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In this issue:
1) News Bytes
2) Norton takes a turn
3) Spyware marches on
4) The new ICRA
5) Computer virus watch.
News Bytes:
Before I even start, I just want to thank the many of you who stepped forward in our time of need when we discovered that Rackspace decided quite suddenly that they were no longer going to renew their agreement to host SurfSafely.com. They really threw us for a loop on this one, pulled the rug right out from under our feet. I won't go into detail but to say that the true colors of their upper management shone through brightly. They later recanted and as an expression of their regret with the way we had been handled said they'd extend our service until September. September draws near and so too does the end of our relationship with Rackspace.
Fortunately, in the interim my friend Chris Faulkner at C I Host stepped right up to the plate and hit for all of us a grand slam home run. I'm in the final stages now of migrating all domains hosted under SurfSafely and then SurfSafely itself.
I can't help but feel a sense of sadness though for the many employees at Rackspace who did stand by us through thick and thin and are what makes Rackspace great despite the lack of commitment of their upper management for online safety initiatives such as ours. They still provide first class managed hosting and I will continue to wish them well, just not so publicly any longer.
Share this news with a friend.
Urge them to sign up too!
You'll both be glad you did.
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Our newest sponsors!
We are delighted to welcome into our family of sponsors the following companies and individuals. Please visit them and thank them for their generosity to SurfSafely.com and our mission to create a safer Internet for us all. Better yet, why not join them and be seen here too?!
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Our most generous new host. (08/2005) |
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Back
to top.
Norton takes a turn
(for the worse)
Symantec admitted to me in an email last April that their Norton Antivirus software had a serious flaw (then as yet unpatched) that may have allowed an outside hacker to crash the computer on which it's running. Isn't that special? Antivirus software that's vulnerable to hacking! As it is, their AV leaks like a sieve. I never trusted it and this only solidifies my conviction that their products inferior. As AV goes, it's TrendMicro all the way.
And now a new reason to abandon Norton. But first a bit of history.
I remember the good old days when going online meant dialing into a local text only BBS that some neighborhood computer geek hosted on his home computer, when the only way viruses spread was through the sharing of executable DOS programs and the writers of antivirus software were groups of loosely knit computer geeks who actually cared enough to release their software to the public completely free of charge. The group that later became known as McAfee is one such example which is one reason why I was so loyal to that brand for so very long. Good guys doing good things simply for the good of the online community. They probably didn't even recognize it as such at the beginning but what they had formed is a company and, as companies grow, there comes a time when it becomes necessary for it to support the members which make it up. And so, they began to charge a small fee for their software but still provided virus updates free of charge. As demand for these products grew and competition began to filter in, they too adopted a similar model of charging for the software and providing updates for free.
Soon these companies grew beyond their ability to sustain themselves without finding and tapping into new streams of revenue. Someone got a bright idea and said "Hey! Why don't we also charge customers for our automatic updates and leave manual updates free?" The reasoning was most customers would pay for the peace of mind that they didn't have to remember to update on their own and boy were they right! Everyone jumped onto that bandwagon instantly. Suddenly, not only did the companies have enough revenue to run but even enough to line the pockets of it's executives quite nicely. A decent up front sale with a built-in recurring revenue stream. Brilliant. And of course, for the die-hards in the audience, if they want to take it upon themselves to remember to download and manually install updates at regular intervals, that option was still available free of charge.
Now, it appears Norton is trying to change the AV business model once again. Someone there got himself the bright idea and sold it to the company that they should make customers pay for ANY antivirus update, automatic or manual. Never mind that the competition isn't doing it. Never mind that it's a complete abandonment of the fundamental reasons for which most of these companies were built. Never mind that only a small fraction of users actually opt for the manual method of updating their AV. Norton is now getting greedy. You want continued protection for your computer? Norton says "What's it worth to you? No bling? Take a hike!" I don't know who inside their company actually bought the idea that customers are idiots but this is probably the most ill conceived business decision in the history of Norton.
Well, Mr. Norton, where ever you are, I have a message for you too: Take a hike. Where Norton once ranked third overall on my list of Antivirus product recommendations, unless they reverse course, I now would not recommend their product for any reason, at any price. If you have it, use it until your prepaid automatic update service expires, then switch to something else, ANYTHING ELSE!
Back to top.
