Internet security suites combine all
your online safety needs into one easily purchased software package to help
prevent network intrusions and online fraud. Choose from a basic suite or an
advanced suite based on your individual PC needs. Basic suites come with
anti-virus protection, a firewall, spam blockers, and/or optional parental
control. The advanced suites include all of the utilities in a basic one, plus
extra security features like system tune-ups and backups.
Prevent Online Fraud with These Eight
Features
1. Virus Protection
Network infiltration by a computer
virus happens with the program or code invisibly downloads onto your computer
and then copies itself until the whole system gets infected. A hacker commits online fraud by sending out a virus to steal or destroy personal files.
2. Firewall
Many people choose to purchase
internet security suites without a firewall utility since PCs come with Windows
Firewall preinstalled. A firewall acts as your first defense against a hack and
online fraud. It supervises the traffic entering and leaving the network to
identify when a person enters without the user’s approval. It monitors the
applications run by the system for inappropriate use of the connection as well.
Windows Firewall performs the first action, but not the second action.
Depending on your risk, you may want to consider an extra firewall.
3. Spam Blocker
Many email providers offer anti-spam
protection to prevent emails with online fraud schemes from entering your
inbox, so you may not need this feature. If you find vital messages in your
spam folder due to a malfunctioning anti-spam function, consider a security
suite that offers a spam blocker utility to ensure you do not lose important
emails and still avoid the spam.
4. Phishing Alerts
A common type of online fraud,
phishing, involves a scammer making a fake website that emulates a real one to
trick victims into giving away sensitive personal data. The user defines the
data needing protection on the computer and an alarm sounds if a hacker attempts
to transmit the information from the network. It also alters the user when they
reach a website appearing legitimate, but with questionable credentials.
5. Parental Control Option
Children use the PC in your home for
the school work and to have fun. If you grow concerned about your kids’
internet usage, pick a suite that offers a parental control option. Use this to
block a child’s access to inappropriate websites, monitor their instant
messages and interactions on social media, or limit their ability to play games
based on the game’s ESRB rating.
6. Processing Speed
An internet security suite offers
many important utilities in one program and lowers the amount of processing
speed need to function. Running multiple programs to use different utilities slows
your system’s speed when zipping or unzipping files, transferring and copying
large files or multiple files, and booting up.
7. Backup Service
One main difference between basic
and advanced suites lies in the presence of an online backup feature or not.
Some backups bundled with the suite do not offer more and may actually be less
helpful than a free service like Mozy or iDrive. The best allow you to do a
local backup and up to 25GB online.
8. System Tune-up
A system tune-up only prevents
online fraud by speeding up the performance of your security suite to more
quickly identify and destroy potential threats. It also does wonders for data
privacy through deleting browsing history and temporary files regularly.
