Script & Macro Viruses

Script Viruses - Types and Habitats

Script viruses (sometimes called macro viruses) generally travel embedded in email and office automation documents, although they can be found in web pages as well.

Old fashioned program viruses are usually implemented in executable system code, whereas script viruses are usually written in a powerful high-level language that is compiled and run on the fly. They often have sophisticated functionality and direct interfaces to high level applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, email, and web programs, and can wreak considerable havoc. Since they first surfaced in office automation programs, they are sometimes also called "macro" viruses. Script viruses can also propagate through IRC protocols.

On Microsoft computers, turning on your script checking virus protection is essential. However, keep in mind that there may be an associated performance hit for some applications. Many applications on Windows are written in Visual Basic, and real-time script virus checking can double the time it takes for their usual functions to run. If you find that ordinary functions take an inordinate length of time to complete, you can try temporarily turning this feature off in your anti-virus checker -- but don't forget to turn it back on afterwards!

Active threats. The following types of script viruses are currently the most active and dangerous, on the Windows platform:

Visual Basic is a flexible and powerful programming environment for Microsoft Windows, Office, and Internet applications. Script viruses written in Visual Basic can run throughout the Microsoft architecture, giving them considerable reach and power, and making them the primary virus threat today.

The first widespread Visual Basic script virus was Melissa, which brought down several of the large international corporations for several days in March 1999. Melissa traveled in a Microsoft Word document and ran when the document was opened, then opened the associated Microsoft Outlook email program, read the user's email address book, and then sent email copies of itself to the first fifty names it found. It spread very quickly.

The Melissa virus architecture was quickly followed by many similar variants programmed by hackers around the world, including the ground breaking KAK, the first Visual Basic script virus that triggered as soon as an email was opened. KAK was then followed by BubbleBoy, which triggered if an email was even viewed in the preview pane. A steady stream of Visual Basic script viruses continue to circulate to this day. There are even automated, point and click programs like VBS Love Generator to help hackers produce additional variants. Script viruses which use email to send themselves to others are also a form of worm.

The term "macro virus" is used less often, and generally refers to a virus in an office automation application macro, most commonly a Visual Basic macro in a Microsoft Word or Excel document. Macro viruses can cross system boundaries from Windows to Macintosh computers with MS Office documents. Current versions of Microsoft Office contain strong anti-macro protections to guard against known attacks.
ActiveX is one of Microsoft's distributed application technologies that enable web pages to download programs on the fly with the full power of any executable running on your machine. This makes ActiveX modules especially efficient and powerful, but also a security risk since they can create, change, and delete files, add system programming code, or take any other action your user account is allowed on your computer.

To help mitigate the risk, Microsoft provides a network architecture of encrypted security certificates for ActiveX modules. This network gives you the option of refusing the download of unsigned ActiveX modules from unknown authors, and at least disclosing the signed identity of those modules that you do accept in case they later cause problems. However, this approach is not universally accepted by the general user and professional security communities, and is sometimes called "trust me now, try to catch me later". Users running Internet Explorer on Windows machines should make sure that their browser security settings are set to "disable" for unsigned ActiveX applets, and to "prompt" for signed applets.
Hypothetical threats. The following script viruses are largely theoretical, but illustrate that they can turn up wherever there is scripting code:

Java is a standard cross platform development environment, and is often used to download scripts to add functionality like a clock or chat room interface to a web page. Java was written with a strong security model which protects your computer's data and resources, and it has so far proved remarkably resistant to script virus infection. You can turn Java off in your browser if you want to be extra careful, but it will disable some useful functionality on some web pages.
JavaScript is the standard web programming language. JavaScript also has a well-defined security model that protects data and resources, and the few JavaScript viruses that have been discovered have been mainly theoretical in nature. You can turn JavaScript off in your browser settings if you want to be extra careful, but it will disable functionality on many web pages.
MIME. The first script virus that triggered as soon as an email was opened was a MIME virus that applied to older versions of Netscape Mail, Microsoft Outlook, and Eudora Mail. In a variation on an old hacker technique, the attached MIME file was given a very long name that triggered a bug which allowed the end of the name to be run as a series of instructions, which could then be written to run the virus. However, a fix for the bug was quickly developed for each vulnerable email program, and MIME viruses have so far remained hypothetical.
Others. Several other scripting environments have also had viruses, including Corel Draw, Hypertext Preprocessor, Windows Help, Windows installation files, and Windows registry files. Anywhere there is a script interpreter there is an opportunity for a script virus to run.

