I’m a pretty careful guy so I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting my home machine from the ever increasing malware infestations we seem to be subjected to while surfing, downloading and uploading on the internet. Some might even consider it overkill.

Currently my home system is running the following freeware: Zone Alarm (3′rd most popular firewall among MakeUseOf readers), WinPatrol (system monitor), Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus, ThreatFire 3 (blocks zero-day attacks heuristically), SnoopFree Privacy Shield (anti-keylogger) and Spyware Terminator (spyware protection/removal). This is my minimum safety configuration; depending on circumstances, in addition, I will also use Sandboxie (a free sand box application).

What is your nastiest experience with viruses and/or other malware? The other day just before presentations my friend came to me with his laptop and showed me the havoc that had reigned on it! He had burnt some discs for others, using data from their USB drive and in the process got infected. Now he was unable to run Powerpoint, nor was he able to scan with the anti-virus as it won’t start a scan due to the infections (see the irony). Just the splash screens and boom - nothing seemed to run.

Firewall and security applications (i.e. Antivirus) provide the ultimate in protection while you’re surfing the web, right? Well in a sense they do. Current anti-malware solutions are much more effective than they have ever been in detecting worms, viruses and other forms of malware.

So what are hardworking cyber crooks to do then, since it has become more difficult for them to overcome your more reliable Internet security defenses? How are they going to continue to rake in their dirty money? Well, how about using social engineering to convince you to download and install a malware package voluntarily?

It is becoming increasingly clear that at the current rate of growth in malware in circulation and under development, computer operating systems and applications will continue to be compromised at an ever increasing rate.

According to Panda Labs, Panda Security’s laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware, every single day in 2007, it received and analyzed more than 3,000 new strains of malware, an increase of 800% over 2006 . Malware epidemic anyone?

Of particular concern is the installation of malware based on social engineering, which seems poised for a major increase in activity; an opportunity created with the boost in user participation on MySpace, FaceBook, and other social networking sites.

When it comes to your security, no web browser is perfect - and no malware app is going to catch everything. I came across BufferZone Free a few weeks ago and have been running it since, and I’m pretty impressed.

BufferZone adds another layer of protection to your browser by setting up a sandbox (an isolated “virtual directory” on your hard drive). As Trustware puts it, the program “transparently redirects modifications in your PC to a virtual, isolated environment, so that unauthorized modifications cannot be applied to your actual PC.” Malicious apps can’t write changes to your actual system files or registry - only BufferZone’s virtualized versions. Anything you download - temp files, images, executables, you name it - gets sandboxed. Why is that a big deal?

Occasionally I find myself working on a computer that has some problems. Maybe its malware, maybe its viruses, either way…it mucking up the PC and just generally slowing things down. Has this ever happened to you? If you’ve surfed the Internet for very long, you’ve probably experienced this and/or you’re prone to getting something downloaded and installed without your consent.

During these times I would normally use the trusty SpyBot - Search & Destroy application because it’s superior in many ways, but if I don’t have it with me or feel like just doing a quick online check without having to install a client application, the few choices below provide a good alternative.

While going through most popular software stats on Download.com, I decided to pull out top 10 most downloaded FREE security AND Windows optimization programs. Not surprisingly, I ended up with 10 excellent FREE programs. Check them out below, most of them seem to be really good. (Note: Program popularity was measured by the total number of downloads during the last week)

TOP 5: Free Security Programs (Antivirus, Spyware Removal, etc.)

(1) AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition Memory-friendly free antivirus program that comes with lifetime free access to virus definition updates. Highlights include automatic update, real-time protection, free virus database updates, and some more. With nearly 1 mil. downloads (926,832) last week alone, this gotta be a good tool.

Trend Micro HouseCall is a free online virus and spyware SCAN and REMOVAL tool. In case you do not have any spyware removal software installed on your system this can be a good alternative. Once in a while, I get spyware that goes undected (or detected but failed to be removed) through my current Anti-Spyware programs, usually when this happens TrendMicro does a good job at removing it.