Trend Micro has created an Online Guardian that it says will help parents monitor and control the online activity of their children. Debuting today, Online Guardian for Parents continues the revamp of Trend Micro's home consumer security line that started last fall with its cloud-based Titanium security suites. In fact, Online Guardian leverages the same cloud-based, proprietary database called Smart Protection to extend rapid-response protection to Web site monitoring.

In addition to standard parental control features such as URL filtering, instant message monitoring, identity data protection, an online time manager, a Web-based control panel, and per-child user profiles, Online Manager's social networking guards separate it from the current competition like Norton Online Family and NetNanny. Parents can use Online Manager to monitor pictures and video viewed on YouTube and Flickr, but the program's best social networking tools come from its Facebook app.

Parents can use the Online Guardian Facebook app to monitor public wall posts, including photos and videos, as well as private, nonpublic posts, and get reports on mobile device Facebook activity.

However, because the Facebook monitoring depends on an app, it is possible for the Facebook user to simply disable the app, which will then prevent reporting. "The child can uninstall the app," admitted Laura Martinez, Online Guardian's product manager at Trend Micro, but she cautioned that there are several safeguards that will keep parents in the loop. "Online Guardian's browser logging will keep track of browsing history, and the Guardian will automatically notify parents if there's been no Facebook activity detected for seven days." She agreed that it's an imperfect solution, and said that it likely will be addressed in future versions.

For right now, Trend Micro Online Guardian remains a desktop app, with its dashboard only accessible on mobile devices via the browser. Martinez said that the first revision to the program will introduce iPhone and Android dashboard apps, although there's no word yet on how Online Guardian will mesh with Trend Micro Mobile Security, the company's Android app, which already offers limited parental control features.

Online Guardian is available as an unrestricted 30-day trial, after which a one-year license retails for $49.95, the same price as Norton Online Family, and $10 more than NetNanny.

You no longer have to be a member of the BlackBerry Beta Zone to try out BlackBerry Protect. RIM over the weekend opened up its beta of the service that helps remotely protect your personal information on lost or stolen phones.

The service mimics others (like Microsoft's My Phone and Apple's MobileMe), and includes GPS and cell tower tracking, password locking, extra-loud rings to find the phone, and secure wiping of the phone. There's also wireless backup, a custom message you can display, and the capability to wirelessly restore that backed-up data to a new phone.

To accomplish these tasks, BlackBerry Protect consists of software you download to your BlackBerry smartphone and a Web dashboard that you captain if something goes wrong.

I love these types of smartphone services for the layers of protection and agency they provide for what is otherwise a very vulnerable device. Once again, RIM's entry is late (My Phone debuted in 2009; MobileMe appeared in 2008) but I'm nevertheless glad it came to the party and is offering its loyalists another reason to stay.

BlackBerry Protect is available for free in the U.S., Canada, and select Latin American countries.

Originally posted at Dialed In

Once again, Google delivers a new feature for its Android Maps Navigation app that gives the mobile mogul an edge over other navigation solutions.

Today Google Maps Navigation for Android acquires some real-time traffic smarts in its navigation feature, a boon to any rush-hour driver who would too often second-guess Google's route as the most efficient for current conditions (I speak from experience here.)

Now, Google claims, it's finally taking road congestion into account, using both real-time and historical traffic patterns for the time of day. The new feature is automatic. A real-time traffic layer has been available in Maps for some time, but this move integrates it into Google's verbal and text-based turn-by-turn directions with Navigation, which Google treats as a separate app.

The real-time traffic data will begin rolling out in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, where available.

Since the functionality will be inserted into the existing map, I'm guessing it may take time to notice an appreciable difference. I'll be testing this myself around Arizona this week and in the San Francisco Bay Area after that. If you've got any commuting insights of your own in the meantime, lay 'em on me.

Article updated with more details at 12:44 p.m. PT.

After several days of silence on the issue, Google has confirmed that it removed several malicious apps from its Android Market earlier this week and said that it would remove the apps from users' devices as well.

Only devices running an Android version earlier than version 2.2.2 were susceptible to the rogue apps, which took advantage of known vulnerabilities, the Internet giant reported late last night in the Google Mobile blog. The company believes the only information accessed by the apps were the unique codes used to identify the the specific device and the version of Android that it was running.

Fifty-eight malicious apps were identified and removed Tuesday but not before they were downloaded to about 260,000 devices. Google said it would use a kill switch to remotely remove the apps from users' devices and push an Android security update to affected users to repair the damage done by the apps. Affected users can expect to receive an e-mail from Android Market support explaining the action, Google said.

The developer accounts associated with the apps were suspended and law enforcement officials were contacted, Google said.

Earlier this week, a Reddit user discovered that pirated versions of legitimate apps on the Android Market were infected by a Trojan called DroidDream, which uses a root exploit dubbed "rageagainstthecage" to compromise a device, according to a report on enthusiast site Android Police.

The malware was described as especially virulent because it apparently not only can capture user and product information from a device but also has the ability to download more code capable of further damage.

Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for further information or comment.

Originally posted at News - Security

Whether it's a social-networking site, your banking site, or just a forum, you always have log-in information to remember. Most people start to use the same log-in names and passwords for everything, but clearly this is not a secure practice. Fortunately there are programs that remember your log-in information for you. This week we have the latest update to 1Password, possibly the best in its class for the Mac. Download this app to find out how easy it can be to always be safe and secure with your log-ins while you surf.

Also this week, we have the latest version of MacJournal, the comprehensive diary app you can use to record thoughts, track your business, and more. Our game this week is David's Backgammon, a full-featured backgammon game with 10 years of upgrades to streamline your board-gaming experience.

Don't forget to check out our iPhone apps of the week!