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.

VPN (Virtual Private Network) uses a public network (usually the Internet) to create a secure reliable communication between remote sites or users. Primarily a VPN is used by large geographically diverse business organizations so that their employee or a remote site can securely connect with them using a VPN Tunnel.

Other than the use of VPN services in organizations for secure connection, VPN services are now widely used to bypass Internet censorship. Using a VPN you can get access to location-restricted websites like Hulu, Pandora, Netflix, etc. Sometimes, VPN services are also used to protect privacy.

In simple words, a VPN creates a secure (encrypted) tunnel between your computer and the VPN service provider. Through this tunnel whatever data flows is completely safe from the prying eyes of ISPs, hackers, monitoring agencies who might be tapping your online activities. So, whatever is the reason, if you came here looking for free VPN services, you’re at the right page.

Below we have included the five best quality* free VPN services for your personal use. Please don’t forget to read the note at the end of the article.

TunnelBear

TunnelBear is our favorite VPN app now because of its simplicity and ease of use. You just need to download and install it, sign up for an account, and choose location of the content you want to get access to. Flip the switch to on position and voilà you can view all the location-restricted websites in the US and UK.

It offers 500MB per month for free usage and is available for both Windows and Mac. If you pay $5/month, you will get unlimited tunneling. We’re coming up with a full review of TunnelBear soon.

Access Locations: US, UK
Free bandwidth available: 500 MB
Pricing: $9.99 4.99 per month / $49.99 per year for unlimited tunneling.
Website: www.tunnelbear.com
Mobile VPN: Yes (beta version available for iPhone/iPad)

CyberGhost

CyberGhost VPN offers all free users 1 GB bandwidth per month with some limitations. You’re disconnected every 6 hours from the service, after which you need to redial again. The speed is limited to 2 Mbps, which we think is more than enough for casual users. To start using their free services, you just need to download their client and follow instructions.

They have a lot of servers spread across many countries (at the time of writing around 64 were online). So, you can expect some good service from them. If you need more bandwidth you can easily upgrade to their premium version which stats from 4.17 € per month.

Access Locations: US, UK, NL
Free bandwidth available: 1 GB
Pricing: Starts from 4.17 € per month for unlimited traffic volume with conditions.
Website: cyberghostvpn.com
Mobile VPN: No

AnchorFree Hotspot Shield

AnchorFree Hotspot Shield is a free VPN service which can be used for accessing the Internet. It is available for PC as well as Mac. You can create an instant virtual private network (VPN) tunnel between your laptop and the router at any Wi-Fi hot spot to protect your data from snoops on the public Wi-Fi hotspots.

If you’re on a network that limits the use of certain apps (such as Skype), the VPN could give you unfettered access. It even works with your wired connection for an extra layer of security. The free service uses advertisements to offer you the service.

Access Locations: US
Free bandwidth available: Unlimited with restrictions.
Pricing: Starts from $ 4.99 per month
Website: www.anchorfree.com
Mobile VPN: Yes (iPhone/iPad, Android coming soon)

proXPN

proXPN is a personal VPN that provides you safety and privacy while using the Internet. Free proXPN VPN accounts comes with the some restrictions. Free VPN accounts bandwidth speeds are limited to 100 Kbps and all ports except standard web browsing is restricted.

This VPN service is particularly useful for casual browsing in Wi-Fi hotspots and other untrusted locations. If you need more, you can obviously upgrade to their premium VPN services.

Access Locations: US, UK, NL
Free bandwidth available: Unlimited with restrictions.
Pricing: Starts from $ 9.95 per month
Website: proxpn.com
Mobile VPN: Yes (iPhone/iPad)

JonDonym

JonDo, formerly JAP, is basically an IP changer proxy tool and not actually a VPN service. It is a research project which offers free anti-censorship anonymous connections. It is not actually a VPN service, but still it’s worthy to find a place in this list.

You can use this service to connect thru Internet and access your favorite sites. But, don’t expect too much from its free service. Use it for surfing websites and your browsing needs only. If you can get a premium service from them, they’re surely serious providers.

The JonDonym / AN.ON technology is based on the principle of multiple (layered) encryption, distribution and processing. This procedure does not only protect your Internet activities from being observed by third parties (against your access provider, WLAN hackers, advertising services and websites), but also against observation by the individual JonDonym providers themselves.

