
People are becoming more and more concerned with their privacy and Facebook's flagship messaging application is caught between it all. While still widely popular it has becoming to lose its ground due to many unanswered questions about privacy encryption.
Lucky for all of us there are alternatives for more secure messaging.
Arguably the most secure of all well-regarded messaging apps, Signal is the favorite of the European Commission, as well as newsrooms around the world. While Signal doesn’t disclose how many daily or monthly users the app has, Google’s Play Store says it has been installed more than 50 million times. While using Signal, each voice or video call connected through the app includes full end-to-end encryption.
Signal takes an extra step by hiding message metadata so that the location of the original message is missing. While it asks for your mobile number, that number isn’t used with your profile. Instead, it acts as a numeric username. Once registered, you will find 1-1 chat, audio, and video calls, disappearing or “secret” chats, and a privacy lock so nobody can access the app even if they have your phone. Best of all, it’s completely free to use.
One of the biggest competitors to Facebook Messenger (and WhatsApp), Telegram is a very strong alternative. With more than 400 million users, it offers an interface that should feel right at home for anyone coming from Messenger. Telegram offers some huge benefits over Messenger, including features like groups that can hold up to 200,000 members for a chat. There is no limit on your media or chat size, and you can share all types of files between users and in groups.
From a privacy standpoint, Telegram has robust security, but it is worth noting that only “secret” messages are end-to-end encrypted and can self-destruct. Non-secret messages can be stored on Telegram’s servers so you can pick them up between your devices quickly. That’s a consideration worth knowing prior to making Telegram your default Messenger replacement. Telegram is free across all platforms.
Rising in popularity, Threema is another privacy-focused alternative that has quickly become a competitor to Facebook Messenger. This paid service ($2.99 on both App Store and Play Store) is a pay-once, use forever option. Once you pay the small fee, you gain all of Threema’s touted privacy options, like open-source end-to-end encryption for both messages and calls.
Like Signal, Threema won’t require you to link any phone numbers or emails to your account. All chats are handled anonymously, and the service generates a random user ID when you first open and register for the app. No data is collected from any of your chats and no ads are shown.
The Swiss-made app does have its own servers hosted in Switzerland, which do not store any chat messages. Another privacy benefit of Threema is the notion that all of your contact lists, groups, and user profiles are hosted on your device, not on the Swiss servers. Because of that, Threema can once again state that none of your personal info is stored anywhere they have access.
As we near the end of 2022 we look at the current best antivirus software for popular platforms, why they are the best, and why you should get them.
Avira has been around a long time with its free antivirus version of the larger protection suite. It had its ups and downs but the latest versions are really great. With high-speed scans and low system impact, Avira antivirus is really one of the best free antivirus software currently on the market.
The software itself has also received UI & UX updates making it straightforward and easy to use. The virus scanning engine is the same as in paid version that ranks among the top engines in the world for this type of work. The package also gives you some great browser protection and a good firewall as well, there is really no excuse to skip on this if you want a free solution.
The only thing that we would say is not so great in Avira is reporting some false positives, sometimes even for MS updates, it is rare but it can happen.
Malwarebytes Premium is easy to use, simple antivirus solution that shies away from complicated UI, and simply put, it just works. Its scanning engine is well-known and places among the top and best in the world often finding some malware that other can miss.
Another great thing is its integration with Windows itself, it is one of the rare applications that can and will work incredibly well beside your typical Windows protection tools so you can have both of them running at the same time.
Installation and running are really simple and every typical PC user will find it as easy as walking in the park. On the other hand, sadly system impact is a little high and it will have issues running on lower-end systems due to its memory requirements.
Gone are the days when MAC had no virus issues, since MAC rose in popularity among the users, also rose the number of viruses and malware. The system itself has some great protection built it inside but for more security and better control of it, you will need a third-party dedicated solution.
Intego was made by Mac antivirus experts who have been building this kind of software last 25 years. The interface is easy to use and premade presets are really helpful, but the security suite can also be customized to fit your needs and desires.
Since this is only available as a security suite, you are getting a firewall and some other security tools along with your antivirus that will run as a part of it.
The bad side is that scans can sometimes run slow, most of the time they are OK in terms of speed but occasionally they can switch to slower speeds and impact scanning time to some annoying times. Also, there is no webcam protection nor VPN service included where others on this list have them.
While protection is not only needed for your gaming or workstation, software suites that are dealing with mobile and tablet security exist. The best of them is the Bitdefender antivirus mobile suite. Low on system resources and low on performance impact with the really great virus detection rate Bitdefender is at the top of suites for your phone.
Consistent high virus detection packed with low battery impact is great but the suite comes with tons of other tools as well like browser security tools, email protection, and real-time link and notification protection.
The application will always scan each file and newly installed application in the background and alert and cut off any found threat. App itself is easy to install and use and most of the time it will do everything in the background for you but offer you customization if you need it.
The package also includes VPN and application lock that will let you protect the critical applications from being accessed as well as an online account scanner. Anti-theft and anti-loss tools, which allow you to find, remotely lock or wipe a stolen or lost device, add yet another layer of protection.
