Security

These vital tools, selected by PC World’s editors, will protect your PC and will help you rid your computer of a variety of threats.

Ad-Aware 2008 Free
Remove spyware and protect your privacy with this popular free anti-spyware program.

Spybot Search & Destroy
This anti-spyware program is free, provides proactive protection, and is largely effective.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Free program […]

For increased security, you can configure your computer with an account lockout policy. This means that after a certain number of failed logon attempts, the user account will be unlocked. You can configure this option by opening the security settings on the local computer.
Open the local computer policy, expand Account Policies, and click Account […]

Sentry Lite is free monitoring software that offers parents and computer administrators the ability to monitor both sides of instant message conversations and Web sites visited without the user ever knowing. A special spy technology engine keeps Sentry hidden from all users, anti-spyware, and firewall software.
You can review all of your logs from any […]

The new version of QFX Software’s KeyScrambler is out, and even the free version (Personal) has greatly expanded coverage. The browser add-on protects everything you type into a Web page on all Web sites and in all parts of the browser:

All Web sites: login credentials, credit card numbers, passwords, search terms, and more.
All parts of […]

Lock the bad guys out of your USB ports with MyUSBOnly. Block untrusted USB memory stick activity in Office. Prevent data theft by blocking all but your trusted USB storage devices. Stop your files from walking away on thumb drives, mp3 players, flash cards, and portable USB hard drives. Secretly log all USB connect, disconnect, […]

The Returnil Virtual System Personal Edition provides an altogether different and highly complimentary level of defense. It is designed to protect your computer from all types of software, downloads, Web sites, or anything else that might harbor viruses, spyware, and other malicious programs.
Returnil virtualization technology clones a computer’s system partition and boots the PC […]

Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 all support Remote Desktop. This allows users on a remote computer to connect to your computer and access resources as though they were physically seated at your desk. If you have no intention of using Remote Desktop, you should disable this option to increase security on your […]

The ubiquity of electronic communications has enabled significantly greater interaction and information exchange between organizations and their customers, partners, vendors and other constituents. While this has made employees increasingly more productive, it also has increased risk.
Without proper controls, information can be exposed to accidental data leaks and intellectual property theft. Workshare Protect provides advanced content […]

Gary may just save your skin with this security tip…
Good morning, afternoon, or evening — whatever it happens to be in your area. I don’t know if you’ve heard of these two accessories that PayPal uses, but I know from your eBay videos that you and your family have both eBay and PayPal accounts. PayPal […]

Gnomie Chuck Johnston writes from Taiwan:
Hi, Chris!
Really appreciated your recent video on Privacy As Far As The Desktop Can See. Good advice that I (mostly) follow!
I’d like to share a couple of security “buffers” that I use to guard my online excursions. I haven’t heard them mentioned recently, but they sure have saved my […]

The security suite that I covered the other day is now available for free trial, with no obligation. As far as I know, anyone can sign up. You can check it out here.
As you can see from the article and comments, I think quite highly of ESS (for whatever that’s worth). It […]