After having installed your brand-new OS you're supposed to open your mouth in an amazed "Wow!" (not to be mistaken for WoW) but many Vista newcomers have found themselves grimacing in confusion instead. The reason for this unpredicted reaction can be found in one of the features included in Microsoft's new product: the so called User Account Control.

User Account Control is a security feature especially designed to prevent certain kinds of programs from abusing your Windows user account by installing adware or spyware apps without your consent. The problem is that this laudable intention turns out to be a real pain for the average user, who is constantly being asked for permission to perform even the most innocent task, such as launching your web browser.

Luckily you can disable it in a very easy way: go to Control Panel and click on User Accounts And Family Safety. Then select User Accounts and click on Turn User Account Control On Or Off. Just uncheck the box, click OK and restart your computer when prompted.

Microsoft obviously recommends not to deactivate this security option but it's the only thing you can do if you want to stop seeing those annoying windows - as long as you can take responsibility for what you have running on your PC.

It’s increasingly hard to surf around the net without someone somewhere knowing who you are and where you’ve come from. For most of us, that’s no big deal – you’ve got nothing to hide after all have you? However, sometimes details such as your IP address and other traces you leave behind can be used by commercial entities to spam you with advertising or worse, compromise the security of your system.

Whatever reason you may have for wanting to hide your identity, there are a couple of options that can help preserve your privacy. On Windows, one of the best known applications to help achieve this end is Tor. Tor is an open source project that help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor hushes up your communications by bouncing them around a distributed network of servers called “onion routers”. If you don’t want to use any software, then another method is to use a proxy. There are several websites out there that allow you to surf the net using public proxies that mask your real IP address.

Anonymous browsing is particularly useful if you’re using a public computer and don’t want your tracks revealed to strangers. However, the disadvantage is that sites that rely on your specific ID might not work as well. So for example, sites that normally save your personal preferences might not do so if every time you return as an “unknown” user. Still, if you’re increasingly worried about the prying eyes of Big Brother, anonymous surfing is one way to give him the slip.

When protecting your PC from online threats, any weapon you come across is welcome, especially if they can take care of what other security applications don’t. McAfee AVERT Stinger is a small virus extractor specialized in hunting the viruses listed by McAfee.

Because it is lightweight, the program saves you the hassle of big and cumbersome antivirus applications and you can easily run it in the background while you carry out another task. Just launch McAfee AVERT Stinger, select your directory, press the scan now button, and wait for the results to come. The application runs relatively quickly depending on the size of the directory you have chosen to scan and if McAfee AVERT Stinger finds any malware it will pop up on the screen. The application is very basic but it can scan self-extracting executables and compressed files and will automatically remove viruses it comes across. To find out which viruses McAfee AVERT Stinger recognizes just click on the list button and scroll the names of all malware recognized by the antivirus manufacturer.

The virtual wallet market is popular with software developers. Nearly all PDA users make use of some sort of virtual wallet program to store their credit card numbers, email passwords or other personal data. eWallet, already regarded by most as the leader in its field has improved on its already excellent reputation with version 4, a feature packed virtual wallet application which is near perfect.

Whatever information you want to keep safe, eWallet is designed to help you entering and retrieving your data with the least hassle possible. Like most virtual wallet programs, it includes a range of categories to choose from as well as a ‘custom’ category option. However, because eWallet’s range of categories is so expansive (check out the ‘internet settings’ option with space for IP addresses, default gateways and more), you may find that you never even need to create a custom category.

In most cases, privacy and security are crucial to maintaining a business afloat. Making sure you have the right application on your PC can avoid you the risk of information theft. East-Tec Eraser caters to users by offering all the tools to fully erase files and information from your computer.

The application is fitted with 3 essential file cleaning features, directly accessible from the quick start menu: protecting your privacy, erasing deleted files, or erasing specific files. Choosing the first option will thoroughly check your PC and remove all existing registry entries and cookies. A detailed progress bar makes the process speed and time spent on the task visible. You can also decide to configure automation options such as if your PC should shut down or restart after it has been wiped clean.

