Prevent DDoS Attacks, Maintain Full User Control
If you are a seasoned user of social sites, including Livejournal, Facebook, and most notably Twitter, you may have noticed slow response times, timeout errors, and at some points, the services just weren't available this past week. This is because these sites were hit by a massive DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, rendering them virtually helpless. How are DDoS attacks generated? DDoS attacks come from users. This is what makes them so hard to track and shut down - if these attacks came from one source, say an offshore server, they would be easy to stop, or at least block. The DDoS attack that affected Twitter and other social networking sites came from malware on millions of computers that originated from risky online behavior. Unsafe websites and downloads often contain malware that embeds itself into the computer and does nothing until, well, this happens. Regular antivirus scanning and careful internet browsing are a powerful deterrent to DDoS attacks, but these practices are not always followed. The more control a user has over his or her computing experience within a school or a company directly correlates to the probability of that machine contracting some form of malware. To combat this issue, a locked down PC would be the ultimate solution. In a locked down PC, users have no administrative privileges, and are blocked from changing applications or operating system settings. This gives IT the highest level of centralized control. Are there drawbacks? Traditionally, from the user experience, yes. Users expect more control and flexibility with their machines. People are becoming increasingly tech savvy and expect to be able to utilize the productivity tools they work best with.
InstallFree application virtualization allows the user to have the computing experience he or she would want, while still working on a locked down machine. InstallFree creates a virtual version of the browser of your choice, allowing you to browse and customize as you see fit. The browser is encapsulated with all of the resources it needs to function independently from the operating system: registry, read/write file system, DLL pool, settings, and language-base. All personal settings are kept in a separate encrypted UserData file which dynamically binds with the virtual application at run time.