In the past I highly recommended AVG Free to just about anyone who was looking for an alternative to the $40-50 per year you would need to pay for either a McAfee or Symantec product. AVG is still a great product, however Microsoft Security Essentials is just a lot more convenient. The installer file size varies between a 5-10MB download based on which version of Windows you are running. The installation process is simple and quick. The user interface makes sense without any confusing technical terms. The program receives updated virus definitions automatically through the built in Windows Update tool to simplify things even further. Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all have a built-in Firewall, the addition of this component completes the entire security package. If you don’t have any anti-virus or anti-spyware protection software running on your computer, there’s no excuse to not try Microsoft’s free solution.

Download: Microsoft Security Essentials

Last month we wrote a small piece about IronKey’s Hardware Encrypted Flash Drive, which can self-destruct. The folks over at IronKey were kind enough to provide us with sample unit for review. For those of you that don’t know what the IronKey is, it’s pretty much one of the safest flash drives available on the market. And yes, it does “self-destruct” its insides rendering it completely useless when someone tries to steal your data. Right off the bat, we’ve got to say that we’re quite impressed. Just to begin with, the IronKey required no additional software to run. (No issues with our Windows XP or Vista machines.)

Main IronKey Features:

• Military-Grade Encryption
• Self-Destruct Sequence
• Secured Online Back Up
• Stealth Browsing (Tor)
• Password Management
• Water/Tamper-proof
• 1GB, 2GB, & 4GB Sizes

What Is The IronKey?
Just like any flash drive, the IronKey lets you store data onto it for portable storage. But unlike your normal thumb drives, any data placed onto the memory is encrypted by IronKey’s Cryptochip technology. If this drive were stolen or lost, no one would be able to access your data since it’s encrypted. And this isn’t just any simple encryption, the data is first software encrypted with 256-bit AES then encrypted once again with 128-bit AES. As far as I am aware of, this technology has never been cracked to date. (correct me if I’m wrong.) If some one were to actually try to guess the password or tries to brute force their way through, the IronKey will self-destruct after 10 failed attempts. If the thief was a bit more “hard-core” and attempted to physically open the drive to directly read the contents, the IronKey will be able to detect the intruder’s presence and destroy itself as well.

What Else Can It Do?
In addition to protecting your data, the IronKey can manage all your passwords and will allow you to browse the web securely and anonymously. Instead of saving your passwords into your browser when logging into a website, the passwords are encrypted and saved onto the IronKey. Since it’s encrypted no one can get those passwords without the IronKey’s main password. Using the IronKey’s password manager tool is easy as plugging in the thumb drive, not additional software was required.

For secure browsing, the IronKey utilizes a VPN, which tunnels all traffic through a secure transport. This meaning, you can securely browse the web from even unsecured WiFi networks or public HotSpots and not have to worry about someone stealing your information. And for anonymity, the IronKey also sports a very impressive dedicated high-performance Tor network. This technology uses state-of-the -art cryptography to create a multi-layer encryption for your data which then travels through multiple networked Tor servers to prevent anyone from getting any information about your machine.

How It Works:
Just plug the IronKey into your Windows XP or Vista machine and a popup will prompt the user to name the drive and setup a password. (Unfortunately it doesn’t work on Mac OS X) When you purchase an IronKey and plug it in for the first time, the software on the flash drive prompts the user to setup a password. Once complete, the IronKey generates AES encryption keys, sets up up the secure file system, and configures the on-board Firefox browser. IronKey also offers their customers the option to create a secure backup of all your data online so users would be able to download their data if their flash drive was stolen. Anytime the IronKey is plugged into any computer (XP or Vista) after it has been setup, it will simply prompt the user for a password. The data and security tools will be inaccessible unless you login. Once logged in, you can save your data and settings and logout by clicking on the “Lock Drive” button found in the system tray. We didn’t test the actual self-destruct feature since it not only deletes your data, but also renders the IronKey useless. Hopefully that important part works as advertised.

