Monday, 15 October 2012

Five portable antivirus and antimalware tools to carry with you at all times

Posted on 13:54 by Unknown

Five portable antivirus and antimalware tools to carry with you at all times

Five Apps

1. ClamWin Portable

ClamWin Portable is very much like its big brother: It’s free, open source, and does a great job of disinfecting machines. ClamWin has a very high detection rate, has frequently updated definitions, and has an easy to use graphical interface. The only caveat to using ClamWin is that it does not offer a real-time scanner - which is not an issue for a portable version. This is my go-to portable virus scanning software.

2. Sophos Anti Rootkit Portable

Sophos Anti Rootkit Portable is one of those tools you hope you never have to use; but you know, at some point, you will. Sophos is remarkably adept at locating root kits - especially for a portable app. Sophos: scans, detects and removes rootkits, is 100% free, supports Windows XP, Vista and 7, and works alongside your existing antivirus. I have found Sophos reliable enough to use even while the PC being scanned is in use.

3. Emsisoft Free Emergency Toolkit

Emsisoft Free Emergency Toolkit is a powerful malware removal tool that can scan for, and remove, over six million dangers to your PC. Emsisoft Free Emergency Toolkit has both a GUI and a command line version, so you can scan your machine even if there are problems with the GUI. With this toolkit, you not only get the malware scanner, you also get HiJackFree and BlitzBlank as well. Emsisoft offers the free download, or you can purchase a pre-compiled USB stick.

4. Vipre Rescue

Vipre Rescue is that tool you use when your machine is severely infected. Vipre is run in safe mode and does not depend upon a GUI tool for use. You double-click the executable and a command window opens with the scanner running (and running at blazing speeds). If you already use the full version of Vipre, you can still run this tool should your machine become so infected, Vipre will not run.

5. Spybot Search and Destroy Portable

Spybot Search and Destroy Portable is the portable version of the massively popular full Spybot Search and Destroy. This antimalware tool does a great job of finding and removing malicious software - all from your flash drive. Spybot has a unique feature that will help you backup your registry before you begin the scan. Should Spybot fubar your PCs registry, you have a backup to restore to - safe and sound.

Bottom line

You know that point is coming when you’ll require the assistance of portable antivirus and/or antimalware. It’s a shame that this is such a big part of our jobs, but it is inevitable. Make sure you are always armed with the tools to combat this plague by keeping a few of these portable apps along with you.
elitebuyer.com 135 e. 9th st, long beach, ca 90813
562-366-4177
Long Beach Computer Support, Service, Sales.

Posted in desktop, fix, portable, software, virus, xp | No comments

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Insecure SSL and How PCI gets it right

Posted on 11:28 by Unknown

Insecure SSL and How PCI “Nearly” gets it Right

Nearly every assessment project we do we see insecure ciphers. Unfortunately, many people see SSL and cryptography as a ‘voodoo art’ that mere mortals can not tackle, or they just assume that the default install of the web server will set it up just fine.

It would seem logical if the data transmitted to and from your site is important enough to encrypt, then you might as well do it properly. Afterall, large web sites don’t use encryption just for the fun of it, the mathematics required to undertake these cryptographic functions on a large scale requires significantly more CPU power, often including accelerator cards or dedicated SSL Accelerator appliances. This, of course, dramatically increases expense and infrastructure complexity, when comparing an SSL page to its non-encrypted counterpart.

Background

As some background lets define what exactly is an “insecure SSL Cipher”. For the sake of simplicity, it is probably best broken into two categories:

1. Insecure Cryptography. This is where the keys, signatures, and hashes that secure the data are weak and can be broken within a reasonable amount of time. Back in the mid-90′s, ‘export-grade’ encryption that moved from 40bit to 56bit in strength was really thought to be ok for general consumer transactions. It was generally thought to be strong enough to keep honest people out, and dishonest people would have to go through quite a bit of number crunching to break the keys. But in 1999, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and distributed.net rocked the world and cracked a 56bit key in just 22hrs. Recent advances in video card processors and interfaces now makes the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) an extremely fast and accessible math processor that is rapidly reducing the time it takes to crack passwords and of course cryptography of all sorts. For example, some software claim statistics like 200 million attempts per second at cracking md5. It is now generally recognized that keys should be 128bit and above in key length. Of course this is a generalization since each cipher’s strength varies even at the same key-length, but it’s a good rule of thumb.

