I want to add a guide for Opera, as it is also considered among the top, most used browsers in the world. 

For Opera users:

• Start the Opera browser.
• Click on the "Opera" tab menu located at the top left corner.
• From the menu, select "Extensions" and from the sub-menu, click on "Extensions manager".
• On the new window, select "All" and click the X button, on the top right corner of an extension to remove it.

Afterwards, reset Opera to complete the process.

@Vermon - it is interesting if herdProtect didn't detect Firefox and Chrome (if you have them installed), because they run ads to support themselves (although you can also add AdBlockers to them). I don't know if those detections were just False Positives. As for the big amount of files - this is a browser that has more tools than other browsers in-built so the features based on security and privacy to work effectively.

@never - you are right that WhiteHat Aviator should have made their source code open since the release of the browser, but as I have read they are a small team and even released the browser only for Mac OS X at first. From January this year the source code was made open, so its a positive note. I wonder if they were trying to fix vulnerabilities in their modification of the Chromium code, on their own and they didn't post the code for security reasons...
Anyway, I have noticed that other browsers indeed detect the update section of the Aviator site. It appears that it shows an invalid security certificate which expired on 4.9.2015 (more than a month ago).  This is disturbing and I agree that is quite the trust issue!
The i2p network program you posted might be a good solution for privacy and it looks it can be put on any browser. However, it is more tech-orientated and some users might want to read more about it before using it. I thank you for that information, because it will be very useful to me (I hope to others as well).

Cryptowall has become a very devastating ransomware. It encrypts files on your computer and asks for a large ransom to “potentially” get them back via an encryption key. There is no telling that if you pay, all of your files will be restored or that you will be provided with a key, and if that key would work or not.

In Cryptowall 1.0, the ransomeware made a copy of important files and encrypted it, while just deleting the original files. In this way, the original files could be recovered with data recovery tools. Then Cryptowall 2.0 came in, with that restoration ability gone as it also could delete Shadow Volume copies of Windows and system restore points as well. It was also using individual TOR gateways for payment for each user that fells victim to it. By using a private TOR network, the creators can stay hidden from authorities. The RakhniDecryptor.exe and RectorDecryptor.exe from Kaspersky are tools that could be used in order to decrypt at least some files, although those tools were made specifically for other ransomware Trojans.

Cryptowall 3.0 - the latest version, encrypts your files using a mixture of RSA and AES encryption, which can be “unlocked” only by a private decryption key that only the creators of the ransomware know. The RSA cryptosystem used in Cryptowall 3.0 may vary from 1,024 to 4,096 bits, and the 256-bit length of the AES key used, makes the encryption so strong that it can take literally billions of years to brute-force all the possible variations of the decrypting key with a super-computer. It would take 1 billion years to crack a 128-bit encryption key with a super-computer, experts say. Also, the AES algorithm encrypts files many times – the more bits it is, the more times it encrypts a file. Not to mention that some users report that Cryptowall 3.0 uses Chinese characters – modern Chinese contains more than 3,000 symbols in its alphabet, so any attempt to crack the code seems really infeasible.
Here is our article about Cryptowall 3.0 -  http://sensorstechforum.com/remove-cryptowall-3-0-and-restore-the-encrypted-files/#comment-16407.

You can remove the dreadful virus with an advanced anti-malware program, but most of your files might remain locked. So far, there is no real solution found to help decrypting files of the victim users. The ransomware is built by people, so there might be a weak-link to be found somewhere.

Do you have any ideas? What do you think should be done? What methods have you tried and what have you done to prevent such an attack from happening?

@Vermon - thank you for that post, it was very helpful and now I feel a bit safer surfing the net with Maxthon!
And undoubtedly, for me, it's the fastest browser I have used so far. 

Yesterday, some really weird and suspicious Windows 7 update showed in my Windows Update agent.
The update is listed as important, yet it failed to install once and after that it couldn't go through at all.
No information was attached to the update's "More Information" section, since it was all in scrambled letters...
You can get a glimpse of the weird symbols, from my update log:
______________________________________________________

gYxseNjwafVPfgsoHnzLblmmAxZUiOnGcchqEAEwjyxwjUIfpXfJQcdLapTmFaqHGCFsdvpLarmPJLOZYMEILGNIPwNOgEazuBVJcyVjBRL

Download size: 4.3 MB

You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.

Update type: Important

qQMphgyOoFUxFLfNprOUQpHS

More information:
https:// hckSLpGtvi.PguhWDz.fuVOl.gov
https:// jNt.JFnFA.Jigf.xnzMQAFnZ.edu

Help and Support:
https:// IIKaR.ktBDARxd.plepVV.PGetGeG.lfIYQIHCN.mil
________________________________________________________________________

At first I thought that this could be a Windows 7 exploit of some sort. Fortunately, I thought wrong.

After a 12 hour, almost nerve-wrecking, wait upon any official news about the subject, an answer came in.
A Microsoft spokeperson said the following:
"We incorrectly published a test update and are in the process of removing it"

I was sort of relieved after hearing the news, but, alas, still kind of troubled by this. Why did it take so much time for an answer?
Is Microsoft hiding something? Are their operating systems compromised, or at least were compromised temporalily?
What are your thoughts on this? Did you witness the update's misshaps with your own eyes?
Has something like this ever happened to you and do you feel safe after this?

No matter if you have used the Maxthon browser before or not - do you feel safe browsing with it? Do you find it trustworthy? Why?

Also, what features have you found useful? Anything that can make it safer? I see it has a feature for clearing private data and browsing history in the Settings menu. All that data should be stored on a user's computer, but at the same time it is a cloud browser? Is any of that data stored in the cloud? What do you think and what have you found about the matter? I am also not sure about what happens when you download files through it - does the browser has any anti-virus or anti-phishing scanner inbuilt?

Share your opinions and experience below.