In today’s day and age, technology for most of us has become an indispensable or an inevitable part of our lives. The entire need to connect and communicate with others makes us humans an information hungry species and rightly so. We’re forever in search of more and more information, amassing all that we can. The internet has been the like a guiding light or a major source for any and every kind of information that we need. While being extremely rewarding, the internet presents a lot of risks and threats along the way. The threats as most of us know range between the usual viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, keyloggers and many other more complex ones. This is why it’s imperative to use some security software tools to secure our digital lives. We’ve made a list of some security tools below that we think are the best for what they do and so are a must try.
Avast Free Antivirus 2014:
A lot has been said about Avast within these very pages over the years and here we are at it again. This antivirus, this amazingly dependable antivirus suite is still the best free antivirus software out there. The reason we say this is because whenever we did an antivirus comparison test, Avast came out on top in one way or another. The antivirus has a very good detection rate and a ton of great features that are incorporated very well.
Everything, right from the user interface to the scanning process is designed in such a way that it’s very easy to navigate and even the biggest technologically challenged person can use it. The main highlights of the updated version include a better cloud-based file reputation service along with options for automatic sandboxing of suspicious programs and remote assistance capabilities.
Avast boasts of finely tuned real time shields like the file system shield, the web shield and the mail shield, each of which provide the user with status and configuration options. With a completely redesigned and streamlined interface in the 2014 edition, and millions of active users around the world. Avast is the best way to go and you won’t have to look any further for a better free antivirus software suite. What more can anyone ask for when you receive these many features absolutely free.
Comodo Firewall:
A firewall is from amongst the most important type of network based security system or service. It controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic by analyzing data packets based on a pre-determined rule set.
Though the built-in firewall in windows works absolutely fine, there is still room for improvement. This is where Comodo comes in. Comodo is a free, multilayered firewall software that also works as an antivirus for protecting your system from viruses, trojans, worms and other threats. Comodo Firewall is made to be very unobtrusive and thus it’s easy to use and configure. Download it and give it a whirl.
Tor:
Tor is a free software tool that is used to enable online anonymity. Basically, the Tor software prevents somebody from watching over your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit from knowing your physical location, and it also lets you access sites which are blocked.
Popularly known as the “anonymity network”, Tor directs the internet traffic through a volunteer network consisting of thousands of relays that help in hiding the user’s location from anyone doing traffic analysis. Using the Tor browser bundle makes it difficult for anyone to trace your activity on the internet through the path of online communication modes. Tor is associated with a very famous security term called “onion routing” which effectively refers to the use of multiple nested layers of encryption in order to maintain anonymity.
Many security focused operating systems like - Liberté Linux, Qubes and Tails use Tor. The bittorrent client Vuze for example supports Tor extensively. As a whole, the Tor browser bundle is the face of Tor and it includes a modified version of Mozilla Firefox ESR browser. One of the other useful features of Tor is the ability to run it from removable media. Download Tor from here: dgit.in/TorBr
KeePass:
It’s well known that if you want your digital information to be safe online, you should use a different password for every service that you’ve subscribed to. But when you actually have many different passwords, for different accounts, it becomes very tedious to remember all of the passwords. KeePass provides an elegant solution. KeePass lets you store encrypted copies of all your passwords and all you need to do is to remember one master password for all of them.
KeePass comes with its own random password generator which means that you’re not required to think and come up with random passwords on your own. Another very interesting security feature of KeePass has to be its AutoType feature that helps protect against keylogging. This feature automatically pastes the password required in the browser window by taking help of virtual keystrokes and the clipboard.
Spybot - Search and Destroy:
The most common type of security threat that we see online these days are spyware, malware and adware. As the name suggests, Spybot - Search and Destroy is a free anti-spyware utility that helps you keep adware and spyware at bay.
Spybot is like a veteran software in which we trust since the old days. Feature wise, Spybot can be easily integrated with the windows security center for a quicker access or to streamline and keep all the security related apps together. Spybot - Search and Destroy uses a very simple layout but it does the job pretty well. Download and install the software to experience it in all its unadulterated glory.
Tails:
Yes, you read it right. This unusually named tool is actually a live operating system which also follows along the lines of the concept of anonymity. Tails is an acronym for “The Amnesic Incognito Live System”. Using Tails, you can voyage the sea called internet anonymously while maintaining your privacy and circumventing censorship. The whole idea of using Tails is to browse like a boss and use any computer without leaving even a trace of usage on it.
Tails also features built-in encrypted email and chat with private messaging. The OS supports built-in file encryption as well. Using this file encryption feature, you can save your documents to a pen drive and they’ll automatically be encrypted. It doesn’t end here as this secure OS is preloaded with software like GIMP, OpenOffice, Audacity and more for editing purposes. Tails uses the Tor browser by default making it that much more better when it comes to maintaining your anonymity online.
So, these were some of the best free security tools that you should install and use in your computer, cause you never know when there might be an attack.
