Dream Machine

[Bruce A Thompson]

Adaware News


Thank You!



Our campaign to donate $1.00 USD to the www.childhood.org for every new registered customer between December 1st, 2003 and January 6th, 2004 was a resounding success and generated $15,084.00 USD. We would like to thank everyone who made our donation possible, and firmly believe that together we made a significant difference. This will provide a tangible aide to the World Childhood Foundation’s mission to defend the rights of the child to a secure childhood and, in particular, to work for better living conditions for children at risk all over the world.



Lavasoft will continue to support good works like the World Childhood Foundation, because it is something we feel strongly about. To be part of the world community means that we not only be an ethical company, but that we also actively participate in making this world a better place to live.



Ann - Christine Åkerlund

CEO, Lavasoft (Nicolas Stark Computing AB)








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Reliving The Past, One Worm At a Time
Aaron Hulett - Chief Research Officer - Lavasoft Research & Development



By now you've at least heard about the latest worm flying around the Internet. If you've updated to the latest reference file, Ad-aware detects it as Win32.MMail.A. More commonly referred to as MyDoom, this worm spreads in the usual way by searching your computer for email addresses and sending itself to them. We've seen this type of worm before. Many times, in fact. And when they emerge, the security experts make their way to the airwaves, telling of how they spread rapidly, and that users need to update their virus definitions in order to block it.



The industry reacted quickly to this worm, with definitions available within hours of its discovery. But yet, the worm flew around and became the biggest worm to ever spread across the Internet. So what happened? Is there still a large portion of users without updated antivirus software? Maybe. But I think there's a very fundamental thing everyone's missing that actually has the best chance of preventing a computer from becoming infected in the first place.



Let's start with a very simple question: In your defenses, such as antivirus software, antitrojan software, firewall software, and etc., which do you consider your first line of defense? Antivirus software is a good first line of defense in that when possibly malicious code enters the system, the antivirus program can stop it dead in its tracks and prevent it from spreading. The antitrojan software has the same effect. And your firewall prevents malicious users from gaining unauthorized access to your system.



But, after this last worm spread, and I looked around various online forums, I noticed something was missing. A very big piece of the puzzle. The one piece that has the largest influence on preventing things like viruses and worms from entering the computer and doing anything in the first place.



So what was your answer to the question? If you didn't say the first line of defense was you, the user of the computer, it's time to rethink your security strategy.



Users hold the largest chance of keeping malicious code like viruses and worms off their systems by one extremely easy method, and many fail to exercise it. Instead, they rely on their antivirus program to catch anything suspicious. The method only takes a few seconds to do, and it can prove wonders in preventing system infection and preventing the spread of such items. If you receive something in your email, whether it's from someone you know or someone you don't, and it contains an attachment, and it looks suspicious in any way, your very next step should be to click Delete.



How do you tell the difference between a suspicious and non-suspicious email? The days of judging this by the sender and the sender only are long gone. Most worms will use your friends' email addresses for sending, in an effort to get you to open it. Your first step should be to see if it just looks strange. You know your friends better than anyone else. Look at the writing style of the email. Does it look like something they'd write? If not, then proceed with caution.



A method that some use when sending attachments is to send an email beforehand, letting the other person know they're about to send an attachment, along with what type of file it is and what it contains. This can help greatly in figuring out if something's safe or not, but of course, don't go on this alone. Perhaps in an Instant Message or a telephone call one could let the other know of the pending email containing the attachment.



One of the best things you can do is trust your instinct. If it looks suspicious, delete it. You can always ask the sender what they sent and have them resend if necessary. But if you do believe it's safe to open, and it turns out not to be, then make sure your next layer of security, such as your antivirus software, is updated and monitoring, and be prepared with backups of your important files in case that layer of security fails.








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Welcome To The Team!

From Team Lavasoft



Lavasoft would like to welcome the following new team members!






Fernando Francisco

VP Strategy & Business Development
Stefan Lundström

Software Development

Research & Development









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Ad-aware Cloak

Stefan Lundström - Software Development - Lavasoft Research & Development



Ad-aware Cloak 1.0 is designed to allow Ad-aware to open fully when there are items on the system which close Ad-aware when it attempts to start, such as some CoolWebSearch variants. To use Ad-aware Cloak, save it to your system, and run the program before opening Ad-aware. Once Ad-aware Cloak opens, click "Activate Cloak" and then open Ad-aware and scan as normal. When you are done using Ad-aware, close Ad-aware Cloak.



Further Information



Download the free Ad-aware Cloak program:



http://www.lavasoftnews.com/downloads/AAWCloak.exe








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Notes From the Editor



Thank You for Supporting Our Decision



Our decision to leave the COAST organization has generated a considerable amount of positive feedback and we would like thank everyone who took the time to write to us with their support.

Some of you who expressed concern that this could affect the future development of Ad-aware can be assured that nothing will stop us from what we do best. We will continue this year stronger then ever with a major update of Ad-aware and of course many other new interesting projects. More on this to come soon...



We've Moved!



Lavasoft’s corporate offices have moved and are now located in beautiful Åsarp/Falköping:

Our new address is
Nicolas Stark Computing AB (Lavasoft)
Centrumvägen 39 (visiting address)
P.O Box 80
52043 Åsarp
Sweden



Careers at Lavasoft

Would you like to work with the protection of everyone's privacy on the Internet? We promise that working for Lavasoft will be one of the most interesting and enjoyable times in your life, especially now when our company is in a period of expansion and growth.

Nicolas Stark Computing AB has two immediate openings for highly skilled Software Engineers to join the Ad-aware Development Team at our company headquarters in Åsarp, Sweden.

Read more at http://lavasoft.element5.com/contactus/career/








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Question & Answer Section

Aaron Hulett - Chief Research Officer - Lavasoft Research & Development



"Previously you had instructions on how to change email addresses. What came of that?"


After putting the system online and observing some behaviors, we quickly learned that this mechanism jeopardized the security of the email lists. It allowed for changing email addresses with no form of verification that the change was authentic. Since this time, we've been evaluating other methods of accomplishing this, so here's the procedure.



Visit the Lavasoft News website at http://www.lavasoftnews.com and click the unsubscribe link. Enter the email address you need to unsubscribe here, and click Submit. Then, back at the main page, enter your new email address into the subscribe box, and click Submit. You'll receive confirmation emails at both addresses, and you'll need to click the link in both emails to complete the process.







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Send Us Your Questions


We're looking for questions you feel should be answered in future editions of The Eye. Submit your questions to the Editor here and we'll answer the frequently asked questions.



Note: The Editor email address is not for support questions requiring a response. You're more than welcome to post support questions at our Support Forums, or for users of the registered versions of Ad-aware (Plus and Professional), you also have the option to email our Support Department.






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If you have any questions about anything found in this newsletter, please contact us at our Support Forums.