Microsoft is offering their users a piece of free magic software, called SteadyState. We have all been there late at night and our virtual guard is down. Maybe you hopped on an unsecured network and decided to browse some hardcore porn sites bit torrent trackers um er let’s just say some not so reputable sites. Either way you have exposed your machine to a potentially bad neighborhood and if your protection on your machine isn’t up to snuff then who knows what could have happened already!

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?

For a Windows user, the first order of business, at least for me, is usually security. Securing your computer means installing security software like a firewall, anti-virus, or spyware removal. It also means checking Windows updates and keeping your own installed software up to date. Updating your own software has always been a manual process or automating on a software-by-software basis. Depending on how many applications you run and what you use them for, this can be a fairly tedious process.

People like nosing around. People like to go through other people’s stuff. Whether they are your family, friends, colleagues, or some anonymous guys in a basement in Japan, it’s something you want to avoid.

Whether it’s because you like your privacy or you think you have a reason to ‘erase your tracks’; in the end it’s all the same.

Luckily for you and I there are apps that can help you protect your privacy and your files, i.e. erase your tracks and put a nice big lock on all of your stuff.