New versions of ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus are out now for public download for BETA testing. These new version of ESET Smart Security 7 (Beta) and ESET NOD32 Antivirus 7 (Beta) feature many improvements, most noticeable being improved ESET Anti-Theft feature, improved Anti-phishing and numerous improvements to the ESET Personal firewall. The new scanning engine is able to handle heavily-encrypted threats that evade detection with Advanced Memory Scanner, the Vulnerability Shield allows users to stay protected from threats or attacks trying to exploit network vulnerabilities and improved cleaning engine which allows it to eliminate extremely persistent malware and rootkits. ESET is also giving away free One year license keys for ESET Smart Security 7 to 500 lucky BETA testers.

Kaspersky and ESET are my top choices when it comes to computer security, the good news is ESET Smart Security 6 and ESET NOD32 Antivirus 6 Betas are now available for download. With usual updates like improvement to the GUI, Personal Firewall, Cloud-based reputation of files and proactive heuristic detection the upgrade features Idle-state Scanning, scan while downloading files, update rollback and the best of all, exciting - Anti-theft functionality.

While equipped with the standard computer and internet security features like protection from internet threats, identity theft and parental controls the most exciting feature of this new release is "Computer Anti-Theft", a feature not available in any other malware protection software. The "Eset Anti-Theft" feature allows users to track there computer's location, snap webcam images with desktop screenshots in case there PC gets stolen via an online portal to collect valuable recon data to track there device and get it back. Something similar can be achieved using separate anti-theft utilities reviewed here earlier.

A detailed image tour of the feature is posted below.

We have shared basic laptop theft tracking utilities earlier but multi-platform laptop tracking utility PREY is much more powerful and feature rich, the free software for Windows, Linux and Mac allows laptop owners to retrieve general status of the computer, list of running programs, active connections, detailed network/WiFi information, screenshot of desktop and even picture of thief (if a webcam is connected) by email if the laptop is determined stolen by periodic checking of an URL on internet.

Laptop owners needs to configure and activate PREY once and it will run in background periodically checking internet for pre-configured URL without getting noticed, if URL is found it will send e-mail with all tracking information attached.