- by Marianne Van der Wel

No Charge Antivirus Software

Trend Micro: McMaster retirees are eligible for a preferred price on Trend Micro, McMaster University's official antivirus software. See the Campus Store MacMicro Computer Department TrendMicro Anti-Virus Licenses page.

Avira: If you are not a fan of Trend Micro, try Avira's free antivirus program that ranks on par with some packages costing $50 or more annually. Pat Foran from Toronto’s CTV recommended Avira in a CTV video presentation in September 2009.  Look for it at Avira’s web site.

Spyware, Scams & Phishing

A year ago, in the fall 2008 MURAnews, I reported on computer scamming, phishing, adware and spyware. Pat Foran’s “Secure Computers” video report on CTV in 2009 also touched on these topics. To prevent identity theft, never respond with personal information to web site addresses that come in emails (phishing). Pat’s report warned of this and, to help identify bogus sites, he recommended using McAfee’s free SiteAdvisor software.

You can also get a bogus site when you mistype a web site address. Hence, if you supply personal information, look at the site carefully for legitimacy and compare it to what you saw the last time you used it. Again, McAfee’s SiteAdvisor may help you identify bogus sites. Pat Foran further recommended Windows Defender to protect against spyware when using Microsoft Windows. Windows Defender is now built in to Windows 10.

To fight spam, use SPAMfighter, a free spam filter for Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail.