Best free security apps Video

Best free security apps Video Transcript

^B00:00:00

>> There's a lot of bad guys on the Internet, and you need some software to protect yourself when you're computing. But you don't want to shell out a ton of money for it, right? Good news. You don't have to. There's a lot of great free security software. Seth Rosenblatt from Download.com joins us to tell you where to find it on today's insider secret. ^M00:00:17 [ Music ] ^M00:00:31 You want to find a bunch of great security software for free? This is the man to talk to, Seth Rosenblatt from Download.com. Thanks for joining us.

>> Good to be here.

>> So you do a lot of blogging on Download.com's blog along the line of security, right?

>> Yes. Absolutely.

>> So you...

>> I cover a lot of security products.

>> You run into the good stuff out there. Let's start with safe practices, through.

>> Sure.

>> You don't even have to download anything to improve your security, right?

>> Absolutely. Absolutely. First off, it's really important to not download any email attachments that you don't know the origins of. And even if you recognize the person's email whose sending you the attachment, if they shouldn't be sending you a file, like an EXE file, for example, don't open it. Just delete the email.

>> Even documents and images can...

>> Absolutely.

>> ...fake extensions so that they look like they're a JPEG, but there not.

>> Absolutely. Absolutely

>> They're actually executable programs.

>> If you're not sure, always send the person a new, clean email saying did this really come from you? Is this legit? Because the time difference, maybe ten minutes to get a response, is -- could potentially save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

>> Yeah. What about links? You know, people are always sending each other funny links...

>> Oh, yeah. Or you get tiny URLs, or something.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Yeah, absolutely. Links are little bit trickier. But these days most of the major web browsers have some kind of built-in security. But again, if you're not sure, just delete it; send the person a note saying is this really from you? Is this legit?

>> So let's get to the free stuff, then.

>> Sure. The fun stuff.

>> Antivirus, right?

>> Antivirus, yes.

>> Most people think, "Oh, I gotta pay Norton. I gotta pay somebody to get some antivirus.

>> Right. Absolutely.

>> What are our options there?

>> When it comes to freeware, there's not much in the way of open source, except for ClamWin, which is a very good portable anti-virus application. It's not really my primary antivirus app. I prefer to use Avira Antivir, which is kind of a goofy name, but it turns out it's been extremely highly rated by AV Comparatives and other third party sources. And it scores even higher at removing viruses and protecting against malware than AVG Free.

>> And that's the one I've been using, AVG.

>> Right.

>> That seems to be the more popular one.

>> Right. I actually used that, and then I switched to Avira.

>> Windows does have a built in firewall.

>> It does.

>> As does OSX.

>> It does.

>> Do you need another firewall, though?

>> Some users prefer to use, when it comes to freeware, they prefer to use -- Komodo seems to be one of the more popular ones these days.

>> I tried Komodo, and it just -- it was a nightmare for me.

>> I know. We were talking about that earlier. It -- some people have really bad experiences with Komodo, but in general, my usage, and reading through user comments and everything, it seems to be very well received.

>> I use Zone Alarm, which has a free edition.

>> Mm-hmm. Sure.

>> And I didn't have any problems with it.

>> Sure.

>> I ran it for a long time, but then -- that was the one you had problems with.

>> Right. I had the opposite problem. I had -- it just killed my computer.

>> So you kind of just have to try them out.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. Is securing your data, the encryption, to kind of tie everything up?

>> Yes. The -- hands down, the best program out there is called TrueCrypt.

>> They just updated it [inaudible].

>> And they just updated to version six, and this update is actually kind of cool. It's got this new feature in it where you can create an encrypted and hidden operating system on your computer, a secondary OS within the main OS. So if there's one or two particular programs that you need to use that you don't want anybody else to know about -- in business applications, for example -- this is seriously the way to go.

>> TrueCrypt will encrypt anything. It'll encrypt files.

>> Absolutely.

>> It'll encrypt folders. It'll encrypt the whole hard drive, right?

>> Absolutely.

>> All right. Now, we just kind of skimmed the surface of what's available.

>> Sure.

>> If folks want to do a little more research, find out a little bit more about how to protect themselves, where can they go?

>> Well, on Download.com we have a security starter kit, and that's a -- it's a really good place to go if you're looking for the whole nine yards, if you're looking for antivirus, for anti-spyware, if you're looking for encryption. Even for parents, if you want to keylogger of something, or a filter, that's all available there. And then, of course, there's always Google or your favorite search engine.

>> Right. Seth Rosenblatt thanks so much.

>> Glad to be here. Thank you.

>> Appreciate the help. Hope that it keeps a little bit more money in your pocketbook and keeps you more secure. That's it for this edition of insider secret. I'm Tom Merrit, CNET.com ^M00:04:56 [ Music ]