Trend Micro's PC-cillin protects against a variety of internet menaces. Hailed by C-NET as the 'best Internet Security package on the market,' it certainly deserves attention. It is bundled free with a year's supply of updates to combat new threats, and is compatible with Windows Vista.

PC-cillin received the VB 100% award, has been approved by ICSA and passed the rigurous West Coast Labs effectiveness checks.

Installation is simple, and the program runs silently without noticeably consuming system resources. So far so good... In terms of the variety of threat coverage offered by pc-cillin, the results are promising. The automatic virus scans are able to detect and deal with just about anything, even when the virus is encrypted so as to distort its hex signature. Prevention of unauthorised registry changes is well implemented, but can be configured so as not to be intrusive. The automatic updates are frequent and prompt.

The support team are helpful and friendly, as well as being able to offer expert advice on advance issues.

Overall review - 10/10. This is a must buy!

Norton is one of the big players in Internet security alongside McAfee. The Norton Internet Security suite rolls up some of it's most popular security packages into one conventient consumer package that is ideal when looking to protect a desktop PC or small network.

The suite includes the following Norton programs:

• Antivirus
• Antispyware
• Two-way firewall
• Antiphishing
• Rootkit detection
• Intrusion prevention
• Web site authentication
• Eavesdropping protection
• Confidential information management
• Antispam and Parental Control

• Detects and eliminates spyware.
• Removes viruses and Internet worms automatically.
• Protects email and instant messaging from viruses.
• Protects against hackers.
• Blocks identity theft by phishing Web sites.
• NEW! Improved performance delivers faster starts and scans.
• NEW! One click access to expert support.
• NEW! Network security monitoring helps protect your wireless network.
• NEW! Norton Identity Safe delivers enhanced ID theft protection.
• NEW! Works quietly in the background.
• Download antispam and parental controls.
• Protection for up to 3 PCs.
• Includes one year of automatic definition updates, new product features, and access to updated versions of Norton Internet Security™ throughout the life of your service subscription.
• On-going Protection keeps your computer protected from the latest Internet risks by automatically renewing your subscription at the regular subscription price (plus applicable tax), so you don't have to.

With reports out this weekend that spam is choking up the internet, spam defence is becoming big business. On that note I thought I'd revisit a little piece of kit that I used a couple of years ago, before I went fully Gmail. The little chap is called SpamAid, and it's a very simple plug in for MS Outlook that will defend your inbox.

The program is based on Bayesian filtering technology (a very clever bloke was Mr Bayes :o) and automatically learns using your personal correspondence to increase the filtration accuracy. Quarantined e-mails are stored in a separate SPAM folder, so that you can periodically check over things being deleted, and it has the usual friends, enemies and filter lists.

Other features include an option to test outgoing mail for potential risk of being filtered as spam (a very nice addition not often found), and support for POP3, IMAP, HTTP and MS Exchange.

I would not advise that you use SpamAid as your only line of defence. Why? If your email gets on a spam list (which eventually it will) you will start receiving floods of unwanted mail. SpamAid works by filtering the email as it is downloaded on to your local machine, which means that you might still be sitting idol as the program sifts through wades of junk. I personally use a server side spam filter (namely my Gmail account) and then download from Gmail to MS Outlook with a spam plug attached. The plug in catches the rouge emails that Gmail fails to catch, but doesn't have to burn up my bandwidth dealing with the whole lot.

Moral of the story. SpamAid makes a great Outlook plug in, but don't rely on it as your only line of defence.

I spotted a review of the newest version of ClipCache today on LinuxInsider. I remember using ClipCache ages ago and was surprised to hear that Xrayz Software have only just released an upgrade.

From what I remember, the program is a really useful extension to the Windows clipboard. The fear with any very simple program is that an upgrade will bloat the code with useless features which destroys the usability of the application. So are Xrayz guilty of a vanity upgrade?

Well, version 3 seems to be a fitting heir. The program essentially stores anything that you cut and paste, ready for re-use. This is extremely useful when coding a website for example, where snips of code can be stacked up. If you familiarise yourself with the programs shortcut keys the utility further increases in power.

The newer features include colour highlighting (always good), a customizable toolbar, nested folders for clip organization and a tabbed preview pane.

For anyone that uses a pc all day for multiple tasks I would encourage you to download the trial of this little program. It is very light, and will happily sit in your task bar working positively towards your productivity.

I love Pandas, but the only way the world will wake up to the threat that mankind is placing on endangered species will be for the panda to become extinct. Sad but true I fear.

Anyway another Panda I've always admired from afar is the security software company. While I've never owned a piece of Panda software I've read good things about them, and have always felt they are up there with the likes of McAfee and Symantec as far as reputation goes.

So the new range of 2007 products is out, with updates to the Antivirus, Firewall and Encryption packages. There are several flavours to the product, depending on what kind of protection you need, all offering great value.

Panda Internet Security 2007

Panda Antivirus + Firewall 2007

Panda Antivirus 2007

One common criticism of the consumer Antivirus product is that while the program is very light, in doesn't offer the same level of protection as some of the more expensive products. However, my experience of antivirus products is that often a lighter product is more that capable of defending a desktop computer and is less likely to cripple your processor (see http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/index.php?p=327).

I'm going to give Panda a try when my current product expires - you should too!