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Multiple antivirus apps are vulnerable to common security flaws
At least 28 well-known antivirus apps could be exploited by shared security flaws, and a few are still vulnerable now.
Mozilla pulls four Firefox add-ons over excessive data collection
Browser security extensions aren't automatically safer -- they might even make things worse. Mozilla has pulled Avast's Online Security and SafePrice extensions for Firefox, plus their AVG-branded equivalents, after AdBlock Plus creator Wladimir Palant found they were collecting much more data than necessary. This included a detailed web history that went well beyond site addresses and search history, including when and how long you visit a site, what you click, the number of open tabs and even when you switch to another tab. Mozilla's policies explicitly forbid this kind of fine-grained collection.
AVG's Chrome security add-on had a big security hole
You'd normally expect antivirus software to improve your web browser's security, but just the opposite was true for AVG until today. The company has fixed an exploit in its protective Chrome extension, WebTuneUp, that would let maliciously-coded websites compromise your PC to a "trivial" degree. It could read your email on the web, for example. AVG was quick about fixing the issue within days of getting a heads-up from Google, but there is a real concern that millions of people were vulnerable for considerably longer.
AVG is crowdfunding a router, but wait for its privacy policy
Antivirus company AVG is taking to Indiegogo to crowdfund a router called Chime that it believes will fix your home's WiFi issues. Solitarily, a Chime is a fairly simple 802.11ac dual-band router. Used together, multiple Chimes can instantly band together and blanket your house in a strong signal by utilizing the same Mesh WiFi systems you'll find in office buildings, malls and airports. It's not the first company to offer Mesh WiFi to consumers -- San Francisco startup Eero's boxes ostensibly do exactly the same thing -- but AVG believes the additional security features offered by Chime will be enough to persuade users to jump aboard.
AVG says it can sell your browsing data in updated privacy policy
AVG has updated its privacy policy's language, and in the amended document, the security firm admits that it can "make money from [its] free offerings with non-personal data." These "non-personal" info include your device's brand, language and apps in use, among other things. The company is adamant that it doesn't sell anything with identifying information, and the data that it does collect is anonymized and stored without anything that can link it back to you. According to the updated policy, AVG can collect data you yourself provide -- plus, it can use cookies to track your searchers and your activities on websites, apps and other products. It can then use those details to "build anonymous data profiles" or create statistical information, which it can then sell.
These 'privacy glasses' make you invisible to facial recognition
You're going out with friends mid-week, and you don't want the boss/significant other/parole officer to find out. But it's a birthday celebration, and Facebook's auto-tagging the pictures your buddies upload like a dirty snitch. The first piece of advice: never "friend" your parole officer. The second? Maybe grab a pair of these "privacy" glasses from software security firm AVG. You, of course, can see my visage above, but AVG claims the technology in the specs means facial recognition software (like that of Facebook) will not.
PSA: Botched AVG 2011 update might be why your PC won't start today
Did you update your free copy of AVG 2011 today, in the hopes of evading a nasty bug? In a set of mildly familiar circumstances, the antivirus company has inadvertently unleashed an even nastier one. Users running 64-bit editions of Windows 7 and AVG 2011 are reporting a STOP error after a mandatory antivirus update this morning, which is keeping some from booting their machines into Windows at all. The buggy update has since been pulled and there are a couple ways to preemptively keep it from happening if you're staring at the message above, but if you've already been stung, you're looking at some quality time with a recovery disc or repair partition to fix your Windows boot files. Find all the solutions, including the preemptive ones, at our source link below.
Avast! update causing issues with WoW
Avast! anti-virus, which is used by millions of people around the world, recently upgraded to version 4.8. Unfortunately, it seems that this upgrade has caused many WoW players to have a drastically lower play experience.The most common symptom is severe keystroke lag while playing the World of Warcraft. Mouse actions also seem to be affected by this. Delays as low as a second and as high as five seconds between keystroke and the game receiving that action have been reported. Supposedly, running WoW in windowed mode fixes this, but your mileage may vary.
Grisoft marks WoW as a false positive
If you run Grisoft's AVG antivirus program, you may have seen a strange message pop up yesterday-- the program reported that there was a trojan in WoW's fmod.dll file. fmod.dll, as Datth tell us, is part of the sound engine for WoW, and is not a virus at all. But it appears that AVG picked it up as a false positive, and labeled it as dangerous when it wasn't.There was some confusion yesterday about it, but as of right now, the fix is easy-- go to AVG's website and update it to the latest version. The most recent definitions rule WoW's directory A-OK, so everything should be fine. Apparently this is not the only false positive problem AVG has had this week-- Google Desktop was also ruled a virus, so either AVG is being too strict, or these two big software companies are getting a little too grabby for Grisoft's tastes.[ via WoWLJ ]
AVG for OS X?
ZDNet reports that AVG, known for its free Windows antivirus tool, is busy developing an OS X version. Possibly. The company isn't sure whether the product will ever launch. Larry Bridwell of AVG's parent company Grisoft said "[W]e have done the [Linux] BSD version, which makes it a little bit easier to port to the Mac. It is in research and development right now to see if it is going to come out." At this time, OS X remains pretty secure and virus free but one can never tell what time, patience, dedication and a really bad attitude can do to spoil things for everybody.
