PC Tonic

PC Security Test is a surprisingly detailed and effective program that checks your computer’s security against the ever increasing viruses, spyware, and hackers. This 1MB tool has a number of useful features, listed below, that reveal the security vulnerabilities on your computer.

Standard tests : The most important part of PST, the standard tests simulate a dummy malware and hacking attack to check the effectiveness of your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software. After the test, PST will compute your PC’s security index based on the performance of your security tools. Any of the simulated infection, which went unnoticed, will also be cleaned.

As you can see, I came up pretty flat in the spyware section. I’m using AVG antivirus pro 8.5 along with Windows firewall.

Email tests : Enter your email address, and PST will mail you a dummy virus to check if it’s being blocked by your email provider. If you use any of the popular email services like Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, or AOL, this test is pretty useless as all of these have strong virus scanners.

Browser tests : PST simulates an unauthorized ActiveX attack on Internet Explorer to check if it’s being blocked.

Proof Mode : This is the scary part! Well somewhat. Proof Mode consists of two tests – Information Gathering and Various Actions. The first test will try to pull in your username, Windows product key etc., the same way a spyware acts (this test fails on Windows Vista and 7). The second test shows you how easily malware can display fake messages, and even take control of something like your mouse, screen, or optical drives!

PST also carries some other useful features like ways to clean personal data from Internet Explorer, a quiz to test your security outlook, and general FAQs on viruses and spyware. The only irritating part is closing the program, which automatically takes you to the Download.com page for VirusKeeper (which possibly supports the free software).

PST hasn’t been updated since 2007, but runs smoothly on Windows Vista and 7. And of course it supports Windows XP as well. It may not run properly if you’ve got some HIPS tool like ThreatFire, Comodo Defense+, or Spyware Terminator.

So what now?

PST is a small reminder that how vulnerable we are to malware today. No need to worry though! Check out our “fortify your computer” tests to stay as much clear of malware as possible. And you could do with a modern day free antivirus too.