11 July 2007, 09:15

Vista-compatible malicious dialer detector

Although broadband connections accounted for 56 percent of UK internet access by June this year, a lot of people are still using a dial-up connection to go online, both in outlying areas where DSL is not yet available and increasingly as dial-up fallback in case their DSL line goes down. Software manufacturer Emsi Software are promising them protection against malicious dialers which attempt to switch an internet connection to high tariff service-provider numbers.

Normally, such malware silently shuts down the modem and reprograms it to dial a premium rate number over which the internet connection is re-established, causing the user to clock up telephone charges often in excess of UK£50 per hour. Despite efforts by BT as long ago as 2004 to clamp down on such scams, many still operate from overseas using international premium rate numbers, so the problem remains very real.

A-squared Anti-Dialer Version 3.0 now runs under Windows Vista, and can be used from restricted user accounts. Another new feature allows the configuration of more settings than offered by previous versions. Although the software can be used to search the computer for dialers on demand, it also has a dialer guard that runs in the background.

The software is free without support for the private user. Commercial customers and private users in need of personal support can obtain a licence for 10 euro per computer.