Active Security Monitor

With any new year comes new advances in computer security and reliability. In addition to Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system. (Review coming soon!) A few companies have taken it into their own hands to further enhance our safety. AOL along with Sereniti last year made the Active Security Monitor dashboard for Windows.

Active Security Monitor is a software program that helps you determine how vulnerable your PC is to computer viruses, spy ware, and other dangers and learn what steps you can take to improve your protection. You can also use Active Security Monitor to check the security status of your entire home network.

Your computer's level of protection is represented by a Safety Score, shown on the dashboard. Active Security Monitor calculates the Safety Score by evaluating what software is installed on your PCs to protect you and your home network against intrusion, viruses, worms, and other forms of Internet attacks. Active Security Monitor also evaluates some of the security-related configuration settings on all of your PCs. The higher the Safety Score, the more protected your system is.

When you first install ASM (as it is free), you will be prompted with a small application that will scan your computer for security threats. This is ASM gathering information about your computers performance and security. Once it is done scanning (usually in about 15 seconds), your score will be shown. You can view your PC's security summary and view tips that ASM recommends you fix to keep your PC more secure. Below of which are seven other summary meters that show your level of protection in each group. Your overall score is determined by the level of each of these scores. In addition to all of this you can also fill out a simple registration form. This form allows ASM to be used in your home network.

From one computer you can view the security score of all the computers on your network. If there is a low score you can easily click on the details tab and click on improve score. From here click 'See Improvement.' This allows you to see what your score would be if you fix the problems listed.

Active Security Monitor is available for free and you do not need an AOL membership or AOL email address. You must be running Windows NT 2000 or XP. Details on Microsoft Windows Vista compatibility are not available at this time. ASM can be downloaded for free at Activesecuritymonitor.com

-Matt