One thing that is missing from this great package is fraudulent call protection. Newer Android phones have this feature inside but it would be nice if Bitdefender had it as well.
Now that we have covered specific cases of each platform, there is one player that has all of them covered and with a quality product, that player is BitDefender and it is great. Personally, this is my protection suite of choice and as I type this it is running in the background.
Bitdefender has it all, low system impact, as a matter of fact, it is one, if not, the lowest performance impact engine on the market currently and that is packed with a great and highly consistent virus & malware detection suite. Along with real-time malware protection, browser security, and anti-spam tools, you also get anti-phishing defenses, ransomware protection, and a strong firewall.
Bitdefender scores are very high in both the zero-day threat and real-world protection tests at AV-Test, an established organization that tests antivirus software. Despite being tested against tens of thousands of well-known and widespread malware threats, the software consistently achieves a 100% blocking rate.
The suite also comes with a restricted free VPN and with parental controls as well. Webcam and microphone protection are also included in the suite and on top of all, it has great pricing plans and constant discounts.
BitDefender is really a great package and it might sound too good, but after years and years of personally using it I have not had single malware or virus issue, the only thing that I would put as a negative is that system is severely slowed down when system scans are performed so be sure to run or schedule them when you are not using your computer. This, of course, can put some people off and I will admit it is a serious drawback but for me, the security of my workstation is more important than leaving the computer for 20 or so minutes in order to perform a full scan of the system.
Problems occur when your PST file becomes corrupted or hits the size limit. Outlook will start to display error messages. These errors include like 0x80040119, 0x80040600, and 0x8004060c.
You might think Outlook problems are just a minor inconvenience. You can’t access your emails and contact information, but that doesn’t actually affect computer security, right? Wrong! Outlook problems can indicate serious corruption issues within your system.
In many cases, your PST file can even be targeted specifically by a virus.
Today, many viruses are specially designed to steal personal information and then sell that information on the online black market. Since so much personal data is stored within Outlook’s PST file, this is often the first place that viruses look.
If you don’t want some hacker in a foreign country to read your emails, steal your contact information, or do all sorts of other dangerous tasks, then we advise you to fix your PST problem as soon as possible.
Other causes include hitting the 2GB memory limit on older versions of Outlook, erroneous SMTP settings, etc,.
PST errors are an incredibly annoying problem. However, thanks to powerful software like Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair, it has never been easier to fix Outlook and recover all of the data inside your PST file. That means that you won’t lose contact information, calendar entries, emails, or any other information stored in Outlook.
ScanPST.exe rarely fixes problems with the PST file. Since the application is only a few megabytes in size, its effectiveness is very limited. Although Microsoft designed ScanPST.exe to be an effective solution to any PST files, it fails miserably.
Ultimately, after downloading ScanPST.exe and running it, your Microsoft Outlook will still be unable to send or receive emails. And, to make matters worse, you might also be unable to access contact data or read your old emails.
Unlike other PST repair solutions, ScanPST.exe will not recover deleted emails or other lost Outlook data. In fact, using ScanPST.exe can sometimes cause your personal data to become even more difficult to recover.
If you do want to try out ScanPST.exe, then go ahead. While it probably won’t make your PST errors worse, it won’t even come close to fixing them. If you’re ready for a more serious solution to PST problems, then keep reading.
You might think Outlook problems are just a minor inconvenience. You can’t access your emails and contact information, but that doesn’t actually affect computer security, right? Wrong!
Outlook problems can indicate serious corruption issues within your system. In many cases, your PST file can even be targeted specifically by a virus.
Today, many viruses are specially designed to steal personal information and then sell that information on the online black market. Since so much personal data is stored within Outlook’s PST file, this is often the first place that viruses look.
If you don’t want some hacker in a foreign country to read your emails, steal your contact information, or do all sorts of other dangerous tasks, then we advise you to fix your PST problem as soon as possible.
Microsoft’s ScanPST.exe application clearly doesn’t work. So what’s the next best option? Well, a program called Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair has been helping PC users solve Outlook problems for several years. As the world’s leading Outlook solution, Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair will quickly and effectively repair any PST problems you encounter.
So how does Stellar Phoenix Outlook Repair work? Well, it starts by finding your PST file. Once the PST file has been found, Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair determines if the file is corrupt or full. It will then repair your PST file either by removing the size limit or by fixing the corrupt files.
Once Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair determines that your calendar appointments, contact data, and emails have all been successfully recovered, it permanently restores access to your PST file.
In fact, Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair can even restore Outlook data that you deleted a long time ago. So, instead of just being a PST error recovery tool, Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair is also a powerful data recovery program.
After letting Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair go to work, open up Outlook and try it out. You’ll have full access to all of your Outlook files and folders, and all of those ScanPST.exe problems will be a thing of the past.
Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair comes with many advantages. Here are just a few reasons why it’s such a popular program:
Stellar Phoenix PST Repair is superior to ScanPST.exe in every way. But Stellar Phoenix’s most important advantage is that it actually works. If you’re ready to quickly fix your Outlook PST errors, then Stellar Phoenix Outlook PST Repair can help. Download it here today to experience the magic of PST repair for yourself.
"The disk structure is corrupt and unreadable. Error 0×80070571"