Boot & Program Viruses

Boot & Program Viruses - Types and Habitats

Boot and program viruses were the first viruses. They are generally made of executable code that hides inside device boot programs and application programs, and are usually targeted for a specific computer operating system. These were the earliest types of computer viruses, and remained relatively common in the wild until overtaken in 1998 by script and macro viruses.
Boot viruses. Boot viruses hide in the boot code for a media device, such as a disk or CD, and run automatically when the media is loaded since boot programs are always the first code loaded from any device. Boot viruses proliferated on floppy disks and even CD's into the late 1990's, but aren't seen as often these days with the decline in importance of transferable, bootable media.
The first computer boot virus was built by a 15 year old kid namedRich Skrenta in 1982 for Apple II computers. Called “Elk Cloner”, it would activate whenever a floppy disk was booted on a computer, install itself on the computer, and then infect other disks used later. Once every 50 times an infected floppy was inserted in a computer it would display the following message.

Elk Cloner: The program with a personality

It will get on all your disks
It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it's Cloner!

It will stick to you like glue
It will modify ram too
Send in the Cloner!

Skrenta launched the virus into the wild in early 1982 by infecting his school’s computer and giving out disks at a computer club. Since viruses were not yet known and there were no safegaurds, it spread around the country and continued to pop up on Apple II computers for years afterwards.
The first boot virus to infect Microsoft computers was called Brain, created in 1986 by two Pakistani brothers, and displayed the phone number of their computer repair business.
Program viruses. Program viruses can travel on media like a CD or across the Internet by email attachment. They hide in an apparently useful program and then run when the program is opened. They are often called trojan horse viruses, after the hollow wooden horse containing soldiers that Ulysses and the Greeks gave to Minerva during the Trojan war, and from which the soldiers emerged that night to open the gates of the city of Troy to the Greek armies, thereby causing the city's downfall.

Program viruses may be deliberately hidden in a program by the developer, or surreptitiously attached after the fact at some point along its travels from computer to computer. Program viruses are also sometimes the vector of infection for boot viruses and worms.
Virus infection. A greeting card program emailed to you from a friend might display a holiday animation and song, while at the same time installing a remote access virus program that gives a distant hacker control over your computer whenever you're connected to the Internet. Similarly, a shareware program downloaded and emailed to you by another friend might have been infected with a virus on his computer or the server where it was stored.

The first thing a boot or program virus often does is insert commands and settings in the operating system so that they can operate freely, undetected, and unaudited, without warning messages or access log records. Some of them even change the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) that interfaces between the computer's hardware and software to help mask their activities.

The most sophisticated program viruses include "stealth viruses", which encrypt their contents to try and avoid detection by virus protection software, and "polymorphic viruses", which alter their content every time they replicate to try and avoid detection, which exhibits behavior just like real viruses. Most anti-virus programs can still catch most of these types of viruses.

What is IP Address? What is DNS?

For one computer to connect to another computer and transfer information, the IP address of that computer should be known. This IP Address is made of numbers. The 32 Bit IP address is divided into 4 sections of 8 bits each separted by a ‘.’ (dot). Each 8 bit is called an Octet. The value of each Octet will vary between 0 to 255.

For example, 203.116.56.34 is an IP address. As you can see there are four sections each separated by a dot.

Name Vs Number

If someone asks you whose phone number is 98343453 you may not know it. But instead if someone asks you whether you know ‘John peters’ immediately you will remember your friend. The reason is names are easier to remember than numbers. This is human nature.

In internet, there is a need to connect to a lot of different computers daily. If you have to remember the IP address of each computer in the internet, it is impossible. Because IP Address is made of numbers.

That’s why, computer scientists decided to give a name to each of these IP addresses. These computer names that represent IP addresses are called ‘Domain Names’. For example, www.yahoo.com is a domain name. It is easy to remember a name. Isn’t it?

Every computer that connects to the internet has a unique IP Address. Most of the computers especially servers will have a domain name.

DNS – Domain Name System

If you need to connect to a computer in the internet, you can use the IP address of that computer or the Domain Name of that computer.

But the computers need just the IP addresses. For our own convenience we use domain names. Therefore when we use the domain name, for example www.yahoo.com, our computer will first find out the IP address of this domain name and then uses the IP address to connect to it.