Access Locations: Randomly Chosen
Free bandwidth available: Unlimited but with restrictions of 2 MB maximum file size for uploads and downloads over HTTP.
Pricing: Starts from 5 € for 6 months (650 MB)
Website: anonymous-proxy-servers.net
Mobile VPN: Yes (Android)

*We have only included those VPN services which we have either tested or if they’re highly trusted.

We’re sure that the list is not complete and there are still many free VPN services available. For completing the list, we’ll need your help. If we missed your favorite VPN client, please comment below and share it with us all.

A word of caution to the (would-be) spammer of cheap VPN services that offers no quality or good service at all. If you’re going to comment please adhere to our comments policy and use your real name instead of a keyword. We’ll check the service ourselves before your comment gets approved! Keep the page clean and help us create a useful list.

*All information are correct at the time of publish. If a service changes their pricing structure or changes their free bandwidth quota, please comment below, we will update it. Please note that mobile access is provided to premium users only.
Image by DaveBleasdale, on Flickr

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Avast has announced availability of the beta version of avast! Free Antivirus for Mac.

“The new version has been almost totally reworked compared with our previous solution for the Mac OS,” said Vlk, in an announcement at Avast official forum. Avast Free Antivirus for Mac features three shields and an on-demand scanner. The Web Shield together with the Mail Shield checks incoming data from the Internet for malware. While the File Shield scans all programs stored and executed from your Mac hard drive.

It was earlier thought that Mac doesn’t need any anti-virus. With the recent Mac Defender malware outbreak, users are thinking otherwise.

Features of Avast Free Antivirus for Mac

• On-demand scanning: It’s possible to scan the (whole) file system, network volumes or a mounted removable volume. You can also run a custom scan. Scan reports are automatically archived and are accessible from the GUI at anytime.
• On-screen alerts: Alert messages are displayed on-screen when a threat is detected.
• File Shield: The File Shield scans the binaries of started applications and all files when they are modified.
• Web Shield: The Web Shield monitors and filters all HTTP traffic coming from web sites on the Internet. Connections from your web browser are redirected to the Web Shield module. The Web Shield in turn connects to the requested web server and while downloading the content, it simultaneously scans it for viruses and Trojans. Only clean data is delivered to the browser, all malware is stopped before it gets saved on your Mac.
• Mail Shield: The Mail Shield monitors and filters all POP3 and IMAP traffic coming from mail servers on the internet. It does not prevent saving of infected files (doing so could lead to irreversible data loss), it just detects them. The File Shield prevents any infected attachments from causing harm to your system.
• Automatic updates: The scanning engine is automatically updated with our regular VPS database updates.

If you want to test the beta version on your Mac, simply download it from: http://public.avast.com/dev/mac-beta1/avast.dmg

To know about the present issues and bugs about the beta version of the antivirus, visit their forum here.

This month, Microsoft has issued just two bulletins for Patch Tuesday, one each for Windows and Office. These two bulletins addresses one vulnerability in the Windows operating system and two in the Office productivity suite. Compared to last month’s 17 bulletins which patched 64 vulnerabilities, this month’s patch can be considered very light.

Out of these two bulletins, the Windows bulletin has a critical security rating; while the Office bulletin has only an important rating. Both patches solve remote code execution flaws in the affected software.

This month, many people may not have to patch at all. The Windows patch only applies to server operating systems, leaving Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 untouched, and the Office productive suite patch doesn’t apply to the latest Office 2010 and Office 2011 for Mac versions. Systems which do need the bulletins may need rebooting.

The bulletins are released on Tuesday, and there will be the usual webcast the following day at 11:00am PDT to address customer questions.

Microsoft has announced on Monday that they are going to release Office 2010 Service Pack 1 by the end of June. SP1 releases for both Office client suites and SharePoint server products will be made available is now available now.

The software giant plans to discuss about Office 2010 SP1 at length during TechEd North America this week. Microsoft will detail its schedule plans and more details around the SP1 release, including the plans for language version updates, though it is mentioned in the blog post that, “All language versions of SP1 will release simultaneously.”

Microsoft plans to include the following fixes:

• 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

Initially, Office 2010 Service Pack 1 will be offered as a manual download from the Download Center and from Microsoft Update, and no sooner than 90 days after release, will be made available as an Automatic Update.