2. Insecure Protocols. The protocol is essentially how the cryptography is used to secure the data. The protocol uses cryptography (keys, certificates, and hashes) to create and maintain a secure connection between the user and the server. If the protocol can be subverted, it can allow an attacker to tamper with the encryption mechanisms to reduce or eliminate it altogether. SSL version 2 is a great example of an insecure protocol, with quite a list of problems that would keep a mathematician awake at night.

The fix for the above problems is of course to disable the insecure ciphers and protocols at the server level. When a secure connection is being established, the server and the client (eg. the user’s browser) negotiate the protocol and encryption that will be used. If the server does not allow the insecure mechanisms then the client can not possibly setup an ‘insecure’ connection. Everyone should disable SSLv2 and all ciphers under 128bit.

You might be wondering how many people rely on SSLv2 for their transactions. Just how many people need to use SSLv2? There doesn’t seem to be a definitive resource that lists all the browsers ever created and what versions of SSL they support. However, doing some research I stumbled upon a site from the “Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles” that really is good on several levels. This site does not appear to allow SSLv2 or insecure ciphers. It also defines what browsers will work with the site and tells the users how to set their browser settings if they do have problems. This site says that it will support Internet Explorer (IE) version 4 and above. This version of IE was released in 1997. Therefore only IE versions released before 1997 would not work with their site; that would require a user not to have updated their browser in nearly 12 years!

So how does this relate to PCI?

Well up until November 2008 there was quite a bit of ‘grey’ area in the wording of SSL requirements in the PCI standards (section 4.1). As with all standards, they are often quite general and open for interpretation. You might be surprised to know that there are some companies out there that want to do as little as possible to meet the certification criteria rather then do the “right thing.” Disabling insecure ciphers and SSLv2 seems easy, and indeed it is, but some companies would rather argue ad-infinitum that they might block one legitimate user from using the site instead of making the site more secure for everyone else to use. It would be much better to guide and nudge that one user to better protect themselves – a user typically has no idea what goes on behind the scenes and wouldn’t even know they are unsafe.

To combat this argument, in November 2008 (PCI Assessor Update Nov’08p1), the PCI council came out and said quite specifically that SSLv2 would create a failure in PCI compliance if it was used to transmit confidential information. To my absolute amazement they did not go so far as to say SSLv2 must be disabled altogether. They leave an ‘out’ so that supposedly an insecure browser can initiate an SSLv2 session so the user can receive an ‘error’ and be told to upgrade their browser. This is quite ridiculous because now the PCI assessor needs to look at the application business logic to ensure this mechanism is indeed in place, and is in place properly. The biggest real problem is that applications change. One small slip up and it is quite possible that a developer inadvertently drops the browser check and SSLv2 is enabled again for the entire site. The best way to solve the problem is never have SSLv2 enabled and to redirect from a non-encrypted site to the ‘secure site’. Use the non-encrypted site to provide directions in case a user needs help with their browser, just as MA-RMV did above.

In essence the PCI council “nearly got it right”. I have been considering why the council would allow SSLv2 just to throw an error to a user and I just can’t think of a valid use case. So this one ruling not only theoretically allows implementation of insecure protocols – since it doesn’t explicitly disallow them – but they also make it much more difficult for an assessor to determine just how SSLv2 is being implemented and caught.

If every single website on the Internet turned off SSLv2 right now, the world would be a slightly better place, and this discussion would end – as every user would have no choice but to fix their browser. Sometimes users need a little motivation to change; 12 years really is a long time not to have updated a browser.

Posted in 128bit, compliance, pci, scan, ssl cipher, ssl2 | No comments

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Back To School Apps Get the edge so your Kids can learn better

Posted on 17:23 by Unknown

EliteBuyer.com Cool Apps For School.