Let us assume that the IP address of the computer that you want to connect to is 123.232.231.132 and the domain name of this computer is www.xyz.com .

Now you connect to Internet, open your browser and key in the IP address 123.232.231.132 in the address bar and ‘Enter’. The browser will immediately connect to the computer because the computer knows how to use the IP address.

Now imagine that you typed the domain name www.xyz.com instead of the IP address in the browser. What the computer needs is the IP address not the domain name. Therefore the browser will try to find the IP address for the domain www.xyz.com . For this purpose it will contact the DNS (Domain Name System) server. The DNS server will find the IP address of that domain and will return the IP address to your browser. Then your computer will use that IP address to connect to that computer.

If you type the IP address, the browser will access that site immediately. If you type the domain name, there will be slight delay because the browser has to connect to DNS server first to determine the IP address. If for some reasons this DNS server is down or there is not DNS entry for that domain, then that domain name or website address will not be accessible.

Which Internet Connection plan to choose?

Internet has become part and parcel of our lives. Not only for individuals but even for a country’s economic growth, scientific growth, organizations’ success, Internet is very essential. The companies that offer these internet connections are called ISPs (Internet Service Providers). These ISPs offer many different internet connection plans. How to select the best connection plan for home use or for offices? The following tips will give you an overview of different types of internet connections, their advantages and disadvantages.

PSTN Dialup

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) dialup uses your phone connection to connect your computer to the internet. You need a modem, phone line and a computer for a PSTN dial up connection.

Advantages of PSTN dial up

1. This is the basic internet connection and all the ISPs provide this type of dial up.
2. To install PSTN dialup and to use it is very cheap and affordable.

Disadvantages of PSTN dial up

1. The speed of a typical PSTN modem is 56KBPS. Therefore the speed of the internet connection will be slower than this.
2. During the time you are connected to the internet, you have to pay the telephone charges.
3. While you are connected to the internet you cannot use your telephone to call anyone because you are using that phone line for connecting to the internet. You also will not receive any calls from outside during this time.

ISDN dialup

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) dialup uses a higher end digital telephone line to dial up. To use this type of connection you need ISDN telephone line, computer and a ‘Terminal Adapter’.

Advantages of an ISDN dialup

1. While you are connected to internet using ISDN dialup connection you can use your ISDN phone to make phone calls simultaneously.
2. When you are making phone calls while connected to the internet then the speed of internet will be 64KBPS.
3. If you are using the ISDN phone line just for internet then the speed of internet will be 128KBPS.

Disadvantages of ISDN dialup

1. Not every place has ISDN connection.
2. Even if your place has this facility, it is expensive to get an ISDN dialup connection from your ISP.
3. Not all the ISPs provide ISDN dialup plan.

Leased Line Internet Plan

In both ISDN dialup and PSTN dialup you need to dial up from your computer before getting connected to the internet. And you close this connection when you no longer need internet connection. If you need a continuous connection 24 hours of the day and 7 days a week then you need a ‘Leased Line’ also known as ‘dedicated line’. This type of permanent connection is called ‘Always On’.

Advantages of Leased Line

1. You get ‘Always on’ connection 24 hours every day.
2. The speed of the internet ranges from 2.4 KBPS to 2G based on your subscription.

Disadvantages of Leased Line

1. The disadvantages of a leased line is that it is very expensive.
2. Since your computer is always connected to the internet your computer is exposed to many vulnerabilities such as viruses and spywares. So you may need to secure your computer using firewall and Antivirus software

DSL

1. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) also uses a normal PSTN phone line. But using DSL you can use both internet and phone simultaneously. Therefore many prefer DSL to PSTN dial up.

Advantages of DSL

1. The speed of DSL connection is fast. 64 KBPS, 512 KBPS, 1.5MBPS and higher speed can be achieved in DSL connections.
2. DSL also provides ‘Always On’ connection 24 hours a day always.
3. You can also use your phone while using internet

Disadvantages of DSL

1. More expensive
2. You need an ADSL modem to connect but the distance between this modem and your computer cannot be more than 18,000 feet

Calculator in Google

If you are an Internet user, then you may have already used Google search engine. Google is not a mere search engine any more. Google provides many services free of charge to its users. In addition to being a search engine it provides many solutions and answers to many questions. One such value added service is the calculator in google.

