February 1st was “change your password day.” Did you changed your passwords? When you’re managing your various accounts, passwords and other sensitive data, it becomes very difficult to keep them secure while accessible. You can easily find many efficient password managers but most of them comes at a premium.

Here, we’re going to take a quick look at Dashlane, a user-friendly and secure password manager for Windows and Mac. The app promises to cut the hassle of managing your accounts, passwords and other sensitive data while keeping the data safe from prying eyes. Let’s see if the app can keep its promise of providing better security while revolutionizing the way we login to websites today.

Exclusive Dashlane Invites for all My Technology Guide readers!

Dashlane is now in a private beta stage. But you don’t have to wait for an invite! Thanks to the great folks behind the software to set up an exclusive page for My Technology Guide readers with some exclusive invites.

Simply click on the link below to try Dashlane without waiting to get an invite!

Dashlane Beta Invites

Getting Started with Dashlane

After you click on the above link, enter your email address and download Dashlane. Launch the setup process, which is simple and quick. In Mac, Dashlane supports Safari in addition to Chrome and Firefox, both of which is also supported in the Windows platform. But if you’re using Internet Explorer, you’ve to wait a little more as IE is not yet supported by the app.

Now, when you’re going to set up your Dashlane account using the app, you’ll notice a window, which informs you that there is absolutely no way to recover your password if you forget it since it is not stored anywhere. It may sound very hard but it is perfect for an app like this.

If you’ve used an app like 1Password, you’ll see the same policy about password retrieval. LastPass though has a way to retrieve/reset your password if you forget your master password but the process they follow is pretty secure in our opinion and is a little different from how Dashlane works. So, we will not give any negative points to Dashlane for this.

How to use Dashlane?

Once you’re completed the setup, you’ll get into your dashboard where you can start entering your information. The user interface is elegant, easy to use and navigate. We loved the simplicity and gradient white color of the user interface.

All your information is categorized into three primary categories: Personal Data, Internet Accounts, Internet Shopping. These three categories are further expanded into following: Under Personal Data, you’ll find Contact, IDs, Payment; under Internet Accounts, Logins and Passwords, Security Dashboard; under Internet Shopping, Purchases.

Entering, Importing, Exporting and Saving Information

Dashlane developers have made the task of entering all your information super easy. Simply click on the little round “+” buttons, present under each category and a form pops out for you to fill in and save.

The Personal Data category can be filled up manually while the app intelligently saves your account details for different sites as you log into them using any supported browser. Here, you’ll notice a unique feature of Dashlane about which we haven’t talked yet. Whenever, the app saves any account details, it shows a dialog box to organize your accounts. In that very same dialog box you’ll notice a check box which says “Always log me into the website.” This feature is an exclusive feature of Dashlane.

So, the next time you open that website, the app automatically takes over and logs you in. If you have saved multiple accounts, suppose your Gmail, clicking on the username field will display a pull over menu with all the saved credentials. When you click on the username you want to login to, the app automatically logs you in without any further typing or clicking anywhere.

Dashlane also lets you automatically speed up your online purchases by filling up all the details and even saves the information about that purchase (total spent, retailer name, etc.) back in the app.

Another great feature of the app is its import facility. The app lets you import all your previously saved information from your favorite browser, LastPass, 1Password, Roboform, Password Wallet and Keypass. The app also lets you easily export all your saved data.

Login and Passwords

Under the Login and Passwords section you will see a grid of all the websites login credentials. Upon hovering on any of the tile, a play button appears at the corner. If you click on it, the app automatically loads the website and logs you in. A very convenient and innovative way to login to your favorite website.

Security Dashboard

The Security Dashboard provides a quick overview of the safety level, that is strength of each passwords that you’ve saved with Dashlane. A little bar displays password strength on a scale of 1-100% and a simple interpretation of the score such as “Super Safe,” “Safe” or “Very Unsafe.”

Dashlane Browser Extension

Dashlane during installation also installs the browser extensions. This extension helps capture the login credentials and helps you fill up data. We’ve already mentioned earlier how conveniently it helps filling up online forms through a pop-up menu for each field.

If you’re filling up a long form which needs your personal data like sign-up forms, you just need to choose your saved information with Dashlane and all the fields are filled out automatically.

Syncing

Dashlane saves all your information to your local hard-drive. But, if you’ve multiple computers, you’ve the option to sync all your information to the Dashlane servers. So, when you login to your Dashlane app in your other computer, it automatically syncs all your information.

Syncing is not enabled by default and is completely optional. Even what is getting synced is completely in your hands and for your safety, your financial information is never synced.

Conclusion

Dashlane, even though is in private beta, is already a very solid app with a lot of potential. With some of its unique features like automatic sign in, the app intelligent solves a lot of short comings present in currently available password managers. If you still don’t use any password manager, we highly recommend you to start using one and feel the difference. If you’re already using a password manager, you should definitely try Dashlane.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, don’t hesitate to comment below and get a discussion flowing! Please share your favorite password manager and if you don’t use one, please tell us why you don’t use one. Thank you so much for reading!

Microsoft has released Windows Defender Offline, an offline antivirus tool, for PCs that are badly infected by malicious and other potentially unwanted software, including rootkits, to even get full access to the Internet.

