Free Tools and Tips to Help Secure Your Home PC

The explosion of the Internet and home computer use has created a very lucrative 'business' for virus writers, spammers, spyware programmers, and hackers. Most home computer users believe that what they do on the Internet is safe, but we are finding out it is very difficult to stay ahead of the criminals. With so many possible ways to break into a computer, home users need a set of free tools and tips along with some basic user training to protect their online 'communications'. This paper will emphasize free software alternatives to combat viruses/Trojans, protect against spyware, provide safe Internet browsing, prevent computer intrusions, and eliminate pop-ups. The software will all be for the Windows OS platform, concentrating on users with Windows XP SP1 and SP2. Each category will discuss the inherit risks and include a few pieces of free software that can help mitigate risks. In the second half of the paper, I will discuss Windows SP2 and also provide tools to give a baseline analysis of how 'secure' the machine is. This section will also include some basic settings within Windows XP that can be turned on or off to help secure the machine. The third and last portion of the paper will include end-user training that will include some easy to follow tips on safe computing.