Fully Automatic Defrag Slashes Maintenance Times

We have just had this report it.

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BURBANK, CA--(Marketwire - December 11, 2008) - For many sites today, "maintenance" has almost become a dreaded word. This isn't because maintenance tasks are bad or shouldn't be done -- far from it. It's simply that because so many systems must remain up and running 24x7, finding the time for maintenance tasks is a tough assignment. Such tasks should be fully automated so they can operate while a system is up and running and if not, then their run times should be made as short as possible.

Two examples of such vital tasks are virus scans and backups. With computer virus and malware propagation at an all-time high, computers must be regularly scanned to keep them safe. In order to maintain vital company data that data must be securely backed up as often as possible.

But both these essential actions can be severely impacted -- and in some cases completely impeded -- by file fragmentation. In fact any application or utility that must access each file on a system will have its run lengthened by having to access each and every fragment of a file. This is especially true if files are fragmented into hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of fragments (not at all uncommon in today's computing environments). Severe fragmentation can cause backups to unexpectedly abort and other tasks such as anti-virus to substantially exceed the times that have been allotted for them.

Defragmentation of all files on a drive will greatly decrease the run times of both anti-virus and backup applications -- but if the wrong defrag technology is used, it will be like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Scheduled defrag, for example, means that you have to find yet another maintenance window. Fragmentation is also not fully addressed, in between those scheduled runs it continues to mount and to slow down your anti-virus scans and backups.

The only real solution is the fully automatic defrag provided by Diskeeper® software. Diskeeper Corporation's proprietary InvisiTasking® technology allows defragmentation to occur in real-time, in the background, whenever otherwise-idle resources are available. Because defragmentation occurs consistently and invisibly no scheduling is ever required and there is never a negative performance hit from defrag.

While providing maximum performance and reliability to your systems, Diskeeper software eliminates the need for scheduling defrag. It also greatly reduces the run times needed for anti-virus scans and backups. It is the best solution for improving maintenance schedules all around.

To curb cyber crimes, expert bats for digital signature

It is believed that due to the rapid growth of the net the only way to avoid hackers is through a digital signature. We found a fresh article on this and bring it to you here.

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In these times, where information technology is witnessing a rapid growth, the common man could easily fall prey to hackers and cyber crimes. The only way to overcome such attacks is to go for digital signature, feels Rohas Nagpal, an IT expert, while speaking on Cyber crime investigations and Forensics at the ClubHack 2008, the international convention og hackers in Pune.

Citing numerous ways by which hoax emails could be sent from one’s email account or spoof SMS messages from ones mobile number, without the owners notice, Nagpal said, “Email services and SMS services were not built to authenticate users.”

While hackers could use techniques to play havoc, few Telecom providers or ISP providers would be able to trace the culprit, he said.

“A few years ago, we told police officers across the world that we would be sending them spoof messages on their phones and asked them to trace it back through their telecom operators. No telecom operator was able to trace who had sent the message,” Nagpal said, adding that the only way to shield such attacks is to go for a digital signature, he said.

Nagpal spoke about several tools that hackers use to sniff passwords and credit card details. During the course of the workshop it emerged that banking security is not as it should be, with many banks having fallen prey to hackers. One of the prominent one is Bank of India, where the bank server was severely affected for 14 days.

Nagpal said that banks were liable to pay compensation if the customer money was siphoned off because of fraud. “Customers frequently using online transactions can secure themselves by not using wireless networks, using a powerful anit virus, zone alarms and fire walls,” he added.

FTC kills scareware operation that duped over a million users

One guy was quoted "I spent almost two hours cleaning a computer that had one of their malicious bits of code. It's about time that something was done these crooks."

Another said "A work computer and a friends computer were hit by this. Stop sign antivirus is what it was selling on the work computer. I'm glad they are finally doing something about the problem."

Read on....

The Federal Trade Commission today got a court to at least temporarily halt a massive "scareware" scheme, which falsely claimed that scans had detected viruses, spyware, and pornography on consumers' computers.

According to the FTC, the scheme has tricked more than one million consumers into buying computer security products such as WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus. The court also froze the assets of Innovative Marketing, Inc. and ByteHosting Internet Services, LLC to preserve the possibility of providing consumers with monetary redress, the FTC stated.

The defendants used an elaborate ruse that duped Internet advertising networks and popular Web sites into carrying their advertisements, according to the FTC's complaint. The defendants falsely claimed that they were placing Internet ads on behalf of legitimate companies and organizations. But due to hidden programming code that the defendants inserted into the advertisements, consumers who visited Web sites where these ads were placed did not receive them, the FTC said. Instead, consumers received exploitive advertisements that took them to one of the defendants' Web sites. These sites would then claim to scan the consumers' computers for security and privacy issues. The "scans" would find a host of purported problems with the consumers' computers and urge them to buy the defendants' computer security products for $39.95 or more. However, the scans were entirely false, the FTC said

Innovative Marketing is incorporated in Belize and maintains offices in Kiev, Ukraine. ByteHosting Internet Services is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The FTC complaint alleges that these two companies, along with individuals Daniel Sundin, Sam Jain, Marc D'Souza, Kristy Ross, and James Reno, violated the FTC Act. The complaint also names a sixth individual, Maurice D'Souza, as a relief defendant who received proceeds from the scheme.

Under US District Court for the District of Maryland order, the defendants are barred from falsely representing that they have run any type of computer analysis, or that they have detected security or privacy problems on a consumer's computer. They also are barred from using domain names obtained with false or incomplete information, placing advertisements purportedly on behalf of a third party without that party's consent, or otherwise attempting to conceal their own identities. The order also mandates that companies hosting the defendants' Web sites and providing domain-registration services take the necessary steps to keep consumers from accessing these Web sites, the FTC said.

The FTC seeks to permanently bar the defendants from engaging in "scareware" marketing and pay for any damages and ill-gotten booty.