Georgian State Bodies Rejecting Kaspersky Antivirus

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 4:38

Georgian State Bodies Rejecting Kaspersky Antivirus

Kaspersky anti-virus, one of the most popular software programmes worldwide, has unofficially been declared a spy programme in Georgia. State organizations are avoiding installing Kaspersky, afraid of information leaks.

“The reason is that Kaspersky anti-virus is projected by Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab, who is of Russian origin. Officials from the Ministry of Defence are afraid that with the help of Kaspersky software it will be possible for the leak of confidential news to occur,” George Kofenlu, Product Manager of UGT, told The FINANCIAL.

Kofenlu says that the team management of Kaspersky consists of Russians but the company is owned by Microsoft . “This is international software and if anyone notices any illegal actions from even a member of the team then the company will stop working. Accordingly the distrust of our officials for Kaspersky is groundless.”

“I don’t care about the national origin of software which I use. Instead I personally estimate the product’s value and if satisfied with it, then I use it,” says Konstantin Stalinsky, Director of Info Tech. “The latest version of Kaspersky antivirus software is the strongest I’ve ever come across.”

Stalinsky says that in the years 2004-2006 in the Ministry of Science of Georgia, unlicensed Kaspersky antivirus software was installed on all the computers of employees. “The fact is that there was no case of any confidential news leak from this governmental structure during that time. However we did face the leak of confidential information from the Ministry of Defence into Russian media sources.”

Stalinsky believes that if Microsoft , which is an international organization, notices any sign of illegal acts by Eugeny Kaspersky, it will just abolish its contract with him. “In this case we can rely on Microsoft because of our high level of trust in this company.”

“Besides Kaspersky the most popular antivirus software is NOD 32 and Symantec. All three of these antivirus softwares insure the safety of computers. NOD 32, Symantec and Kaspersky are competitors and accordingly there is not a big difference between them.”

Kofenlu, UGT, says that the most widespread virus in Georgia is the Trojan-Dropper.Win32.Flystud.ko.

According to the official statistics of Kaspersky Lab, Trojan-Dropper occupied third place on the list of most active viruses worldwide in April. The first place was occupied by virus Net-Worm.Win32.Kido.ih and Virus.Win32.Sality.aa.

As the main advantage of Kaspersky software, Stalinsky, Info Tech, underlines its ability not only to find and protect computers from viruses but also to treat them.

Although Otar Abaiadze, IT Director of Elit Electronics, the largest electrical appliance in Georgia, doesn’t think that antivirus software is effectively able to protect them from any kind of virus. “None of the software available out there is able to guaranty 100% insurance of our computers. The fact is that the dangers are expected from the so called less dangerous viruses,” Abaiadze says.

“In my opinion the main disadvantage of current antivirus software is the environment in which it is installed. The operational systems frequently have programming mistakes and cause different kinds of problems themselves,” Abaiadze notes.

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Games Dominate iPhone Apps Store

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:09

Games Dominate iPhone Apps Store

Games rule the Apple’s app sales, which encompasses 800 million downloads

When it comes to Apple’s App Store, the marketplace has been a runaway hit. Not only did it inspire RIM, Google, and Microsoft to launch similar marketplaces, but it generated 800 million downloads and a massive new software industry. Say what you will about the iPhone and Apple itself, but it’s hard to fault Apple’s tactics and track record when it comes to the App Store.

Within the App store, according to a recent study, games are by far the most successful applications in both sales and downloads. Games scored 12 of the top 25 most-downloaded application spots. One game, Tap Tap Revenge, has become a phenomenon, downloaded on over 32 percent of iPhones and iPod Touches that have connected to the App store.

Brian Jurutka, a VP at market research firm ComScore, which carried out the recent survey, states, “Tap Tap’s success demonstrates that there is ample opportunity in the app space for any publisher to obtain significant distribution with a product that engages users. Since the number of app users is growing nearly 10% each month, that opportunity will only continue to grow for both existing and emerging app developers.”

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Google Update, Open Sourced

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:07

Google Update, Open Sourced

It doesn’t have an interface, it’s always running in the background, ready to silently update your Google software: Google Update is the service that makes Google’s desktop applications behave more like the constantly updated web applications. Unfortunately, the service has many bugs, it can’t be disabled unless you uninstall all the applications that use it and there are some privacy issues:

“When GoogleUpdate communicates with Google servers, it sends IDs of GoogleUpdate-managed applications on your computer and general usage information for these applications. GoogleUpdate also uses its own, randomly-generated unique ID number to accurately count total users. This information includes version numbers, languages, operating system, and other install or update-related details, such as whether or not the applications have been run.”

Some people are concerned that Google collects even more information. To show that these worries are misguided, Google decided to open source the updater, code-named Omaha.

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Analyst: Dell in Smartphone Talks With China Mobile

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:04

Analyst: Dell in Smartphone Talks With China Mobile

Dell is in talks with China Mobile to offer a smartphone based on the carrier’s mobile operating system, a move that would take Dell into a huge but competitive market in China, an analyst said Monday.

The world’s number two PC vendor has strongly hinted it plans to offer a smartphone or mobile Internet device, but it has not given any details or said if it will offer such a product in China.

Dell is waiting for China Mobile to pick one or two models from smartphones it has offered and the two firms could reach a deal around August, Zhang Jun, an analyst at research firm Wedge MKI, said in a phone interview.

A Dell smartphone could then hit the Chinese market by the end of the year, Zhang said.

No one from China Mobile was immediately available for comment.

A Dell representative in Beijing declined to comment.

The China Mobile OS, known as Open Mobile System (OMS), is based on Google’s Android but will include China Mobile applications like the firm’s instant messaging client.

OMS will support China Mobile’s next-generation mobile network that is expanding coverage beyond major cities this year. The network’s standard was developed in China and is called TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access).

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Browser wars 2009: Firefox, Chrome, & Internet Explorer

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 4:45

Browser wars 2009: Firefox, Chrome, & Internet Explorer

Over the last weeks, I’ve been working a lot with all three of the major Web browsers, and I’ve come to some conclusions. This isn’t a review as such, it’s just what I, as a user, who never has less than three browser windows and several dozens tabs open at a time, have experienced.

Google Chrome. When Chrome first came out, I liked it a lot. With version 2.0.169.1 out, I still like it a lot.

I have two simple reasons I like it: Speed and security. Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine is faster than fast. Only Apple’s Safari even comes close to keeping up with Chrome. The rest are just a bunch of slowpokes.

Now, many times when you read about reviews with benchmarks the differences, in real life, aren’t really visible. That’s not the case with Chrome vs. its rivals. If this was a NASCAR race, it would be beating them to the checkered flag by laps.

Chrome was also the only browser that wasn’t cracked in seconds or minutes in the recent PWN2OWN hacker competition. In fact, Chrome never was busted.

So, why isn’t Chrome my number one? Well, for one thing, it’s Windows only, and I’m not a Windows-only kind of computer user. Linux is my main desktop, and I also use Macs a fair amount. What I want is a browser that will work on all three of the main desktop platforms.

Internet Explorer 8. I know many of you won’t believe this, but I actually rather liked Internet Explorer 8, when I first started using it. I especially liked that I opened one tab from a link in another, the ‘related’ tabs have the same color. By automatically organizing the tabs by color-coding, I found that managing tabs was instantly much easier.

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