Spyware marches on
I had a bit of a shocker the other day when I decided to run a full scan for spyware on both computers that I use regularly. As diligent as I would like to think I am at keeping on top of such things, spyware can sneak up on the best of us. This time I routed out such buggers as BonziBuddy, TurboDownload, AboutBlank, MessageMate, AlexaToolbar and others. Although not as nasty as a virus that propagates itself to others without my knowledge, it may be that I only installed just one of these spyware programs by mistake and that program invited some of it's other buddies to come and join the party, and so on, and so on. That's how computers can become so quickly loaded with spyware, all competing against the others for processor time, that the computers eventually slow to a crawl, hang, crash altogether or in the worst cases, collect sensitive personal information and send it back to the program author to be used illegally.
I'm still trying to retrace my steps to figure out exactly how and where I allowed them to be installed. Most likely they came as unwelcome baggage along with some other software that I installed and would never consider to be prone to such rude behavior. Bottom line is, if I "allowed" the installation by not reading the software license agreements closely enough to know in advance (You know, those tiny little windows with dozens of pages of legal mumbo-jumbo right next to the "I accept" button that no one EVER reads), then no anti-spyware tool in the world will ever save me. Their job is to prevent incoming spyware that might install itself without my knowledge or permission. A job they do very well.
All the same, when I checked for updates I did notice that Spyware Blaster has had a significant functional upgrade. Version 3.2 is now 3.3. I'm guessing that spyware authors found a way around some of its' protection which is why they needed to release an upgrade. If you're using this tool (as I know ALL of you are, right?) be sure to upgrade, update and "Enable all protection."
To recap the tools I use and trust for spyware removal and scanning, listed in order of execution:
- XcleanerFree - Scanner and cleaner. They make us upgrade every so often or the program refuses to run but it's for our own good and it is still always free.
- Spyware Blaster - runs in the background only.
- Spyware Guard - made by the same folks as SB above but adds some protection not included in SB.
- Spybot Search and Destroy 1.3 - Scanner and background tool. Also 100% free. I check for updates every time I run a scan. Be sure to enable the immunize tool after each update to update that background database. It doesn't update on it's own, although it probably should.
- AdAwareSE - A lot of people consider this software to be the de facto spyware removal tool. I find it misses a lot of important bugs that others have no trouble with at all. I use it only once in a while for final cleanup of things that the others did not catch. Mostly the only things others leave behind are cookies that help advertisers track visitors to be able to pay commissions when someone actually makes a purchase through that site.
Even SurfSafely relies on ad based revenue through such things as GoogleAds and our own banner advertising so recommending to my users that they use tools that wipe all cookies is sort of shooting myself in the foot. If everyone followed my advice, SurfSafely would be bankrupt.
The point I guess I'm trying to make is, not all cookies are bad cookies. In many cases, they are very useful tools, not only to the repeatable web developer but the user as well. One should take care when making choices about which cookies to allow and which to reject. They may be shooting themselves in the foot too!
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The new ICRA
Change. I knew it had to come because ICRA, the true pioneer in this field, was not satisfied with the status quo. Empowering parents with newer and better free content selection mechanisms has always been their primary motivation. Today that dream comes closer to reality with the total switch to a RDF based descriptor mechanism of labeling web sites. Without going into too much detail, one of the hurdles this attempts to overcome is the resistance the web development community has traditionally shown toward voluntary content labeling by making it easier to label entire web sites.
Parents too will appreciate
the new ICRA-Plus filter software freely available for download at the ICRA web site. Not only is it capable of reading the new RDF descriptors and earlier PICS labels from ICRA and other labeling authorities but it also allows parents to easily custom tailor their online experience beyond the scope of labels alone.
Of course, SurfSafely.com will continue to enhance support of the new RDF system from ICRA as well as maintain reverse compatibility for the earlier PICS systems by which MANY web sites are already labeled.
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Computer virus watch.
They're still with us because people still have their heads buried in the sand. Let's keep people talking about this issue. Find out which of YOUR friends and family still do not use an antivirus product and get them to buy one. I hate having to pay to own software to protect myself from a problem I did not create just as much as the next person but that's life.
Don't forget to keep your antivirus software up to date. Get your latest free virus
updates here. New starting this month and going forward are links to updates for my favorite spyware busters. Keep those up to date too!
AV (free manual updates)
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Mcafee updates
F-Secure updates
PC-cillin updates
Norton - Officially OFF this list!
SPYWARE
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XCleanerFree
SpywareBlaster (Download here, update from within the program itself)
SpywareGuard (Download here, update from within the program itself)
Spybot Search & Destroy (Download here, update from within the program itself)
Back to top.
That's news for now. Be informed,
Be involved,
Be well.
Sincerely,
Mark Brasche
Founder and CEO,
SurfSafely.com
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