Best known for its ZoneAlarm firewall, Check Point Software has announced updates for ZoneAlarm's more full-featured security suites. Available in two versions, ZoneAlarm Internet Security 2010 gives users a robust firewall, antivirus and antispyware, and parental control package for $50, while ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010 adds Web browsing protection, system tune-up tools, backup options, and anti-phishing technology for $70.
ZoneAlarm is still best known for its firewall, but it currently offers users much more than that. See what's available in ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010, which is similar to but has more features than ZoneAlarm Internet Security 2010.
ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010 in picturesZoneAlarm is claiming faster performance in its antivirus and antispyware scans because it has unified them, something that its competitors did awhile back. The company says that users should expect scans to be 80 to 90 percent faster. The Internet Security version lacks access to a free add-on for laptop hard drive encryption, doesn't have keylogger protection, is missing browser-based safeguards, and has far fewer anti-phishing options.
Other features in the Extreme Security edition include an identity protection module to encrypt personal information and alert you when it leaves your computer--as well as helping you set up an eBay fraud report, if you're an eBay user. There are also an outbound e-mail alert, in case your account gets hacked, parental controls, and the browser toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, the browser protections only work in those two browsers. The toolbar comes with a private browsing option, but it's not entirely clear how it's different from the ones that already come with the host browser.
ZoneAlarm's main interface tucks quick access to key features at the bottom of the left nav.
(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)Of course, ZoneAlarm's well-known firewall is included, and after spending half a day with it on a Windows 7 computer I didn't notice any of the usability problems that have notoriously plagued it. That doesn't mean they don't exist, of course, but I didn't experience them on the latest version during a short period of testing.
In terms of threat detection and removal efficacy, independent data isn't available yet for this version. On ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2009, the program scored better than average but not in the upper percentiles on malware detection, removal, response times, and only average on false positives. In my empirical testing of scan times, I noticed that the quick scan was extremely fast--it took less than 30 seconds. The full scan was fairly quick, too, taking about 20 minutes. The two deep scans that are available scan all data on the computer including archives, and appropriately they both took upwards of 90 minutes.
ZoneAlarm's trial period is shorter by half than its competitors, but if you're looking for brand-name protection ZoneAlarm isn't a bad place to start.
Tell me about your security suite preferences in the comments below.
On Tuesday an update for AVG 8 suggested that a Windows system file is a Trojan horse, and users who delete the file form the system could leave their Windows XP systems endlessly rebooting or unable to reboot at all. The problem only affects users of AVG 8 products running the Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish language versions of Windows XP. AVG immediately sent out a corrected update to its customers, including those using the free editions of AVG.
A representative for AVG said, "AVG is actively working to remedy the problem some users are experiencing related to the most recent update to commercial and free versions of AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0 in some languages. A number of users who installed the update mistakenly received a warning that the Windows system file user32.dll product version 5.1.2600.3099 was infected with a Trojan virus and were prompted to delete a file essential to the operation of Windows XP."
In response, the Czech antivirus company has posted details and a fix tool on its site.
For users unable to use their Windows XP machines, AVG says they "should contact their AVG reseller or ask a friend to download the information and fix tool for them."
AVG has suffered some embarrassing glitches of late. Last month, an AVG update declared some ZoneAlarm firewall files to be part of a Trojan horse. In July AVG had to reconfigure its Linkscanner tool after various Web sites complained about the increased traffic as a result of the tool's proactive scanning for malware.
Grisoft, makers of AVG antivirus, on Wednesday released a new update addressing a false positive in another security product.
On Tuesday, AVG users reported desktops warnings that their desktop was infected with something called Trojan Agent r.CX. Some files within zlsSetup_70_483_000_en[1].exe, a compressed file containing dormant set-up files for Check Point's ZoneAlarm, apparently set off the alarm. The ZoneAlarm user forum soon filled with concerned users.
Grisoft did not respond to a request for comment.
Laura Yecies, vice president and general manager of Check Point's ZoneAlarm consumer division said, "as soon as Check Point learned that AVG's recent antivirus update was mistakenly flagging a ZoneAlarm file as a virus, we contacted AVG and they issued an update within hours that corrected the problem. AVG users will automatically get the update that corrects the issue."
In July, Grisoft modified its free AVG 8 due to complaints about a proactive scanning of a Web site feature. The feature that had been enabled in the paid version of the product did not scale with the free release causing spikes in Web traffic.
On Wednesday, an exploit code allowing someone to attack the domain name system (DNS) became available. No one has yet used the code, but the advice is simple: Patch. Now. While most of the burden is on the Domain Name System servers and the various systems that support them, the nature of the flaw is such that desktop clients also need to patch their software as well.
First, to determine whether your DNS system is vulnerable, use either of these tests:
If the test returns a message similar to "Your name server, at 2xx.2xx.1xx.1x, appears vulnerable to DNS Cache Poisoning," then you may need to patch your desktop system.
Windows users
If you automatically apply Microsoft Updates to your Windows computer, you should have received Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-037; if you don't automatically apply updates, you should click the link and apply this patch ASAP.
ZoneAlarm users
If you use ZoneAlarm, however, make sure you are running the latest release, 7.0.48, before installing MS08-037. There is a known incompatibility with the Microsoft patch and older versions of ZoneAlarm.
Mac or Linux users
If you are running Mac OS or Linux, see this US CERT page for the latest patch details. As of Thursday, Apple has not issued a patch for its Mac OS X operating system.
Still, in the end, protection from any DNS exploit also depends on your upstream ISP providers. As of Monday, researcher Neal Krawetz was reporting that servers at several high-profile ISPs remained vulnerable.
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