A rare computer virus case involving the Managing Director and an employee of Trans World Movers, a freight moving company, will procede for trial after a Colombo Magistrate upheld an objection by the complainant over the Attorney General intervening in the case.

The Attorney General had sought to discharge the accused without trial by terminating the proceedings. Counsel for complainant, Global Trans World Relocation had challenged the AG’s orders. Colombo Magistrate Manjula Thilakaratne issued this order considering an application made by Counsel Jeevantha Jayathilake and assisted by his junior Thilanka Polgampola who watched the interest of the aggrieved party.

The suspects Suresh Marcellus, Managing Director and Rohitha Silva, an employee of Trans who are on bail, had allegedly ‘transmitted’ a virus to the computer of Global Trans World Relocation of Modera by an email with the intention of destroying the system and decoding the computer. The Modera Police and the IT division of Police headquarters conducted investigations. Read more » »

The latest version Symantec of their corporate anti-virus software, codenamed Hamlet. The Beta versions have been in closed testing since March 2007. Symantec has not yet announced the official name for this new next-generation product that integrates firewall, zero-day protection and network access control features into this all-in-one anti-virus product. Read more » »

The mobile devices and applications are the next logical place to go for the next generation of destructive activity, says Howard Schmidt, president and CEO of R&H Security Consulting.

Schmidt, who is a former White House cyber security advisor, delivered the opening keynote address at ITWeb Security Summit 2008 this morning, in Midrand.

“As we become more dependent on our mobile devices, we’ll become more vulnerable to attacks. A new generation of mobile applications, that are easy to use and financially viable, are being developed, but who is looking after the security of these applications? Who is developing anti-virus software and encryption? Not many people are doing it,” warned Schmidt.
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The latest version of the Software Update tool for Windows, version 2.1.0.110, now clearly lists software that can be downloaded via the service and groups the updates into those for applications already on the user’s computer and updates for new software.

The new version of Software Update also gives users the ability to turn off the service.

In modifying Software Update, Apple was clearly responding to widespread criticism that the service downloaded Safari 3.1 onto users’ systems surreptitiously.
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Version 5 of the popular Spyware Doctor utility was a complete rewrite, and it had a few rough edges. Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 5.5 (SDAV 5.5) has smoothed out those imperfections, and my testing shows that it’s more thorough and accurate than ever. With this version, PC Tools promises numerous under-the-hood enhancements to armor-plate your system without bogging down performance—and it delivers Read more » »

(pcmag) “The moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free.” So goes the old song, though it’s rarely true in real life. Thus, I’m always pleased to find an exception like the Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0 (CFP). And it isn’t just free for noncommercial use—it’s free to all, period. According to Comodo CEO Melih Abdulhayoglu, it will remain free indefinitely.

New version has a refined-looking user interface without the separate Comodo Launch Pad used by version 2.0: Future add-ins will plug directly into CFP. Its main screen shows overall system status, much as many security suites do. It also includes Comodo news, a tip of the day, and links to configure program features. Most suites display a red warning if you turn off a significant security element, but CFP figures that if you turned it off you must have meant it. CFP shows a red X only if there’s something actively wrong with the configuration, in which case it offers a link to a built-in diagnostic that could fix the problem. Read more » »

(pcmag) “The moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free.” So goes the old song, though it’s rarely true in real life. Thus, I’m always pleased to find an exception like the Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0 (CFP). And it isn’t just free for noncommercial use—it’s free to all, period. According to Comodo CEO Melih Abdulhayoglu, it will remain free indefinitely.

New version has a refined-looking user interface without the separate Comodo Launch Pad used by version 2.0: Future add-ins will plug directly into CFP. Its main screen shows overall system status, much as many security suites do. It also includes Comodo news, a tip of the day, and links to configure program features. Most suites display a red warning if you turn off a significant security element, but CFP figures that if you turned it off you must have meant it. CFP shows a red X only if there’s something actively wrong with the configuration, in which case it offers a link to a built-in diagnostic that could fix the problem. Read more » »