The offline antivirus tool basically allows a user to boot their infected Windows computer system from a CD, DVD or USB flash drive. It uses the most recent definition update available to scan the PC for malicious and other potentially unwanted software. It then helps the user to disinfect the PC from the hard to detect threats.

This tool is particularly useful to remove certain kinds of malware that prevents the user from visiting any security or antivirus website. Many malicious programs uses methods to prevent users from accessing those websites to prevent detection and cleaning. Sometimes, they corrupt Windows files to prevent any kind of network access.

Wile announcing the release of Windows Defender Offline beta, Microsoft said, “Windows Defender Offline Beta can help remove such hard to find malicious and potentially unwanted programs using definitions that recognize threats.”

How to use Windows Defender Offline beta?

Follow the steps below to download and use Windows Defender Offline:

1. First, Download Windows Defender Offline Beta to create the CD, DVD, or USB flash drive on a PC that isn’t infected with malware.
2. You will need a blank CD, DVD, or USB flash drive with at least 250 MB of free space, run the downloaded tool, it will help you create the removable media.
3. Now, boot your infected PC using the Windows Defender Offline Beta media.
4. Scan your PC for malicious and other potentially unwanted software.
5. Remove any malware that is found by this tool from your infected PC.
6. Here’s a FAQ created by Microsoft for your help in using the tool. Complete system requirements is available here.

Earlier, we’ve covered Kaspersky Rescue Disk which helps you disinfect severely infected machines. These bootable tools are extremely useful for disinfecting the toughest to clean malicious or unwanted programs from the PC. But, keeping these tools updated is a very tedious task.

AVG Technologies has released AVG Internet Security 2012 and AVG Antivirus 2012 the latest edition of their flagship security software. The latest version added new protection technologies, computer performance enhancements and content download acceleration. AVG 2012 is lighter, faster and smaller than any previous AVG product.

The earlier versions AVG 9 Free and AVG 2011 Free is still quite popular among our readers. It provides basic security protection for your computer against malware, viruses and other malicious programs. The standard security module that AVG Antivirus Free Edition 2012 comprises of are an antivirus, anti-spyware, email protection, resident protection, LinkScanner, search-shield, surf-shield, anti-rootkit, PC analyze and identity protection.

Each of the following three applications of LiveKive, Family Safety, and PC Tuneup is available as a standalone AVG product, and an optional part of your AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012 installation. Within the Your AVG Apps dialog (accessible via the My Apps button directly from the AVG main dialog) you can see an overview of applications already installed, and ready to be installed optionally:

Direct download links to AVG Free Antivirus offline installer: (Links updated on 31, January 2012) If the links to the offline downloaders are not working, please comment below. We will update the article with fresh links.

Download AVG Antivirus 2012 32-bit (139 MB)

Download AVG Antivirus 2012 64-bit (158 MB)

You can download the online installer from the link here.

You can download offline installers of AVG Antivirus 2012 trial version from the link below:

AVG Anti-Virus 2012 Offline Redistributable Setup Installer Download Link: http://www.avg.com/us-en/download.prd-triavc#tba2

You can download offline installers of AVG Internet Security 2012 trial version from the link below:

AVG Internet Security 2012 Offline Redistributable Setup Installer Download Link: http://www.avg.com/us-en/download.prd-triisc#tba2

Linux/FreeBSD users can download AVG Anti-Virus Free edition for Linux from the direct download links below. (Links updated on 06, January 2012)

• Download AVG Free Edition for Linux (avg2011flx-r1408-a4116.i386.deb) (138 MB)
• Download AVG Free Edition for Linux (avg2011flx-r1408-a4116.i386.rpm) (138 MB)
• Download AVG Free Edition for Linux (avg2011flx-r1408-a4116.i386.sh) (138 MB)
• Download AVG Free Edition for Linux (avg2011flx-r1408-a4116.i386.tar.gz) (138 MB)
• Download AVG Server Edition for FreeBSD (avg2011ffb-r1408-a4117.i386.tar.gz) (139 MB)

Recently, there is a huge controversy going on around Carrier IQ and the Internet has been abuzz with mentions of it.

If you don’t know what Carrier IQ is, well here is a brief introduction about it. Carrier IQ is a software that runs on more than 140 million mobile phones (according to Carrier IQ website). It is a monitoring software to track user activities, including their personal information, locations, network communications, phone calls, messages and more. If you want to know about Carrier IQ in-depth read this article by Engadget.

Carrier IQ was apparently designed to give metrics to help mobile carriers improve their services, but in some circumstances, the software is not offered as an opt-out feature and in many cases users don’t even know it’s there, tracking all interactions with their mobile phone.

Coming back to the main purpose of this article, we are here sharing some free tools for Android users that will help them find out if their Android device has Carrier IQ or not. Click on the title of the app to download it from the Android Market.

Carrier IQ Detector by Lookout Labs

Carrier IQ Detector helps mobile users find if their device is having Carrier IQ. According to the application description, the app does not remove Carrier IQ software as Carrier IQ software is deeply integrated with the handset firmware. Users would be required to get special device privileges to remove it. Side effects of this process have the potential to put users at further risk of Malware infection while making devices ineligible to receive firmware updates in the future.