You may have used your windows calculator from ‘Accessories’ for your calculations. This windows calculator can be used to solve simple arithmetic problems. In this calculator you can select ‘View->Scientific’ option to perform more complex operations such as log, sin, sum etc. But if you have questions such as 1 mile equals how many kilometers, 10 KG equals how many pounds or what is the celcius value of 18.6 Farenheit then, even this scientific calculator will not be of any help.

You can use google’s calculator to answer these questions mentioned above as well as any other similar questions. Google’s calculator can be used for simple, scientific calculations as well as for convertions.

Here are some examples and tips on how to use the google’s calculator. First of all open the homepage of google.http://www.google.com/ . You can get the answers for your mathematical equations in the search box.

1. Type 3+4 in the search box and click on ‘Search’ button. Immediately you will see a calculator icon and the answer 3+4=7
2. +,-,/ and * keys represent addition, subtraction, division and multiplication respectively. For example you can key in 5+2*3 and click on search button to get the answer as 11.
3. You can also use the ^ key as the power symbol and the % symbol for percentage. If you type 2^10 then the answer will be 1024 which is number 2 multiplied ten times.
4. You can also use sqrt, sin, cos, tan, log, lm etc in google calculator search box. For example try the following log(200),sqrt(4),sin(45 degrees) etc.
5. You can also convert a number from one numbering format to another. Some of the the numbering formats are binary, decimal, octal and hexadecimal. As far as google is concerned binary is represented by 0b, octal is represented by 0o and hexa decimal is represented by 0x. If you remember these then you can easily convert from one format to another. You can test this using the following examples. 54 to binary, 123 to hex, 0b110010 to octal,0×789 to binary, 0×1234 in roman numerals.
6. You can also do conversions. For example, try the following phrases. 5 kilometers in miles, “2 miles in kilometers”,”100 degrees f in celcius”, “One hour in seconds”, “One decade in minutes”.

You can get more details about google’s calculator at http://www.google.com.sg/help/features.html#calculator

TooManyTabs Firefox addon

Almost all browsers today use the tabbed browsing concept. So you only open a single browser but open multiple tabs each pointing to a different website. This is of course a good thing. But the more tabs you use, the more RAM memory the browser will be consuming.

At any point of time you can only view a single tab. However all the other tabs that are open are also consuming RAM memory. To solve this problem the TooManyTabs addon can be used in Firefox browsers. What it does is to create a waiting lounge where all unused tabs are parked. These parked tabs will appear as open but will be inactive. They will become active only when the tab is activated. This greatly reduces the RAM memory usage increasing the computer performance. This addon creates a toolbar just above the normal tabs. You can just drag and drop the tabs that you want to park, into this toolbar. Then when you want to reactivate the parked tab just drag and drop from this toolbar back to the normal tabs space

Google Chrome is now ahead of Safari

Two weeks earlier Google launched the Google Chrome for the Mac and Linux platforms. After this the uptake of Google Chrome has increased quite extensively. Google Chrome has now taken the 3rd place in the Browser rankings overtaking Safari which was the third largest browser so far. IE and Firefox is still hold first and second place with 64% and 25% of the market share respectively.

For Chrome, this is an important milestone with 4.4% of the market share today. This is especially an accomplishment considering the fact that it is just one year since it was launched. It took five years for firefox to reach its 25%.

All online dictionaries in one

There are many online dictionaries available in the internet today. These online dictionaries on top of providing the meaning of the words, also provide synonyms and antonyms. Most people would like to check these individual online dictionaries one by one for the same word and compare the meanings to get a better understanding of the word.

There is a better option available to get the meanings provided by all these dictionaries in a single page using google. For example you want to find the meaning of the word ‘tips’, follow the below steps.

1. Goto google.com in your browser
2. type-> definition:tips and press enter
3. google will return all the different definitions available for that word.
4. In addition, google will let you choose different languages. You can choose different language to find the meaning in the chosen language.
5. In additio google will show different phrases that can be used with that word. You can click them to find the meaning.

Is IE loosing the battle?

IE seems to be loosing the browser battle. There have been reports that show that IE’s rival browsers are gaining grounds.

A recent study done by Net Applications which involved over 40,000 websites and a lot of technologies in August and September 2009 showed the usage of different browsers in the internet. According to this study, the usage of IE has reduced from 67% to 65.7%. The usage firefox which was introduced five years ago has gained traction. Firefox users have increased from 23% to 23.8%. Apple’s Safari users have increased from 4.1% to 4.2%. Google Chrome users have increased from 2.8% to 3.2%. Opera users have increased from 2% to 2.2%. Do not think that this figure is too small. Considering the billions of total internet users this figure is too high.

