In addition to thinking about viruses that might affect your computer, it is also important to be aware of other possible security breaches. Programs that you have may access the Internet in ways that you wouldn't want them to (to send information about you somewhere) or people may try to access your computer over the Internet.

A friend has recommended Zone Alarm to me. It's free for use on a personal computer and for use in business (which includes education) costs $19.95. There is a 60-day free trial. The reviews look very good.

I recommend that you configure it, at least at first, to ask you each time a program wants to access the Internet. That is a bit of a hassle, since when you call your browser, that adds an extra small step. But this will ensure that you will know about all attempts. If you have your programs set to "Automatically check for updates", you'll see them trying to access the Internet when you're not using the computer. Obviously that's not something to be concerned about. When I saw how much of that was going on, I decided that I didn't really want so many updates and I changed that option. I can always go get an update of a program when I want one.

You'll receive alerts about attempts to access your computer. Many of them are harmless errors and couldn't cause trouble even if they hadn't been blocked. Even if they get through, they can only be harmful if they access some program within your computer that lets them in and has privileges to write things to your computer. The explanations within the Zone Alarm program are good. So if you want to learn more, then pay attention and look up information about each attempt. But if you just want to be protected, you don't need to understand all of these.

Here are some reviews of ZoneAlarm and other competitor programs: http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/reviews/0,6755,2580291,00.html

Last updated July 3, 2000. Mary Parker