Hold the Fort Safeguard your networks and PCs from invasions by worms, viruses and other dangerous agents.

As recent worm and virus attacks have shown, the Net is becoming less like an information superhighway and more like a potholed road in a bad part of town. The most common security threat used to be the occasional virus that could be dealt with by keeping your antivirus software updated. But now, as worms, viruses, malicious code strings, booby-trapped spam and hackers roam the Net, you need a better strategy to protect your computers and networks from attack.

The CRN Test Center looked at two software suites that can help harried business owners: Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2004 Professional Edition and MicroWorld's eScan 2003 Internet Security Suite. Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2004 Professionaloffers one-stop security shopping and combines Norton AntiVirus software with a personal firewall, spam filter and Web content filter. Setup and use of the suite, which costs $100 (all prices street), are straightforward. Once installed, the suite's spam filter analyzes incoming mail and adds the word "spam" to the subject lines of suspect messages. Users can then set up a rule for the software to delete the message or put it in a junk mail folder.