Other Information:
At the moment only Firefox was specifically designed to run via the IronKey launcher, however future firmware upgrades to the IronKey will allow more compatibility with other portable applications. You can still run any portable app, however it may not be ensured that the program will leave any remnants of data on the machine it is used with. Just like a credit card, IronKey recommend that you either engrave or sign your name onto space they have provided on the back. You can also add contact information onto the software so that there’s a “Lost & Found” message if someone plugs it into their machine. Another tool I found useful was the built in password generator which will create and save the password it generates. Therefore if it ends up being impossibly hard to remember, you don’t have to know it since the IronKey will take care of everything for you. It weighs just 0.8 ounces, is waterproof, and operates anywhere from -40 to +85 degrees Celsius (-40 to 185 Fahrenheit). The IronKey is available in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities priced at $79, 109, and $149 on IronKey.com respectively. It is available for cheaper through other resellers. This drive is a great tool for business people, those who want to carry sensitive data, want an easy way to manage passwords, and/or browse the web safely.

Links: IronKey.com | Watch Demo
Buy Now: 4GB – $135 | 2GB – $100 | 1GB – $72

Just about every new laptop purchased today is bundled with a built-in web cam. It’s a great accessory for video conferencing, but there are also plenty of other useful things to do with them. This tutorial will demonstrate how to turn just about any web camera into a security camera which will capture any movement it sees using motion technology. No extra components or tools required!

What’s Needed:

• Windows XP or Vista Computer
• A USB or built-in Camera
• Java Runtime Environment 6 +
• Windows Media Player 9 +

Quick Install Process:
1) Download yawcam.zip and unzip it
2) Click on yawcam.exe and install it
3) Start Menu -> Start up Yawcam

Note: If you have a USB camera, plug it in before starting up yawcam. If yawcam says “No Device Selected”, go to Settings -> Device -> Change to -> [select your camera]. If you are able to view your camera in the Yawcam Preview window, proceed to the next step.

Setup Motion Detection:
1) Go to Window -> Motion Detection (a new window should appear)
2) Blue lines should appear when you move your hand past the camera.
3) Click on the Actions tab and un-check Play Sound.
4) Select Settings… for Save file and Activate Image array.
5) Finally hit the enable button to begin monitoring!

Note: If you see a lot of static or in the motion detection window, go to the Motion Detection window -> Settings Tab -> Detection Level -> Select Auto detect. Step away from the camera and make sure nothing in it’s line of view is moving while it is adjusting.

At this point any movement past the camera should be captured and will be displayed under the Motion Events list. A date & time stamp along with the percentage of movement detected will be provided with each captured frame. If you would like to save higher quality images into a folder, enable the Save file option found under the Action tab in the Motion Detection window. Optionally, you can ask Yawcam to automatically upload each captured image to an FTP server or email it to yourself.

Yawcam unfortunately can not capture video clips at this time. There are however some paid applications which support that feature. This isn’t exactly the BEST security camera technology, but it is definitely a good start. It is also neat to actually make use of your web cam if your laptop has one built in. The best part of all of this may just the fact that Yawcam is completely free and that it only takes a few minutes to setup. Yawcam does support plenty of advance features, however we will not go through setting those up. Just for example, you can quite easily broadcast and stream your camera to any computer with an internet connection or even play scary sounds when your machine detects motion. Anyways if you know of any better apps or have questions, please reply in the comments or visit our forums.

Download: yawcam.zip
Links: YawCam.com

What happens if you were to loose flash drive? Unless someone is kind enough to return it, your data is probably available for just about anyone to view. One great solution to safeguarding data on the go is the IronKey. The folks over at IronKey, which is the name of the product as well, have created a flash drive with “military-grade” encryption. This means that your data is just about as safe as it could possibly be if it were stolen or found by a hacker. (This encryption technology hasn’t been broken, yet.)

