How many hours have you whiled away watching YouTube videos, “checking up” on your ex on Facebook, or battling away with online games? Fun as the Internet may be to use, it also has a very dark side. You are never too many websites away from stumbling across the latest bit of malicious software seeking to infect your PC. In the endless fight against these threats, we’ve sourced the 5 best antimalware products out there – and they’re all free, too.

In a massive operation that covered four continents and involved a number of law enforcement agencies, 100 people have been arrested owing to their use of a "remote administration tool" called Blackshades. The FBI-led operation saw raids throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. This comes in the wake of a similar operation in 2012 that had resulted in 20 arrests, including the tool's alleged leader coder, Michael Hogue. Despite Hogue's arrest, Symantec still reported a rise in Blackshades-related attacks and infections through 2013.

Both Microsoft and Adobe have released critical security fixes to plug dangerous security holes in their products. Microsoft has published eight update bundles for 13 security vulnerabilities for Windows, as well as software that runs in the operating system. In the meantime, Adobe issued patches for holes in Adobe Acrobat, Reader and Flash Player.

Have you ever been casually surfing the Internet when, suddenly, a popup comes out of nowhere warning you that you have XX number of viruses? It would look like it came from Windows, and we wouldn't blame you for getting scared. This is actually a form of malware known as scareware - this software will not only infect your system, but it will try and trick you into using your credit card. The program does this by claiming that it will only remove these many viruses if you purchase the full version of its "antivirus software."

According to Canadian officials, the hacker responsible for last week's Heartbleed-related breach of the Canadian Revenue Agency has been arrested.