Security is one of the main concerns among computer users. This is why it’s important to count on reliable applications that can protect our system and data from potential dangers, especially when going online. Sometimes, free security apps are regarded as being less safe but you might change your mind after testing AVG Antivirus.

AVG is one of the handiest antivirus systems I’ve seen so far (and believe me, I’ve tested a few, including big shots like BitDefender, Panda and Kaspersky). Being a smaller application, AVG may not feature such a wide range of tools or utilities as the other antivirus programs do. However, it makes up for it by offering a neat, effective protection which stays silently minimized in your system tray and only activates when needed.

Whenever a security flaw is found within a popular application it’s usually nothing more than a chance for tech reporters to take a cheap shot at a major developer. That’s what we thought when we read about the discovery of a hole within the widely-used Adobe Acrobat Reader.

However, it turns out that the bug is a little more serious than everyone first thought. According to security specialists, the glitch within the software allows hackers to access all information on the victim’s hard drive via malicious JavaScript to PDF files hosted on websites.

Billy Hoffman, lead engineer at SPI Dynamics said: “This means any JavaScript can access the user's local machine. Depending on the browser, this means the JavaScript can read the user's files, delete them, execute programs, send the contents to the attacker, et cetera. This is much worse than an attack in the remote zone.”

While there is no patch available at present, the problem can be rectified by downloading the latest version of the PDF viewer, Adobe Reader 8.0.

Considering it’s the season of good will to all, some sneaky devils are adamant on spoiling it for everyone, according to Sunbelt software. The company is warning users of the rise of computer software masquerading as legitimate security software.

According to the firm, certain sites are able to trick users into paying for applications that are actually ineffective at securing their computer and could even contain malicious viruses or malware themselves. The company has seen incidences of bogus software (much of which comes from the same companies and is simply rebranded) increase in the run-up to Christmas and warn that it could represent a continued threat throughout the new year. Our advice is to stick to programs like Norton Internet Security, Panda Antivirus (or AVG if you’re on a tight budget) in order to tackle potential attacks

If you've been pestered to make an unusual number of updates by Windows recently then don't worry, you're not alone. On Tuesday, Microsoft released an unprecendented seven security updates to patch 11 vulnerabilities, almost half of them "critical." Its the biggest Windows update in 4 years according to the company.

Microsoft Word was the biggest target with several new security holes discovered that needed plugging. However, Internet Explorer was targeted for the same old script flaws that continually plague it whilst Windows Media Player was patched for a vulnerability that could allow criminals to hijack PCs by creating malformed .asx playlists and entice users to dodgy sites.

The update bonanza means a record-breaking year of 78 in total for 2006 - six more updates than the previous record set in 2002. If you haven't been pestered by the dreaded yellow shield in the corner of your screen for an automatic update and god knows how many restarts, you can obtain them manually from Microsoft Update services. Since many of these are critical patches, the sooner you do this, the better.

It seems these days that computer users fear spyware more than they do creepy crawlies or ghosts - perhaps with good reason. No one wants their system to be overrun my malicious code that detects and tracks your online activity. Of course, there are plenty of anti-spyware tools available that are designed to keep your machine free of intrusive spyware.

Although usually very effective, traditional anti-spyware software has a tendancy to slow down your system and leave you hanging around while it works its magic. However, the latest release from Max Secure Software, Max Spyware Detector 2.0 is designed to eliminate prying applications in seconds thanks to its built-in Smart Scan technology.

"Consumers have been asking for an anti-spyware product that can detect spyware and doesn't take all day to do it," explains Sanjay Pradham, CEO of Max Secure Software. "Before Max Spyware Detector was available, consumers were spending an average of 25 or more minutes waiting for their anti-spyware product to do its job, but now as a result of Max Spyware Detector, we've been able to cut consumers' scan time down to only a few minutes at the longest."

