Virus Effect Remover lets You Re-Enable Windows Task Manager, Folder Option, MsConfig, Registry Editor and More

Anti-virus software only scans and cleans up your computer for viruses, worms and Trojans. Even after the malicious codes have been removed from your Windows, but the damages that have been caused by the infection are difficult to be reverted to the previous state. Some even have to re-install their Windows operating system while some use disk imaging software like Acronis True Image to restore their Windows.

Virus Effect Remover is a handy Windows software application that can helps you to remove the effects or recover from the damages caused by the infection of viruses, worms and trojans from your windows registry and file system. This open source application helps you to detect the registry error caused by virus and re-enables the blocked content like the Windows task manager, registry editor, msconfig, folder option and more.

Besides that, you can use the Process Detail tab to see exactly the processes taking place in your computer. From there, you can use it to kill any running process especially the virus process and the process can also be removed permanently. Other additional options are creating registry backup, check system files, block autorun for USB devices and more.

Virus Effect Remover is compatible with Windows XP and Vista.

Download Virus Effect Remover

Using Secure Login in Firefox

If you allow Firefox to store your passwords you might be worried about the recent security holes found in the password manager. The solution to these problems is to use the Secure Login extension to prevent Firefox from automatically filling in password fields, but at the same time giving you the automation that saves you time. In fact, using the hotkey means that this method is probably even quicker.

The regular Firefox password manager will automatically fill in the password fields for you, which gives malicious sites and hackers the chance to use javascript to read the password. Granted, this isn’t a common occurrence, but it’s still wise to be wary.

Using the Secure Login extension, you’ll see these gold bars around the login credentials instead, but it won’t fill in the fields automatically.

Here’s where the magic happens….  just click the Secure Login button and the form will be filled and automatically submitted.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+N (customizable) to login even faster.

The button isn’t automatically added to your toolbar after installing the extension, but it’s easy to add: just right-click over the back/forward buttons and choose Customize Toolbar. You’ll find the Secure Login button in the list.

The preferences have a lot of other options as well, like not automatically submitting the form when you click the button if you don’t like that behavior. You can even customize the highlight color around the login elements.

Download Secure Login from Mozilla Add-ons

Message-based Attacks Ramp Up Anew

Spam and e-mail-borne malware attacks surged over the first month of 2009, with worm viruses back on the radar and unsolicited junk mail piling up across the board, according to filtering specialists AppRiver.

According to the company’s research into messaging patterns recorded during January, the overall volume of e-mail processed by AppRiver increased by over 120 percent compared to Dec. ‘08, with a whopping 97 percent of that traffic consisting of spam and malware distribution schemes.

AppRiver researchers said that Europe (34 percent) generated the highest volumes of messaging and spam traffic worldwide during the month, followed by Asia (27 percent), South America (12 percent) and North America (19 percent). Compared to December, North America saw its role in spam and malware campaigns dip during January, while South America and Asia experienced gains.

On a nation-by-nation basis, Brazil accounted for the highest levels of spam around the globe during the month, followed by the U.S., India, China, and Russia, respectively. Spam also surged notably in the Ukraine, which accounted for over 150,000 million messages. By comparison over 800,000 million spam e-mails originated from Brazil in January.

The most common malware threats tracked by AppRiver during the month were:

-UPSTroj.mal.ix
-W32\Trojan3.Vas
- HTML\Iframe!Exploit
- Win32.worm.20080529
- probably_a_variant_of_W32
- SW32\DLoader.HNGO
- W32\Packed_FSG.A
- MyDoom.L
- Netsky.P
- W32\Packed_Mew.C

In terms of worm activity, the Storm Worm (aka Waledac), a P2P botnet worm, noticeably reared its head again during January and has now also morphed into a Valentine’s Day-themed attack, AppRiver reported.

In addition, the Downadup.A/B worm spread “very rapidly” during the month, researchers said, primarily by capitalizing on vulnerabilities existing in Microsoft’s Windows Server Service Remote Procedure Call. The Downadup attack is still taking advantage of many unpatched devices despite Microsoft’s work to distribute a last-minute fix, the experts said.

According to the researchers’ observations, Downadup is “very sophisticated” and has already infected as many as 5 million PCs, with the highest rates outside of the U.S. and U.K.

While virus-infected e-mail messages had ebbed in recent months, the rate of attacks increased significantly during January, with AppRiver tracking over 28 million samples, a 9 million threat increase over Dec. 2008.

On the horizon, the company predicted that both Valentine’s Day and the impending tax season would serve as bait in widespread attacks, just as they have for years.

Overall the word appears to be that while Web-based threats are all the rage, good old messaging attacks are still popping up just about everywhere.