BetaNews Staff

Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence Report highlights rogue security software as "one of the most common methods that attackers use to swindle money from victims," and it's hard to disagree. We're forever coming across sites that display fake antivirus messages, system "scans" and more, all claiming our PC is "infected" in an attempt to make us download their scareware.

If you're familiar with these cons then there's no real problem: you just close that browser window and carry on as before. But if you follow the links on these warnings, download and run the executable they'll offer, then you're in trouble: the fake antivirus will mess up your system, causing all kinds of odd problems, and demand your credit card details to put everything right. (Although, of course, parting with those will only cause you more problems.)

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Symantec has announced a major update -- 18.6.0.29 -- to its 2011 security products, including Norton Internet Security 2011 and Norton AntiVirus 2011. This update includes a few new features, such as support for the Firefox 4 browser, plus performance enhancements, improved compatibility with third-party programs and a number of bug fixes.

Version 18.6.0.29 also corrects an issue whereby upgrading from a previous version of Norton resulted in a loss of subscription days being reported. Other enhancements include an "improved" activation process, plus better performance from Internet Explorer 9 plug-ins as well as all previous changes introduced by the previous update (18.5).

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Kiev-based developer MacPaw, best known for its CleanMyMac tool for Macintosh computers, has ventured onto the Windows platform for the first time with an equivalent cleaning application for the PC, the appropriately titled CleanMyPC.

As the name implies, CleanMyPC includes a suite of cleaning tools for Windows computers. The main cleaning component promises to remove gigabytes of files from your PC, and is backed up by five further maintenance tools: Secure Erase, Complete Uninstall, Registry Maintenance, Autorun and Gadgets & Extensions Manager.

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When you need to understand what's happening on your Windows network, then logging its traffic with a packet sniffing tool can help. And there are few easier ways to get the job done than with a copy of the free NetworkMiner.

The program is portable, for instance, so there are no installation hassles. It'll automatically detect and work with standard packet capture libraries like WinPcap, or grab raw sockets with its own capture tool. And so all you have to do is point NetworkMiner at your chosen network adapter, click "Start," then watch as it organizes your traffic into twelve different views.

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NirSoft is famous for creating some of the best free Windows utilities around: tiny, portable and packed with useful features. If you'd like to sample what the company has to offer then you could spend an hour or two browsing the site, individually downloading anything that appeals. But it's probably easier to simply grab a copy of NirLauncher, which crams more than 130 of the best NirSoft tools into a portable, easily accessible package.

We're not just talking about a zip file holding the various executables, either. NirLauncher also provides a front-end menu that organizes its tools into categories like Password Recovery, Network Monitoring, Disk Utilities, System Utilities and more, making it much simpler to locate the particular programs that you need.

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WinZip Computing, a subsidiary of Corel, has released a major new update for its Mac zip tool, WinZip Mac Edition. Version 1.5 features a number of improvements based on two key areas: zip/unzip functionality, and file sharing and archiving.

WinZip Mac Edition now features improved support for Mac application bundles, which are recognizable via the .app extension. Previously the program could simply unzip an entire .app bundle, but version 1.5 gives the user additional options, namely the ability to view the contents of the archive, plus the option of extracting individual items. It's also now possible to include hidden files within zip archives, plus the program supports a wider number of archived formats, including .jar and .war files.

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The average antivirus package will detect around 97 percent of all known threats, according to independent tests. Which sounds quite good, until you realize that means you could be infected in around 1 in every 33 malware encounters (and that's before we even consider the brand new, undiscovered threats).

It makes sense to equip your PC with a second antivirus tool, then, to assist in picking up any malware that your main package has missed. There's no shortage of possible candidates, but one of the most interesting is a new, free set of tools from Comodo: Cleaning Essentials.

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One of the most popular open-source tools for ripping and encoding video from DVD and Blu-ray is the cross-platform tool, Handbrake. One of the charges levelled at it, particularly from a Windows user's point of view, is that the user interface can be a little confusing and overwhelming, particularly for beginners.

