Nearly half the population is more worried about computer viruses than real ones (Credit:Centers for Disease Control) I’m as concerned as anyone about PC security and I do run anti-malware software. But I’m astonished by the results of a survey conducted by Kelton Research and commissioned by BitDefender that shows that “close to half (49 percent) of Americans with a personal computer would be more likely to safeguard themselves from a potential virus on their PC than a human virus, such as the H1N1 flu.” The survey further found that “only 36 percent are[....]
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A 2GB flash drive for $5.99 is a pretty good deal, especially when you pair it with AVG's new system-rescue utility. (Credit:Buy.com) Security software gets you only so far. Sometimes a bit of malware manages to sneak through, at which point, well, you’re screwed. PC viruses, spyware, rootkits, and their ilk are like kids who move home after college: once they’re in, they’re nearly impossible to get out. Today’s deal equips you with a tool you can use to cure an infected PC after the fact. It starts with the 2GB Kingston Data Traveler USB flash drive, which[....]
“Bomb Blast.” “Jackson is still alive: proof.” “Obama cursed by Pope.” These are just a few of the subjects used by cybercriminals last year to trick people into opening malware-infected e-mails. Spam that uses the latest news headlines was just one of the hot trends last year in the world of cybercrime, according to McAfee’s “Q4 Threats Report” (PDF), released Tuesday. The latest threat assessment also noted a rise in “hacktivism,” or politically motivated cyberattacks. Though spam levels in the fourth quarter actually[....]
BYU professor Aaron Hawkins holds a tiny microchip that can detect viruses in fluid. (Credit: Mark A. Philbrick/Brigham Young University) A team of engineers and chemists at Brigham Young University has created a silicon microchip they say can reliably detect specific proteins or viruses from even small samples at low concentrations. Their invention, which is forthcoming in the paper version of the journal Lab on a Chip, works much the way a coin sorter does, only on a microscopic scale, screening for particles purely by size. This renders sample sizes and concentration levels almost[....]