Keeping Your PC Protected While Online for Free

In today's age of technology, internet threats are becoming more serious than ever. Not only does the general online public need to worry about their PC becoming infected with a virus, but we now need to worry about hackers and identity thieves targeting our bank accounts and other personal information. Thankfully there are some steps you can take, however, to make sure that you have the right security in place in the event that you become the next target of somebody who is out to rip you off via the World Wide Web.

AVG Free Anti-Virus

Every computer that maintains a high speed connection to the internet (either through a DSL or Cable modem) should be equipped with proper anti-virus protection. But contrary to popular belief, you don't have to spend $50 plus yearly upgrade fees to have superior protection. With AVG's Free Anti-Virus software you can get protection that is every bit as good as some of the larger brand names you may already be familiar with, but best of all - everything about AVG is completely free, even the updates! Download it now at http://free.avg.com/.

Spybot Search and Destroy

Even if your computer is equipped with a firewall and anti-virus protection, you may still be susceptible to online threats - not the least of which is malicious software known as Spyware or Malware. This often comes in the form of small bits of code embedded inside another program, and usually attempts to act like a Trojan horse and relay information back to a central server for later use by hackers, identity thieves, and other malicious computer users that prey on the unsuspecting online public. Spybot Search and Destroy is a completely free program that scans and removes such files from your computer - threats that may not even be picked up by a virus scanner. You can download Spybot Search and Destroy for free at http://www.safer-networking.org/.

Malwarebytes.org Anti-Malware

Spybot is a great program when it comes to removing Spyware and Malware, but there are some threats that evade even Spybot Search and Destroy. For these problems, I highly recommend downloading Anti-Malware by Malwarebytes. This is another program that will scan your hard drive and diagnose any problems, but it tends to pick up and remove even the most stubborn of malicious programs. Many times, Anti-Malware will be the last program you'll need to use. You can download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware for free at http://malwarebytes.org/.