Kaspersky has launched their version of antivirus for Macs. Kaspersky’s latest product Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac will now protect the Mac OS against malware, viruses, trojans, worms and similar problems existing on operating systems such as Windows and Linux.

The malware attacks on Macs have begun, although they are nowhere as dangerous as their Windows counterparts. It is only a matter of time, that the frequency of these attacks increase to that against Windows.

Features:
•A global anti-virus database of over 20 million malicious programs for a range of platforms.
•Hourly updates to ensure that users protected against these malicious programs which appear on a day to day basis.
•Kaspersky anti-virus engine makes use of dual and quad core processors to dramatically increase scanning speed.
•It enables better use of system resources by increasing the performance of user applications when the priority of the anti-virus decreases.
•It has an automatic mode where it wont bother the user with unnecessary requests, enabling the anti-virus program to take decisions automatically.
•Fast and non-intrusive with only 1% CPU impact on your Mac performance
•It’s user-friendly interface is easy to understand for both novice and advanced users. Familiar Mac-style appearance and operation
•Kaspersky anti-virus is compatible from Mac OS version 10.4.11.

It seems like the the days of the popular opinion that Macs are safe from virus and Trojan attacks are getting over. Even otherwise that would be wrong to assume that any operating system is ideally safe from attacks from malicious programs. Macs have good security features to prevent malicious code from damaging the OS but even Macs are not bulletproof.

Macs are gaining popularity and with the user base increasing they will certainly be more prone to attacks in the near future. Therefore it would be wise to keep your operating systems safe from any possible threat.

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Those notorious “I’m a Mac” TV commercials from Apple always paint the picture that Macs are nearly impervious to malware – but that’s not the truth. For the most part, it all comes down to the user base that malicious hackers choose to target.

Regardless, the subject of which platform is more secure – the PC with Windows or the Mac with OS X – is constantly debated by rabid fanboys from both sides.

CNet’s Elinor Mills decided to get the experts’ opinions on the subject by polling no less than 32 security gurus on his or her take on PC vs. Mac security. Here are a handful of what the experts had to say:

Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist at Cryptography Research: “The fair answer is that with the latest versions of each operating system there isn’t a compelling security reason to pick one or the other. It used to be that Apple was doing a better job, but with Windows 7 Microsoft has caught up. There are some differences; Windows has a better security ecosystem. On the other hand, Apple tends to have more expensive hardware and has a smaller market share, so it attracts fewer malware writers. Both have security bugs. Both need patches. Both can be broken if someone finds a zero-day exploit.”

Dino Dai Zovi, independent researcher: “Neither. Consumers should see if Apple’s iPad or the forthcoming devices based on Google’s Chrome OS suit their needs because both are significantly more secure than any general-purpose desktop system, Linux, Mac, or PC.”

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Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”

Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug.

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

“I guess it’s just a genetic flaw in humans,” said Amichai Shulman, the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for blocking hackers. “We’ve been following the same patterns since the 1990s.”

Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it. (RockYou, which had already been widely criticized for lax privacy practices, has advised its customers to change their passwords, as the hacker gained information about their e-mail accounts as well.)

The trove provided an unusually detailed window into computer users’ password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.

“This was the mother lode,” said Matt Weir, a doctoral candidate in the e-crimes and investigation technology lab at Florida State University, where researchers are also examining the data.

Imperva found that nearly 1 percent of the 32 million people it studied had used “123456″ as a password. The second-most-popular password was “12345.” Others in the top 20 included “qwerty,” “abc123″ and “princess.”

More disturbing, said Mr. Shulman, was that about 20 percent of people on the RockYou list picked from the same, relatively small pool of 5,000 passwords.

That suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords. Because of the prevalence of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.

“We tend to think of password guessing as a very time-consuming attack in which I take each account and try a large number of name-and-password combinations,” Mr. Shulman said. “The reality is that you can be very effective by choosing a small number of common passwords.”

Some Web sites try to thwart the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

To improve security, some Web sites are forcing users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are reluctant to put too many controls in place.

Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction by freezing the accounts of other bidders.

Overusing simple passwords is not a new phenomenon. A similar survey examined computer passwords used in the mid-1990s and found that the most popular ones at that time were “12345,” “abc123″ and “password.”

Why do so many people continue to choose easy-to-guess passwords, despite so many warnings about the risks?

Security experts suggest that we are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of things we have to remember in this digital age.

“Nowadays, we have to keep probably 10 times as many passwords in our head as we did 10 years ago,” said Jeff Moss, who founded a popular hacking conference and is now on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. “Voice mail passwords, A.T.M. PINs and Internet passwords — it’s so hard to keep track of.”

In the idealized world championed by security specialists, people would have different passwords for every Web site they visit and store them in their head or, if absolutely necessary, on a piece of paper.

But bowing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords — a complex one for Web sites were security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for places where the stakes are lower, such as social networking and entertainment sites.

Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five- and six-character passwords.

“It’s like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his buddy,” Mr. Moss said. “You just want to run that bit faster.”