Microsoft Office 2010 was the first release of the productivity suite to include both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Microsoft packed both versions onto one DVD across seven different flavours. Office 2010 also includes a free version with Microsoft Word and Excel. The free version, dubbed Office Starter, has reduced functionality of Word and Excel and advertising.

Just like Google’s 2-step verification, Facebook has added two-factor authentication called “Login Approvals” to help its hundreds of millions of users prevent unauthorized access to their accounts. Facebook has kept Login Approvals as an optional verification step to its log-in process.

If a user enables Login Approvals and attempts to login to their account from devices that aren’t saved as approved ones, Facebook will send them an one-time numeric code for verification. Facebook sends the numeric code as SMS message to the mobile phone the user has linked to the account, the company said Thursday in a blog post.

In this way, an account would be protected against any unauthorized access. The next time an unauthorized access occurs, the legitimate user would be notified that someone had tried to get access to the account and would be asked to change the compromised password.

Unlike Google which offers users backup methods for accessing their accounts through its two-factor verification, a Facebook user on the other hand will be locked out of his account until he logs in from an approved device, if he attempts to get access to the account from an unrecognized device and doesn’t have the authorized cell phone at hand.

Andrew Song, a Facebook engineering intern, in the blog post, wrote:

One challenge in building login approvals was balancing security and usability.  Similar features on other websites require you to download authentication apps or purchase physical tokens to act as your second factor.  These are good approaches, and we’re considering incorporating them in the future, but they require a lot from the user before being able to turn on the feature.  To have the biggest impact and provide this added security to the most people, we decided on SMS as the best choice for a second factor.  That’s a big part of the culture here at Facebook, whether you’re an intern or an old hand: focus on impact.

Everyday technology is advancing, it is becoming easier for unauthorized persons to steal usernames and passwords through variety of ways, including phishing scams, intercepting unsecured Wi-Fi communications and with keyloggers or malware. This is a good move by Facebook to protect their users through the implementation of a two-factor authentication mechanism which is becoming the de-facto in protecting users.

How to enable Facebook Login Approvals two-factor authentication?

The Login Approvals feature can be turned on by going to the Account Security section of the Facebook account settings page, the company said.

1. After login in your Facebook account, click on the Account drop down menu present in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
2. From this drop-down menu, select Account Settings.
3. Under Account Security, click on the change link.
   
4. Now, under Login Approvals, select the check box before “Require me to enter a security code sent to my phone” to start the wizard which will walk you through the process of enabling the two-factor authentication in your Facebook account.

Web browsers are the primary application used to browse the Internet by all users. Hence, it’s attacked the most from various forms of malicious threats. The most common example that we can see is when computer systems are getting infected without user’s knowledge during web browsing.

Even though most security systems are capable of blocking this attacks but, isn’t it a better idea to prevent the infection from the browser itself? BitDefender TrafficLight warns users about malicious websites and filters malicious web traffic.

Although, almost every major antivirus company offers similar solution today, but BitDefender TrafficLight has one key advantage over them: it’s available on all five major browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari.

Another deferential feature of BitDefender TrafficLight is that, the program installs itself as a service in Windows. This service than carefully monitors and analyzes the web traffic before the web browser even executes the codes. TrafficLight displays only a small slide-out grab tab that you can click to display its analysis of the current page. When malicious activity is detected, TrafficLight will spring into action and prevent the offending code from executing.

On performance cause, it does need 20 to 30 MB of RAM to run, which anyone can spare when security is concerned and memory comes cheap.

List of protections covered by TrafficLight:

• Each search result from Google, Yahoo! or Bing is labeled to show the safe and risky links. TrafficLight leverages the intelligence from BitDefender Cloud services to flag the search results appropriately.
• Each click on the links from Facebook or Twitter is scanned and the link could be blocked in real-time if the link appears to be malicious.
• Link shortening tools that works with Saf.li is included to make sure only safe links are shortened.
• Detect and block links pointing to malware or phishing sites.
• Ad-blocker (To be available in future)

To install TrafficLight in your browser, visit the BitDefender site. After installing it, you’ll have an unobtrusive malware protection hiding just below your browser’s toolbar. Here’s the direct link to the installer: WebInstaller.exe

Microsoft has released an advance notification of 17 security bulletins that the software giant is intending to release on April 12, 2011. Last month, the software giant released only 3 bulletins which fixed four vulnerabilities. Next week Microsoft is going to release 17 bulletins, fixing 64 different vulnerabilities. Nine bulletins are critical, with all carrying the risk of remote code execution. The remaining eight bulletins are ranked important; six of these enable remote code execution, one allows privilege escalation, and the last can lead to information disclosure. Seven of the bulletins have mandatory restarts; the remainder “may” do so.

