Lavasoft has just received a VB100 award from Virus Bulletin ranked among the top applications in the detection chart: http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index. We’re pretty happy!

In a comparative test published in Virus Bulletin’s latest issue, Ad-Aware achieved one of the top results for malware detection. Virus Bulletin independently tests anti-virus products and those products which pass the tests are awarded the VB100. The test review covers a range of criteria, including detection rates, design and usability, and performance.

Microsoft have published a Security Bulletin Summary for November 2011. A number of updates have been released including one "critical" and two "important" severity updates.

The patches address remote code execution, elevation of privilege and denial of service vulnerabilities. Importantly, an update has been released to patch the critical vulnerability in the TCP/IP stack (MS11-083). Microsoft report that "the vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a continuous flow of specially crafted UDP packets to a closed port on a target system."

As the malware landscape evolves, it's helpful to understand how malware gets onto your machine. Knowing the bad guys' strategies gives you the edge while on-line and puts you in a stronger position to defend your data and PC against compromising threats.

We all know that we should install anti-malware software, keep it up to date and run regular scans, apply Windows and application security patches when they become available, use a firewall... well, I won't bore you - you know what to do. But what kind of attacks can we expect and where are they coming from?

Microsoft have published a Security Bulletin Summary for October 2011. Eight updates have been released including two "critical" and six "important" severity updates.

The patches address remote code execution, elevation of privilege and denial of service vulnerabilities within Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Forefront United Access Gateway and Microsoft Host Integration Server.

Apple have released iTunes 10.2 which resolves multiple vulnerabilities,  the most serious of which may lead to unexpected application termination and arbitrary code execution.

iTunes users are advised to read Apple's security summary HT4554 and update to the latest version.