In the Information Technology arena, here are some links for helpful utilities to keep your computer virus-&-spyware-free. All of these programs are free to download and use, and I can personally endorse them. All links open in a New Window.
Special For Army Personnel!
Link: https://www.acert.1stiocmd.army.mil/Antivirus/Home_Use.htm
For those who serve in the U.S. Army, you have a source for free antivirus protection, as long as you have an active AKO account. Army personnel can download full versions of McAfee Antivirus or Symantec Endpoint Protection at the link I’ve given (I imagine that the other branches of service have similar offers on their respective sites). I’ve test-driven the Symantec Endpoint, and it’s a great bit of code… antivirus, antimalware, and firewall all in one package; Unix users will probably love it.
Also, Army personnel should visit https://fportal.ctnosc.army.mil/
Login with your AKO i.d. and password, and follow the instructions on the page it opens; there are two, small .ZIP files you can download that will extract into small, DOS applications. Running these two applications will install all the DOD Root Certificates into IE for you. Have you experienced that annoying “There Is A Problem With This Site’s Security Certificate“ when attempting to logon to AKO or other Army websites? This is the fix for that problem. Hooah!
Spybot - Search & Destroy
Link: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
One of the best anti-spyware programs available, it provides real-time protection against a variety of spyware, malware, keyloggers, worms, and other nasties that can infect your system. While active, it also prevents changes to your system registry, requiring you to authorize any changes before they are written. Updates to the S&D protection database are frequent, usually about every three-six days.
Eric Howes’ IE-Spyad
Link: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/fid,23332-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/download.html
This little gem of a program installs a list of known spyware, malware, and crapware sites/domains into your ‘Restricted Sites’ list, preventing you from even accidentally visiting some sites that could infect your system. His newer version of the program also requires you install some program called ZonedOut, but the older version of IE-Spyad is a nice bit of extra protection. It’s a piece of ‘fire-&-forget’ freeware that you only need to run once; I recommend it.
Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware 2007 (Free Edition)
Link: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
I used to use Ad-Aware SE, and have happily upgraded to Ad-Aware 2007. While the Free version of Ad-Aware doesn’t provide real-time protection, using it to run regular scans will catch a few things that Spybot S&D misses, like Data-Mining cookies, lists of recently-opened files, and other tidbits that you might not know your computer was storing. I have personally found (and deleted) two pieces of adware that were missed by Spybot on the laptop I am writing this on. It’s a good secondary program to have in your repertoire.
Microtrends’ HijackThis
Link: http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis
This isn’t an antivirus program, but rather a utility that examines your System Registry, generating a logfile of all installed and operating programs (including viruses & malware, if your computer has any). If you aren’t an expert with computers, there are plenty of forum boards that you can submit your HijackThis logs to for analysis, and someone who knows what to look for can advise you.
Grisoft’s AVG Antivirus
Link: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0
Their free version only provides antivirus protection, but when supplemented with a firewall, and the Anti-spyware programs I recommend, it’s quite capable of keeping your computer bug-free. I’ve never used it, but I have a few friends that run it on their computers.
Avast! Antivirus
Link: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html
While avoiding the old Pirates-vs-Ninjas cliche argument, Avast! is another free antivirus program that got decent reviews on CNET. I don’t personally know anyone who uses it, but in the interests of fairness, I’m providing the download link.