Mindful of this fact, Codeplex code RandomEngy has developed a fresh take on Handbrake in the form of VidCoder, which is also available as a 64-bit application. VidCoder takes all the features and raw power of Handbrake, and delivers them to end users via a more streamlined and user-friendly interface, making the program more accessible to all.

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Continuing its foray in iOS software Adobe today released three companion apps for Photoshop CS5. The apps provide a range of new ways to interact with Photoshop with your iPad starting with Adobe Eazel,  which enables you to paint and draw on the screen of your iPad using a range of tools before sending the completed work of art to your PC or Mac, or sharing it via email.

Next up is Adobe Nav , on which you can use your iPad to access the tools you use most frequently in Photoshop. A customizable toolbar enables you to access your favorite tools form your iPad as well as browsing through your documents. The app can be used to navigate through up to 200 open documents, and when you tap on the screen of your iPad it will become the active document on your Mac or PC.

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Cerulean Studios has announced that it's making Trillian, the cross-platform social networking and instant messaging client, free for desktop and mobile users. Features previously restricted to Pro users, such as the ability to sign in from multiple locations, support for themes and activity history viewer, will now be available in free editions of the software, starting with Trillian 5 for Windows, which has just been released.

Other supported platforms, including Mac and mobile devices (iPhone,Android and Blackberry), will get these features added to the next updates when they're released. For now, though, only Windows users get the full gamut of features with the release of version 5.

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Hot on the heels of the stable release of Chrome 11, Google released a new beta version of Chrome 12. It is obviously very early days for Google's latest browser, but there is already a great deal to look forward to. There is support for the latest web standards, which means that hardware accelerated 3D CSS can deliver rich content in style, assuming you have a recent graphics card installed.

Security has been enhanced in the latest version of Chrome. New algorithms check websites to ensure that downloads are not malicious, and this is in addition to the phishing protection we have become used to. The download checking works in much the same way as checking for phishing website and it means that malicious software can be intercepted before it has a chance to cause any problems.

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Just how are your files encrypted when you back them up online? If you're lucky, your backup provider will perform the encryption and decryption of your files on your computer, so they're already encrypted prior to being uploaded. That means the backup company can't access those files, whatever happens.

But what if your backup company, like Dropbox, performs the encryption at the server end, and then suddenly changes its terms and conditions to allow it to hand over your data to the authorities if they demand it? You could change backup provider, but that might not be practical. Instead, you need a solution that encrypts the data for you, allowing you to upload a secure, encrypted version that only you can access. One such solution is BoxCryptor.

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Spend any amount of time online and there is a high chance that some of the websites you visit track information about you. Cookies, scripts and other techniques can be used to monitor how web users behave online and to build up profiles. This may well be information you would prefer not to share, and Ghostery is a browser add-on that can be used to detect, analyze and block any tracking of your online activities.

Ghostery is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari, although the IE version is rather more limited than the version available for other browsers, and it can reveal a great deal of information about the web sites you visit. Turning the tables on the trackers, Ghostery enables you to find out exactly which companies are tracking you via the websites you visit and provides you with any opportunity to find out more about these companies.

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Comodo Group has announced it's giving away a free one year-license of Comodo Internet Security Pro 2011, worth $49.95. Available for free download through Downloadcrew.com, Comodo Internet Security Pro 2011 includes both anti-malware and firewall software, giving users comprehensive protection against viruses, spyware and other threats.

The free one year license includes remote security and system support through Comodo's GeekBuddy service (free registration required), Comodo TrustConnect and a $500 guarantee (US residents only) for repair costs should Comodo be unable to restore your computer to a working state after infection.

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Sadly we can't feature every new and updated application, but that doesn't mean that some of the apps we haven't covered aren't worth rounding up. There are a number of interesting applications that are worth some investigation and we've rounded up some of them put live during the last week.

doPDF 7.2.363 is a powerful free tool you can use to produce a PDF from just about any Windows application. Instead of sending it to your printer, simply print to the doPDF device. Creating a PDF is the ideal way of distributing a document for download, by email or for commercial printing. Just about any printer will take a PDF as your master.

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