Messages are being sent from the addresses like news@bbc.com, news@cnn.com, election@usatoday.com, etc..  and the identified subject lines are “Barack Obama Wins”, “Election Night Results”, and “Fear of a Black President”.

As you open the e-mail the body of the e-mail tells you a little about Obama and his speeches and a link which promises you to show some really important speeches from the past, election moments and interviews of Obama. Once you click on the link it takes you to a news-like page and asks you to download the latest flash player to view the video, in this case “adobe_flash9.exe”.

Once you download and install the file the computer security is compromised and the important information on the computer is vulnerable.

Following is one of the example e-mails flowing around..

Barack Obama Elected 44th President of United States

Barack Obama, unknown to most Americans just four years ago, will become the 44th president and the first African-American president of the United States.

Watch His amazing speech at November 5!

Proceed to the election results news page>>

2008 American Government Official Website

This site delivers information about current U.S. Foreign policy and about American life and culture.

This is being seen as a high level attack from the spammers as the volumes are very high. MxLogic, a security company, reported that close to 1 million e-mails were received and blocked within two hours. Other security companies reported similar numbers.

Volumes of such messages is continuing to go up with the time. So next time you see a Barak Obama e-mail with nice pictures and a link to a never seen before video, be sure of what you are doing.

Following is the picture of the page that suggests you to download the fake latest flash player.

[Image credits: Mxlogic]

Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s informed consent.

In short spyware is a program that monitors your system/online activity or installs other programs without your concent. According to a report by webroot (A Spyware blocker and spyware removal program), 9 out of 10 PCs which are connected to internet are infected with some spyware and around 10 million American consumers suffer from an annual loss of 5 billion dollars and businesses with a loss of $48 billion.

Spyware blockers and Spyware removal are the programs that should be installed to remove and protect you from the problem of spywares. Following are the top 5 spyware removal and spyware bloking programs available for Windows. We are not discussing Spyware Removal and Spyware blockers for Mac/Linux users:

1. Lavasoft Ad-aware 2008

Lavasoft Ad-aware 2008 is the most popular spyware removal and prevention software available. It comes available free for individual usage. There are other flavours available too which are paid and require license.

Publisher’s note

The world’s most popular anti-spyware!

Protect yourself against identity theft, online fraud, and other cyber crimes with the world’s most popular anti-spyware.

2. Spybot Search and Destroy

Spyware bot search and destroy is another great free Anti-spyware tool available. Unlike, adaware spyware removal, spybot has only free version and you can donate for the development and improvement of this great tool.

Publisher’s Note

Spybot – Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies.

3. Webroot Spysweeper

Webroot Spyweeper is my favorite anti-spyware and spyware protection program. The reason it’s my favorite is that it is best in catching spywares which other spyware removal programs fail to detect.

Publisher’s note

Webroot Spy Sweeper is a tool used to stay safe from spyware, adware, keyloggers, and Trojans, all of which can lead to identity theft and fraud. With Webroot Spy Sweeper installed on your PC, you can use the Internet without fear of infection.

4. Spyware Doctor

Spyware doctor is another very popular anti-spyware from PCTools. It comes as time-unlimited trial version and can keep you away from new threats after installing. However, to get rid of existing threats you need to shed out $29.95.

Publisher’s note

Spyware Doctor is a top-rated malware & spyware removal utility that detects, removes and protects your PC from thousands of potential spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, spybots and tracking threats. Protect your privacy and computing habits from prying eyes and virtual trespassers with the help of Spyware Doctor.

5. Spyware Blaster

Spyware Blaster is state of art free anti-spyware and malware by Javacool softwares. Again this little beauty is absolutely free. However, you can donate for the continuation and betterment of Spyware Blaster.

Publisher’s note

SpywareBlaster doesn’t scan for and clean spyware–it prevents it from being installed in the first place. SpywareBlaster prevents the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, dialers, browser hijackers, and other potentially unwanted programs.

We have tried to bring to you the best of anti-spyware solution available and hence this is not the complete list. You might want to check other an-spyware and spyware blockers in the market.

If you want a completely free spyware we suggest Spyware search and destroy. However, if you want to shed some money to get a great anti-spyware, you might want to but Webroot spy sweeper.

Today I switched my computer ON just like any other day and the hell broke lose. Computer was running slow, high-speed internet was acting choked and I almost thought my monitor belongs to a 16 year old sexually charged with adult pop-ups all over the screen.

By the time I could figure out what went wrong (virus attack), I had already lost some data on my hard drive and my Operating System was acting weird.