Recently firefox released its 3.5 version which introduced many new features including faster java execution and built in vide. According to Microsoft even though the IE users are decreasing the IE8 users are increasing

A new keyboard for GMAIL

In Google’s Gmail website there are many short cut keys. But it is difficult to remember all these short cut keys. To solve this issue a new keyboard is now commercially available. This keyboard costs 19.99 USD.

There are 19 keys in this keyboard and looks like a number keypad. Each key represents a shortcut key. For example to mark a message with a star (favourites), or to initiate a search, to go inside the message threads etc can be achieved by just a click of a button. This keyboard can be connected to your laptop or PC via USB ports. There is no drivers required for this keyboard. You can just connect and start using it. But before you start using it, you will have to goto your Gmail account and enable the ‘Short cut keys’ in your settings.

This keyboard was not designed by Google. A film producer, Charlie Mason created this keyboard. If you already use shortcut keys in Gmail this could be a thing to consider. If you have not started using Gmail shortcut keys then this is the right time to try.

Difference between Google Chrome OS and Chromium OS

Google Chrome OS is to Chromium OS what Google Chrome browser is to Chromium.

Chromium OS is the open source project, used primarily by developers, with code that is available for anyone to checkout, modify and build their own version with. Meanwhile, Google Chrome OS is the Google product that OEMs will ship on Netbooks next year.

Therefore Chromium OS is the source code released by Google which can be used by any developers to build and create their own OS. Chrome OS is a end product that will be released by Google and developed from this Chromium OS as the base

Firefox getting better

Firefox is continuously getting more and more users. Mozilla has announced more features in future versions of firefox. These changes will be done in two phases. In first phase the changes will be done in version 3.7 which will happen in the beginning of 2010.

Mozilla feels that the front page of the firefox browser is a bit dull. In line with the Vista style firefox broswer’s front page will be modified. Only two menu items with Page and Tools will be provided. Stop and reload buttons will be merged. Address bar and search bar will be merged into a single bar. Status bar will be removed. Some said that these changes were much in line with Google’s chrome browser. But Mozilla said firefox will always be unique.

Since all the browsers do the same thing, comparisons are inevitable. However there are always unique features in every browser. As of today, there are more users using firefox than users with IE 6.

The main reason for most users to switch to firefox was because of the complaint that IE 6 has issues with Adware and spyware. But a recent research done by Sensic shows that firefox browser is more prone to hackers than IE. According to this report, firefox is 44%, Safari is 35% and IE is 15% prone to hackers. Though the accuracy of this report is in question now, firefox’s plugins are still a question mark. The plugins are more prone to hackers.

Firefox version 3.7 is supposed to be released in early 2010 and version 4 is to be released roughly in a year from now. Hopefully all the problems will be solved and new features will be added in the newer versions.

The latest buzzword – Google Buzz

What is Google Buzz? Well it is definitely a threat to the likes of facebook and twitter.

As far as searching is concerned, Google is the defacto standard for internet users. But when it comes to social networking to keep in touch with friends and family, usually sites like facebook, myspace, twitter etc are used.

Google Buzz may change this.  Google Buzz adds social networking functions such as the ability to share links, photos, videos and status updates with friends from GMAIL. So Google has finally extended the gmail users with the social networking tools to keep in touch with their contacts who are already in gmail.

Google Buzz is also accessible from smartphones. That makes it even more interesting. Though it is officially launched some gmail users still do not have buzz enabled for their account. As google is enabling buzz for gmail users in steps. So if you are a gmail user and you don’t have the BUZZ yet, not to worry. When it is avaiable you will automatically see it when you login