Free Graphing Calculator: For iOS

The Free Graphing Calculator is one sure-fire way to help reduce the cost of back-to-school shopping. This free app turns an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch into an easy-to-use scientific calculator that offers basic graphing capabilities, a unit converter, constants for scientific calculations and math and science formulas. So scratch that graphing calculator off your list and put the $80 toward a nice book bag.

Totes m' Notes: For iPad
Totes m' Notes for the iPad marries organization and creativity to produce an easy-to-use note-taking app. It's an excellent tool for creating notes that are neat, concise and effective. Folders are organized by subject and sit nicely on a bookshelf for quick access, and it's a cinch to customize and design different folder labels. Widgets include a calculator, measurement converter and various writing instruments. The sketching capability means that students can either copy images from the whiteboard or doodle in the margins.

iProcrastinate: For iOS, Mac OS X
If your student tends to procrastinate, you might consider getting him or her iProcrastinate, a cloud-based to-do list app that syncs Mac computers with iPhones. It opens with a window that’s separated by Subjects, Tasks, Steps and Files. Subjects are created and listed in the first panel. Tasks are created in the middle panel, and the Steps and Files in the third, where additional documents that need attention may be added. The calendar icon is an interactive option that sets up reminders, task priorities and completion dates. iProcrastinate uses Bonjour or Dropbox to sync the Mac with the iPhone. iProcrastinate costs $0.99 in the App Store.

Tasks: For Android
Making a list and checking it twice is a good idea not only for Santa Claus but also for busy students who are juggling school, sports practice and possibly a job. Tasks works by syncing a to-do list between an Android and desktop computer. It functions as a widget on Android 2.2 and higher to deliver due-date reminders. Tasks also works with multiple Google accounts and integrates with Gmail. Thanks to a recent update, Tasks now has more options for widgets, including special adjustments for tablets and the delivery of PED reminders, plus a 4x4 widget for Froyo and Gingerbread editions of Android.

Alarm Xtreme Free: For Android
There are few things more challenging than getting a groggy teenager out of bed in the morning. Alarm Xtreme Free is a free and full-featured customizable alarm clock app that could help make waking up easier. It uses gradually increasing alarm volume for a gentle awakening. The extra large snooze button makes it easy to use, and various snooze settings provide for a personalized touch. The snooze features include setting the snooze to decrease in time, setting a max number of snoozes and shaking the phone to dismiss the alarm, making for a highly customizable alarm clock. And, for those students who have a tendency to keep hitting snooze, Alarm Xtreme Free also offers a setting that requires the user to do math problems before being able to shut off the alarm. What better way to get a student thinking and awake than by not being able to disable the alarm until 23 minus seven has been solved?

Manila: For Android And iOS
With all that parents have to remember, forgetting to pay a bill could easily happen. Manilla is a free app that provides bill reminders and multiple account access on one localized app. Setup is simple. After entering each account’s login credentials, which will remain synced with the app, the email address, Manilla password and security question answer are the only credentials that ever need be remembered. Manilla automatically retrieves, sorts, organizes and files each accounts documents, such as bills and activity statements, and stores them in the app until needed. Documents can be downloaded, printed and sent via email. Customizable email and text alerts of approaching due dates and payments are pushed to the device.

Google Wallet: For Android
You'll never have to worry about your student forgetting his or her wallet at home, or losing it, if you have Google Wallet, a password protected app that uses near field communication (NFC) technology to conduct payments between the smartphone and an NFC-supporting terminal. Google Wallet is used just like a credit card, simply wake-up the phone and press it to the terminal; the phone will then ask for the pin, followed by selecting credit on the terminal. Google Wallet supports all major credit cards and some gift cards. All credit card information and financial transactions are stored securely on the cloud.

LastPass: For Android, iOS And Windows Scrap pieces of paper can be lost or thrown away easily, and it’s usually not an issue, unless that piece of paper had an important password scribbled on it. LastPass stores and encrypts login credentials and works in conjunction between the mobile device and the desktop browser. Whenever login credentials are required, LastPass will ask if it should remember them and will automatically fill in the box from then on. LastPass automatically runs whenever the browser with LastPass installed on it has been launched. The information stored online also instantly syncs with the LastPass app.