A computer that is inadequately protected is vulnerable to all sorts of viruses, spyware or malicious codes which could attack your data or even your operating system.

Some malware are programmed to damage the computer by damaging programs, deleting files, or reformatting the hard disk. Other malware programs are not designed to do any damage, but simply replicate themselves and perhaps make their presence known by presenting text, video, or audio messages. (Wikipedia)

I gathered information on about 5 most popular free Antivirus softwares which do a good job of protecting your computer and keep your data safe from such attacks.

Why pay for Antivirus softwares when free ones are equally good? Following is the list of top 5 free antivirus softwares.

Avast.com – avast! is a fully featured free antivirus designed specifically for home users or for non-commercial use, however, it requires you to register your free version with Avast within 60 days of installation. It is compatible with Windows Vista/XP/2000/NT/ME/98. The latest version of Avast 4.8 comes with 39 downloadable skins to personalize your free copy of antiviurs software.

Some of the features of avast! Free Antivirus for Home Edition are listed below.

• Anti-spyware built-in
• Web Shield
• Anti-rootkit built-in
• Automatic updates
• Strong self-protection
• Virus Chest
• Antivirus kernel
• System integration
• Simple User Interface
• Integrated Virus Cleaner
• Resident protection
• Support for 64-bit Windows
• P2P and IM Shields
• Internationalization
• Network Shield

Click here to visit the official site and here to download avast!

AVG.com – AVG’s is one of the most popular free Antivirus softwares available online. AVG has a strong userbase of 70 million users and the number just keeps going up! AVG is easy to download, install and use. It is compatible with Windows Vista & Windows XP and freely available for home and non-Commercial use.

AVG keeps it virus database udpated with the latest virus definitions, this helps its users detect the latest virus threats as soon as it hits internet.

Her are some of the key feature of AVG FREE Edition

• Automatic update functionality
• The AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run
• The AVG E-mail Scanner, which protects your e-mail
• The AVG On-Demand Scanner, which allows the user to perform scheduled and manual tests
• Free Virus Database Updates
• AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files

Click here to download AVG

Avira.com – Avira AntiVir Personal – FREE Antivirus is a another reliable free antivirus solution, that constantly and rapidly scans your computer for malicious programs such as viruses, Trojans, hoaxes, worms, dialers etc. It also monitors every action executed by the user or the operating system and reacts promptly when a malicious program is detected.

“AntiVir is also low-profile. By that I mean it spawns only two background services and if there weren’t a system tray applet to access the program, you probably wouldn’t even know it was running.” – (pcworld.com)

Avira is a Free Antivirus protection for Windows Vista/XP/2000 and also for Linux users. It has over 30 million users worldwide.

Some of the features that Avira AntiVir Personal has are following.

• Protection from viruses, worms and Trojans
• Protection against expensive dialers
• Protection from hidden rootkits
• Faster Scanning up to 20% faster
• Protection from phishing

Click here to download Avira AntiVir Personal.

BitDefender.com – Bitdefender offers its version of free antivirus and it also publicizes that it is “one of the world’s most effective antivirus engines for free!”

Bitdefender’s Free Edition is an on-demand virus scanner, which is best used in a system recovery and is ideal for users who connect to the internet on a regular basis; however it’s not for users who are “always-on” the internet. For these types of users Bitdefender recommends them to upgrade to a more powerful version of their software which is the paid version.

Few features offered by BitDefender are listed below

• Antivirus
• IMPROVED Proactive detection
• Spyware scanning and cleaning
• IMPROVED Deployment and use
• IMPROVED User Experience
• Hourly Updates
• NEW Rootkit Detection and Removal

Bitdefender also comes with other features such as Skinable Interface, where you can customize the looks of the scanner.

Also included in this version is the “Quarantine” and “Report” feature. In Quarantine you can isolate the infected file to reduce the risk of your other files and OS getting infected any further. In the Reporting feature you can check the statistics of your last scan.

Click here to download your free version of Bitdefender..

ClamWin.com – Clamwin offers a free antivirus program for Windows users. Clamwin is an open source project which helps it suers keep their machines from getting infected.

Clamwin has a high detection rate for viruses and spywares however it does not have a real time scanner. Clamwin does not yet automatically scan files. It is currently possible to add this functionality by using Winpooch. You need to manually scan your computer to detect a virus or a spyware.

The latest version of Clamwin Free Antivirus is 0.93.1

Its features are as listed below

• High detection rates for viruses and spyware
• Scanning Scheduler
• Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus definitions
• Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer
• Addin for Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically

Click here to download Clamwin

Do leave a comment or let us know if you know of any other Free Antivirus which you can download and use.