by christopher beard

Created on: January 06, 2008

It was Benjamin Franklin who said "Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security"

While most people feel secure with Norton or McCaffe, these are the most common antivirus and security programs, and for that reason alone, most of the antivirus and security hacking software is aimed towards them. What i suggest (and i know this from personal experience) the best security programs arent those that you can find on any shelf in the computer supply store. The best security software is the free to download type. Not only are they free, but the people creating them take much more effort in making constant updates. Where norton and mccaffe and others of the like scan for known viruses and programs, along with syntax from a probable virus, some of these freeware programs actually go a step further in scanning for virus and trojan activity.

A good Adware and Spyware scanner and remover would also be helpful in coalition with an adware blocker. These have custom settings and an easy interface to let you choose the ammount of security you need, as frequent as you need.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you should have more than one antivirus, each with a different behavior. but when it comes to firewalls, running more than one will give you a lot of problems. Stick to a good one thats preferably free.

Here are a few programs i suggest:
Anti-virus:
-Trend Micro's housecall
-Panda's Active Scan
-RAV Antivirus Online Virus Scan

here are ones that actively scan your computer for viruses and shut down suspicious behavior

AntiVir www.free-av.com
AVG Anti-virus www.grisoft.com
Avast Antivirus www.avast.com

To test your firewall's capabilities here are a few free websites that will scan your computer and warn you of any vulnerabilities:

-leak test (http://grc.com/it/leaktest.htm)
-HackerWatch (www.hackerwatch.org/probe)
-AuditMyPc (www.auditmypc.com/freescan/scanoptions.asp)
-OutBoun d (www.hackbusters.net/ob.html)
-Firewall Leak Tester (www.firewallleaktester.com)

No computer is 100 percent secure, so get a little educated and always check your computer for anything suspicious.

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