Recommended antivirus software

[message type=”info”]Given the prevalence of malware on Windows systems these days, the choice of which security system is important. There are several broadly agreed-upon criteria as to what constitutes a ‘good’ anti-malware product.[/message]

1. Consistently effective ‘proactive’ and ‘on-demand’ scanning results in independent testing situations. ‘Proactive’ is when the scanner runs in the background and alerts you if something dangerous is going on. ‘On-demand’ is when the scanner is directed to a file by the user to check the safety of a file. Independent tests are run by a number of organisations and results are publicly available for many of these. Its important that effectiveness results are provided by a party other than the developer of the AV software, as most developers will use testing that favours their own product in order to publish favourable results.

2. A low rate of false-positives. This is when security software alerts you to a threat that is not genuine – one example would be saying a file is infected with a virus, when in actual fact it is not. High false-positive rates can be a very annoying and distracting aspect of lesser-quality security software. Again, the rates need to be established by an independent third party in order to be considered meaningful

3. A low system-footprint. All AV solutions will use the memory and processor cycles of the machine they run on in order to do their job. Unfortunately, some security suites will do this to an extent to which they will slow down the rest of the functionality of the computer. The best systems have high rates of detection AND cause minimal performance-loss to the systems they run on.

• Free solution: Microsoft Security Essentials and Threatfire used together
• Paid solution: Kaspersky Internet Security.

Free or Paid?

A paid system is generally regarded as better quality protection than free. Regarding the above recommendations, Kaspersky is a security suite with a more rounded set of protection tools than the free options of Threatfire and MSSE.

As to whether its ‘necessary’ to pay for AV is very much an individual consideration, and will depend on internet usage habits, past infection rates, and the personal value of the documents and software on the computer which is to be protected.

The rate for skilled malware-removal in SA averages at around $100-200 for a single computer. Often the smartest form of removal (particularly with a type of infection called a ‘Rootkit’) is a system re-format in which all installed programs are lost and the operating system is re-installed.

Kaspersky and similar quality AV solutions cost apx $40AUD per year.

[message type=”erroneous”]
AV Systems to avoid:

1. Norton 360
2. Mcafee
3. Trend Micro

–Why? Both Norton and Mcafee have long standing reputations for causing problems with machines they are installed on. Both also have significant slow-down effects. Trend Micro, despite its high-profile as an AV, has extremely poor detection rates.[/message]

Link: av-comparatives.org