Free security downloads

PICKS & TWEAKS

The US-based Gibson Research Corporation (www.grc.com) is owned and operated by security expert Steve Gibson. The site has some really wonderful security tools which are a must for all PC users, especially those working on Microsoft's operating system.

Following is a list of resources available under the free download section of the site with their brief description. The best part about the tools is that most of them are free, fast to download and easy to operate.

ShieldsUP!
The Internet's quickest, most popular, reliable and trusted, free Internet security checkup and information service. And now in its Port Authority Edition, it's also the most powerful and complete. Check your system here, and begin learning about using the Internet safely.

LeakTest
When LeakTest was released, most personal firewalls were easily fooled. Any malicious program could give itself the same name as a trusted program to gain access to the Internet. LeakTest demonstrates and tests for this simple application "masquerading" vulnerability.

Shoot The Messenger
Windows NT, 2000, and XP hide an hidden Internet server that is running by default. It receives and accepts, among other things, unsolicited network messages that cause pop-up dialog boxes to appear on the desktop.

Internet spammers have discovered this and are spraying pop-up spam across the internet. The Windows messenger server should never have been running by default, and Microsoft has finally fixed that in Windows 2003, but users of previous Windows need to take responsibility for this themselves.

DCOMbobulator
Ever since Windows 98, a powerful, but unnecessary and rarely used facility known as DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) has been an integral part of Windows.

The DCOMbobulator checks the effectiveness of Microsoft's security patches and allows the user to increase the security of their system by simply turning DCOM off.

XPdite
Crucial Windows XP Vulnerability Fixer Windows XP has always contained an extremely serious vulnerability which allows any malicious hacker to cause the files contained in any directory to be deleted.

This vulnerability can be cured by installing XP's large (50 to 140 MB) Service Pack 1 - which is preferable whenever possible.

But this free and lightweight XPdite utility fixes the problem quickly and easily for systems not yet running Service Pack 1. A silent running option also makes it ideal for corporate deployment.