If you have made earlier attempts to remove Carrier IQ software from your device, Carrier IQ Detector may still report its presence. This can be caused by incomplete removal attempts that do not remove all relevant files.

Bitdefender Carrier IQ Finder

Bitdefender Carrier IQ Finder reveals the presence of the Carrier IQ mobile network diagnostic tool and, if found, also tells the user whether it has been enabled by the carrier. The app also will not be able to remove Carrier IQ package because of the same above reason, so it can be uninstalled only through special privileges (root).

Voodoo Carrier IQ detector

François Simond (supercurio) has developed the app for any Android devices. The developer warns that this is an unfinished but working app. It is available for download from the Android Market. The open source code of the app is available at GitHub for anyone looking to improve it.

Logging Test App by TrevE (available only through XDA-Developers forum)

The developer describes the app at the XDA-Developers forum thread as:

This app has started to turn into a full security suite. It can be used to verify what logging is being done on your phone and where data is going to. It will help you in manually removing parts you do not running.

You may use this version of the app anywhere and redistribute it. I have only tested on e3d, but it should work everywhere. I have heard it working on thunderbolt and e4g so far.

For advanced checking using this app, you need root access to your Android device. You can download the app from XDA-Developers forum.

Note: This app also allows you to remove Carrier IQ. To remove it, you have to do the following:

• Download the original Logging Test App and then buy the $0.99 Pro licence from the Android Market.

  

• Open the app, tap the Menu button, and then tap “Remove CIQ.” This will completely remove it from your device.

Microsoft on Tuesday delivered the third and last service pack for Microsoft Office 2007 suite and SharePoint 2007.

The service pack includes all public updates, security updates, hot fixes and other updates that were released for Office 2007 through September 2011. According to Microsoft, SP3 also includes “general product fixes and improvements in stability, performance and security.”

Microsoft will retire Office 2007 suite from mainstream support on April 10, 2012. Microsoft will than supply security updates only during a five-year extended support phrase until April 11, 2017. Microsoft will halt all security updates to SP2 after a year from now.

SP3 includes the following improvements:

• Documents that need custom security trimming are not returned from alert search queries, even if the user who created the alert could see and query for these documents.
• Non-Unicode characters in certain error message strings now display correctly.
• Four new bibliography styles are now available in the “Word Citations & Bibliography” feature: Harvard Anglia, IEEE, APA Sixth Edition, and MLA Seventh Edition.
• Chinese New Year holiday is now included in the Outlook calendar for Singapore.
• Fixes an issue in which Excel 2007 sometimes crashes when you open an Excel workbook previously saved in a newer version of Excel. This occurs if the file uses a new feature that is not available in the 2007 Office system.
• Fixes issues with the Pre and Post Reform rules in the French Thesaurus.
• Fixes an issue in which encryption settings are not configurable when they are used with a file format compatibility pack converter and Office 2003 or an earlier version of Office.
• Fixes an issue in which a crash sometimes occurs when an Excel workbook is opened in Excel and then previewed by using the Windows Explorer preview pane feature.
• Fixes an issue in which Excel Slicers and Ribbon customizations are lost when an XLSX file is first saved as a ODS file, and then saved as an XLSX file in Excel 2007.

Download Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 3

The service pack can be downloaded via Windows Update or Microsoft Update automatically, or manually from Microsoft Download Center. Microsoft won’t start downloading and installing Office 2007 SP3 onto users’ PCs for 90 days. Although users will find the update as an optional install through Windows Update.

Links to all the download pages of Office 2007 SP3 and other products of the Office suite including the server version can be found in this Microsoft blog post.

You can download directly Microsoft Office 2007 SP3 and SharePoint 2007 SP3 from the links below (English US):

Download Microsoft Office 2007 SP3 Package (351.0 MB): office2007sp3-kb2526086-fullfile-en-us.exe

Download Office 2007 SP3 Language Packs (67 MB): officelp2007sp3-kb2526086-fullfile-en-us.exe

Official Microsoft Download Center Page for the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 3 (SP3).

This update also applies to Microsoft Office Project, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer, Microsoft Office Visio, and Visual Web Developer.

To Install Microsoft Office 2007 Suite Service Pack 3 (SP3), follow these steps:

• Download the .exe file by clicking on the link above and then save the file to your hard disk drive.
• After downloading the file, double-click the .exe file that you saved to your hard disk drive, and follow the instructions on the screen.

Uninstall or Remove Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 3

If you notice any issues after installing SP3, you can use the Microsoft Service Pack Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office suite to safely uninstall the service pack.

While in the quest to find the best Windows security program, we install trial and free version of different security suites. Ranging from Anti-virus programs, anti-spyware to full-fledged total security suites (basically called Internet Security Suites by different vendors) gets installed. We always use the program’s inbuilt uninstaller to uninstall the security program. But in the long run Windows takes the blow when the suites left behinds drivers, registry entries and other unwanted stuffs. The operating system becomes slow and starts showing different kinds of errors.

