Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2007 Free Edition

Lavasoft believe that every individual, regardless of
economic status or geographic location, should have the
power to control their individual privacy and security.
Lavasoft is the original anti-spyware company, and they are
still delivering the best protection today. After all, over
300 million computer users around the world can’t be wrong!

With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives,
and external storage devices for known data-mining,
advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware 2007 easily
can clean your system, allowing you to maintain a higher
degree of privacy while you surf the Web.

Ad-Aware 2007 includes a redesigned engine, improved code
sequence identification, incremental definition updates,
one-click Web-history cleanup, multiple browser support,
and other new features.

One of the first applications built to find and remove
adware and spyware, Ad-Aware 2007 maintains Lavasoft’s
excellent reputation.

The interface features two skins and six tabs in the. The
first two, Status and Scan, initiate file scans for adware.
After scanning is complete, the program presents a results
summary, followed by a line-item list from which you can
select which components to remove. There is also an option
to create a system restore point. Right-clicking an
individual entry gives some information about suspected
adware.

The third button offers real-time defenses but only in the
paid version. Web Update, the next button, controls
definition file updates. The fifth button, Tools and Plug-
ins, shows you which plug-ins are installed and controls
TrackSweep, the new browsing tracks cleaner. TrackSweep is
the only free function here. Smoothly integrated into the
application, it wipes the cache, cookies, and history, and
other traces left by browsing.

Settings is last, and provides access to auto-scans,
browsers, scanning, the interface, and log files. The
application does an excellent job of removing most malware
components. Despite the restrictions on the free edition,
this is a fully functional adware remover, and Ad-Aware
2007 should be part of your defence system.

More Key Features
User-Controlled Spyware Removal - Decide for yourself what
to delete from your system and what to keep.

Extensive Detection Database - Stay protected with regular
updates from the extensive library of identified and
analyzed spyware.

System Restore Point - Easily revert back to your clean
system to recover from a spyware attack.

Surf the Internet with peace of mind and let Ad-Aware
shield you from dangerous intruders and prying eyes.

Preserve your computer investment with regular scans to
identify and remove malicious applications that eat up
memory and steal bandwidth so your computer runs as
smoothly as the day you bought it.

At present it is not compatible with Windows Vista, which
can install the program, but it sometimes crashes or hangs
during scans. A Vista-compatible edition will be released
in August 2007.

Download it free from here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

Note: Ad-Aware 2007 Free is free of charge for personal
home use only. Commercial use is prohibited. For real-time
protection and advanced options, paid versions are
available from Lavasoft at www.lavasoft.com.

About Encryption and Making Your System Secure

To What does encryption do for me?
Encryption and cryptographic software has been used in many different ways to make systems more secure.
This article discusses only a few ways that such software can make your system more secure, including:

1) Encrypting your email

2) Encrypting your files

Two programs are mentioned that will help encrypt information. There are many more programs out there that will help, but these programs are good and a good place to start as any. They have the added benefit of both being free with source code available.

Will encryption stop people from accessing my information?
Encryption simply makes it harder for people to gain access to important information, like passwords or sensitive information in a file. The first thing you should know about encryption is that the algorithm that is used to encrypt can be simple or more complex and that affects how securely what you have encrypted is protected. Encryption systems have been broken when the method of encryption is understood by hackers and is easy to break.

Why bother to encrypt my email?
It should be noted that email is far less secure than paper mail for two very good reasons: first, electronic data can be accessed easily over an Internet and secondly, electronic data is really simple to copy. There is a very good chance that someone has snooped around in your email despite your best intentions to stop it.

How do I go about encrypting my email?
There are many programs out there that can help you encrypt your email. A very popular one is PGP (Pretty GoodPrivacy) or its Gnu offshoot GPG.
PGP (http://www.pgpi.org/) self-describes itself this way: This "is a program that gives your electronic mail something that it otherwise doesn't have: Privacy. It does this by encrypting your mail so that nobody but the intended person can read it. When encrypted, the message looks like a meaningless jumble of random characters. PGP has proven itself quite capable of resisting even the most sophisticated forms of analysis aimed at reading the encrypted text."

Why bother to encrypt my files?
The answer to this boils down to what you store on your computer. If you have financial data with important information like social security numbers, email addresses, account numbers and passwords, then you open yourself up to losing very valuable information. Most corporate Internet security employees will attest to the widespread theft of very valuable information. As long as you are connected to the Internet you are vulnerable.

How do I go about encrypting my files?
AxCrypt File Encryption Software (http://axcrypt.sourceforge.net/) Self-described as "FreePersonal Privacy and Security for Windows 98/ME/NT/2K/XP with AES-128 File Encryption, Compression and transparent Decrypt and Open in the original application."