Pocket: For Android, iOS
Unclutter your bookmark page with Pocket, which saves and syncs articles, Web pages, images, videos and almost anything from the Web to a mobile device. Articles found on Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse and Zite can also be synced with Pocket. If a student finds an interesting article on his or her mobile device, he or she can add it to Pocket through an email. Simply tap the share/email button, add the "getpocket" email address and the item will be sent to Pocket for future viewing.

TaskRabbit: For iOS
Being a busy parent always on the go means that you may not have time to go grocery shopping or put together your son's new desk. With TaskRabbit, a person who needs a task completed can use certified people to carry out those tasks for a small fee.
Once the task that needs doing has been posted, which can even be done by snapping a picture, a "rabbit" will accept and carry out the task. Once the job has been completed, the rabbit is paid over the app, through the sender’s credit card. TaskRabbit will take up to a 30-percent cut of each transaction; the job value results in the percentage deducted, in which a lower-value job will have a higher deducted percentage.

Posted in apps, backtoschool, ios, kids, pocket, school | No comments

Must Have Portable Networking Tools elitebuyer.com

Posted on 07:40 by Unknown

must-have portable networking tools

Add these apps to your portable toolkit for network troubleshooting, monitoring, and management.

Having all your tools in one place certainly makes your job easier. This is especially true when you need networking tools. These tools can be anything from simple monitoring tools to full-blown portable servers. Regardless of what you need and why you need it, there are plenty of networking tools that require zero installation and can fit on a USB flash drive.
There are quite a lot of portable apps out there–even within the narrowed scope of networking tools. Here are five handy portable network tools that you can add to your on-the-go toolkit.
Note: This list is also available as a photo gallery.

1: ConnectionMonitoring

ConnectionMonitoring (Figure A) is a simple tool that allows you to monitor incoming and outgoing socket connections. With this connection information at hand, you can see whether any unwanted traffic is coming into a machine. And because this app is portable, you don’t have to bother with installing the tool — you’ll always have what you need right there. ConnectionMonitoring scans current connections and then displays the following: Local address/port, remote address/port, TCP UDP protocol/status of those connections.

Figure A

ConnectionMonitoring

2: TCPView

TCPView (Figure B) is like Netstat with a power boost. With this portable tool, you can view a detailed listing and the current state of all TCP and UDP endpoint connections, as well as the process name running each endpoint. This tool also contains a command-line version, Tcpvcon, which offers the same features as Netstat.

Figure B

TCPView

3: DNS Benchmark

DNS Benchmark (Figure C) allows you to do exactly what the name implies — benchmark your DNS servers. You can easily determine whether your nameservers are the cause of your networking problems. DNS Benchmark can monitor up to 200 DNS servers and report on their status. You can use a simple configuration file to configure the specific DNS servers you want checked.

Figure C

DNS Benchmark

4: Pale Moon Portable

Pale Moon Portable (Figure D) is based on the minimalist version of Firefox but is far lighter in weight and far faster in performance. Pale Moon (the creators of the browser) claims a 25% speed increase over Firefox. However, you will find that some Firefox features aren’t in Pale Moon. The major missing features are accessibility and parental control. Otherwise, you can expect a full-featured browsing experience in a very mobile package.

Figure D

Pale Moon Portable

5: EasyPHP

EasyPHP (Figure E) allows you to carry around a complete portable WAMP stack on a stick. This tool is mostly useful for developers, but anyone who needs a portable Web server can benefit from having this available. EasyPHP bundles all the usual WAMP tools (Apache, MySQL, PHP) as well as the PhpMyAdmin tool for managing the databases on the server. You will also find Xdebug to aid in your debugging process.

Figure E

EasyPHP

Other good portable networking tools?

Portable tools don’t need to be useless. In fact, they can be some of the most valuable tricks up your sleeve. With this short list of portable networking tools, you can enjoy some serious power and manageability — at your fingertips.
What other on-the-go apps would you add to this list?

www.elitebuyer.com
Computer Network Service Sales and Support
135 e. 9th st. long beach, ca 90813
562-366-4177

Posted in network, networking, portable, support, tool, widows | No comments

Friday, 7 September 2012

Best ways to improve PC startup times elitebuyer.com

Posted on 21:24 by Unknown

First steps for safety and reliability

As always, before making significant changes to the Windows system, start by creating a system image (or at least a complete file backup). Store the new backup somewhere other than the hard drive you’re working on — such as on optical discs or another hard drive. This guarantees you’ll be able to roll back or undo any changes that might unexpectedly muck up your system.

