Cyber security is becoming increasingly important for us all, but what is an antivirus, how does it work and how do you choose the best for your needs?
Ever since the personal computer became common, we’ve been protecting them from infection. However, what used to be a bunch of hackers, is now becoming a major industry. Cyber criminals are out there, and they are targeting your device. As we begin to store more information on our computers, tablets and smartphones good security has never been more important. Unfortunately, many people still don’t fully understand what an antivirus is, or what it does.
About antiviruses
Antiviruses have been with us for years. As the name implies they are there to protect your computer from catching a cold. The internet is a great tool, but it’s also a dangerous place in which viruses attempt to infect a computer every day. Those which go without an antivirus software package in place run a high risk.
Their function is to scan and identify any viruses or malware which might infect your computer. These work to get onto your system and can infect your computer in many ways. You might find that you’re being bombarded with spam advertisements, or have trouble using certain programs.
The more malicious programmes will attempt to access data on your computer and in extreme cases could even be used for identity theft. The problem is: many people will not know this is happening. They all work in the background, gathering the information. You won’t know there’s a problem until you check your bank account and find there’s nothing in it.
Rise of ransomware
One of the fastest rising threats is something called ransomware. This will deny access to your computer, and demand a ransom to get it unlocked. Think about all the things you have on your PC – photos, videos, music and so on: how much would you pay to get it unlocked. Many people also have embarrassing secrets in their browsing history.
When the website Ashley Madison which helps married people to have affairs was hacked, the names and addresses of its users suddenly became public. Marriages were ended, people lost their jobs and one person even committed suicide. It’s a horrible story, but it points to a worrying truth. Cyber criminals know many people have things on their computer they’d rather the world didn’t know about; their cyber defences may not be the most robust which makes them a tempting a potentially lucrative target.
Getting the right antivirus
Having an antivirus, then, is not just something that is nice to have. It should be seen as one of the most important things you can do. There is a growing number of antivirus programmes, all offering various services and different levels of protection. At their most basic, though, they should do the following.
- Scan for infected files.
- Schedule scans to run automatically.
- Identify and remove any malicious files it finds.
- Tell you about the health of your computer.
Antiviruses may differ in how they go about the task of protecting your computer. Some may proactively identify and automatically remove any infected files. Others may simply flag the files up and ask if you want to remove them yourself.
Getting the best out of an antivirus
The market for antivirus software is busy and growing. The level of protection varies from free basic apps which provide the minimum security to more expensive premium services which offer advanced features such as file encryption, real-time scanning, parental controls, backups and ransomware blockers.
They are ideal if you store large quantities of highly sensitive data and want contingency plans in place if anything goes wrong. However, if you only use your computer occasionally, have little data on it and stick to safe websites, it might be overkill. You’ll be wasting money and the additional memory required by a top of the range piece of antivirus software could slow your computer down unnecessarily.
To choose the best you need to know what features it offers, how it will work, and whether it offers the level of protection you need. To do that you need to find out how it works in the real world. The good news is that there are all sorts of reviews out there. People will be happy to rate an app and share their experiences – both good and bad. Our reviews, section, meanwhile has exhaustively tested the main antiviruses out there, to see how it performs, whether they do what they say on the tin and what features they offer. As with so many things, it pays to shop around. The more research you do, the better positioned you will be to make an informed decision.