It gives you power to block governments, corporations, machines flagged for anti-p2p activities, even entire countries. Like I said about p2p it even blocks bad guys by checking the Bad IP by using lists provided by iblocklist.com

You can download PeerBlock from here and read more about it on their FAQ

Track & Block Unwanted Internet connection using PeerBlock by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on November 13, 2009, 3:53 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Like you can see in image how Air Snare detects all those intruders. You can scan MAC, TCP, UDP and set up an email alert if you are away from your computer. You can also check DHCP requests on a separate window. Download Air Snare

AirSnare detects unfriendly MAC addresses by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on November 11, 2009, 7:24 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hijack this analyzer

You can select any of the registry values and click on fix. This will fix that by deleting the key and dll associated with it. If you are not sure enough make sure you discuss with others as it might from a trusted software which you had used. Remember this tool doesn’t discriminate between good and bad but helps you to find registry values much easily.

Apart from this you can configure some of them as white listed and can create registry backup before changing anything. You can restore it at any point of view.

Hijack this configuration

Don’t forget to check the a tool under Misc. heading which lets you delete a file on reboot which is very helpful when a virus doesnt all you to delete it or recreates itself after deletion. This tool should take care of it.

Find and Download Hijack This.

Hijack This helps you analyze Registry against browser attacks by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on September 16, 2009, 12:27 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There are lot you can do to find if a site is phishing and steer clear of money scams but here is another is service which helps you in finding scams, phishing and much more.

Created by Jason Morrison, a Googler working on the Search Quality team,  who wrote on steer clear of money scams has created a custom search engine called as Is this a scam.

In his own words,

This particular search engine works well because I combed the web looking for high-quality sources of information about scams, fraud, snake oil, and consumer protection. The list well over 100 sites, including forums, blogs, news media, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.

I could not find if he did disclose the list of  those 100 webs sites but would have loved to see it.

This makes it much more realiable and a Scam Checker before you plan to pay off money on any site which could be new for you. He says next time your uncle wants to sign off a check, just ask him to look into this.

Jason Morrison’s Is this is a scam ? by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on August 21, 2009, 1:33 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sounds little “dont make me a fool” types but you can do that with help of  Super Gen Pass. This site gives you a bookmark which can change those  text in your password into a strong one.

So next time you want to login just type the simple password, click on Super gen pass bookmarklet and it automatically converts it into a string one.

How does it work ?

When generating passwords, SuperGenPass ignores subdomains and only uses the primary domain name of the website. This ensures that the same password is generated at www.domain.com, login.domain.com, and domain.com, no matter where you are on the site. Read more here

As a summary, just use simple password and convert them into string when you login. Remember to use it when you register for any site so you get the same password again when you login. Try Super Gen Pass

Also Manav has talked about another tool,Simple and Secure Passwords , which works on similar lines. Do check out that too.

Strong passwords which you need not to remember by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on August 20, 2009, 12:02 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Microsoft has released its own Antivitus product called as Morro and they call is Microsoft Security Essentials and I decided to give it a try. So the first step I did was to Uninstall the antivirus I have already and reboot my computer. In case you plan to use it, make sure after downloading it, this is firsts tep you follow too.

What is Microsoft Security Essentials ?

• Its basically an Antivirus Program which protects you against viruses and spyware, including Trojans, worms and other malicious software.
• It promises of no costs or annoying subscriptions to keep track of.
• Promised to be Light weight and lot of silence as most of things will be handled by it in background and will not prompt you unless reuired ( We will check this more closely ).

The First look :

Installation was simple and so is the interface. There is not much of options to configured actually. The default settings are more then enough unless you would really get into and find out what more is available.

The first thing it will do is update with latest Anitvirus and spyware definition files.

Morro update definitions of antivirus

Looking at the Settings :

One thing you should realize is that Morro is just an Anti virus and not a whole suite which can configure firewall and Internet securities and other things.  It can provide you

• Real time protection, scan archive files, create system restore point
• You can exclude programs and files that can be skipped to be tested by the antivirus.
• Choose default actions when a virus or spayware is detected.

Morro Settings

My Thoughts :

Morro is pretty light database. Not heavy on system and worth using it. I am pretty sure its scanning capabilities are good but in case I do find something odd, I will let you know.

Like I said its not a complete security pack. Security meaning not only Antivirus but also Internet Security, Filewall security etc. Nod 32 Antivirus had been playing both the roles perfectly.

My Next Move :

• Running Morro and ESET NOD32 Security Program together to find how it works together.
• Do some more virus detection test, Manav will be helping me in this.
• There are couple of more ideas to test this out.

I will let you know more on this.

Morro has a limit of downloads which will be soon exhausted. So if you are seeing this post now just download it now.