Along with the typical patches for Windows, Internet Explorer, and Office, a couple of the security bulletins include patches for Office Web Apps and Visual Studio. The security bulletins does not include any patches for Internet Explorer 9; apparently it seems that the latest browser version is immune to the flaws that are affecting IE versions 6, 7, and 8 that will be patched next week.

This advance notification provides a number as the bulletin identifier, because the official Microsoft Security Bulletin numbers are not issued until release. The bulletin summary that replaces this advance notification will have the proper Microsoft Security Bulletin numbers (in the MSyy-xxx format) as the bulletin identifier. The following table summarizes the security bulletins for this month in order of severity.

The bulletins will be released on Tuesday at 10:00am PST, and there will be the usual webcast the following day at 11:00am PST (apparently, in spite of Redmond now being on PDT) to address customer questions.

Twitter has recently added a user setting that will let you activate ‘always use HTTPS‘ when accessing your Twitter.com account. Accessing your account using HTTPS secure connection is particularly important. This will improve the overall security of your account and will better protect your information if you’re using Twitter over an unsecured Internet connection, like a public WiFi network, where someone may be able to eavesdrop on your site activity. In the future, we hope to make HTTPS the default setting. Till now users were able to access Twitter via HTTPS by manually going to https://twitter.com. Now, Twitter have made it simpler for users by adding the option to always use HTTPS.

To turn on HTTPS for your Twitter.com account, follow the simple guide below (with helpful screenshots).

1. Log in to your Twitter account and click the drop down menu for your profile and click on Settings.

   

2. Now, check the box next to “Always use HTTPS,” which is at the bottom of the page and make sure you click Save after that.

   

3. After clicking Save, you’ll be prompted to re-enter your Twitter password then click on Save Changes.

   

4. At the top of the screen, you should see a message that your settings have been successfully saved.

   

5. Now every time you log in to your Twitter account you’ll see HTTPS before in the URL in the address bar along with the lock pad.

   

According to the official blog post:

In these cases, HTTPS is used whether or not you’ve enabled the “Always use HTTPS” setting:

• When you log into Twitter, so your password stays protected.
• On the official Twitter for iPhone and iPad mobile application.

There are also a few instances where turning on HTTPS in your settings does not force HTTPS. For example, when accessing Twitter from your mobile browser, you need to go to https://mobile.twitter.com to use HTTPS for now. We are working on a solution that will share the “Always use HTTPS” setting across twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com, so you don’t have to think about which device you’re using when you want to check Twitter. If you use a third-party application, you should check to see if that app offers HTTPS.

Kaspersky Labs has released the new beta of Kaspersky Internet Security, namely Kaspersky Internet Security 2012. KIS 2012 beta is now available for everyone to test and report bugs found. The official forum has all the information and discussion about the product. You will need a free Kaspersky forum account to get access to the KIS 2012 beta page.

A beta-version is an officially released version of the product meant for external testing which should elicit bugs and defects of the products as well as gather different opinions and suggestions. Once technical release appears in the end of the product development process the most active beta-testers who make a major contribution to testing of the product will be rewarded with one year license for the tested product.

Update

Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Kaspersky Antivirus 2012 final versions are available now.

How to Download, Install and Activate Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 beta-version?

1. To start testing KIS 2012 beta, download the beta-build from http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/KIS2012/
2. The folder with beta-version looks like 12.0.0.
3. You should download distributive of the kis12.0.0.*en.exe kind (usually the one with the highest number at the end).
4. During installation you will have to activate the product with the trial option and you will get 90 days trial version.
5. Once a new beta-version is released you will have to update your installation.
6. To do that download the last built distributive, exit the antivirus and uninstall previous build with the standard way (via Add/Remove programs). Then you may start installing the new build repeating the steps above. [via]

You can visit the official beta forum for more help and to report bugs (requires a free Kaspersky Forum account).

Below are some of the screenshots of Kaspersky Internet security 2012 Beta

Note: If you are testing beta, do remember that this is unreleased software and that crashes and system instability is to be expected. Don’t blame us if your system breaks down while testing the beta.