La Piazza

Published by Leyre Velasco, January 2011

The saga continues.. After presenting the Support video on how to activate 2011 products, today we would like to show you the new TechSupport video on how to carry out the download process.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqc79NpN2M&w=425&h=344]

This video, just like the other Support videos, are accessible both from the Support website as well as from the YouTube.

Posted by Blanca Carton, January 2011

Every year, PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, publishes an annual malware report discussing the year’s most virulent threats. In 2010, this task was made all the more difficult as PandaLabs had to analyze and shift through no less than 20 million new viruses.

This report is also used as the basis for the company’s ‘Virus Yearbook’, which rather than a definitive list of threats that have infected most computers or caused more damage, is simply a summary of some of the viruses that, for one reason or another, have caught our eye.

Here are the Top Five:

1. The mischievous Mac lover: This title has been earned by a remote-control program with the worrying name of HellRaiser.A. It only affects Mac systems and needs user consent to install on a computer. Yet once installed, it can take remote control of the system and perform a whole host of functions… it can even open the DVD tray!
2. The Good Samaritan: Surely some of you will have guessed… Bredolab.Y comes disguised as a message from Microsoft Support claiming that a new security patch for Outlook has to be installed immediately… But watch out! If you download it you will have installed the SecurityTool rogueware, which will start telling you that your system is infected and that you should buy a certain solution to fix it. Of course, if you pay for the program, you will never receive it, it will not resolve the problem and that’s the last you will see of your money…
3. Linguist of the year: Our award for the linguist of the year goes to MSNWorm.IE. This virus, which in itself is nothing special, is distributed via Messenger with a link tempting the user into viewing a photo… in 18 languages!
4. The most annoying: Remember how viruses used to be? Or those ‘jokes’ that once installed would ask: “Are you sure you want to close the program? Yes – No?”. No matter what you clicked, the same screen would appear: “Are you sure you want to close the program?”, time and time again, enough to try the patience of a saint… Well that’s what this worm does: Oscarbot.YQ. Once it is installed, start praying, or doing yoga, or meditating… whatever you can think of, because it will drive you mad. Every time you close it, another screen opens asking another question, or opening a browser window, or… The most annoying, without a doubt.
5. Insect of the year: We would like to make special mention of the Mariposa (Butterfly) botnet, which was dismantled in March and led to the arrest of the creators thanks to the collaboration between Panda Security, the Spanish Civil Guard, FBI and Defense Intelligence… Like a true insect, it fed on the nectar of other people’s computers, flitting from one to another… and compromised a total of 13 million computers around the world.

How to protect yourself against attacks

The first rule is to use your common sense. If you receive an email message with attachments from a dubious source, delete it.

Be careful when surfing the Web. Avoid downloading programs from unknown websites. And even if you know the source, stay alert and take all necessary precautions before opening them.

Finally, to be completely protected it is essential that you have an antivirus installed and updated, regardless of whether your operating system is Windows or Mac.

Remember, if you have any questions about the operation of your product, you can always find the answers in the articles published on the Panda Security support website, in the videos posted on our YouTube Support Channel or by contacting our expert technicians through the Tech Support forum.

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This is an extract from the Post published by PandaLabs Recaps Year of Malware with its Virus Yearbook 2010

Published by Leyre Velasco, January 2011

As the saying goes: an image is worth a thousand words. That is why, and because the motto of Technical Support at Panda Security is to help our customers, as we mentioned in our recent post New contents in our YouTube channel, we have uploaded new narrated videos to YouTube which will help you resolve your most frequently asked queries regarding the functionality of your antivirus.

Today, we would like to present a new video which will guide you through the Panda antivirus 2011/2010/2009 activation process. The popularity of this video continues to increase, as, in just two weeks, it has already been played 1895 times, so we hope it is useful to you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hk-pAa2-ig&w=425&h=344]

What do you think? Leave your comments on YouTube, because your opinion will help us to improve!

We advise you to subscribe to the Support channel to find out about the latest videos! Anyway, we’ll keep you posted from La Piazza.

Finally, let us remind you that you can find the answer to any queries you might have about your product in the articles posted on the Panda Security support website, or contact our expert technicians in the Tech Support forum.

Published by Iñaki Gorostiza,  January 2011

SEO is an attractive area of e-marketing, as soon as you start to get into it you realize that it requires very little theoretical technical knowledge, and that a little common sense will take you a long way.

In fact, this gives us a clue as to why there are so many self-proclaimed ‘gurus’ in this field.

I for one believe that a company can deal with SEO in-house, and that there is no need for external gurus to tell you how to ‘train’ your websites to jump through hoops for Google; trust in your own people, who know your market and your clients, and are more than capable of doing the job.

While it’s true that 80% of the positioning of a Web page is determined by factors such as domain authority and the popularity of back-links (off-page factors) the rest is down to the editor of Web content.

That’s right, I’m talking about you!

So here I would like to offer a series of ‘on-page’ tips. A few observations to remember when editing content for search engines:

• “He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines”. -Goethe
  As I said before, there is no one in the world that knows your company and clients better than you. If you learn from your clients by thinking like they do, you have achieved the most difficult part of your job.
• It is important to know how to write for search engines, but it is more important to know how to write for people.
• There is nothing more damaging for a website than the soulless contributions of a SEO technician who does not understand the above premise.
• The work of SEO technicians has two objectives:
  1. To position the Web page ABOVE the competition.
  2. To create an effective SNIPPET.
• Whether a user reaches your Web page or that of the competition depends therefore on VISIBILITY: appearing BEFORE and appearing BETTER!
• The title of a page is the main source of information for search engines.
• A good title can be enough to correctly position the page.
• A bad title can bring down any SEO strategy.
• Each page of your website should have its own unique and non-transferable title.
• Always display your brand in the title.
• Include the most important keywords in the title.
• And if you can achieve all the above in 65 characters or less, all the better.

I’ll continue in the next article! Until then…

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Other articles published by Iñaki Gorostiza:

• An instant with Google Instant

• SEO & hackers, an odd couple

• Google Instant revolutionizes the SERP

You can contact Iñaki Gorostiza on his blog http://www.hellogoogle.com, where he publishes articles that help companies grow on Internet, and at http://twitter.com/hello_google.