Shortcut keys in MS Word

CTRL+B : To make the words bold. 
CTRL+I : To italicize the words 
CTRL+U: To underline the words 
CTRL+DEL: To delete the word on the right of the cursor 
CTRL+BACKSPACE:  To delete the word on the left of the cursor  
CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR: To create equal spacing.  
CTRL+C:  To copy the selected text   
CTRL+X:  To cut the selected text  
CTRL+V:  To paste the copied or cut text.  
CTRL+ALT+V:  To paste special   
CTRL+SHIFT+< : To reduce the font size  
CTRL+SHIFT+>: To increase the font size  
CTRL+[ : To reduce the font size 
CTRL+]:  To increase the font size  
CTRL+HYPHEN:  To create continuous hiphen  
CTRL+SPACEBAR: To remove paragraph or character formatting  
CTRL+SHIFT+V: To paste the previously used format  
CTRL+Z : To undo the last action  
CTRL+Y:  To redo the last action that was undone.  
CTRL+SHIFT+G: To bring the word count dialog box.  
CTRL+L:  To align text to the left  
CTRL+E:  To centralize the text  
CTRL+R: To alogin the text to the right of the screen.  
CTRL+M:  To make the paragraph or the selected text in the margin. 
CTRL+1:  To make the spacing between lines as 1  
CTRL+5:  To make the spacing between lines as 1.5  
CTRL+2:  To make the spacing between lines as double  
F7: :  To check spelling and grammer  
SHIFT+F7 : : To show thesaurus options  
CTRL+SPACE : To enable/disable auto correct  
CTRL+SHIFT+8:  To show/hide hidden characters.

Think Point – Fake security software attacking the web

If you’ve come across Think Point antispyware software – be aware. It is a fake program created with intention to trick scared computer users into purchasing a useless full version.

The infection sources may vary, but most popular ones include installing a video codec on an untrustworthy site, opening an e-mail attachment from a falsified e-mail named after a courier company (such as DHL, or FedEx), pop-up’s, or as even some users reported, while playing a game on Facebook.

After clicking on fake warning messages, a Trojan is installed which opens up a “backdoor” to internet. An automated script does a series of instructions hijacking your browser and changing registry entries that result in an unusable computer – desktop icons are removed, task manager and internet connection is disabled.

Some users may be presented with a Microsoft Security Essentials Alert which is actually created by the Think Point infection. This alert promotes five security programs, including Think Point. While one is given a choice to select, Think Pont will be installed no matter what you choose.

Think Point will perform a computer scan which generates a false report including massive amounts of Trojans, viruses and spyware being found your machine. It is also impossible to run any executable application, because all is blocked by Think Point – a message will be popped up stating that executable file is already infected.

All this is done in order to scare an amateur computer user and force him into purchasing a full version, which costs 90$.

Please print these instructions:

1.       As ThinkPoint infection is not giving any access to the Desktop you must restart Windows. Just after Windows boots up, press CTRL + ALT & DEL on your keyboard at once. This should bring up the Windows Task Manager.

2.       In the Task Manager window select the Processes tab on the top.

3.       Look through the list of processes until you find the hotfix.exe process.

4.       Click left mouse button on it and press END PROCESS button situated at the bottom of the Task manager. Windows should ask you to confirm killing the process, select Yes to terminate hotfix.exe .

5.       Now ThinkPoint was disabled, and you should restore a normal desktop by clicking File menu on the Task manager, select New Task (Run) and type iexplorer.exe in the OPEN field. This will grant you access to the Internet Explorer.

6.       After this you must search and delete the hotfix.exe file on your computer which may be hidden.

7.       If after deleting the file and rebooting the pc you’re still left with a blank desktop repeat step 5. You will need to fix various registry settings or use a popular and trustworthy security program.

Download free Desktop Security software

When you are not near your computer other people can enter and read your files in your computer. They may edit them or even delete them. They can read you emails. They can format your hard disk. They can do anything they want with your computer.

In an office environment, this type of computer sabotage is possible. There are many software and applications related to ‘Desktop Security’. If you install a ‘Desktop security’ application in your computer, then you can prevent others from using your computer. If you require you can give permissions for a few.

Here are some of the desktop security software that you can use:

