Protect yourself against computer Viruses, Top Choices

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ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE

What are computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses?

TOP CHOICES

#1. avast!

avast! 4 Professional Edition is a collection of award winning, high-end technologies that work in perfect synergy, having one common goal: to protect your system and valuable data against computer viruses. It represents a best-in-class solution for any Windows-based workstation. This page demonstrates its most important features and provides links to further resources. The latest version of this program is 4.6.

avast! Home/Professional now fully supports the 64-bit Windows platform
Windows XP/2000/NT/Me/98/95 and support for 64-bit Windows

Website: avast! 4 Professional Edition

avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses.
The kernel is certified by ICSA; and frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, often yielding the VB100 award.
The avast! engine also features outstanding unpacking support. It can scan inside the following archives: ARJ, ZIP, MIME (+ all associated formats), MAPI (Outlook pst files), DBX (Outlook Express archives), RAR, TAR, GZIP, CAB, BZIP2, ZOO, ACE, ARC, LHA/LHX, TNEF (winmail.dat), CPIO, CHM, RPM, ISO, 7ZIP and SIS. It also supports a number of executable packers (such as PKLite, Diet, UPX, ASPack, PeShield, FSG, MEW etc.).
Last, but not least, it can also scan for viruses hidden in Alternate data streams on NTFS volumes.
avast! Home Edition is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use.

Windows XP/2000/NT/Me/98/95 and support for 64-bit Windows

#2. PC-cillin Internet Security

Comprehensive Virus Security

Trend Micro™ PC-cillin™ Internet Security 2005 protects your PC and home network against all types of viruses, worms, Trojans, and blended threats—including network viruses, like MYDOOM and SASSER. It also blocks hackers, detects and removes spyware, guards against phishing attacks, filters unwanted content, and minimizes spam. New features include Home Network Control and Wi-Fi Intrusion Detection—extending desktop security to your home and wireless networks.

Microsoft™ Windows™ 98/98 Second Edition, Windows™ Me, Windows™ 2000 Professional SP 4 or above, Windows™ XP Home Edition/Professional SP 1 and 2
Enhanced Spyware Detection and Removal
Website

#3. Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security

The new Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security offers the most effective protection against viruses, spyware, hackers, phishing, spam and other Internet threats , so you enjoy the Internet with peace of mind. To guarantee your security, it offers a double layer of protection against unknown viruses and intruders through its TruPrevent™ Technologies.

Windows XP/2000 Pro/NT 4.0 ws/Me/98
Automatic detection and elimination of all types of viruses. Titanium Antivirus 2005 automatically detects and eliminates all types of viruses, worms and Trojans while you send and receive e-mails, download files or work on the Internet.
Website

#4. McAfee VirusScan

Click on the image

McAfee VirusScan 9.0
09.15.2004

Prevents viruses when emailing, downloading and surfing.
Destroys viruses and virus-like threats.
Identifies spying and pop-up ad programs.
Updates automatically to protect against new threats.

Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP
Always-on Protection
Whenever new viruses attack, McAfee VirusScan automatically updates itself with the latest virus definitions (DATs), silently in the background without interrupting your work.
Website

#5. AVG Antivirus Pro

Components:

AVG Email Scanner - checks your incoming and outgoing email for viruses
AVG Resident Shield - checks for viruses as files are opened, executed and saved and will prevent you from opening or running an infected file
AVG Virus Vault - a place where infected files are isolated so they cannot cause damage to your system
AVG Control Center - provides information about the actual status of the AVG components, and allows you to access and modify their settings
Scheduler - allows you to schedule tests and updates
Update Manager - allows you to specify update parameters, i.e. configuration of the update files downloading process

AVG Free Edition is available free-of-charge to home users! AVG Free Edition is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only. Use of AVG Free Edition within any organization or for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.

95/98/ME/NT4/W2000/WXP/Linux i386
Website: GRISOFT

#6. BitDefender

Bitdefender Standard is a powerful antivirus tool with features that best meet your security needs. Ease of use and automatic updating make BitDefender Standard an "install and forget" antivirus product. The new and improved BitDefender scanning engines will scan and disinfect infected files on access, minimizing data loss. Infected documents can now be recovered, instead of being deleted. Suspicious/infected files can optionally be backed up into a safe quarantine area before being disinfected or deleted. The contents of the quarantine can be sent to BitDefender Labs, for detailed analysis. Files that proved harmless can be easily moved out of quarantine, back to their original place.

BitDefender 8 Standard
BitDefender 8 SpamDeny
BitDefender 8 Professional Plus (1 user, 1 year)
BitDefender 9 Internet Security covers all the security needs of an Internet-connected family. It provides essential protection against viruses, spyware, spam, scams, phishing attempts, intruders and objectionable web content.

What are computer viruses, worms, and Trojan horses?

What is a virus?

A computer virus, according to Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, is "a computer program usually hidden within another seemingly innocuous program that produces copies of itself and inserts them into other programs or files, and that usually performs a malicious action (such as destroying data)". Two categories of viruses, macro viruses and worms, are especially common today. Computer viruses are never naturally occurring; they are always man-made. Once created and released, however, their spread is not directly under human control.

Macro viruses

A macro is a piece of code that can be embedded in a data file. Some word processors (e.g., Microsoft Word) and spreadsheet programs (e.g., Microsoft Excel) allow you to attach macros to the documents they create. In this way, documents can control and customize the behavior of the programs that created them, or even extend the capabilities of the program. For example, a macro attached to a Microsoft Word document might be executed every time you save the document and cause its text to be run through an external spell checking program.

A macro virus is a virus that exists as a macro attached to a data file. In most respects, macro viruses are like all other viruses. The main difference is that they are attached to data files (i.e., documents) rather than executable programs. Many people do not think that viruses can reside on simple document files, but any application which supports document-bound macros that automatically execute is a potential haven for macro viruses. By the end of the last century, documents became more widely shared than diskettes, and document-based viruses were more prevalent than any other type of virus. It seems highly likely that this will be a continuing trend.

Worms

Worms are very similar to viruses in that they are computer programs that replicate functional copies of themselves (usually to other computer systems via network connections) and often, but not always, contain some functionality that will interfere with the normal use of a computer or a program. The difference is that unlike viruses, worms exist as separate entities; they do not attach themselves to other files or programs. Because of their similarity to viruses, worms are often also referred to as viruses.

What is a Trojan horse?

Named after the wooden horse the Greeks used to infiltrate Troy, a Trojan horse is a program that does something undocumented which the programmer intended, but that the user would not approve of if he or she knew about it. According to some people, a virus is a particular case of a Trojan horse, namely one which is able to spread to other programs (i.e., it turns them into Trojans too). According to others, a virus that does not do any deliberate damage (other than merely replicating) is not a Trojan. Finally, despite the definitions, many people use the term "Trojan" to refer only to a non-replicating malicious program.

Related Links:

http://kb.iu.edu/data/glos.html

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