How to Choose Antivirus Software
Antivirus software can help you protect your computer system from the latest hack attacks, virus threats, and a multitude of risks and vulnerabilities that span the Internet today. Choosing the right antivirus software program for your needs is essential in maintaining a high level of security, and detecting and eliminating problems on your computer as soon as they occur.
Protecting your computer from viruses may feel like a daunting task, but the right program can help you eliminate most of the dangerous threats, and initiate various measures to protect your data and operating system. Antivirus software programs execute a variety of programs and applications to ensure that your data is kept safe, and information on new virus threats is up to date. Since the top performing antivirus software packages will automatically connect to their respective vendors to keep up to date on the latest threats (virus patterns and latest program updates), it is more or less about ensuring that the right settings have been chosen within many options that your antivirus software offers. The protection program should run in real-time mode with the additional options that make virus scan scheduling easy. Scans can be set to check all files, or just those that are known to be attacked the most.
Signature detection is the easiest way to locate a virus (based on its pattern), but not all viruses have static patterns. For polymorphic viruses, whose signature changes on each infection, we need more than a virus pattern database, in order to detect them. This is where antivirus programs can offer a valuable capability to detect and highlight any virus files or parasites that are on the computer system, based on its “intelligence” and knowledge of how the system works (OSI model - RFC793). We often refer to this as heuristic research system.
Choosing between the different antivirus software programs involves looking for some key attributes.
First, the software program should highlight exactly how the protection works. This involves:
- automatic virus detection
- detection of other threats
- email and instant messaging scanning
- types of manual and scheduled scan
- automated updates
- additions like anti-spyware and firewall
Secondly, the program will indicate how much of the system resources are required in order for it to operate. Depending on the resources available on your computer, this may slow down your general computer processes, although you should not have any problem with relatively decent computer. Finding an efficient and compact program that still offers all the features you are looking for is the best option. If the space is an issue, you may need to remove larger files or programs to accommodate for the space needed by the selected antivirus package. In such case, you would probably need a new hard drive anyway.
Third, the software program should offer complete and continuous updates. Some programs will offer daily or weekly logs and reports that summarize what was found, and what action was taken. The frequency of updates should also be highlighted somewhere on the software package; this can help to narrow down the choices in antivirus software considerably, since not every program offers exactly the same options. This is essential in staying up to date with the latest software news, and ensuring that your program is outfitted with appropriate tools and instructions for malicious virus removals. Some of the antivirus programs have a kind of “Threat Info Center” with very useful information about current situation.
Finally, there are some bonus features of various programs available. Some programs offer free versions for handheld devices and other portable computers. Others may offer incentives for free upgrades, or rebates on a current purchase. Choosing the best antivirus program that suits your needs and computer’s data capacity is not too difficult with the right approach.
