La Piazza

Posted by david, June 30th, 2009

I’d like to present myself so that when you read my comments posted on the new Technical Support Forum, you know more about me than my name in green and The Saint logo.

My name is David San José. I was born in Bilbao in 1979 and as far as I know I have always liked (or have been a bit obsessed with) technology and all sorts of plug-in devices. I was given my first computer when I was 9 or 10 years old. It was a Spectrum +2A which used cassette tapes. As soon as I got tired of playing, I started programming Basic and since then I have always known that I wanted to work with computers. 

A few years later, I think it was 1996, I discovered the Internet, which changed my way of doing several things. Back then, most of my friends and family did not know how to turn a computer on. Imagine their faces when I told them I had an account in usa.net, I searched for information on www.altavista.com (no, Google did not exist), I had a website on geocities.com, I spoke with friends who studied abroad through IRC, etc.

Don’t think I’m connected 24 hours a day, I have other hobbies as well. For example, I like snowboarding, traveling, music, cooking (even eating what I cook), photography, going camping, going to the cinema… typical things, it’s just that due to my techno-addict profile I combine many of my hobbies with my great passion, technology. How?  By taking part in forums I am interested in, searching for recipes online, organizing my journeys through specialized pages, searching for information about movies, new bands, etc.

Cheers!

Posted by Ana Jun 26, 2009

I’ve recently read an excellent post by Pedro Bustamante in the Panda Research blog that I found most useful. Hope you like it!

Here you are a brief summary of the post. For a deeper understanding and to download the vaccine, click here.

The AUTORUN.INF file is a configuration file that is normally located in the root directory of removable media and contains, among other things, a reference to the icon that will be shown associated to the removable drive or volume, a description of its content and also the possibility to define a program which should be executed automatically when the unit is mounted.  The problem is that this AUTORUN.INF file feature, widely critizised by the security community, is used by malware in order to spread by infecting as soon as a new drive is inserted in a computer.

The malware achieves this by copying a malicious executable in the drive and modifying the AUTORUN.INF file so that Windows opens the malicious file silently as soon as the drive is mounted. The most recent examples of this are the W32/Sality, W32/Virutas and also the W32/Conficker worm which, in addition to spreading via a vulnerability and network shares, also spreads via USB drives.

Due to the large amount of malware-related problems associated with Microsoft AutoRun we have created a free utility for our user community called Panda USB Vaccine.

Computer Vaccination

The free Panda USB Vaccine allows users to vaccinate their PCs in order to disable AutoRun completely so that no program from any USB/CD/DVD drive (regardless of whether they have been previously vaccinated or not) can auto-execute. This is a really helpful feature as there is no user friendly and easy way of completely disabling AutoRun on a Windows PC.

Posted by Miguel, José and Raquel 25th June 09

Summer is here and we’ve got the tips and tricks you need to be the coolest mate on the scene, resting assure that your PC is at no risk.

Here are the Top 10 very basic and easy to follow rules you must not forget:   

1. Keep your Panda Antivirus always running and updated. Register your software products and schedule automatic updates.

 

2. Clean-up your computer weekly to delete unnecessary files and clear your browsing history.

 

3. Configure your PC so the automatic Windows Updates are always downloaded.

 

4. Use your common sense. If you’re unsure about an attachment, delete it. Especially if it comes from a source not familiar to you. If there are tempting animations on a site that look highly unprofessional, don’t download them.

 

5. Avoid opening executable files from suspicious emails or websites. Even if you are quite certain about the source of an executable file, be alert and exercise caution and common sense before opening.

 

6. Limit your account user rights. If you have an administrative right on the computer, that means you can install anything and also perform any system configuration on it, but viruses using your administrative right can install themselves on the computer and enter registry values. However, when you limit your user right to a power user, no auto run file will be able to run on your PC unless you allow so. Additionally, no system configuration will be applied to your machine without your permission.

 

7. Keep only those applications you use. We all love downloading and testing all those programs that seem incredibly interesting at a first glance.  The truth is that we end up with lots of programs installed that we will never be used again. Each of these programs, DO slow down your PC!! By keeping only those programs we often use, we will improve the PC´s performance.

 

8. Be careful with the use you make of USB pendrives. They are a real source of infections. To avoid the risks use the “Panda USB Vaccine“.

 

9. Don’t answer any emails requesting your personal financial data. A bank would never request personal data via email. Criminals usually include false alarming messages like “urgent- your account data might have been stolen” to obtain your data in a dishonest way.  Serious companies will never request a login or password from you by email, so even though the email seems to be authentic don’t respond!

 

10. Subscribe to the alerts in the Security Info Area in our website to always be informed about the latest threats.

 

Enjoy the summer!

Hello, my name is Ana Etxebarria and I am the Global Director of Services and Technical Support for Panda Security. It´s a real pleasure to meet you all!

At Panda Support we work to continuously improve the relationship with our clients, as we are fully aware of how important it is to make our clients satisfied and keep them that way. That’s why we always try to be there whenever clients need us, ready to help them from the first moment.

The question is, how? How can we get where others can’t? Hear what others can’t hear? See what others can’t see?… Besides continuing to work in the traditional way to offer support, and always in line with the idea of staying close to clients, we have entered the Web 2.0 world over the last few months. To be honest with you, we are actually enjoying it, and I think it shows.

We help clients and answer all queries through different means: Our own forums, third-party forums, Twitter or Facebook. We do this in several languages and from different countries, always adjusting and adapting to our users’ perceptions and situation.

If you consider the 2.0 trend data presented by Nielsen/NetRatings, you’ll see that users of 2.0 websites are more active than typical or prototypical users, as they perform 63.8 searches every month instead of the 44.7 searches performed by the average user. Also, users of 2.0 websites already amount to 20% of all Internet users (U.S. user data).

Personally, I am absolutely convinced that the service improves automatically as more people use it, and for me this is the best definition of the 2.0 concept! I’d like to encourage you to collaborate with us to improve our product support. Thank you!