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With the spread of social networking came a whole lot of security concerns, especially for those who’re actively involved and have a good amount of their personal information stored online. Orkut, being a slightly older social network, has been known to have quite a bit of nefarious activity going on. If you wish to secure yourself and your online avatar on Orkut, here are a few tips to do so…

Secure your Password
The easiest way for someone to access all of your information is to gain your password. To ensure that this doesn’t happen, never use Orkut or any other social networking software at a cybercafe you’re not familiar with (or if possible, don’t use it at ANY cybercafe). It’s really easy to install malicious programs such as Key-Loggers that record your keystrokes and allow people to phish for your login details easily at such places. Needless to say, never enter your login details into a third party site and always look for the line https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?… in your URL while logging in.

Orkut’s known for spam from autobots and random “fraandsheep” requests. Be vigilant and don’t accept friend requests from every Tom, Dickwinder and Hari that sends one your way.

Set your Privacy Settings
In Orkut’s Privacy settings (which comes under ‘My Settings’) the last box allows you to set privileges or rights for what kind of content of yours is accessible to fellow social networkers. If you wish your scrap book, videos, testimonials or photos to be private, set them to allow “only friends”  or “only friends of friends” to view them. This ensures that not every troll out there has access to your profile. If you wish to take it a step further, you can set it up so that that only friends of friends, or only people who know your email address can send you friend requests.

Accept Friend Requests Cautiously
Orkut’s known for spam from autobots and random “fraandsheep” requests. Be vigilant and don’t accept friend requests from every Tom, Dickwinder and Hari that sends one your way. In fact, its a good idea to check someone’s profile before you accept their request, to ensure they’re not the social degenerate or sexually frustrated low-life that would creep you out.

Beware of Unofficial Mail
Every now and then you’ll come across some fishy looking email in your inbox, telling you that you need to ‘reconfirm’ your details (i.e. password) in order to continue using Orkut. Ignore any such mail and block those that send it. There are loads of people out there who come with with legit looking mailers and/or websites that ask you for your login details, please beware of them and trust only the main site with your account details.

Downloading Files for Orkut = Bad!
A lot of unofficial sites offer supposedly “powerful applications” that are nothing but stacks of Trojans and key-loggers. Don’t download anything but official Orkut applications to ensure that you don’t get screwed over.

Ensure your Password’s not easy
Last but not the least, please ensure that your password is everything but easy to crack. Keeping it a variation of your name and/or your last name is downright retarded; please refrain from doing so. Using a mix of alphabetical and numeric characters is a great idea. Most of the time we get lazy and decide to keep it something that’s easy to remember, which, in most cases, is easy to crack too. Keep a difficult password and remember it! If your memory sucks as much as mine does, write it down in a diary you own, or any other place that’s only accessible to you.

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AVG Technologies is launching AVG LinkScanner as a free standalone product to protect users against random, invisible online threats.

Everyday two million web pages are poisoned by hidden threats and 60 percent of those threats shut down or move to a different destination on the web making real-time link scanning crucial. Any type of site can be affected and if a user simply visits one of these poisoned web pages they don’t even need to click on anything to get into real trouble, to lose their credit card details, their ID or other valuable information or files. Regular anti-virus software alone cannot protect against this type of threat.

AVG LinkScanner gives users an additional real-time layer of protection apart from their existing security software. It works by looking at the web page behind a link or a web address typed into a browser and analyzing whether it harbors a threat. If it does, then AVG LinkScanner stops the user from downloading that page.  This means that Windows XP and Vista users can now know whether it is safe to click on a link when they click on it.

AVG LinkScanner also applies this targeted analysis of web pages to search results from Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Whenever users search using these search engines, they will see safety rankings for all ‘organic’ search results. In addition, the AVG LinkScanner will scan your bookmarks as well as links contained in instant messages and emails before you open them to ensure they are safe.

AVG LinkScanner’s ability to analyze web links in real time enables AVG to deliver more accurate and relevant protection than other safe-surfing solutions. AVG LinkScanner analyzes individual pages on a web site to generate a rating for those pages.

“The Web has become the primary distribution mechanism for viruses (and other malware), drive-by downloads and other stealthy web threats which represent vast majority of attacks,” said AVG Technologies CTO Karel Obluk. “So we’ve evolved our product range to put greater emphasis on combating this more insidious and dangerous form of attack. AVG LinkScanner is at the front line of this additional protective layer. It’s our goal, by making this layer freely available, to give users the confidence to always feel safe when they go online.”

AVG’s “neighborhood watch” approach to AVG LinkScanner research also increases the product’s ability to provide relevant protection to users – putting the protection where users actually go and when they go there, rather than trying to map and secure the entire Internet.

The software is free for use on any personal home computer for non-commercial purposes. It can be downloaded from http://linkscanner.avg.com . Support is available through a free online forum hosted by AVG at http://freeforum.avg.com

AVG LinkScanner runs under all current versions of Windows XP and Vista, both 32- and 64-bit. The software is compatible with all major security software and with Internet Explorer 6 or later and Firefox 2 or later browsers and is available in English.

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