Tue May 15, 2012, 11:35 PM

Please help me help my 13 year old nephew

He doesn't want to spend any $$$ for security/anit-virus/malware protection software. Even if he wanted to his meager allowance won't buy him much.

His father is dead. His mother is not very tech (or security) savy and just had both her Facebook account and her email hacked. His new step-father seems even less tech savy.

The kid promised to download, install and use any free security software programs I would recommend to him. The programs that immediately come to mind are AVG, Avast and Spybot.

What would you recommend to this kid?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

13 replies, 1363 views

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13 replies	Author	Time	Post
Please help me help my 13 year old nephew (Original post)	Coyote_Bandit	May 2012	OP
Microsoft Security Essentials	rawtribe	May 2012	#1
second this and	Betty88	May 2012	#9
Malwarebytes, Ad-aware free.	PoliticAverse	May 2012	#2
BTW most accounts are probably hacked by bad password choices.	PoliticAverse	May 2012	#3
Don't forget a firewall.	RC	May 2012	#4
Good tip	guardian	May 2012	#7
Use Firefox. Tools-Options and turn off Javascript, History, and Location Bar	HopeHoops	May 2012	#5
ZoneAlarm free firewall	guardian	May 2012	#6
Check with your ISP	guardian	May 2012	#8
Also Spybot Search & Destroy	WhoIsNumberNone	May 2012	#10
Thank you all	Coyote_Bandit	May 2012	#11
SUPERAntiSpyware -free- essential n\t	-LOKI -BAD FOR YA	Oct 2012	#12
Combofix to clean things up.	whistler162	Oct 2012	#13

Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Tue May 15, 2012, 11:45 PM

rawtribe (1,420 posts)

1. Microsoft Security Essentials

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

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Response to rawtribe (Reply #1)

Fri May 18, 2012, 09:04 AM

Betty88 (485 posts)

9. second this and

add malwarebytes the free is good the paid is great I think it costs $25 and may be a one time thing. The great thing about both these programs is they are not going to hog resources.

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Tue May 15, 2012, 11:49 PM

PoliticAverse (5,536 posts)

2. Malwarebytes, Ad-aware free.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Wed May 16, 2012, 12:58 AM

PoliticAverse (5,536 posts)

3. BTW most accounts are probably hacked by bad password choices.

http://xkcd.com/936/

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Wed May 16, 2012, 11:08 AM

RC (21,629 posts)

4. Don't forget a firewall.

Microsoft's built firewall in is not all that good. ZoneAlarm or Online Armor are decent.

Make absolutely sure you do not have two or more anti viruses going. They will fight each other and slow down or hang your computer.

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Response to RC (Reply #4)

Thu May 17, 2012, 03:20 PM

guardian (2,282 posts)

7. Good tip

I like Malwarebytes precisely because the free version does not run all the time....only when I want to run. I either set the profiles on the other stuff not to run all the time, or change my startup config so they don't run at start up.

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Wed May 16, 2012, 02:54 PM

HopeHoops (47,675 posts)

5. Use Firefox. Tools-Options and turn off Javascript, History, and Location Bar

That pretty much takes care of Malware on the porn sites - he is 13 afterall.

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Thu May 17, 2012, 03:18 PM

guardian (2,282 posts)

6. ZoneAlarm free firewall

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/es/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm

Combine with combo of other products (e.g., AVG, Avast, Malwarebytes, AdAware, Spybot, CCleaner) for antivirus and spyware.

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Thu May 17, 2012, 03:23 PM

guardian (2,282 posts)

8. Check with your ISP

Check with your Internet provider. Some companies provide security suites for free for subscribers that you'd normally have to pay for. For example, Comcast provides Norton Security Suite to all high speed internet subscribers.

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Tue May 22, 2012, 02:22 AM

WhoIsNumberNone (4,510 posts)

10. Also Spybot Search & Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html

It's a passive anti-spyware program which won't conflict with your firewall or active anti-virus like Microsoft Security Essentials, and it's freeware.

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Response to Coyote_Bandit (Original post)

Tue May 22, 2012, 10:30 AM

Coyote_Bandit (6,665 posts)