Hands on with Microsoft Security Essentials : Morro by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on June 24, 2009, 9:35 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Keeping this in mind, Safe.mn is a smart and secure URL shortening service which checks if the url is safe from viruses, malware, phishing, malicious content, session stealing, cross-site scripting attacks etc. If no it sets a flag and reduces the spam in long terms.

This is a new concept in URL shortening services. With no body doing it, its going to a challenge to either include security feature in their service or give out some share to Safe.mn.

Create short and safe links with Safe.mn by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on June 6, 2009, 12:39 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

All you need to do is simply choose type in or paste the text in the window, and choose the encryption type, to get the encrypted text.

There is a huge list of encryption algorithms to choose from, as shown above.

Once done with encryption you can copy it, and send encrypted emails and messages, same tool can be used to decrypt the encrypted text.

This is a nice tool to send encrypted messages, provided that you communicate the recipient about the type of encryption you used.

Try CyberMachine.org : Online Encryption Tool

Simple online tool for encryption and decryption by Manav Mishra originally appeared on Technospot.Net on May 5, 2009, 4:00 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This application has 2 parts. First part deals with online registration of your laptop on their site.  Once the laptop is registered a unique ID is given to you. Second part  lets you configure this ID  with the software that actually helps to track stolen laptop.

Add computer to laptop lock

After you are done with registering your laptop, every time your laptop is turned on it checks with their servers to find if it has been reported lost.  In case its lost it runs predefined security plans i.e. Deletion or encryption of secured data, running a notification program. This is very useful in case you know your laptop is out of reach but saves your data.

configure your laptop

How do you track your stolen laptop ?

As I said before that every time the computer is turned on this software registers the location ( using IP ) on their mapping service.  This mapping service helps you to locate stolen laptop on google maps. If its possible for you to get in touch with local police and track it dont set security plan to delete files, instead encrypt it.

Security Plans

This software also allows you to execute some program in case of laptop theft. This program could be anything right from running a funky program to confuse the thief or to format all the drive. You can even think of setting a  drafted mail, which contains stolen laptop serial number which is sent at this pint of time.

What If you know the laptop cannot be recovered :

Since its possible then you might not get your laptop back but its possible that you get your data back without even letting the thief know about it. I would suggest to use a program like Dropbox or Box.Net which syncs data between your computer and online server.

You can configure files to be copied to Sync folder and it copies to online server and then encrypt the files so that they become unusable. The last step would be to uninstall this program since this software also allows you to decrypt the files. You never know how smart the thief is.

What if the  the thief is smart enough to not to connect to internet ?

In this case Laptop Lock software asks for a password.  This is the same password you had configured when you had installed this application for the first time.

When stolen laptop tracking software might not work ?

• In case the laptop drives are formatted
• Not sure if the program works if I have a password lock to my account. Somebody will have to break into my account to do that.

So if you are concerned about securing your laptop and data this software is very usful. Give Latop Lock a try , Its absolutely free.

Find / Track your lost or stolen laptop with Laptop Lock by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on April 1, 2009, 8:40 am. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Moreover this worm can find other network computer  from infected computer and if they lack security patches and updates can spread in the whole network.  An important feature of this virus is that it keeps a backdoor ready for any new version of worm that gets released. So chances are even if the worm is removed but backdoor is open a new version can get downloaded on your computer. This is what makes situation pretty dangerous.The Attackers could use this backdoor  to run any program on all the machines that are infected with the latest version of the worm.

This is more then a year old worm but it seems a new version is on the way which will get new instructions on April 1st to block hundreds of sites and will not allow you to get updates or security patches.  You might not see anything happening on this day but later on the effects will start rolling out i.e

F-Secure has list of questions on Conficker worm answered for all of us and we would strongly suggest all of you to read it.

Conficker Removal Tools :

• F-Secure Conficker Checker and Removal Tool http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/onlineservices/fsec/fsec.shtml on
  
• ESET Conficker Checker and Removal Tool : http://www.eset.com/download/free-virus-remover.php
• CNET Win32/Conficker Worm Removal Tool  :  http://download.cnet.com/Win32-Conficker-Worm-Removal-Tool/3000-2239_4-10911654.html
• Symantec W32.Downadup Removal Tool  : http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-011316-0247-99

These tools will check traces of  Conficker worm and remove if found. As I said this worm will be blocking many sites this will definitely include anitvirus sites or windows update sites. So if you are not able to access them its time you run to one of your friends house and  get these tools on USB and run to check. You can also disable all connected network  and run the scan one by one  on all the machines.

Remember its always good to stay updated with latest windows patches and use a good anitivirus agent. You might be ignoring and this will get you into trouble.  So turn all updates and antivirus checks now and get these tools to safe guard your pc, yopur data and help your friends too.

How to check / find and remove Conficker Worm by Ashish Mohta originally appeared on Technospot.Net on March 31, 2009, 6:13 pm. Please see our terms for use of feeds.