One solution to this problem is to completely uninstall the security suite using the special uninstall tool developed by the vendor of the security suite. Earlier we’ve posted an article titled “Ultimate Collection of Popular Antivirus/ Security Suite Removal Tools” covering almost all the special uninstall tools of popular antivirus and security suites. We’ve also covered article’s on How To Completely Remove Kaspersky Anti-Virus/Internet Security and How To Completely Remove AVG Antivirus. You can follow those articles for removing all the left-over files, left by the antivirus and security suites.

Just like SSDownloader which basically lets you download different security programs and Windows utilities, AV Uninstall Tools Pack is a freeware collection of the special uninstallers. The package comes bundled with around 40 different official tools to completely remove antivirus software, anti-spyware programs and firewalls. These utilities completely remove all files, drivers, services and registry entries that are left behind by the inbuilt antivirus programs uninstallers.

AV Uninstall Tools Pack contains tools to remove the following products:

Avast, AVG, Avira, BitDefender, BullGuard, CA, Comodo, Dr.Web, eScan, ESET, F-PROT, F-Secure, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, Max SpywareDetector, MBAM, McAfee, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norman, Norton, nProtect, Outpost, Panda, PC Tools, Prevx, QuickHeal, Radialpoint Security, SPAMfighter, Sunbelt, SUPERAntiSpyware, Symantec, Trend Micro, Vexira, Vipre, VirusBuster, Webroot, Windows Live OneCare, Zondex Guard, and ZoneAlarm.

Note: Some of these tools are NOT intended for use as a primary means of uninstalling. Before using them, try to uninstall the standard way using “Programs and Features” in Control Panel.

AV Uninstall Tools Pack also comes bundled with two popular Windows utilities: Autoruns, and Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. Both of which are very useful utilities.

The homepage of the developer of the pack is in Russian language but the pack is available in English and Russia language. You can download AV Uninstall Tools Pack from here or here.

Microsoft is planning to issue eight security bulletins which will fix 23 vulnerabilities in October’s Patch Tuesday. The software giant revealed the information through an advanced notification on Thursday.

The eight security bulletins will fix various problems in Windows operating system, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Silverlight, .NET Framework, and others. Two of the security bulletins are rated critical and will fix vulnerabilities in the .NET framework, Silverlight, Internet Explorer and Windows OS. The critical Internet Explorer flaw affects all supported versions of IE on all supported versions of Windows. The other six bulletins are rated as Important. Six of the bulletins will address Remote Code Execution problem, one fixes Elevation of privilege in Microsoft Windows and the other one fixes a Denial of Service problem in Microsoft Host Integration Server. Almost all the patches requires a system restart.

The following table summarizes the security bulletins for this month in order of severity.

Bulletin ID	Maximum Severity Rating and Vulnerability Impact	Restart Requirement	Affected Software
Bulletin 1	Critical Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Silverlight
Bulletin 2	Critical Remote Code Execution	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer
Bulletin 3	Important Remote Code Execution	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows
Bulletin 4	Important Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Windows
Bulletin 5	Important Remote Code Execution	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows
Bulletin 6	Important Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway
Bulletin 7	Important Elevation of Privilege	Requires restart	Microsoft Windows
Bulletin 8	Important Denial of Service	May require restart	Microsoft Host Integration Server

Microsoft’s October Patch Tuesday will start on October 11 at 10:00 AM PST. As usual, Microsoft will host a webcast to address customer questions on the security bulletins on October 12, 2011, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada).

Windows users will be able to update their computer systems through Windows Update when the patches are released. Server administrators should plan the installation of patches since all of them requires a system restart.

Windows operating system comes with a built-in firewall to protect the system. Windows Firewall like all other software firewalls available out there, protects your Windows system from unauthorized access while allowing legit network to pass through. Unfortunately, configuring the firewall settings is a daunting task for most users.

For all users who are looking for the ease of use in configuring Windows Firewall should check out Windows Firewall Notifier.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a freeware portable application for managing Windows Firewall rules in Windows 7 and Vista. Using this small portable application, configuring both inbound and outbound firewall rules is very easy.

After you have downloaded Windows Firewall Notifier and extracted it to your preferred location, launch it. It will enable the Windows Firewall, if not already enabled. It then blocks all inbound and outbound network connections for which no rules exist. Then it enables inbound connection notifications and outbound connections logging, if disabled. It will then show a notification balloon allowing or disabling incoming and outgoing connections, just like you see in many advanced commercial and freeware firewalls. From these prompts, you can choose to allow (temporarily or permanently) or block connections from being established by applications.

Upon clicking on the notification, you will see the following prompt on the screen with options to: temporarily allow the application, create a rule for the application, block the application once only, always block the application.

As you can see, the prompt also displays more information such as the application name, system path and target IP or hostname.

The application is intelligently built and creates a task in the Windows Task Scheduler. This task is basically linked to the firewall event log entries. Thus, whenever any network activity occurs for which no firewall rule exists, this task will automatically launch Windows Firewall Notifier. Thus this application will not even run in the background and hog any system resource.

If you ever felt that you do not need Windows Firewall Notifier anymore, you can be easily disable it by launching the executable file of the program again and selecting Yes. The program will also provided the option to disable the firewall and revert back the settings to default.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a must have application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit edition) users who rely on the built-in firewall. It is available as a free download from the developer’s website.

