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Simon Williams, Computeract!ve, Friday 1 February 2008 at 00:00:00

Computer security with an online bonus

The easiest way to keep a healthy computer is to install an internet security suite that covers all the bases. The Danish company Bullguard's version includes a feature not usually found in security programs. As well as anti-virus, anti-spyware, a spam filter and a firewall, the company provides 5GB of online storage, allowing users to back up important files easily. The Bullguard interface is reassuringly laid out with large buttons down the left-hand side for selecting specific functions and tabbed adjustment pane to show the status and adjust settings on the other side. It's very easy to get at the settings needed to customise the program to a particular computer. The anti-virus and anti-spyware applications integrate with Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird, checking all incoming and outgoing emails. In addition, each file on the PC is checked before it's opened. A full system scan took 94 minutes for 646,000 files, which is quite a while, but the program only put a small overhead on regular work, so it can be run in the background. The spam filter shares data with the company, so when you tell it about junk that arrives in your inbox, all other customers' spam filters are sent the information. The firewall can be set up automatically, but it's also possible to go in and manually tweak it. This all seems pretty comprehensive, but there's one area Bullguard Internet Security 8 doesn't cover well and that's phishing. If you follow a link to a bogus bank or other phishing site, the program won't block the move or warn you of potential problems, though the spam filter does spot the phishing emails. There are safeguards in Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 7, of course, but some of this program's rivals provide an extra level of security. The backup facility saves selected file types such as documents, photos or music to a destination you choose, which can be a hard disk on the PC or on the online service, which offers 5GB of storage. The backed-up files can be picked up from any PC, too, though the password-protected website, making it a handy document store as well. Vista compatibility: Yes

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