Security Software

This category includes a number of different kinds of programs, all of which are trying to protect your computer and your data from attacks and damage and being controlled without permission. No one program can protect against all of the bad guys out there. Using a set of overlapping programs is the best way to keep your computer and its data safe.

What you need protection from:

• Viruses copy themselves to other disks to spread to other computers. They can be merely annoying or they can be vastly destructive to your files.
• Trojans hide inside something else to sneak in unwanted programs. You don't know that they are there, like the famous Trojan horse. These are often used to capture your logins and passwords.
• Worms are unwanted programs that are transferred over network or Internet connections to spread themselves quickly.
• Spyware programs lurk on your computer to steal important information, like your passwords and logons and other personal identification information and then send it off to someone else.
• Zombie programs take control of your computer and use it and its Internet connection to attack other computers or networks or to perform criminal activities.
• Phishing (pronounced like the word 'fishing') is a message that tries to trick you into providing information like your social security number or bank account information or logon and password for a web site. The message may claim that if you do not click on the link in the message and log onto a financial web site that your account will be blocked, or some such disaster.
• Spam is email that you did not request and do not want. One person's spam is another's useful newsletter or sale ad. Spam is a common way to spread viruses, trojans, and the like.
• Browser hijacking occurs when one of the nasties takes control of your browser, sending you to sites that you did not mean to go to. This may be a porn site or it may look like a real banking, sales, or credit card site. The purpose is to steal your personal and financial information.

Anti-virus programs monitor the computer for the activity of viruses and similar nasties. 

Anti-spyware programs similarly monitor your computer, looking for known trouble-makers as well as suspicious behavior.

Anti-spam software tries to identify useless or dangerous messages for you.

A firewall blocks attempts to access your files over a network or internet connection. Your network router or modem or both may have a hardware firewall built into it. That will block incoming attacks. But you still need a software firewall on your computer to block outgoing attacks. Your computer can become infected through shared disks or even from another computer on the network. So you need to monitor what your computer is putting out over the network or internet also.