symantec

In the tech world, conventional sentiment has always been that Mozilla's Firefox browser is safer and more secure than Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). Now, antivirus and security company Symantec (Norton) is strongly challenging that notion. A ... recent study by Symantec indicates that 25 confirmed security holes were discovered in Firefox during the first half of 2005 -- "the most of any browser studied," according to the authors of the research. Out of those 25 security defects, 18 were identified as high-risk. Internet Explorer, on the other hand, contained 8 high-level security risks out ... (view more)

Has the Church of England been turned upside down by a Spyware scandal? It sure seemed that way when a computer program called Visual Liturgy was identified as Spyware by Norton Antivirus. The liturgy-creation software is essential for vicars who ... depend on it to help them map out church services. But all hell broke loose when Norton incorrectly flagged "vlutils.dll" as Spyware and instructed users to erase it. That's because it's actually a crucial Visual Liturgy file. Without it, the program won't work. Church House Publishing, the makers of Visual Liturgy, said it took Symantec (Norton) ... (view more)

Yahoo Mail, the world's most popular e-mail service, was recently attacked by a software virus (worm) dubbed "Yamanner" or "JS.Yamanner." Major anti-virus companies Trend Micro and McAfee disagree with Symantec (Norton) about Yamanner's threat ... level. Trend Micro and McAfee have categorized the virus as a "low" threat, but Symantec (Norton) is calling it an "elevated threat." Most worms are activated only after an infected e-mail file attachment is downloaded. Not Yamanner. Merely opening the mail is enough to automatically unleash the virus onto your computer. That is likely the reason for ... (view more)

Today I received well over 200 virus-infected emails, courtesy of the W32.sobig.b@mm.html and Friendship Screensaver worm / virus. So, why do I get bombarded with email viruses more than the average Joe? The answer to my dilemma is compound. Since ... literally thousands of users have emailed me in the past ... and because mail programs such as Outlook / Outlook Express automatically save contacts [email addresses] once mail has been replied to, ... and and because most email viruses propagate through email Contact Lists: my email addresses have been become exceptionally targeted by email worms. ... (view more)

Today I received well over 200 virus-infected emails, courtesy of the W32.sobig.b@mm.html and Friendship Screensaver worm / virus. So, why do I get bombarded with email viruses more than the average Joe? The answer to my dilemma is compound. Since ... literally thousands of users have emailed me in the past ... and because mail programs such as Outlook / Outlook Express automatically save contacts [email addresses] once mail has been replied to, ... and and because most email viruses propagate through email Contact Lists: my email addresses have been become exceptionally targeted by email worms. ... (view more)

Yesterday's Visitor Feedback of the Gazette addressed why two program files ( internat.exe and ptsnoop.exe ) might be present in the Windows msconfig startup. To be honest with you, I have never encountered these programs before. The name ... "internat.exe" seemed to me that it was a purposely misspelled version of the word "Internet" -- most likely misspelled to dupe users into thinking that it was a friendly Internet-related program. In all likelihood, I thought, the program name "internat.exe" could have been a trojan. I was right. Sort of. As always, I use Google ... (view more)