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ZoneAlarm

Nio prevents lost or stolen phones, laptops, kids

In addition to letting loose a string of expletives, those who have lost a phone or been a victim of phone thievery have probably reacted with the following: "Nooooo! My contacts!"

Mobile innovator Tenbu Technologies has come up with Nio, a Bluetooth security tag that links to any of your belongings. If your laptop, phone, keys, or even child move out of range, an alarm sounds.

The gadget has the potential to save your items and the valuable information they carry, like contacts.

How exactly does it work? Attach Nio to your keys, laptop bag, or other belonging … Read more

Get ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall 2010 free (today only)

Keeping your PC secure requires diligence, common sense, and, perhaps most importantly, software. It's not enough to install antivirus and antispyware utilities; you also need a rock-solid firewall to keep hackers at bay.

Today only (in honor of my birthday, I'm guessing), Check Point Software is offering ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall 2010 absolutely free. That's a $39.95 value, my friends.

(Actually, what you're getting is a free one-year license. If you want to keep using ZoneAlarm after that, you'll have to pony up 40 bucks. On the other hand, this is the second year running … Read more

ZoneAlarm's 2010 suites include encryption

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 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 … Read more

The season of security

The year 2010 may still officially be some months away, but that's not stopping security vendors from releasing major 2010 software upgrades to their antivirus apps and security suites. Just this week, Check Point Software released ZoneAlarm Internet Security 2010 and ZoneAlarm Extreme Security. What's the difference? The former is a complete suite with the familiar ZoneAlarm firewall, plus antivirus, antispyware, and parental controls. It costs $50. The latter lays on extra padding with Web browsing protection, antiphishing technology, and backup and system tune-up tools. It costs $70 for the complete set. How did the apps do? Read … Read more

ZoneAlarm goes Extreme

ZoneAlarm Extreme provides a high-end, all-in-one PC security and tune-up utility for users who are looking for a supermarket approach to their computer's ancillary functions. Under the Extreme roof, you'll get an antivirus, antispyware, firewall, and parental control utility. Additional browser, identity theft, and e-mail protection are also rolled in, while extras like the free 2GB of encrypted online backup and the tune-up utilities are accessible but have components that must be downloaded separately.

The interface is smooth and modern, with big labels to draw your eye to the biggest features in each pane. A left sidebar collects … Read more

Enhance your virus protection

ZoneAlarm Forcefield offers an extra layer of protection while browsing the Web by protecting users from spyware and phishing sites. While it did successfully notify us of suspicious content, we wouldn't rely solely on this program for protection.

Oddly, though the program claims to be free, a prompt appeared asking us if we wanted to buy now or continue the trial. Aside from this, we found the user interface very straightforward to operate. A toolbar appears in your IE window that can be minimized. There, you'll find a drop-down menu containing links to the publisher's Web site, … Read more

AVG update cripples some Windows XP systems

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 … Read more

AVG flags ZoneAlarm as malware

This post was updated at 3:30 p.m. PDT with comment Check Point.

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 … Read more

Vulnerable to a DNS cache poisoning at home?

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:

Dan Kaminsky DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Center

If the test returns a message similar to "Your name … Read more