Thursday, October 3, 2013

How to build the ultimate PC security suite for free

PCWorld - If you have a PC, you’re a target.

Those kinds of sweeping, dramatic statements tend to set my eyes a-rollin’, as they frequently lead into a pitch to spend your hard-earned cash on a high-priced security suite.

Here’s the thing, though: As crass as the delivery is, the message itself is true. If the bad guys aren’t phishing for your personal data, they’re trying to trick you out of your credit card details or angling to turn your machine into a botnet zombie. If you’re connected to the Net, you really are a potential target.

But that doesn’t mean you need to shell out cash for a premium security suite. Though the likes of McAfee and Symantec offer simple, seamless solutions, you can cobble together a DIY security suite of your own that provides most of the protection that the boxed options do, at none of the cost. Once you’ve slapped these apps on your PC and read up on how to avoid the Web’s most devious security traps, you’ll have a decent amount of protection from the majority of the Web’s worst boogeymen.

Get a good, free antivirus program

 

AVG Free 2014 is designed with a Windows 8-esque aesthetic. 
(Click to enlarge.)
AVG Free topped the charts in our most recent free antivirus roundup, and this superb software suite has only gotten better since. Fast and efficient, AVG does a great job of blocking malicious downloads before they happen, and it’s even better at eradicating malware that has already slipped onto your machine.  More