1. Access Denied
   Users of Windows 95/98/ME can use this application. You can install it and be sure that your computer is safe from strangers. When you boot your computer, it will prompt for the username and password. So only you can login to the computer.
   With ‘Access Denied’ you can give a unique username, passwords to your friends to access your computer. Later you can see the log file and see the time logged in and logged out by these users. So you will know exactly who used your computer.
   Another feature in Access Denied software is to block the F4 and F8 keys while the computer is booting. You can do this by choosing ‘Security->No Book Keys’ option.
   Another feature in Access Denied is the ‘Screen Guard’. This ‘Screen Guard’ feature is very handy. You can configure ‘mouse click’ or ‘hot key’ to hide the desktop whenever you want. If anybody tries to access, it will prompt for the username and password.
   Access Denied will also deny booting from floppy or CD.
   You can download ‘Access Denied’ fromhttp://www.johnru.com/accessdenied
2. Lock Out Desktop Security
   Lockout Desktop Security can be used to create policies and permissions for groups and users. You can block access to certain applications. You can block access to CD Drive. You can specify time period when people can access and when they cannot.
   You can download Lockout Desktop security software fromhttp://www.soft32.com/
3. Desktop Lock
   You can download Desktop lock fromhttp://www.toplang.com/desktoplock.htm
   Like other Desktop security applications desktop lock allows you to prevent access to specific applications, documents etc.
4. Mouse Trap
   To lock the desktop and to allow access only by logging in using username/password you can use the ‘Mouse Trap’ application. Mouse Trap also prevents the use of ‘Ctrl+Alt+Del’ and ‘Alt+Tab’ and any other system keys. You can download Mouse Trap from http://www.hotwww.com/
5. Boot Locker
   You can download Boot Locker from http://www.bootlocker.com/bl . You can use boot locker to create many users and groups. You can use this to disable and change password compulsary at frequent intervals.
   To find the latest available free desktop security software search google with the following search term http://www.google.com/search?q=%22desktop+security%22+download

Use Password protected ‘Screen Saver’ to increase security

You can give a password to your screen saver and make it active whenever your computer boots up. Those who do not know the password cannot enter your computer. Let us see how you can protect your computer from unwanted users accessing your computer.

To create Screen Save with Password

Right click on the blank space of your desktop and select ‘Properties’. In the new dialog box, click on the ‘Screen Saver’ tab. Select any screen saver of your choice. For example let us assume you chose ’3D Flying Objects’.

Now click on the ‘Password Protected’ check box and select it. Then click on the ‘Change’ button. In the new dialog box that opens key in your password.The effectiveness of the protection depends on your password, therefore select a password that is not easy to guess but is easy for you to remember. It is better to keep a password lengthy. Confirm your password by typing again and click on the ‘OK’ button.

You will see the ‘The password has been successfully changed’ information. Click ‘OK’ and close that box. Then finally click on the ‘OK’ button and close the ‘Properties’ dialog box.

To bring the Screen save shortcut to the desktop

The screen saver will only take effect only when your computer is idle for a specified time without any activity. What if you leave your computer and before the screen saver takes effect somebody else stars using your computer. To prevent this from happening you can create a shortcut to your screen saver and activate it whenever you leave your computer.

To create shortcut to the screen saver in the desktopn right click on the blank space of your computer and click ‘New Shortcut’. You will now see the ‘Create Shortcut’ dialog box, click on ‘Browse’ button and select teh screen saver execution file which can be found at c:/windows/system folder. In the ‘File of type’ drop down list choose ‘All Files’. Now in the list of files, scroll and look for the screen saver file (for eg. 3d flying objects) and double click on it. Then click on the ‘Next’ button then give a suitable name for your shortcut and then click on ‘Finish’ button.

Now the shorcut is visible on the shortcut. Whenever you leave your computer just double click this screen saver shortcut and activate your screen saver. Now if anyone wants to use it, when they move the mouse or click any button on the keyboard, the screen saver will prompt for the password. Since he will not know your password he cannot enter your computer.

To add screen saver shortcut to the windows ‘startup folder’

You may know that the programs inside the starup folder will automatically start when you boot your computer. Now you should bring the desktop screen saver shortcut to this startup folder. The reason is, after you shut down your computer if someone tries to start your computer without your knowledge then the screen saver will automatically prompt for the password.

Start your Windows Explorer. Choose the C:/windows folder and look for the ‘Desktop’ folder. Inside this desktop folder look for the short cut that you created. If the files are not visible then click on the ‘View-Folder Options’ menu, select the ‘View’ tab and select ‘Show all files’ option and click ‘OK’ button. In the file list selct the ’3dfo’ shortcut and copy it (Ctrl + C).

Now goto the Windows/startmenu/programs/startup folder. Now paste it here (Ctrl + V). Now close the windows explorer.

From now on when you boot your computer the screen saver will be activated and prompt for the password. Only if you key in the right password you can enter your computer.

If your friend is a bit clever then he may start your computer in ‘Safe Mode’ and enter your computer. Because in ‘Safe Mode’ it will not prompt for password. Then he can goto the start programs startup folder and delete the screen saver shortcut from that folder.

Now your screen saver will not be active anymore. So bringing the screen saver to start up folder is not a fool proof method. But not many people will go to that extent of starting in safe mode and then deleting the screen saver shotcurt. So you can still use this method.