Windows Firewall is a built-in, host-based, stateful firewall that is included in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and later, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 and later. Windows Firewall drops incoming traffic that does not correspond to either traffic sent in response to a request of the computer (solicited traffic) or unsolicited traffic that has been specified as allowed (excepted traffic). Windows Firewall helps provide protection from malicious users and programs that rely on unsolicited incoming traffic to attack computers. In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Windows Firewall can also drop outgoing traffic and is configured using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in, which integrates rules for both firewall behavior and traffic protection with Internet Protocol security (IPsec).
Microsoft Technet

Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 is one of the best antivirus available for Windows users. Few days back we posted about a promotion through which you can get a trial license of Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 valid for 90 days. Today, we found another promotion through which you can get a trial license of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 valid for 90 days.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 is the backbone of your PC’s security system, delivering real-time protection from the latest malware and viruses. It works behind the scenes with intelligent scanning and small, frequent updates, while proactively protecting you from known and emerging Internet threats.

KAV 2012 Key Features:

To get Kaspersky Anti-Virus 90 days trial license follow the steps below.

1. Download KAV 2012 Spanish Installer: kav2012_12.0.0.374aES_2482.exe. But do not go ahead to install it yet.
2. Now, use 7-Zip to extract all the files from kav2012_12.0.0.374aES_2482.exe.
3. Open the “setup.reg” file present in the extracted files with Notepad.
4. You will find the activation code inside, copy activation code: NUS4T-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
5. Now, download KAV 2012 English Installer: kav12.0.0.374en.exe
6. Install KAV 2012 English version and use the activation code: NUS4T-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX to get 90 days trial license instead of the regular 30 days.

If you need more advanced protection, you should definitely check out the article about getting Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 Free 90 days trial license.

[via Raymond.cc]

Kaspersky Internet Security is one of the best premium security suite available for computer users. It offers protection against viruses, trojans, malware, phishing, spam, etc. Because of its popularity among PC users, we seldom see any Kaspersky promotion for the product. It was a long time when we actually came across any promotion. Well, it seems the wait is over as we have found promotion of KIS 2012 (Kaspersky Internet Security 2012) through which you can get Free KIS 2012 90 days trial license instead of the regular 30 days.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 delivers premium protection from viruses, Trojans, spam, hackers, and more. Its cutting-edge, hybrid approach to digital security combines innovative, cloud-based technologies with advanced antivirus protection to deliver a faster, more effective response to today’s complex, ever-evolving threats. You, your private data and PC are completely protected as you work, bank, shop and play online.

How to get Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 License valid for 90 days?

Kaspersky Labs Germany at their Facebook fan page is offering all their fans a 90 days license valid KIS 2012 German installer. To grab the installer, you have to like their fan page and download Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 German Installer with inbuilt 90-day trial license. The good news is, the license code works with the KIS 2012 English installer.

Alternatively, you can directly download the German installer using this direct download link (kis12.0.0.374DE_2401.exe).

You can further save yourself and simply use the license code which we have already extracted from the German language installer and activate the English version of KIS 2012: QCGUH-J8FF6-33WGA-UBY62 (extracted from the German installer provided during the promotion). Do note, this free 90-day trial license key code will NOT work if you’ve already installed Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and have activated any trials before.

You can download KIS 2012 English Installer here. We have covered the launch of Kaspersky 2012 series of security products here. [via Raymond.cc]

Security Software Downloader in-short SSDownloader is a Windows application which helps Windows users to directly download any security software. The application is very handy when you have reformatted Windows or have brought a new PC. It provides direct download links to various free/trial security suites. Using the user interface of the application, you can download your favorite security software directly from the official makers of the suite.

Security Software Downloader 2, the latest version released by its developers features a completely revamped user interface. SSDownloader 2 is an Open Source software hosted at SourceForge.net.

Using this program you can easily download various security software like Microsoft Security Essentials, AVG Antivirus, Avast! Antivirus, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and many more. The program also provides download links to many popular trialware like Kaspersky Internet Security, Norton Internet Security. You can also download various Windows utilities like CCleaner, AutoRuns, AppRemover and more. In total the program offers around 50 download links to useful software.

The latest version features tabs which categorizes the security applications in different categories. This approach will cut a lot of confusion among novice computer users. Earlier version had all the links in one single window which looked clumsy and confusing to first-time users. You can see below, the first screenshot is that of its earlier version and the second screenshot is that of the latest version.

SSDownloader earlier version GUI

SSDownloader v2 user interface

The program can find the operating system on which it is running automatically. The developer has also provided options to manually override the auto detect function for when it did not detect the operating system and version correctly. By default, the download directory is your Windows Desktop. If you don’t want your desktop to get cluttered, you can change the download directory by clicking on the “Change Download Dir” button.

For downloading a security software, all you need to do is select the check-box present before it and click on the download button. As simple as that. It supports downloading multiple programs. For that simply select the check-boxes beside the names of the software and after choice, click on download. If you want to get details about any software available for download through this program, you can click on the Website button present next to the title of the software.

You can download SSDownloader from the project website at Sourceforge.net.

Avast Software is running an online promotion on it’s Germany website. Through this promo, you can get yourself a free license of Avast Internet Security 6 valid for one year till April, 2012.

