Officially, Microsoft Security Essentials “is not compatible with Windows 8”. Unofficially, it’s been renamed Windows Defender. If you’ve used Microsoft Security Essentials, the new Windows Defender bundled with Windows 8 will have a very familiar look and feel.

Microsoft Security Essentials has gained a lot of momentum in recent years as a terrific, and free antivirus solution. Some would argue one of the best antivirus solutions at any price. It’s reputation is deserved. It is light on system resources, runs silent, and has good detection and removal. Windows Defender on the other hand was primarily an antispyware application. A remnant of the pop-up ad era, and what remained of the Giant antispyware acquisition. Installing Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) even disables Windows Defender.

So why would Microsoft chose to confuse customers by dropping the Microsoft Security Essentials name in Windows 8? It’s a business decision. Bundling full antivirus protection with Windows 8 is a bold move on Microsoft’s part. One that obviously caught the eye of in-house legal hawks, and angered the antivirus industry. Microsoft recently ended its anti-trust oversight, and while it may be bolder, it’s not stupid. Windows Defender has been bundled since Windows Vista. While Microsoft Security Essentials would technically be a new bundled application, Microsoft can claim Windows Defender has been bundled for years. Windows Defender may not have the reputation of MSE, but that will be changing.

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Two years ago Spanair flight JK-5022 crashed, killing 154 of 172 on board. According to El Paris (via Google Translate), this was at least in part due to a PC located on the ground in the headquarters of the airline. That computer was supposed to sound an alarm signal when three similar technical problems registered on the same device. While the plane that crashed had accumulated three incidents, they were not registered in time because the system was infected by malware (trojans).

Investigators believe this may be the cause of the crash. The judge said that if these three incidents had been identified earlier, the plane never would have taken off.

Today Intel announced plans to buy McAfee for $7.7 billion dollars. Most people are asking, “Why?”. Why would a chip maker acquire a security company?

The answer may lie within Moore’s Law. Simply stated Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on a chip will double every 2 years. Intel seems to have difficulty figuring out what to do with all those transistors. Most computer users don’t need a quad core CPU. Yet Intel continues to roll out more cores.

However, as anyone who has installed an antivirus program knows, it’s probably the single biggest resource hog on your system. Slowing everything from email and the Internet, to startup and shutdown. What if the major components of an antivirus program could be placed in a special section of the CPU, or even its own core? Whether you’re a gamer, enthusiast, or just an average user you’d enjoy the benefits of being able to run an AV without the associated system slowdown.

Have you ever removed an antivirus, or run a system without an antivirus because of performance issues? Need a free antivirus program, check out our recommendations.

Earlier tonight, I ran across a press release from the FBI. As I read it, I nearly screamed out loud at my computer. In short, the release is warning computer users of the dangers of a malware infection commonly referred to as Zlob. This infection will cause popups on your desktop, warning you that you are infected, and should download such-and-such software to cure this problem. Welcome to our world, FBI folks… a tad late.

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Earlier this evening I was working on a few blog posts for my boss, minding my own business. I was in what I jokingly refer to as my zone. When I’m writing, it’s actually hard to distract me. You have to yell at me, or poke me repeatedly. I’ve gotten quite good at blocking things out when I’m writing. I’ve had to do that being a work-at-home Mom. It’s not easy to get anything done if you hear every sound coming out of your teenager’s bedroom!

As I sat there writing, my zone was shattered by the yells from my daughter. She was screaming for me to “Hurry! Help me!”. Thinking for sure something horrible had happened, I nearly killed myself getting out of my chair and into her room. I crossed the doorway to see her pointing at her laptop with a completely horrified look on her face. I look down, knowing already what I would see, and sighed heavily. You guessed it… popups… of the adult variety. Great. Just lovely!

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I was without power for most of the afternoon and evening today. When the power company had everything fixed, the first thing I did was to head over to Twitter to see what I had missed. That’s honestly where I find out most of my news lately. On Twitter, I follow a lot of different people. Many of those are staff members and experts right here on GeeksToGo, as well as other security-related sites.

As soon as my Twitter homepage loaded, I started seeing tweet after tweet talking about Avast, and their horrible “oopsie” today with updates. Being the person I am, I started nosing around the web, trying to find out more. The more I read, the more disturbed and angry I became.

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Earlier this evening, I received an email from my sister. It was a forwarded email, with her words of “warning and caution” at the beginning. She went so far as to say something along the line of how everyone better be extra vigilant. She stated that people need to “be fearful” these days when it comes to malware.

The email detailed a supposedly horrible “new” piece of malware, which had been classified by Microsoft as the “worst ever”. I knew, before checking into it, that this was absolutely false. However, being the person that I am, I did my research. I did a “reply all” on the email and explained to everyone what my credentials are. I then gave them several REAL links that describe this virus in detail. The email discussed the “postcard virus”, which is actually quite old – and not as harmful as the email would have you believe.

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Everywhere I turned online yesterday, there was conversation surrounding the Malwarebytes blog post, in which they have very publicly accused IObit of stealing their proprietary database(s). It’s being talked about in blogs, on forums, via newsletters and news sites, and within private mailing lists. People chatted about this on IRC, and fights were instigated on various forums as to the validity of the claim.

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I am a moderator in a chat room that has around 250+ active users at all times – day or night. The chat mostly centers around technology, social media, and anything that could be considered to be “Geeky”. Several times a day – EVERY day – the talk turns to computer security. And always, some dolt makes a claim of how smart they are on the Internet… how they don’t need protection… how they couldn’t possibly become infected.

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