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Windows XP Six Times More Susceptible to Hacking Than Windows 8

Are you yet not ready to bid adieu to Windows XP operating system even after Microsoft has stopped support for this version within coming six months? If not, then you need to plunge at the idea of migrating to Windows 8 or 7 in order to keep PCs safe from hackers. That’s right! Windows XP has been discovered to be an easier target of hackers as this version of operating system has sported higher rate of vulnerability toward malware infection than its later versions.

Mike Reavey, the general manager of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing, has revealed in a keynote presentation at the RSA Conference in Amsterdam. He gathered statistics and data from real-world computers running Windows OS and concluded “Windows XP is six times more likely to be infected than Windows 8, even though it has the same malware encounter rate. “There are over one billion Windows machines online and we can use them to track malware.”

According to the data, Windows XP and Windows Vista-based computers are found to be have infected by about 16% malware attacks. With such rate of malware attacks registered on Windows XP and Vista, these two versions are turned out to be about 19% more vulnerable to malware threats than Windows 7 and 12% more vulnerable than Windows 8. Of 1000 Windows-based computers been scanned, about 9.1 Windows XP SP3-based computers were known to be prone to malware infection, whereas an average 5.5 Windows Vista computers in 1000 had encountered malware, about 4.9 Windows 7-based computers and only 1.6 Windows 8 machines had malware infection out of 1000. Hence, Windows XP has been discovered six times more unsafe than Windows 8 in terms of malware infection.

So, have you planned of a robust security measure to protect and prevent your Windows XP-based computer? If you have not yet, take a first step today and download TechGenie Free Antivirus software today.

Beware Net-banking Users, Shylock Strikes Back

Watch out when you access and transact from your online banking account! The notorious Capshaw aka Shylock strikes back. The resurgence of online banking malware, Shylock or known as Caphaw, has been spotted to affect customers of 24 financial institutions. The security firm Zscaler has reported on Wednesday that an increasing number of Shylock infections resurged in the last month, well after the first of threat in 2011.

So what is Shylock/Caphaw malware?

The Shylock/Caphaw malware was first found in 2011 and once again, earlier in 2013 to attack European banking customers. This time, the Shylock/Caphaw Trojan application has hit customers of the four major American banks that are Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Corporation, Wells Fargo, Citi Private Bank and also other financial institutions such as Bank of the West, Capital One, U.S. Bancorp and others.

How it works?

Shylock is found to be more sophisticated and efficient than any banking malware. According to an analysis on Caphaw published by by ESET security researcher Aleksandr Matrosov, “This is one of the few pieces of malware that can automatically steal money when the user is actively accessing his banking account.” The research also revealed other malware associated with Shylock/Caphaw are Gataka, Carberp, Tinba and Ranbyus.

Furthermore Matrosov also claimed that Shylock/Caphaw malware buries itself in Windows Explorer and also hides inside the program files of the operating system to enable it to control system shutdown or rebooting process. Thus, Shylock malware is able to resist and restore after the antivirus scanning and cleaning procedure occurs.

Though it is not yet clear how Shylock/Caphaw malware is reaching banking customers, researchers at Zscaler ThreatLabZ security suspected that “it is more than likely arriving as part of an exploit kit [homing] in on vulnerable versions of Java.” Devices infected with Shylock/Caphaw malware are found to run Windows XP and a Java 6 version as that version consists of multiple exploitable and vulnerabilities.

Hence, check your computer with an experienced tech support assistant to detect if your PC fosters any Shylock/Caphaw malware today or simply

download TechGenie Free Antivirus now!

Kiaro! color inkjet label printer for labeled printing

A renowned brand of Astro-Med, Inc., QuickLabel Systems has announced the release of its fastest label printer, called Kiaro! color inkjet label printer. Made for businesses that require to print their own labels, Kiaro! color inkjet label printer comes equipped with Custom QuickLabel Omni labeling software, a USB 2.0 cable, a printer driver for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP operating systems. In addition to this, the recently released printer also features a starter set of CMY Kiaro! ink cartridges.

“We believe that the new Kiaro! is the most advanced, flexible and user-friendly in-house full color label printer under $10,000 on the market,” said Eric E. Pizzuti, Vice President and General Manager. “With its 1200 dpi print quality, 8 ips fast label print speed, roll-to-roll label printing, on-demand print mode, and easy-to-integrate compact size, the Kiaro! is the right choice for printing color product labels in medium-to-high quantities.”

Currently, Kiaro! color inkjet label printer is available with a limited warranty of one year.

Microsoft® Windows® security patches

In January 2011, Microsoft released two bulletins for patching up three shortcomings related to security measures which can affect the Windows operating system. The major vulnerabilities of serious nature can be exploited through drive-by downloading websites as warned by the software company. Flaws for the drive-by download which were covered through MS11-002 were briefed to Microsoft through the program ‘TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative’ which buys data of vulnerability from private researchers.

