Let’s look at a useful new feature in FileGuard X5 . You want to protect your most sensitive files in FileGuard’s virtual safes, but you’re aware that anyone who gets a hold of your Mac, or its hard disk, might be able to recover deleted files it contains. FileGuard X5 offers an option to securely delete files after you add them to safes. This is more than just erasing the files, however. The only way to be sure that a file is deleted is to erase it (which actually only erases the catalogue information about the file, but not its data), then to overwrite the disk sectors that contained that data. For the best level of security, FileGuard X5 lets you choose to overwrite these sectors once, seven times, or even 35 times.
With this feature, you can be sure that your most confidential files are protected not only in FileGuard’s virtual safes, but that they are also removed – forever – from your hard disk.
As Intego rolls out its new X5 software, we’re going to look at some of the most innovative and important features in these programs. Today we’ll look at VirusBarrier X5′s Quarantine Zone.
When you run a virus scan, if you don’t want to repair files automatically, you can have VirusBarrier X5 put them in a special quarantine zone. When files are quarantined, they can’t be opened or read, ensuring that they cannot infect your Mac. This is useful for administrators who want to check files before running VirusBarrier X5’s repair functions.
When VirusBarrier X5 scans files with its real-time scanner, it places files in the Quarantine Zone if you don’t respond to an alert within one minute; so if it finds an infected file while you’re not in front of your Mac, you’re safe. You can then check these files and decide what to do. The Malware Quarantine instrument shows you how many files are in the Quarantine Zone.
You can view the contents of the Quarantine Zone by clicking the arrow on the Malware Quarantine instrument on the VirusBarrier X5 interface. You can then click one of four buttons to do the following to any files it contains:
- Delete from disk removes the file from your Mac.
- Consider safe tells VirusBarrier X5 that you think this file is not infected. This may occur for false positives. However, be very careful in clicking this button; only do so if you are sure that the file is safe. If not, it may infect your entire Mac.
- Scan tells VirusBarrier X5 to scan the file again. You may want to do this if you have files that were automatically added to the Quarantine Zone and you want to know what they are infected with.
- Repair tells VirusBarrier X5 to repair the file, removing the virus.
The Quarantine Zone is an extra layer of protection on your Mac, which helps VirusBarrier X5 keep you safe from all viruses. With this feature, you don’t have to worry about acting immediately on infected files, and you can check it as necessary so you can keep on working in peace.
As Apple has rolled out new products at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco (you can visit Intego at booth S-2426), the company has also released two new security updates. The first, an update to QuickTime 7.4, patches four bugs whereby maliciously crafted movie or graphic files can lead to arbitrary code execution. This update is for Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5.
The second patches vulnerabilities in the iPhone and iPod touch, for flaws such as a memory corruption issue, a WebKit flaw and a problem with the way Safari handles URLs.
You can get and install both of these updates using the Software Update preference pane of System Preferences in Mac OS X, or by downloading them from the pages links above.
A new “rogue” software program, called Macsweeper, is making the rounds, claiming to be security software. It says “The imbibed set of features locates all the junk and useless data on your computer and deletes them to reclaim the wasted space” (whatever that means), and when you run it, tells you that you naturally have such junk and useless data, and offering to resolve the problem for $40. But it’s all a scam; it just wants your money for nothing. Each time you run the program, it will spot different “dangerous” files that must be cleaned, until, most likely, you have paid.
Don’t buy this scam. While other software may claim to clean up your Mac, this program is nothing but digital snake oil. It’s clear that an unknown “security” company, whose English is dubious, and whose website is a blatant rip-off of another security vendor’s site, is not who you should trust for such software. Trust the companies you know well, like Intego, who have devoted years to keeping Macs safe.
Intego’s ready to roll! With a new generation of Macintosh security products, Intego has great new software to show off at the world’s leading Macintosh trade fair, the Macworld Conference and Expo, from January 15-18, 2008. The San Francisco Macworld Conference and Expo is the most exciting and prestigious Macintosh trade fair in the world, a major event where Apple regularly announces new products and unveils its latest innovations.
Intego’s security experts will be on hand to present and demonstrate new X5 versions of NetBarrier, VirusBarrier, Personal Backup, Personal Antispam, FileGuard and Internet Security Barrier, and will be presenting its other programs, such as ContentBarrier, and its server side solutions, VirusBarrier Server, VirusBarrier Mail Gateway and Remote Management Console.
Intego will also be presenting new versions of its Dual Protection line of software, which provide security features for Mac OS X and Windows. These new DP bundles include the latest software for Windows protection from BitDefender.
And Intego will have special offers on its new X5 software available only on the show floor, as well as some exceptional deals on software bundles.
It has taken more than twenty years, but researchers have announced that the number of malware variants detected has now reached 500,000. Since 1986, and the first serious malware, one half-million variants have been found. A large number of these variants are, of course, simply minor tweaks to malware, designed to attempt to foil antivirus software. However, this shows the extent of the task that Intego’s Virus Monitoring Center deals with. The majority of this malware affects Windows, but the Mac share is high and increases regularly. 2007 saw several major Mac threats, and there is no sign that this risk is decreasing. Intego VirusBarrier keeps you safe from Mac viruses, and if you use both Mac and Windows, such as via Boot Camp, VMware Fusion, or Parallels Desktop, Intego VirusBarrier Dual Protection can keep you safe from malware on both operating systems.