by Rea Papas

Created on: October 07, 2009

How to cheaply protect yourself and your computer while surfing online: the best budget conscious Internet security software programs

I think I was 15 years old when my computer got its first virus. I remember it and I laugh now, not because of the trouble that it caused me (lost homework assignments; some of them even ready to be submitted), but rather because of the comment my dad made. "Wow, even those things catch a cold. Technology nowdays..." It was so funny. Well, I was thinking about it the other day and you know what? I don't think that even today, decades after I got my first computer virus, that my dad knows what a computer virus is. In fact I think that most of the computer users in the world don't really know what a virus is. Of course many people will get up and start criticizing and saying that a computer virus is "a computer program designed to corrupt files, destroy hardware and in general cause harm". But seriously, if my computer is infected with a computer virus again, I will most likely treat it (or curse it) like a real living thing. Anyway, many of us know what the cure or protection is against viruses: have an antivirus program handy. And many of us spend an enormous amount of money to protect our computers, and at end of the day ourselves and our lives really, from computer viruses.

However, as I just mentioned, antivirus software programs are quite expensive, so not everybody can afford them. And not only that, but there are many types of "viruses" or more accurately malicious software out there and sometimes one software alone cannot protect you from all of them. For most of us, we cannot just go out there and buy 10 different software programs to protect our computers. Well for all of you guys that want a cheap solution for protecting you computer and your data, and decreasing tremendously the risk of identity theft, here are a few free software programs, which most importantly really work. In fact most of the software programs that I recommend here have been ranked comparably with their expensive competitors.

OK, I am not going to be a smart ash (written like this so that it is not censored) and tell you that if you want true internet security then you should ditch Microsoft Windows and switch to the Linux operating system. But if somebody wants to try it, then some of my favorite versions of Linux are Fedora, Ubuntu and OpenSuse. I personally love Windows, and while I use Linux all the time for some of the work I do on my computer,

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