Personal Firewalls: The "Other" Antivirus Software

Many home users relate to their computer as if its another appliance- the toaster makes toast, the DVD player plays movies, the vacuum sucks up dust...and the personal computer communicates via email, tracks the family budget, {insert task here}. It has long been a mantra of security professionals to simply get home users to install and maintain antivirus software and to exercise an ounce of common sense before opening file attachments and such. The recent success of worms like Netsky and Bagle suggests that there is a long way to go yet in that department. In this Computerworld article, Douglas Schweitzer points out that a personal firewall is another layer of security that will not only protect from hacking or intrusion attempts, but may act as a second-level antivirus to alert you to infections your antivirus software might not catch. Personal firewalls: The 'other' antivirus software.