Fighting Viruses: The Latest Advancements in Antivirus Software

It is getting increasingly difficult to protect your computer from getting involved with a virus. You cannot let go of your vigilance for even one second. Even the Microsoft Software Company has been infected on occasion.

Do you remember when we didn’t have viruses and could download anything we wanted safely? It was a simple thing then to download something and viruses just did not exist. You could catch a virus on a floppy disk but that was about it. It would take a while for any virus to degrade the system. There was software to protect your computer but it was simply to identify and eradicate computer viruses before too much damage could be done. Computer users were also able to scan all floppy disks in order to copy them afresh onto your computer and saving them to your desktop.

The Internet really did affect all of that. It provided space for viruses to move around from different host to different host—all very quickly. Floppy disks weren’t the primary source of entry of viruses. Now email, software downloads, peer-to-peer sharing, email attachments and instant messaging were all sources of a potential infection. You don’t need human intervention in order to become infected by a virus. Viruses can gain entry via many entry points and can attack the vulnerable aspects of your computer system. Technology is advancing constantly and there will be new types of threats out there.

Keeping your Computer Protected

Antivirus software has luckily kept pace with the threats out there. If you buy antivirus software, you will likely fend off most types of malware and viruses out there. Such products will keep you from getting a virus through file servers, web browsers, email, file servers and desktops. They offer a centralized control feature that can handle the updating of the program, the deployment of the program and the configuration of your system.
As a computer user, you should remain vigilant and protect yourself against viruses in the following ways:

1. Take a look at the computer security you have now.
   Nowadays, the threats are so commonplace and big that just one antivirus program is not enough. It is too easy to have the antivirus program become outdated and not of any use to you. Get a comprehensive system of security measures which includes an antivirus system, a content filtering system, an intrusion detection system and a firewall. Your system will become more impenetrable with such a system.
2. Use an antivirus software program that comes from a reputable source.
   Because there are new viruses every day, you should be able to regularly update the software you use to protect yourself against viruses. Know your antivirus software’s ability to scan in real-time and have it scan your computer upon every boot up. This automatically protects your system by working each time you power it up.
3. Scan all new programs, regardless of their source.
4. Be careful whenever you open a binary, Excel or Word document you know nothing about. This is especially true if it comes via email or IM.
5. Regularly back up your programs so that they are available when your system is corrupted. You may only be able to get your data back using this method.

Antivirus Software We Recommend

There are a lot of antivirus software programs out there. You can research to find the one that works the best for you. Many programs have a trial program that allows you to check out the system before actually purchasing it. A few antivirus programs can be hard to uninstall once you have installed it. Always set up a system restore point prior to installing the software.

The following are good antivirus software programs you should consider buying:

BitDefender 9 Standard gives you standard antivirus care and P-2-P protection. It also has email protection in a virtual environment. This keeps the OS safe from dangerous viruses by finding malicious code, especially for ones that have no signature.

The Shield Pro 2005™ gives you standard antivirus protection and security against hackers using ongoing updates and support. It promises you that it will provide you with a patch within 2-3 hours of a virus breakout and will fix the problem within 5 hours. You can run a complete virus scan every week.

PC-cillin Internet Security has both a firewall and antivirus security systems. It gives you a wide range of protection against worms, Trojans, hackers and viruses. It also removes spam and spyware. It blocks pharming and phishing attacks so as to guard against identity theft.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 is easy to use and install. You need to choose between three levels of virus protection and it will update your system every hour if you choose to have it do it that way. It offers two-tier protection of your email program and you get to have round-the-clock tech support.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is free. You can download the program and, for a free program, it is very reliable. It happens to be one of the most reputable free anti-virus programs out there. AVG, however, cannot be installed on a server and tech support is nonexistent. As it is free, it is a good way of supporting home computers. Free trials are, of course, a given so it is worth trying the programs to see how it works.

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