How to remove hijack virus?

You may have read news about planes being hijacked. For example a passenger plane which is supposed to go to London may be hijacked by terrorists and flown to Turkey. The hijack virus does just that. If you key in a website address in your browser’s address bar and press ‘Enter’ then instead of going to that website the browser may open some other website such as an adult website or an advertisement website or a search engine website. If this happens in your computer then your browser has been infected by a hijack virus.

Why does this happen, you may wonder? This means a hijack virus has entered your computer without your knowledge and is working at its will. You can remove hijack virus and prevent it from happening using some software.

Process Guard is one such software. Just search for this software athttp://www.download.com/ and install it in your computer. This program will guard your computer against these hijack viruses

What is ‘Safe Mode’ booting?

While your computing is booting, you can instruct the computer to boot in ‘safe mode’. Safe mode refers to secure mode. You may then ask, is our computer not secure when we boot normally. Let us see how is safe mode more secure than the normal booting.

When your computer gives problems and you want to identify where is the problem, then you can use the safe mode for this. In safe mode, only limited number of driver programs are enabled. Therefore you cannot use CD drive. You cannot use the printer. And many other unnecessary drivers are not enabled.

While in Safe Mode, you can use the ScanDisk, defrag and other utility programs to repair your computer. You may wonder how to bring the computer to safe mode. When Windows boots up, you have to press the F8 key. You should press the F8 key before the windows screen appears. Then you can choose the safe mode option to boot.

Some Anti virus software will tell you that some viruses can only be removed in safe mode, therefore the antivirus software will automatically start in safe mode or you may have to goto safe mode and then run the virus removal utility to remove the virus.

Free Password Management software

To keep computer files, internet connections and other resources just to ourselves, we use passwords. Some people use the same password for everything. This is a very bad practice. Because if someone comes to know about this password then they will get access to all your resources. There fore it is essential to have different passwords for different purposes. But this poses another problem. It becomes very difficult to remember all these passwords. Some write these passwords in their diary or write on a small paper and keep it on their table. This too is a bad practice. Because it is easy for other people to get hold of this information when you are not around.

If you could keep all your password in a database and then encrypt this database and protect it with a password then all your passwords will be safe. Then you just need to remember this one password, so even if you forget other passwords you can still use this password to open the database and check the password.

You can use a free password management software such as ‘Password Safe‘. You can download password safe from http://sourceforge.net/ and install it in your computer. Then you will never have to remember many passwords.

To create a master password

When you open Password safe for the first time it will ask you for the ‘Safe combination’ which is nothing but the master password for your password database. The safe combination password should be long and contain both numbers and alphabets so that it is difficult to guess. If you give a simple and easy to guess password then password safe will warn you. Now key in the same password again in the ‘Verify’ box and click on ‘OK’.

To add passwords to Password Safe

Click on the ‘Add Entry’ button in Password Safe. In the new dialog box give ‘group name’ (optional) and the title name and then key in your username and password. In the ‘Notes’ section write anything you want to write about the account. Now click on ‘OK’ to add this information to password safe.

As mentioned in the above paragraph add all your passwords one by one. When you close password safe program it will ask you where you want to save this password database in your hard disk. This is only for the first time.

To retrieve the password

If you forgot the password for any file or program and you want to retrive the password from password safe then password safe will first ask you for the ‘master password’. After you give the master password the database will open.

Then click on the ‘title’ for which you want to know the password. Now click on the ‘Copy password to clipboard’ button. Now the password will be copied to the clip board. You can use Ctrl + V to paste it anywhere you want.

When you exit the password safe program, it will automatically clear the password from the clipboard for security reasons.

You can also edit the password if you want.

3outube – Download youtube videos

Even wondered how to download youtube videos to your computer hard disk? If you did a search on google to find out free applications that can download youtube videos, there are quite a few of them available.

But some of them add advertisement, or only download 60 to 70 % of the video, and if you want to download the 100% video, you may have to buy it.

Here is a free 100% online download site which enables you to download in two different formats. MPEG4 and FLA formats. All you need to do is goto youtube.com and find your favourite video.

Eg. http ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY9793NCGxI

Now replace y in youtube with 3

So the URL now becomes

http://www.3outube.com/watch?v=yY9793NCGxI

This will bring you to a page where you can select which file format you want to download. MPEG4 or FLA.

Just click on the file format you want and the youtube video will be downloaded to your hard disk. It is that simple.