Now you’re ready to safely reconfigure Windows’ startup. Start by timing how long your PC takes to boot with its current configuration. This is your baseline, which you’ll use to gauge the benefits of any changes you make. (Removing some apps from the startup folder might have negligible effect on overall boot time but will take more time to load from scratch later on.)

If you want real precision, dig out a stopwatch. But frankly, split-second startup time differences are not going to improve your computing productivity. So it’s fine to stick with any standard clock with a sweep second hand or seconds counter (or even with careful, metered counting — i.e., “one-thousand one, one-thousand two, …”).

A quick and easy change: Edit the Startup folder

All versions of Windows have a Startup folder that might contain shortcuts to software that runs at boot time. I say “might contain” because many programs bypass the Startup folder and instead insert themselves into a lower level of the boot process that’s harder to get at. We’ll deal with those later.

Those exceptionally well-behaved programs that do use the Startup folder are very easy to modify. Open your Startup folder by clicking Start/All Programs/Startup.

My PC’s Startup folder is shown in Figure 1. Yours will undoubtedly be different. As you can see, mine contains shortcuts to the Secunia PSI (site) and What’s my computer doing? (site) utilities.

long beach computer fast improve speed

Figure 1. My PC's Startup folder contains just two shortcuts: one to Secunia PSI and the other to What's my computer doing.

Because these are useful programs that I want to run at startup, I’ll leave their shortcuts in the Startup folder.

If your Startup folder has shortcuts to software that doesn’t need to run at startup, simply cut and paste the shortcut elsewhere (such as to your desktop).

Programs whose shortcuts have been moved will no longer run at startup — but you can still launch them manually, whenever you like, by clicking the relocated shortcut.

If you removed anything from your Startup folder, restart your system and re-time Windows startup. If there’s no significant reduction in boot time, simply paste the shortcut(s) back into the Startup folder and things will be back to the way they were before.

Less quick and easy: Using System Configuration

It would be great if all startup items were that easy to edit, but they’re not. To see and alter the rest of a system’s startup items, you need to use a special-purpose startup editor.

You already own at least one editor; it’s built into your current version of Windows. The System Configuration tool is relatively basic, but it works and is always available.

To open System Configuration in all current versions of Windows, simply type msconfig in the Start menu’s text-entry box and press Enter.

When System Configuration opens, select the Startup tab. Figure 2 shows what’s in my Startup list (yours will, naturally, be different).

speed up your computer long beach

Figure 2. System Configuration's Startup tab lists all apps automatically loaded during system startup. (Win7's version shown; Vista's and XP's are similar.)

You can drag-adjust the utility’s column widths for ease of reading, and you can click on the column headings to sort (or reverse-sort) the listed items.

Spend some time carefully working through your list of startup items to identify software that you don’t want or need to autorun at startup.

How do you know what’s needed at startup?

Some of System Configuration’s listed startup software will be self-evident. For example, if you see something called “Google Update” or “Java Auto Updater,” there’s little mystery as to what the software is.

On the other hand, some software isn’t so easy to identify by name. In those cases, you can use Google, Bing, or the tool of your choice to search for the name of any mystery software. You can also use specialized software-identification tools such as PC Review’s free Startup Files Database (site).

As you identify each piece of startup software, decide whether it really needs to autorun at startup or not. This is a judgment call.

For example, I don’t need Google Update in my Startup list. That’s because most Google tools (Chrome, etc.) already check for updates when you run them. Having Google Update run at startup is largely redundant.

I already run Secunia PSI at startup and it ensures that many other programs on my PC are kept up to date. (With a centralized update tool such as Secunia PSI running, I don’t need additional third-party auto-updaters also running at system startup.)

When you identify software that doesn’t need to autorun at Startup, simply uncheck (deselect) it in the System Configuration Startup list. Unchecked items will not run during subsequent startups — simple as that.

