Apple Comes in Second in Security Vulnerabilities

An IBM X-Force security report for 2007 shows some interesting statistics about security vulnerabilities, spam, phishing and other security threats. Perhaps the most surprising number to come from this report is Apple’s second position in the top five vendors reporting security vulnerabilities: coming just after Microsoft (with 238 vulnerabilities), Apple’s 207 vulnerabilities beats out Oracle, IBM and Cisco. Apple issued nine security updates in 2007, as well as many updates to individual software components (notably QuickTime), in an effort to patch all these holes. But the IBM report states that 20% of the vulnerabilities of the top-five vendors remain unpatched.

You can download the complete IBM X-Force report here (3.1 MB PDF).

Intego Releases NetBarrier X5 10.5.1

Intego has released an update to its NetBarrier X5 personal firewall, version 10.5.1. This is a maintenance update, which addresses some minor issues and improves overall stability. It also includes localizations for Japanese, Italian, German and Spanish. Users of NetBarrier X5 can download the update via NetUpdate, Intego’s update tool, and others can purchase NetBarrier X5 from this web page. NetBarrier X5 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later and is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard.

New in X5: Backup Spotlight Searches with Personal Backup

Mac OS X includes a powerful search technology called Spotlight, which you can use to find just about anything on your Mac. With Personal Backup X5, we have added a way to back up Spotlight searches dynamically. This means that each backup will copy the files that match your search criteria at the time you run the backup. This is not a static selection of files, but rather one that updates as you work on your Mac.

To do this, create a new backup script, and, for its source, select Spotlight Search from the Kind menu: you’ll see a sheet where you can set up a Spotlight search.

To create a search, first choose a location from the Search in menu. This can be Computer (your Mac), Home Folder (your home folder) or other. If you choose other, you can select any folder or volume you would like to search.

Next, choose criteria for your search. For example, you could choose Content Modified from the first menu, then After from the second menu, and enter a date in the text field. Or you could choose a specific type of file (Kind > Contains > Word to find all Microsoft Word documents). For more on using Spotlight to create searches, see Mac OS X’s help documentation.

Note that you can also drag a smart folder, which is a way of saving a Spotlight Search, from the Finder onto the Source section of the Personal Backup X5 window to add that search as a source. If the smart folder is in the Finder sidebar, click the folder, then drag its “proxy” icon—the icon in the title bar of the window—onto the Source section of the Personal Backup X5 window.

VirusBarrier DP Best in Proactive Protection

Intego VirusBarrier DP, the Dual Protection version of VirusBarrier, that includes VirusBarrier X5 for Mac virus protection and BitDefender Antivirus 2008 for Windows protection, can brag that it’s the best in proactive protection against Windows viruses. In a test by the Anti-Malware Test Lab, BitDefender Antivirus 2008 received the Gold Proactive Protection Award for best Windows antivirus. (Mac programs weren’t tested.)

Proactive protection means that the program is good at fighting new viruses by spotting actions that may be malicious. As the test site explains, proactive methods of antivirus protection “allow antivirus software to combat malicious programs that have undergone modifications and those that are as yet unknown.” This is especially important in the Windows world, where many viruses are changed slightly to try and sneak by standard antivirus protection, and where heuristic, or behavioral, analysis is essential to protect computers.

This top rating for BitDefender Antivirus shows why VirusBarrier DP is the best all around virus protection for Mac and Windows. VirusBarrier has received accolades from Mac press, and it is regularly rated the best antivirus for Mac. With BetDefender on your side, you’ll be sure that both on your Mac and on your Windows installation, you have the best protection available.

New in X5: VirusBarrier’s Trusted Zone

You know you need virus protection for your Mac, but you want to make sure it doesn’t slow down your work. VirusBarrier X5 is the fastest antivirus for Mac, not only when running manual scans, thanks to its Turbo Mode, which stores a database of files previously scanned so the program only scans new or changed files, but also because its optimized background scanner uses very little overhead. But if you are working with high-performance applications, you want to make sure that you get the most out of every ounce of your processor. VirusBarrier X5 has a new feature, the Trusted Zone, to ensure that when you are working on big files, they don’t slow you down.

VirusBarrier X5’s Trusted Zone is a feature that lets you exclude certain files, folders or volumes from real-time scanning. This can be useful if you do a lot of work with, say, Photoshop, and have a dedicated volume as a scratch disk. Or if you work on large audio or video files, you may want to add them, or their folders, to the Trusted Zone, so they don’t get scanned each time you save them.

To add items to the Trusted Zone, open VirusBarrier X5’s preferences and click the Scanner icon. In the Trusted Zone section, you can define files, folders or volumes that VirusBarrier X5’s Real-Time scanner will not check. You can also Control-click any items in the Finder, and choose More > VirusBarrier X5 > Add to Trusted Zone. However, VirusBarrier X5 will check theses files when you run manual scans of your Mac.

This feature is useful only for large files; VirusBarrier scans small files so quickly that it won’t make a difference. But if you do work on large files, and you’re sure they’re safe, you can add them to the Trusted Zone to make sure you don’t lose a second when you’re working.

A Microsoft Office 2004 Security Update

Microsoft has released a security update for Office 2004, which “fixes a vulnerability that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.” They give no more information as to how the attacker will get access to your Mac via Office, but you should still apply this update just in case. You can get the 11.4.0 update by running Microsoft AutoUpdate, the updater that is included with Office 2004, or by visiting this web page and downloading a disk image.