Unlike Kaspersky’s promotions, like the Chinese promotions (now expired) which were mostly limited to the language version of the product, where it is running. The license of Avast, which you will receive from this promotion works for English versions too, even though it is for Germane users.

How To Get Avast Internet Security License Through The Promo?

First, visit the promotion website: http://www.my-avast.de/AVAST-Aktion-com-so-gehts

Enter your details in the text boxes as you can see below:

After filling up the details, click on the Absenden button. Now, check your email, you should see an email from “Globell Marketing” with the subject “Registrierung Avast Internet Security 6.” In that email, check for a link to the license file (license-com-so-gehts.zip), download it. Check your spam folder, if you cannot find the email.

Download Avast Internet Security 6 Trial version form Avast website. Install the security suite and click on the License com! so geht´s.avastlic (extract it from the license archive file you have downloaded, you can also use Google Docs viewer to extract the file online). A click on the license file registers the program. You can alternatively open Avast Internet Security and load the license file using the Registration Options. We covered Avast 6, when it launched. You can read more about the product in that article.

About Avast Internet Security 6 from the Avast official website:

avast! Internet Security provides complete antivirus, anti-spyware, antispam, and firewall protection, complemented now by new avast! SafeZone technology. It creates an isolated virtual desktop, invisible to any possible attacker, where you can do your online shopping and banking securely.

Features

• Continuous protection against viruses and spyware.
• Ensures all mails sent and received are clean. Keeps your mailbox free from spam. Keeps you protected from “chat” infections.
• Stops attacks from hijacked websites. Lets you safely browse suspicious websites or run unknown applications.
• Blocks hacker attacks to protect your identity.
• Allows safe and uninterrupted gaming.

[via]

Microsoft is issuing 4 bulletins for Patch Tuesday this month which will fix 22 vulnerabilities.

Compared to June’s Patch Tuesday 16 security bulletins, this month Microsoft has issued almost one-fourth of the numbers. But this four bulletins will patch a huge number of vulnerabilities, 22 to be exact. Out of the four updates, one is rated “critical,” while the other three is marked “important.”

Three bulletins will update and fix Windows, while the fourth one will fix a number of vulnerabilities in Visio 2003. The critical Windows bulletin and the important Office update both fix remote code execution issues; the other two important Windows fixes resolve elevation of privilege flaws. All the three Windows updates needs a reboot to apply, though the Office update may need a reboot.

The following table summarizes the security bulletins for this month in order of severity.

Microsoft will host a webcast to address customer questions on the security bulletins on July 13, 2011, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada).

Microsoft’s Severity Rating System Explained

The severity rating system provides a single rating for each vulnerability. The definitions of the ratings are:

Critical: A vulnerability whose exploitation could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action.

Important: A vulnerability whose exploitation could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of users data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources.

Moderate: Exploitability is mitigated to a significant degree by factors such as default configuration, auditing, or difficulty of exploitation.

Low: A vulnerability whose exploitation is extremely difficult, or whose impact is minimal.

Facebook’s photo tagging feature called Tag Suggestion is a face recognition feature. Using Tag Suggestions, Facebook tries to automatically find faces in the uploaded photos and intelligently identify the person. This is a great feature for organizing photos and saves time spent on manual tagging.

Every day, people add more than 100 million tags to photos on Facebook. They do it because it’s an easy way to share photos and memories. Unlike photos that get forgotten in a camera or an unshared album, tagged photos help you and your friends relive everything from that life-altering skydiving trip to a birthday dinner where the laughter never stopped. Tags make photos one of the most popular features on Facebook.

Because photos are such an important part of Facebook, we want to be sure you know exactly how tag suggestions work: When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software–similar to that found in many photo editing tools–to match your new photos to other photos you’re tagged in. We group similar photos together and, whenever possible, suggest the name of the friend in the photos.

Like earlier roll out of new features, Tag Suggestion is also enabled by default for all Facebook users. For some reason, if you don’t want to be automatically tagged, here are the steps for you to disable the Tag Suggestion feature.

1. First, login to your Facebook account.
2. Now, from the “Account” drop-down menu present at the top right corner, select “Account Settings”.

   

3. Click on the “Manage” link under the “Privacy” section.

   

4. Now, click on the “Customize Settings” link present in the Privacy Settings page.

   

5. Click “Edit Settings” button from the “Suggest photos of me to friends” under the “Things others share” section.

   

6. Select “Disabled” from the drop down menu from the popped up window.

   

7. Now, click on the “OK” button.

What is your take about this new feature? Is it a boon for you or another tool to invade privacy?

The Data Liberation Front team has launched a new service called Google Takeout, allowing users to liberate their data and create backup of all Google products.

Takeout service basically makes it easy for the end-user to back up all their data stored in their Google Account. This way they can later use the backed up data into a new account or at a different service provider.

Using the Takeout service, users can now download all the information related to Google Buzz, Contacts and Circles, Picasa Web Albums, Profile and Stream. “These are just the beginning: we will be adding more Google products as time goes on, so stay tuned” said Brian Fitzpatrick, The Data Liberation Front.

