How to Defend Against Malicious Software

More and more viruses, trojans, and worms are created every day. As individuals, we are all responsible for keeping these malicious programs off of our computer. In this article, I will discuss some free downloads that will help keep these malicious programs from infecting your computer.

The first download is called AVG. AVG is a free virus scanner that you can download from their website. AVG has been around for several years, and it has improved a great deal in that time. It has all of the essentials you need to scan for viruses such as an email scanner, a scheduler, a virus vault, automatic updates; etc. AVG also has free anti-spyware software in addition to their virus scanner.

Wouldn't it be great if you could prevent these malicious programs from being installed on your computer in the first place? That's why SpywareBlaster was invented.

SpywareBlaster is another small software program you can install on your machine that acts as a shield for your computer. Malicious programs are repelled whenever they attempt to install themselves on your machine. It's nice to have.

Another great software program for combating malicious programs is Spybot Search & Destroy. Spybot specializes in preventing and removing trojans and other types of malware from your computer. However, it is not a virus scanner. So be sure that you download AVG as well as Spybot.

Ad-Aware is another popular software program that basically does the same thing as Spybot. However, Ad-Aware only removes trojans and other malware; it does not prevent these malicious programs from being installed on your machine. It's still very useful, though.

Finally, a firewall will act as another type of shield to prevent viruses, trojans, and worms from infecting your computer. But I've already downloaded SpywareBlaster, you say? Well that's not enough, and SpywareBlaster is not a firewall. So don't become confused. Anyway, a properly used firewall will help a great deal in keeping your machine safe. Zonealarm is a decent one. It's still free for personal use, and it offers a good deal of protection.

I recommend downloading all of this software, and updating it at least once a week. Remember, new malicious programs are being developed every day. If you don't update your software, a new malicious program could slip through and do some damage. Some of this software even has an auto-update feature, which makes it even easier to keep everything updated.