Unlike a standard flash drive which brings up a window with your files, the IronKey will prompt the user for a password when plugged in. No data will be accessible without the right password. The IronKey’s security software is located right on the flash memory and runs right off it, therefore requiring no additional programs to be installed. The flash drive’s encryption is both hardware and software based. The Cryptochip on board automatically encrypts any type of files copied onto the flash memory. If a hacker were to extract the data, it would be encrypted and unreadable anyways. The drive itself is quite rugged, it is encased in metal housing which is strong enough to withstand just about any drops, being run over by a car, from high pressure, and is even waterproof. If someone was trying to guess the password and failed ten times or managed to break open the casing, the Cryptochip automatically initiates a self-destruct sequence, destroying ALL data! (The password limit prevents brute force.)

The IronKey sports a built-in password manager which stores user names, passwords, credit card numbers, or any any other type of data. This is probably the safest way to carry around important digital data without being afraid of it falling into the wrong hands if stolen or lost. Once enabled, the software on board can also automatically log you into any website such as banking sites using the without having to enter any data, therefore preventing key loggers from catching passwords. We don’t know the exact speed and would assume copying data onto or off of the flash drive would be slow since it has to be encrypted or decrypted, but according to IronKey’s website they claim it remains one of the fastest flash drives on the market. (Apparently uses high quality dual channel memory.) The final feature worth mentioning, is that IronKey allows backing up the encrypted data to the companies web server right from the flash drive in an well encrypted manner. This means if you were to loose your drive, the data is still recoverable from their server. The IronKey is available in 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB capacities for $69, $96, and $134 respectively. (MRSP is actually $79, $109, and $149)

Buy Now: IronKey (via amazon)
Link: Meet The IronKey | Demo (video)

A new version of WordPress (2.0.6), which fixes a major security flaw is now available. Although the update only fixes other minor issues, it is recommend you upgrade due to the security issue. For all WordPress users out there, version 2.0.6 which fixes a security flaw is now available. We upgraded Skatter Tech earlier today and had no issues what so ever.

WordPress 2.0.6 Features:

• The aforementioned security fixes.
• HTML quicktags now work in Safari browsers.
• Comments filtered to prevent messing up layout.
• Compatibility with PHP/FastCGI setups.

According the announcement, this is (or should be) the last minor upgrade before v2.1. The next major upgrade will bring plenty of new features rather than fixes to the engine. A beta of v2.1 is already now available for those who join the “beta group” on WordPress.org.

Note: There are apparently a few bugs which causes feed readers such as FeedBurner to have difficulty fetching feeds from this version. Despite this bug, is it is recommended you upgrade because of the security holes being patched. (A new v2.0.7 might be pushed out soon.)

Links: WordPress 2.0.6 | Download

Google released a new download manager program that will download and install a set of programs you choose from pack.google.com. Google’s goal is to make life easier to find and install clean programs when you purchase a new computer. The Google Pack will provide items from security to entertainment. On their website you can check the items you like and it will be added to a “shopping cart” and eventually all the items will be added to Google’s download manager (aka Google Updater) and will be installed. All the programs you download through the Google Pack will be the same exact prorgams one would find on the creator’s websites, there will be no Google Ads involved. Google also claimed that they are not paying or getting paid to create this set of programs.

Links: Google Pack | Google Blog Post

The Google Pack Includes:

• Google Earth – previously Keyhole
• Google Desktop – indexes all files
• Picasa – photo organizer
• Google Toolbar IE – search and more
• Google Pack Screensaver – photos
• Google Talk – VOIP and IM software
• Firefox w/ Google Toolbar – autofill and more
• Ad-Aware SE Personal – spyware protection
• Norton AntiVirus 2005 SE – virus protection
• Adobe Reader 7 – PDF reader
• RealPlayer – media player
• GalleryPlayer HD Images – HI-quality images
• Trillian – all in one IM client

Links: Google Pack | Google Blog Post