside. They have also created a platform for malicious interferences by others, using the same software tools. Interferences like Viruses, Tracking Cookies, Browser Hijackers, Toolbar hijackers, Pop-up ads, Adware helpers and other Malware in general. These software tools are used by those unscrupulous individuals intent on pushing their products and wares in your face. Besides, they are brazen enough to hold you computer to ransom, disrupting your workflow, compromising your business and productivity, forcing you to give them a hearing, forcing you to view their ads, or forcing you to subscribe to their spam. Some  uses aggressive marketing strategies to turn visitors into customers totally against their will. This is the start of the Internet of  Things. (IoT)

Of late there seems to be an influx of these interference especially on the windows platform. Many of these unscrupulous vendors design their Adware helpers using Ajax technology to give their audience a more pleasant user experience, conning them into downloading the  Adware Helpers  camouflaged as program updates. Adware helpers are program that automatically display advertisements in your web browser, or in  pop-up windows.  Adware regularly comes bundled with free software such as utility programs, games, movies, emoticons and  screensavers, etc.  Adware helpers specifically track your web surfing habits and interests,  based on the site you visit then relaying that information to third parties who deliver targeted advertisements enticing you to buy their wares.  Adware helpers generally does not threaten your privacy nor computer security, but its heuristic nature can slow down computer performance, occupy harddrive space and frustrate you with those incessant and annoying pop-up adverts.  

FilmFanatic Toolbar uses misrepresentation to hijack your browser and your search results then changes your Internet settings. FilmFanatics Toolbar normally lock your settings to their servers, intercepting and track your surfing habits then flooding you with ads. Besides its embeds itself into your computers registry and any attempt to remove it, just relaunches the reinstall script hidden on your hard-drive.
FilmFanatic Toolbar is associated with Publisher - Mindspark Interactive Network. http://search.mywebsearch.com/mywebsearch/default.jhtml (See image below.)



PUP.superTap / PUP.AnyProtect (PUP abbrv. for possible unwanted program) is disguised as an  IePluginServices and vigarously consumes your system resources, even when its in an idle state and autoconfigures itself to start automatically at boot up.

Isearch.omiga-plus.com use misleading practices and aggresive marketing stratergies to hijack your browser and embed itself into registery in dozens of places.
Find it under c:\Users\Alice\AppData\Roaming\omiga-plus\..\...\...\
(In the above path, Alice is in place of your name). See image below.

Image of a typical browser hijack
Google was the Default Browser until it got hijcked by Conduit, Mystartsearch & omiga-plus


Downmcflplayer.com/ZA/ is vicious in their marketing statergy as can be seen below. They use Google's Logo and an  Ellu to trick you into thinking they are legitimate but believe me they not. They kinda force you to download a setup file that creates havoc on your computer. (See image below.)

Misrepresentation of the highest degree
This image looks fairly convincing persuading  unsuspecting users to update their Video player


Misrepresentation continued
Recommended is in your face, not giving an option to quite but to download it.

tlbsearcha2.com and Ppcs.tlbsearch.com; are some what similar to Isearch.omiga-plus. They hijack your browser and claims default status.

Anti malware Software like Spy Hunter and Hitman Pro can easily remove these interferences and return your computer to a working state. (See images below)

Images shows how Hitman pro  identifies Malware by name.


 Hitman pro  identifies deletes and quarantines malicious Malware


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

WHAT IS THE BEST BROWSER


WHAT IS THE BEST BROWSER.


Millions of people surf the net daily, using desktop computers, network servers, mobile phones, iPads, proxy servers, tablets, atom PCs and notebooks. Each enjoying a different level of user experience even though these devices are all different in functionality, speed, network connection and operating system.  But surprisingly, all of them have one piece of software in common - which is called a browser.  There are numerous browsers out there, probably a lot more than most people even realize. However, the reality is that not all these browsers are created equal. Some, like the older versions of Internet explorer do not support the latest HTML standards, some have slow Javascript engines which can be remedied with a  plugin, - Google Chrome Frame for example. Chrome Frames enables JavaScript applications to run fairly fast in the Chrome V8 engine even if the application is installed from an older version of Internet Explorer. Unfortunately Google retired Chrome Frame in June 2013. 

Be that as it may, right now we are only interested in the best browser and will their look at the  "big three" for both desktops computers and mobile devices.

1) Gecko: used by the Mozilla Foundation for Firefox,
2) WebKit: used by Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome
3) Trident: used by Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

What makes these 3 better than the other browser generally is their rendering speed, their developer support, their HTML5 features and how well they support it. When I design websites, I religiously check their appearance in Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera, but not necessarily in that order.  If the web visuals are the same in all four of them, then  I am confidently assured that my code is doing exactly what it should and  functionality and appearance across a large contingent of browsers will be more than acceptable by most.

So the tossup is between these three -Gecko, Webkit and Trident. Apple Mac and iPad users generally prefer Safari natively installed with their OS and Google chrome is in essence safari with a different dress of clothing. This is easily verifiable. Just look at the Google Chrome crash icon when Chrome crashes, its a genuine sad mac face.

The sad mac face seems to have influences both Mozilla firefox and Google chrome.

Internet Explorer seems to have compatibility issues. IE6 works perfectly well on Windows XP which cannot be upgraded to IE7 nor IE8 because they are made for vista and windows 7 & 8 thus incompatible with XP. Firefox is a favourite among the open source crowd and a fantastic browser in general with good security features and accepts a generous amount of plugins. Based on this Firefox is the outright winner since it can replace IE whereas Google chrome depends on IE on install. Firefox's newest release is called Firefox "Lorentz," (Firefox 3.6.3) designed to minimized crashes. Firefox, was always thought to be the leader in browser innovations, but now also seems to be following Google's sad mac face convention and IE explorers crash apology, that offers you the option  to submit a crash report.

Even though, my browser of choice is Google Chrome but my personal favourite is Opera. It is so versatile that it runs on almost anything that's web savvy. I've installed Opera mini on a "not so smart-phone" to remotely view CCTV footage, and it works beautifully. I even have a portable Opera version on my flashdrive for mobile surfing. I'm not paranoid but I am careful about where I leave my browsing history so whenever I  use a computer at an Internet cafe or just someone else's computer, I launch Opera from my flash drive because Opera is fast and furious and won't leave my history behind for others to view.

SOME BROWSER YOU MAY WANT TO TRY


ZenMate
Maxthon
K-Meleon 
Konqueror
SeaMonkey
PowerBrowser
Camino
Flock
iCab
Galeon 
Avant
Shiira 
Netscape Navigator
NetSurf
Conkeror
SlipKnot
Arena
Cyberdog