With the click on a button, back up of all the data starts and wrapped into a single zip file for download. You can see a quick overview of the total number of files it is backing up and the estimate size of those files.

How to use Takeout to Liberate Your data?

For using Takeout service, first you need to login to your Google Account. After logging in, visit google.com/takeout.

For liberating all the data, simple click on the Create Archive button.

If you want to take backup of each service individually, click on the Choose services tab and select the services that you want to back up.

You are than shown the estimated number of files and file size. Click on Create Archive button to continue.

You will see a statistics of the files which are getting archived. If everything is going good, than the progress bar will be green. If its red, than try again.

After the backup is complete, you will see the Download button, click on it to get back your data.

Facebook has a similar backup option which lets users download all their photos, videos and other data related to their Facebook account. Facebook compiles all the information on the back-end and then emails the user when the file is ready instead of displaying the backup process in real-time.

“We believe that if we make it easy for you to leave Google, we’ll have to work just that much harder to make sure you don’t,” the Data Liberation Front said in the video unveiling the service.

What are your thoughts about this new service? Will you be able to trust more in “Don’t be evil” motto because of Takeout?

Microsoft, on Tuesday, released Office 2010 Service Pack 1.

As expected, Microsoft released the first Service Pack (SP1) for Office 2010 productivity suite at the end of June. Office 2010 SP1 includes all previously released updates, in addition to several new updates. Which improves overall security, performance, and stability of the suite.

SP1 will be available through Windows Update, as a manual download from the Download Center and from Microsoft Update. Microsoft plans to push the update to Automatic Updates within 90 days. The software giant has released SP1 for all 40 language versions of Office 2010. Products that will get fixes and updates include Office 2010, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Office 2010 servers, Office Web Apps, Search Server 2010, SharePoint 2010 Products and FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

We have earlier covered what Microsoft is expected to include in Office 2010 SP1:

• Security and Non-Security Updates for March 2011 - Released March 8, 2011
• Office 2010 February 2011 Cumulative Update (KB 2493730) - Released February 22, 2011
• Security and Non-Security Updates for February 2011 - Released February 8, 2011
• Non-Security Updates for January 2011 - Released January 11, 2011
• Office 2010 December 2010 Cumulative Update (KB 2479673) - Released December 14, 2010
• Security and Non-Security Updates for December 2010 - Released December 14, 2010
• Security and Non-Security Updates for November 2010 - Released November 9, 2010
• Office 2010 October 2010 Cumulative Update (KB 2449183) - Released October 26, 2010
• Security and Non-Security Updates for October 2010 - Released October 12, 2010
• Security and Non-Security Updates for September 2010 - Released September 14, 2010
• Office 2010 August 2010 Cumulative Update (KB 2396341) - Released August 31, 2010
• Security and Non-Security Updates for August 2010 - Released August 10, 2010
• Security and Non-Security Updates for July 2010 - Released July 13, 2010
• Office 2010 June 2010 Cumulative Update (KB 2259686) - Released June 29, 2010

Microsoft has addressed the following issues in SP1:

• Outlook fixes an issue where “Snooze Time” would not reset between appointments.
• The default behavior for PowerPoint “Use Presenter View” option changed to display the slide show on the secondary monitor.
• Integrated community content in the Access Application Part Gallery.
• Better alignment between Project Server and SharePoint Server browser support.
• Improved backup / restore functionality for SharePoint Server.
• The Word Web Application extends printing support to “Edit Mode.”
• Project Professional now synchronizes scheduled tasks with SharePoint task lists.
• Internet Explorer 9 “Native” support for Office Web Applications and SharePoint.
• Office Web Applications Support for Chrome.
• Inserting Charts into Excel Workbooks using Excel Web Application.
• Support for searching PPSX files in Search Server.
• Visio Fixes scaling issues and arrowhead rendering errors with SVG export.
• Proofing Tools improve spelling suggestions in Canadian English, French, Swedish and European Portuguese.
• Outlook Web Application Attachment Preview (with Exchange Online only).

You can download the service pack from the download links below:

Office 2010 SP1 32-bit Edition (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26622)

Office 2010 SP1 64-bit Edition (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26617)

Microsoft has issued an advanced security bulletin notification for June 2011 Patch Tuesday.

Unlike last month’s only two bulletins, this month Microsoft has issued 16 bulletins, covering a range of security holes in the Windows operating system, .NET Framework, Silverlight, Forefront Threat Management Gateway, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office, SQL Server and Visual Studio.

Nine of the 16 security bulletins are rated “critical” by Microsoft and almost all of them requires a system restart. The rest seven bulletins are rated ”Important.” The 9 critical bulletins are for a remote code execution vulnerability. And out of the 9, two of the critical bulletins will address severe vulnerabilities in the Internet Explorer web browser. This month will include a critical security patch for the latest Internet Explorer 9 web browser.

The following table summarizes the security bulletins for this month in order of severity.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 (build 12.0.0.374) and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 (build 12.0.0.374) released with Cloud Protection.

Kaspersky Lab has announced the commercial release of Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Kaspersky Antivirus 2012. Both, KIS2012 and KAV2012 is a comprehensive security tool for Windows users. The application provides protection against viruses and malware, unknown threats and Internet fraud.

