Computer Security Paranoia & Save Computing

Lately there is so many review over the internet about security paranoia, either it's just a review, or a discussion on blog, etc.

Some number or people, few people I believe could use a PC without any AV at all and yet remain virus-free, but most people could not have that kind of luxury, simply because most people didn't have enough knowledge or using their PC at high risk environment, not because they like that risk, but because "their needs" force them to enter that high risk environment.

When we're talking about knowledge in computing world, you could never have enough, no matter what, technology keep moving on, and if you're not someone who is constantly following it, than you will surely outdated. So I believe, unless your an IT guy or an IT expert, that would place you in the "not enough knowledge" position.

Personally I realize, my position as one of the "not enough knowledge" position, cause even though I read & try to follow up with the technology in computing, still I don't have any background on computer science, just someone who is "force" to use computer in a daily life and force to adapt with it.

So when it come to computer security, I would say most people would be in a vulnerable position, and that few people who laugh on other people because they tried to equip them self the best that they can as the paranoid person would be an arrogant statement. Because we, as most people of the world who use computer didn't know as much as them, there's probably last than 1% of people who is a real computer nerd, even though there is some people who think and believe they are nerd and support the nerd opinion, which would place them as both arrogant and foolish.

I don't mind to be called paranoid person on this matter because I provide my self with the amount of equipment that been suggested on the book, even though it still could not give any guaranty I could be 100% save. The fact is, there's no antivirus software or any security software that could provide 100% protection, that's why no test in the world give 100% score on it's test to any security software vendors.

I decide to stay on the saver side, or you may say the paranoid side, I will continue to use my own personal free security suited, and the combination didn't seems to compromise my PC performance significantly. The free suite which contain :

1. Avast Free Antivirus as my real time Antivirus protection
2. Outpost Firewall Free, since XP firewall is far from perfect
3. Spyware Terminator as the antispyware protection
4. ThreatFire as my zero-day threat protector
5. SpywareBlaster as the passive immunization protection.
   
6. Sandboxie as virtualization.
   
7. and an on demand scanner such as Malwarebytes (as an anti-malware scanner), A-squared Free & SUPERAntiSpyware

Every people have their opinion, so is on the matter of their own PC security, and I'm happy with my own so far. For me "it's better be save than sorry"

Spyware Terminator Totaly Free Anti-Spyware Program

For a while I have been very frustrated with the way that the new version of Malwarebytes real-time protection performs, on how it's has become to heavy & severely compromise my computer performance, so I look a round to found a worthy replacement, and a came across this program, and "old", "dying" but has been reborn again to become a very amazing piece of software, it's called "Spyware Terminator".

Spyware Terminator is a FREE & easy-to-use program, it's provide real-time protection against spyware, adware, keyloggers, trojan horses, browser hijackers and other malware threats.
Here are the Key Features of Spyware Terminator :

• Free for personal & commercial use

• Fast Spyware scanning & removal
• Free Antivirus (Clam Antivirus) integration & protection
• 100% real-time protection
• HIPS protection
• Multilanguage Support
• Free automatic updates
• Free scheduled scans
• Free support

By default, the real-time protection is not activated, and if you choose to activated it there are two level of protection option you could choose :

* Basic (for novice users)
* Advance (for more experience user)

You can also enable the built-in antivirus (Clam Antivirus) that being bundled as an optional addition to increase the protection that would extends the power of real-time analysis by comparing program code against a database of known viruses, Trojans, and worms.

I install Spyware Terminator along side AVAST 5 Free, Outpost Firewall & Threatfire, and I must say, it's very light on my resources (Pentium 4 with only 1 GB of RAM), cause even after I activate all the real-time protection module, it didn't show a significant impact on my PC performance. The only Impact that I do feel is the longer amount of time it takes to start my firefox web-browser (about 7-10 second), but it does not effect the browsing speed once the firefox has already opens & running.

Overall Spyware Terminator is a very flexible on the way it's protects you, you can turn off all the real-time protection, or made an adjustment to it, or if you wanted to, you can turn-off the real-time protection completely and use it only as and on demand scanner.

Like I said in the first place, since the new version of Malwarebytes real-time protection has become to heavy & severely compromise my computer performance, I would say Spyware Terminator is the perfect choice. Not just because MBAM is a shareware which mean that is provided to users without payment on limited basis of it's functionality (no real-time protection modules, no automatic updates & no malicious websites blocking), while Spyware Terminator is a Freeware which mean it's fully functional for an unlimited time with no cost, monetary or otherwise or simply people would say completely free, but because the fact that it's an excellent product that is easy to use, light on system resources and offers excellent protection.

Desktop Customization

I'm bored with how my desktop looks lately, thinking on moving to Windows 7 initially, but still filling SICK when thinking about the fact that the windows 7 was just another "Microsoft brilliant strategy to make more money" after the failure of Vista and on the other hand, releasing new service pack for the already perfect XP SP3 to be better would do more harm than good for them, why? Because it simply would make no money for them LoL

So I look around, downloaded & try all the program that I came across with, after sometimes, I finally manage to found some combination that being able to refresh the way my desktop look.

Not really happy with it, still looking around for more tuning up that could make my desktop look better without compromising my PC performance, specially something that could make the XP start-up bar to became totally transparent without changing the original XP look, hope someday I could find it