You and I may have taken the 4th of July off, but the folks over at TrueCrypt didn't. Instead, they pushed out version 6.0 of their on-the-fly encryption utility, with more options than ever for protecting - and hiding - the critical data on your hard drives. Available for Linux, OS X, and Windows, the software is licensed under its own TrueCrypt license, which is not OSI-approved.

Many users of open source software point to the fact that their applications and platforms are more secure than proprietary alternatives simply because they aren't such obvious targets for malware distribution. As just one example, the Standish Group recently completed a survey in which 70 percent of respondents said Red Hat Linux is less vulnerable to security threats than Windows. Still, it's good to protect yourself with top-notch security applications, and LinuxPlanet has an excellent list of 75 good choices--mostly for Linux users. Here, I'll round up 10 of my favorite choices from their list for multipe platforms, and discuss what these applications can do for you.