You would think that skipming on scanning time would allow certain spyware apps to go through undetected, but MaxSpyware seems to deliver a thorough scan and picked up virtually everything we could throw at it in terms of installing known spyware apps. While not as thorough as Ad-Aware, the application is great for those who want to ensure they're not being watched while at the same time saving on scanning times.

It looks as though the venerable British comedy troop, Monty Python, had it right all along. In the ongoing saga of inundated inboxes, an article on CNN reports that going into this holiday season, "9 out of 10 emails are spam". While this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who has recently abandoned yet another email address, what did catch our attention is what they state as the real source of the spam problem: us.

Dave Rand, of Internet security firm Trend Micro states "It will only end when people stop buying diet pills, herbal highs and sexual performance enhancers". Of course, how silly of us. We just need to stop buying things and then the good upstanding net citizens identified in the article as "200 illegal spam gangs" will stop sending us emails. Unfortunately, we have enough trouble getting legitimate companies to stop sending us unsolicited emails no matter how many times we tell them we don't want their products.

Spam hillarity ensues after the break.

Phishing has nothing to do with a rod, a bag of maggots and a bucket of mackerel. It's a technique used to obtain confidential data by masquerading as something else – such as supplanting someone’s ID or claiming to be a legitimate institution (generally via spam, fraudulent electronic message, or falsification of web pages).Up until now, one of the big advantages of the Firefox browser was its enhanced security over Internet Explorer but a new hole in the popular browser has been discovered. The vulnerability in Firefox, is caused by a backdoor in the Password Manager function which does not verify URL’s before automatically completing user data in pages that request passwords. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator or Uniform Localizador of Resources) is a “pointer” to the location of any file such as a page of HTML (i.e a web address such as http://www.softonic.com).

The flaw can be exploited by an attacker to rob the credentials of the user (name and password) without their knowledge through a fake form when the website is visited. The vulnerability has been confirmed in version 2.0 upwards and previous versions could also be affected too. There has been no official patch issued by Mozilla as yet but obviously, the best way to avoid any risk is to deactivate the Password Manager function and enter passwords yourself manually. Don’t let those phishers fool you with their bait.

A story today from Arstechnica reveals that 21 year old Christopher Maxwell received a 37 month jail sentence for launching a botnet which, according to the source, allowed him and his friends to reap as much as $100,000 dollars. Not all hackers out there have an evil mind bent on wreaking havoc and anarchy in government and institutional networks, but the truth is they sometimes don't realize the consequences of their actions. Maxwell's botnet caused Seattle's Northwest Hospital to switch to its "disaster plan" and teachers from Colton Unified School district "lost crucial instructional time". Maxwell did measure how far his actions could take him when the sentence came down though .

As institutions rely more and more on networks and computerized information, we're bound to see this type of news more often and probably at a greater scale. That's why it's essential to remind time and time again that you need to protect your PC. You can't go without Lavasoft's Ad-Aware or Spybot's Search and Destroy. Both these solutions are free, easy to use and analyze your PC fairly quickly.

Pirates and spammers beware, there's been a new breakthrough in information encryption. Researchers of the University of Queensland and the Australian National University have been awarded the prestigious Eureka 2006 Scientific Research award for their use of quantum physics to encrypt information. Their research consists of using "laser beams to generate entangled photons" thus making it virtually impossible to mess with the transmission of information. According to the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes press release however "quantum computers could also crack the mathematically-based codes we rely on for personal and commercial security on the web". So much for user privacy.

We're not there yet however, and it'll surely be ages before we get any closer to home-owned quantum-powered PCs. Most programs available to protect your data consist of solid yet not totally invincible, 128 or 256KB AES encryption. There's a good number of applications you can find on Softonic to keep your precious files from prying eyes. AxCrypt is a quick encryptor/decryptor for your files, while Cryptic Disk handles your hard drive and disk partitions. It's a good idea to make a backup encrypted copy of your files once in a while.