When the beta version was released we showed you a sneak peak of the new user interface.

The latest version features several new functions including Cloud Protection with an overhauled new user interface. The new Cloud Protection Technology uses the data from Kaspersky Security Network to enhance security of your PC. The main application window now displays all necessary information on your computer’s security status, the active defense components, the up-to-date of the anti-virus databases, and the license period.

Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Antivirus Features:

• Protection components providing security of:
  • files and personal data;
  • system;
  • network activity.
• Virus scan tasks used to scan individual files, folders, drives, areas or the entire computer for viruses.
• Update ensuring the up-to-date status of the internal application modules, and the databases used to scan for malicious programs, and to detect network attacks and spam messages.
• Wizards and tools facilitating the execution of tasks.
• Support features that provide information support for working with the program and expanding its capabilities.

Overall, the new versions seems to be improved a lot from the earlier version. Interested users can learn more about the new features and changes from this page (KIS) and this page (KAV).

Note: For users of KIS 2011 and KAV 2011, there is a known issue in the latest version. When installing KIS 2012 or KAV 2012 over the 2011 version, the previously activated additional license for the 2011 version will not be inherited by the 2012 version.

You can download the latest trial version from the links below:

Download KIS2012 | Download KAV 2012

Update

The original validity period of the current license is retained and is not affected if you update KIS 2011, KIS 2010, KIS 2009 to KIS 2012. You can use your current activation code to migrate to KIS 2012.

Similarly, KAV 2011, KAV 2010, KAV 2009 users can use their current activation code to migrate to KAV 2012 for free.

Microsoft through Connect has released a beta version of Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. It is basically a system recovery software disguised as a recovery CD or USB application that Windows users can use to remove malware from a system. It can start an infected PC and performing offline scan to help find and remove rootkits and other advanced malware.

The security application can effectively remove viruses, trojans, rootkits and other forms of malware. In addition, the security application can be used if you cannot install or start an antivirus solution on your PC, or if the installed solution can’t detect or remove malware on your PC.

System Sweeper is available as a free download for both Windows 32-bit or 64-bit version users. Users will need an active Internet connection and CD or DVD to burn all contents, or a USB stick with at least 250 MB of space.

Download and run the application, it will help you to create the bootable media required to run the software on your PC.

Select the media you want to use for creating the System Sweeper recovery bootable disk.

After the bootable media is ready, to use it, users need to boot from the CD/DVD disc or USB device. Ordinarily, the bootable media is created on a computer that is not infected.

After booting, the tool will load and will offer options to scan the PC and recover it. It will load the Windows Preinstall Environment to run the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper application for scanning and removing virus and malware from the infected system.

The security program requires Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit editions to work properly. If you have a 32-bit operating system, which is infected, then you need to download and install the 32-bit version. If your system is a 64-bit operating system, that’s infected, you need to download the 64-bit version of the recovery software.

Interested users can download Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper from the official project website.

Note: The standalone tool is not a replacement for an antivirus solution providing real-time protection; it’s meant to be used in situations where you cannot start your PC due to a virus or other malware infection. For free real-time antivirus protection against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, download Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG or Avast.

WordPress developers has just released WordPress 3.1.3. It is a security update and is very much a recommended update. In the blog post announcing the update, it was also revealed that WordPress 3.2 beta 2 is now available too.

WordPress 3.1.3 contains the following security fixes and enhancements:

• Various security hardening by Alexander Concha.
• Taxonomy query hardening by John Lamansky.
• Prevent sniffing out user names of non-authors by using canonical redirects. Props Verónica Valeros.
• Media security fixes by Richard Lundeen of Microsoft, Jesse Ou of Microsoft, and Microsoft Vulnerability Research.
• Improves file upload security on hosts with dangerous security settings.
• Cleans up old WordPress import files if the import does not finish.
• Introduce “clickjacking” protection in modern browsers on admin and login pages.

If you are using WordPress, you can easily understand that 3.1.3 is a very important security update. You can go through the change log here. You can automatically update from your administrator dashboard or you can download the update and manually install it.

Regarding beta 2, the developers revealed that the development is going as per schedule. Beta 2 release came after 13 days of the release of beta 1. Release Candidates will be available in early June and by the end of June WordPress 3.2 will be released to everyone.

This is still beta software, so we don’t recommend that you use it on production sites. But if you’re a plugin developer, a theme developer, or a site administrator, you should be running this on your test environmentsand reporting any bugs you find. If you’re a WordPress user who wants to open your presents early, take advantage of WordPress’ famous 5-minute install and spin up a secondary test site. Let us know what you think!

-WordPress Developers

WordPress developers have encouraged everyone to test the beta and send them feedback. This will speed up the development process of WordPress 3.2.

The following things were changed in beta 2:

• Google Chrome Frame is now supported in the admin, if you have it installed. This is especially useful for IE 6 users (remember, IE 6 is otherwise deprecated for the admin).
• The admin is less ugly in IE 7.
• The blue admin color scheme has caught up to the grey one, and is ready for testing.
• We are now bundling jQuery 1.6.1. You should test any JS that uses jQuery. WordPress JavaScript guru Andrew Ozz has a post with more info.

You can download and test WordPress 3.2 beta 2 from here.