Since the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report was released last month, we’ve been discussing some of the findings here, including research on the Conficker worm and the prevalence of rogue security software called scareware.

Here are three Microsoft tools that can help you protect yourself from these threats and others:

• Microsoft Security Essentials offers free real-time protection that combines an anti-virus and anti-spyware scanner with phishing and firewall protection.
• The Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free downloadable security tool that provides on-demand scanning and helps remove malware and other malicious software. The Microsoft Safety Scanner is not a replacement for an up-to-date antivirus solution, because it does not offer real-time protection and cannot prevent a computer from becoming infected.
• SmartScreen Filter, a feature in Internet Explorer 8 and 9, offers protection against phishing sites and sites that host malware. Microsoft maintains a database of phishing and malware sites reported by users of Internet Explorer and other Microsoft products and services. If you attempt to visit a site in the database with the filter enabled, Internet Explorer displays a warning and blocks navigation to the page.

For more information, see a list of free Microsoft products help protect your computer from malware.