Tag: ROOTKIT

It's been quite a while since the crew at Avast released a major version, so this news should be very welcome to its 80 million + users. Version 5 is slated for release this October, and beta testing will begin in just a couple weeks. What's new? For starters, the interface has received some obvious TLC - gone is the option of switching between the simple and enhanced UIs. Under the hood, Avast 5 ...

Regular Download Squad readers already know that I've been testing Microsoft's new Security Essentials since it first appeared in the wild last week and that I've been quite impressed with it so far. Some commenters weren't impressed, however, waving the NOD32 flag even though SE removed threats from my machine that NOD had missed. AV-Test Labs has now put SE through a slightly more grueling ...

I made the switch to the Microsoft Anti-Spyware app, now called Windows Defender, and haven't looked back. The latest major change has turned the tool into an invaluable one on my machine. But Defender can't do it all. In fact, we all know that rootkits, spyware, and badware in general could crud up our computers at any point, right? Well MS is cogniscent of this, and has a real fix: wipe your ...

In December 1990 there was a single web site on the Internet, and by the end of 1991 that figured had jumped to ten. Today there are millions of sites and billions of pages, and the web is a universe unto itself. It's impossible for any one person to keep track of even one percent of the interesting stuff happening on the web, but still we try until our favorites folders are overflowing, our ...

Sony BMG has proposed a settlement in the class action lawsuit concerning the XCP rootkit that many of its music CDs were installing on users' computers without their permission. If passed, the settlement would have Sony recalling all XCP CDs and replace them with non-DRM CDs, plus ensuring that all XCP CDs are "promptly removed from the market" by offering owners incentives in the form ...

Slyck News has put together a list of their picks for the biggest winners and losers in file-sharing for 2005. File sharing's winners? BitTorrent, Apple, LimeWire, The Pirate Bay, and open source. The losers? Sony-BMG, Kazaa owners Sharman Networks, Grokster, pay P2P, and, of course, perennial loser the RIAA. I'd personally add to the winners list Fiona Apple, whose new album, which is being ...

Not to be outdone by Microsoft, Lavasoft, makers of the Ad-Aware malware removal program are a beta program called ARIES Rootkit Remover designed to get rid of the XCP rootkit installed by some of Sony's DRM-encumbered CDs. Members of Lavasoft's beta testing program were alerted of ARIES' release by e-mail today, and the stand-alone software can be downloaded directly from the Lavasoft Research ...