What's the Best Internet Security Plan? Follow me for the top secret answer...

What's the best Internet security plan? Let's consider the following:

You have a virus and it has screwed your computer up royally.

No worries, right? You have the best Internet security software you could find installed. But..

...it doesn't seem to be working. You can't get the little beast out of your computer.

Mmmm. One question: Why didn't super-duper antivirus software catch Satan's spawn before it possessed your system? How did this virus get in if the gate to hell was locked? Oh well, you're not sure but if this happens to you then one thing's for sure...

You do not have the best Internet security plan

After an eternity of Googling for the right specialized tool to remove the stubborn monster from your system, you find that you've lost files, have screwed up registry settings, and you're never really sure if everything is back to normal.

In the back of your mind, haunting doubt lurks.

But this doesn't have to happen.

Did you know that there's only one sure-fire way to get things back to normal?

That's right. No antivirus/antispyware/anti-spam/anti-anything software is going to find every trace of the poison that brought your second brain to its knees. Creating the best Internet security plan is more involved.

Part of the best Internet security plan is to incrementally image your hard drive every night and backup up your documents at short intervals, say fifteen minutes.

There's more in depth information on the hard drive image page and the online backup page. On page two, I'll give you a list of steps to take to maximize your Internet security plan.

You should have a copy of everything on your computer and it should be updated every few minutes. In this way, you never have to be more than fifteen minutes or less out of date.

"But, David, isn't that overkill? I mean come on, disaster doesn't strike that often."

Maybe not, but when it does, do you want the software hurricane to destroy all of your family pictures and video? How about the critical work document you brought home to finish?

Are there emails you've carefully sorted and tucked safely away? Passwords to your financial sites? Half finished family history research? Pictures au natural?

Made you think, didn't I? The best Internet security plan is not as simple as you thought.

Let's run through a very possible scenario.

You get a Trojan horse that carries a nasty virus and it hijacks your registry. It installs itself, replicates, emails itself to your entire address book, installs a spyware toolbar in your browser, and slows your computer to a crawl.

You run your SuperDuperAntivirus full scan option and sure enough, it finds a tiny alien deep in your system. But this one is like a brain tumor with tentacles everywhere and you find that it was actually downloaded days ago. The prognosis is fatal. Even if you removed it, the patient will have brain damage.

A complete reinstall is the only answer.

You cringe, then cry.

And so begins hours, maybe days, of work. So much for golf.

What's worse, some documents aren't kept in your standard documents folder (like Microsoft Outlook or any program that installs working files into their own folder by default). And you didn't back them up before the reinstall. They drift into cyber-hell where they are never heard from again.

But, occasionally they seem to lurk just behind your left shoulder, late on stormy, dark nights, usually when the thunder cracks and lightning casts an eerie shadow across the back wall. But you're never quite sure.

So, what is the BEST Internet security plan? Click next to find out...