The bulletin contains a minimum of two separate types of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Data Access Components and cautioned that security problems are there in the path of Microsoft Data Access Components which permitted third party usage of API and allocation of memory. Microsoft treats this as an important issue various editions of Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows XP. On Window Server 2008, Windows Server R2 and Windows Server 2003 the harshness is downgraded to vital. The second bulletin projects vulnerability regarding publicly disclosed matter in Backup Manager for Windows.

MS11-001 extends a patch with respect to DLL preloading matter in the backup tool of Windows. It is rated as important and applies only for Windows Vista. Preloading of DLL is an issue in other operating systems. It attracted attention in August 2010 when many vulnerable applications were found. Given the opportunity of preloading vulnerabilities of the DLLs, it is recommended for implementing the updates, KB2264107 and Security Advisory 2269637 that neutralizes the malicious attacks.

Although, some shortcomings will not be rectified such as Graphics Rendering Engine of Windows and vulnerability patches related to zero-day threats. These vulnerabilities may still be exploited as opined by Dave Marcus, director of communications and security research at McAfee Labs. The recommendation of McAfee is that one should install patches of Microsoft as early as possible. Users of Home editions of Windows should utilize Windows Automatic Updates. Users of Business editions require implementing a strategy for risk management and prioritizing the patches.

Updates for Google™ Chrome

Developers are working on updating the Google Chrome browser to resolve issues that may be affecting its performance. Right now Google is hoping to bring down the crash rate considerably. All the major browsers are rushing to release a production quality browser with hardware accelerated graphics, but it seems Google will be crossing the finish line first.

Last year Google had started offering Google Chrome in stable, Beta, Developer, Canary and Night build versions in parallel. According to reports, there were issues in the Canary and Nightbuild versions. According to the Chrome developer threads, most bugs appear to be affecting GPU acceleration and it seems that crash issues in the developer and beta versions can be completely solved by deactivating this feature via launch switches or flags accessible through the black list Chrome developers are assembling.

A new release of the Beta version of the software claims to be more stable than the previous versions. It contains WebGl improvements under Windows XP and restores Flash sandbox. Chrome uses the OpenGl interface for 2D and 3D graphics acceleration which is complicated in Windows where support for Open GL is not good when compared to DirectX technology. Google, however, avoids this problem by Project ANGLE that converts OpenGL commands into DirectX. Chrome apparently has come up with a list of features to disable to ensure a stable browser experience on incompatible devices. Chrome has reiterated support for IndexedDB, a developing standard that enables web application storage. This helps in ensuring that Google apps work offline, which is a major reason behind cloud computing’s success. It also comes with a new task manager much like Windows, which tell you about web applications that are running and also about background applications.

With such fast paced development, it will soon be available to users. Since Chrome’s launch it has become a fore runner in the race of the browser providing the best browsing experience. It is gaining popularity among users who are hoping for a new web experience through its promise of hardware accelerated graphics and a new revolutionary interface.

Windows® 7 Migration Tool

Windows 7 is the latest operating system released by Microsoft and has gained good popularity among the masses. This looks like a refined and bug free version of Windows Vista. Users of Windows Vista can upgrade to this operating system very easily through the simple upgrade path, but users who do not have Windows Vista, will have to take a longer path in order to upgrade to Windows 7. Technically there is no direct upgrade path available for moving to Windows 7 from Windows XP, but if you search on the Internet you will find some third party tools which can assist you in doing the same. The way that Microsoft suggests is to take a backup of your data in Windows XP and then install Windows 7 completely fresh on the hard drive, but these ways users will lose their installed applications, settings, and other personalization which they would have done in Windows XP. One of the best tools out there in the market for solving this purpose is known as Windows 7 Migration Tool. The Basic Migration tool is free of cost but you would need to pay a little for migrating extra stuff which is not covered in the basic edition. In this post I will discuss some features of this tool.

Features:

1. Easy to interface with very little complexities so that any normal user can find it helpful.

2. Capable of migrating data, settings and applications from Windows XP to Windows 7.

3. In case some of the applications cannot be migrated then this tool will assist you in manually downloading the applications and installing them later on in Windows 7.

 

Basic Migration Tool:

Using the basic migration tool you can easily migrate your user profiles, desktop settings, application and other software settings, and the data stored in ‘My Documents’ folder. All this can be migrated using the basic edition of Migration Tool and this comes for free. If you wish to get the advanced Migration Tool then you need to pay for the support subscription and the technicians supporting the tool will assist you out in the overall migration and upgrade process. This assistance will be over the phone or over the remote session wherever and whenever possible.

In case you do not wish to use this tool then you will have to sacrifice all your installed applications, because you can certainly take a backup of the files. Once you have taken the backup of your data on some external media, you can go ahead and install Windows 7 on your computer and once done you can restore the backup to get your files back.

Call Now: +1 315-226-4249
Call Now: +1 315-226-4249
Call Now: +1 315-226-4249