Figure 3 shows that I’ve unchecked Google Update, hpwuSchd (an auto-updater for my HP printer), the Java updater, and three pieces of Kies software (little-used Samsung smartphone-related tools).

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Figure 3. Disabling startup items is simply a matter of clearing their checkboxes.

After you’ve disabled one or more items, reboot and retime your startup again. If it turns out that you disabled something you shouldn’t have, simply rerun msconfig, recheck the box to enable the item, and reboot.

Note! Don’t go nuts and deselect everything. Some items truly belong in your system startup. For example, you want security tools (antivirus, anti-malware, etc.) to be up and running as quickly as possible, so leave them in your startup list. Use common sense and remove only those items that you clearly can do without.

Next stop: Editing the startup Services list

When you’ve cleaned up items in the System Configuration Startup list to your satisfaction, check out the Services tab. There’s more risk in modifying these items — they’re deeper-seated, system-level software services — but there are usually a few items here that are safe to remove from the system-startup process.

Use the same technique you applied to applications: identify each item and make an informed judgment as to whether it needs to be in startup or not. (If you’re not sure about any given service, it’s best to leave it alone.) Deselect unwanted items, reboot Windows, and note the effect on startup time. Also keep an eye out for anything that’s no longer running properly.

Figure 4, for example, shows that I’ve unchecked the auto-updaters for Flash (which I update via Secunia PSI) and the Bing Bar (which I almost never use).

Figure 4. Some system-level services may be safely removed from startup. Here, I've unchecked the Flash updating service and the Bing Bar.

When you’re done with all your edits, your start times should be lower than your baseline number — perhaps significantly so!

More start-time editing tools and other options

As mentioned at the top, System Configuration is a basic tool. Windows has one more tool built in — the Administrative Tools’ Component Services applet — that offers additional startup-editing options. But it’s a tool aimed at expert users. I’ll cover it, separately, in a future column.

Meanwhile, the following three alternatives offer more ease and/or more options than System Configuration. All are available in free versions and all run on Windows XP, Vista, and Win7.

Piriform’s CCleaner (free and paid versions; site) is often recommended in the Windows Secrets newsletter because of its ability to remove junk files and bogus Registry entries. But it also has a built-in startup editor that offers all-in-one access to more startup-related options than does System Configuration — for example, startup options for Internet Explorer (shown in Figure 5), Scheduled Tasks, and Windows Explorer’s Context Menus.

Figure 5. CCleaner's startup editor gives easy access to system startup items and more.

WinPatrol (free and paid; site) is another multifunction utility, but one that’s geared toward monitoring system changes. It includes an excellent and comprehensive startup editor, shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. WinPatrol's nicely designed startup editor makes it easy to dig into and modify almost all system-startup behaviors.

Perhaps the most powerful startup editor of all is Microsoft’s Sysinternals Autoruns (site), which can be used as a live, online tool (no formal installation required) or as a conventionally downloaded utility. (See Figure 7.)

Sysinternals Autoruns benefits from Microsoft’s inside knowledge of how Windows works. It can reveal more details on autorunning and startup software than any other tool I’m aware of.

Figure 7. Microsoft's Sysinternals Autoruns offers extensive control over all aspects of Windows startup.

Take your pick! Start with System Configuration if you’re not a Windows expert. Make a system backup, and then begin editing your startup software by using the aforementioned steps.

A faster boot might be just minutes away!
Best ways to improve PC startup times

Shaw Adli
www.elitebuyer.com 135 east 9th street, long beach, ca 90813
562-366-4177

Posted in desktop windows 7, desktop windows 8, fast, improve, Internet Explorer Windows XP Professional, mac, pc, site, statup, widgets, windows vista | No comments

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Apps to Make you a better typist EliteBuyer.com

Posted on 15:39 by Unknown

apps to make you a better typist

1: TypingMaster Pro Typing Tutor

TypingMaster Pro Typing Tutor (Figure A) is one of the better typing tutorials on the market. It features a series of comprehensive lessons that collectively take several hours to complete. The software also tracks your progress and provides a number of statistics, even going so far as identifyiing the keys that are the most problematic for you. TypingMaster Pro Typing Tutor sells for $29.95.