With the number of users ‘getting online’ increasing dramatically over the past year and most taking the plunge over to broadband there unfortnately has not been the education present to ensure that users are safe and many are using internet banking or shopping online without a Firewall or Antivirus software.

With this article I hope to educate readers to the best way to protect their identities and computer data from theft while on the internet.

Why do I need security?

With all the great benefits of the internet and the freedom to find information or services for pretty much anything, there are some drawbacks.

With all this freedom knowledgeable users can, with the help of certain sophisticated programs, gain access to a users computer without their knowledge or permission. This is typically used then to find information such as credit card information, bank details, social security information… Basically anything that they can sell including all the e-mail addresses in your address books, grab those expensive license keys to Windows, Office or any other application you might have installed.

So how do they do this? Well typically now it is done with viruses, trojans and spyware that are downloaded to your computer typically without your knowledge and install themselves running in the background. Viruses are typically more destructive programs, but trojans and spyware are used to search your computer and get information. Alternatively they are used to download enormous numbers of other trojans and spyware that can eventually make a system almost unusable.

So what do I need?

There is an enormous amount of choice when it comes to internet security packages out there, so how do you know which one to pick? Do you just go for the one with the lowest pricing, get some ‘free’ software or what?! Well, to an extent it depends what you will be doing on the internet.

As with anything in this world there are good and bad software and I will provide a list of the software that I recommend to my clients, but these are just recommendations and in the end you need to form your own opinion and read other articles too to make sure you make the right choice for you.

Basically, no matter what you are doing on the internet you should have the following software installed:

Firewall - A piece of software that hides your computer from others on the internet and attempts to control what programs installed on your computer have access to the internet
Antivirus - Software that facilitates the identification and removal of malicious software including viruses and trojans.
Antispyware - Removes tracking software that are used to monitor your activities on the internet and steal data

This software combined will protect you from all but the most persistent hackers and they would rather go for an easier target.

So should you go with some free software or go all out and buy a security suite that includes all the programs in one package? The simple answer is that although there is some great free software out there they simply don’t match the combined power of an purchased integrated package.

If you are doing your banking online, buying things using credit cards or Paypal you should definately purchase an integrated security package. However I will provide some good free tools as well, so if you don’t have the spare cash yet to spend you can still get some protection.

What should you choose?

Well let’s start with my recommendations for the all inclusive packages:

My current personal choice is ZoneAlarm Internet Security and is installed on my development machine and my laptop. As with many of these suites if you have more than one PC on the same network you can buy multi-user packs and it works out much cheaper than buying them individually. They offer a range of products from a free firewall program upto the Internet Security suite that ensures maximum protection from viruses, trojans, spyware, malware etc. With an integrated firewall your computer is kept safe from attacks by hackers and any trojans communicating and downloading other malicious software on your computer.

Another top security suite is F-Secure Internet Security Suite.  This suite is also excellent and offers the same great level of protection as the ZoneAlarm suite.

Both suites offer great protection for your computer and both offer great deals where currently buying a 1 year license enables you to use the software on up to three computers in your home or office.

What we don’t recommend:

The following are from experience using ourselves and also from having to repair many computers using these software packages that have prevented users even using their computers and to the point that the software could not be removed.

We strongly recommend you stay away from Norton Internet Security and the McAfee Internet Security suites. We have seen so many problems with these programs that we just can’t recommend either of them. Yes the big computer manufacturers out there like Dell, HP are bundling this software with their computers but that doesn’t mean it’s good software. Unfortunately this software has proven to be far from comprehensive against many of the threats out there, a simple Google search on reviews for either product (especially McAfee) reveals just how poorly they perform in tests.

Choosing a security suite can be a very personal choice. Some suites are better suited to users who are more computer literate and others for the average home user. The two recommendations made here are both highly capable, industry leaders in home and office security protection software and both are very easy to both setup and use on a daily basis.

I would like to point out that we are in no way affiliated or resellers of either ZoneAlarm or F-Secures products. These are recommendations based on leading security review websites and our own personal use of the products and their use on our clients computers.