Great question! Anti-virus, firewalls, pop up blockers, phishing attacks, passwords, and more are on the list of internet security.

Let’s look at what’s at stake first:

• A virus can infect your computer. The effects range from annoying pop ups interrupting your web browsing experience to total system failure, yikes!
• A malicious individual, kindly refered to as a hacker, can identify your computer while you’re connected to the internet, break in, and steal information from you or infect your computer with a virus.
• A malicious website (or a friendly website that has poor security!) can fool you into entering your password credentials. The owner of that website will use the credentials to steal information or even money from you. For example, have you ever received an email that said to click on this link: bankofamerica.kz. Notice the .kz instead of .com. You might think you’re logging into your Bank of America account, but really you’re just giving away your password information for someone to use on the real bankofamerica.com website. Seriously not cool!

These are a few of the more well known security challenges in today’s internet world.

You know you need anti-virus software and an internet security package, but which one should you choose?

I’ll tell you up front, my personal pick that I use on my computers, Kaspersky. Its got everything right: easy updates, secure, reliable, very affordable, and simple to purchase and install.

There are plenty of other solutions out there, but they suffer from one or more of the following:

• Noticeably slows down my web surfing
• Updates to the anti-virus database are not clear
• Might not integrate well with Windows or Mac security features
• Too expensive
• Poor support options

Among the competitors are McAfee, Symantec, AVG and Norton. They’re good and will protect you, but I’ve had more success with Kaspersky. As of this writing, the Anti-virus is ~$60 and the full Internet Security suite is $80. The full version includes the anti-virus and there’s really no reason not to spend the extra $20 to get the full deal. The full version also gives you a firewall and protects you during web browsing. Kaspersky uses an annual subscription fee, so the software will notify you in a year to renew. All in all, its a great choice and I haven’t had any problems with it.

Good luck and be safe!

Related Posts

• August 12, 2010 -- Protect yourself from Spyware – Part 2
• March 23, 2010 -- Don’t let security holes ruin your online business
• July 8, 2010 -- Protect your computer from unauthorized communication of personal data
• June 8, 2010 -- Email settings a security vulnerability on your blog?
• May 13, 2010 -- Protect your computer during your public demos

Filed under:
general by Chris