Hacker Deterrent

Hacker Deterrent is a lightweight piece of software designed to help you monitor traffic on your network as well as applications that need to connect to the Internet, so that you can spot unusual activity and hence, potential viruses from hijacking your computer.

Uneventful installation, but rugged and minimalistic interface

The setup is fast, forthright and does not require any special attention from your part. Upon launch, you are welcomed by an outdated and old-school interface that you can resize, but cannot move around the desktop as you wish. Although the intention was to make it as non-obstructive as possible, it would have been nice if you could place it in a location that does not interfere with your work too much.
It is important to note that upon first launch, the tool blocks all application from connecting to the Internet except for the browser. Afterwards, it re-initiates the connection and discovers the actual applications that need to access the Internet.
You can grant access by clicking on them, while everything else remains blocked. Considering that you need to know the names of the processes and services, this is not exactly a tool for rookies.

Displays browser traffic with color-coding

The highlight of the program stems from the fact that it uses color codes to display connection attempts that can be potentially dangerous to allow. As you probably hinted, the green color entails that you are dealing with a known and reputable app, whereas the red on implies that it is known as malicious.
A further noteworthy feature is that the app packs dynamic whitelisting that is generated on-the-fly in real-time. Not only does this safe you a lot of time with configuring the lists, but it makes the creation of the whitelist a lot simpler. All you need to do is match the name of the apps with the ones of their manufacturers.

A tool that can help you navigate the Internet more safely

Even though it is not a looker, the app accurately displays the network activity and enables you to decide upon the apps that can accesses. All in all, Hacker Deterrent is a handy utility that can help increase the overall security of your system while surfing the net.