Malware, bots, trojans, pups, and phishing scams all sound terrifying right? We are all told its a good thing to have some form of antivirus protection, but what does that actually do for you?
Lets break down what these software's do and how they protect you. Your network is like traffic, you have files, codes and information flowing through your network kind of like a highway. Antivirus software will use various scans on incoming files, or codes that are passed through your network at any given time. This will detect if you have anything in your files or machine other then what is supposed to be there. Each program is tested by going through Real Time Antivirus, Web Level Protection, Phishing Detection and Spam Filtering Testing.
While everyone has their own ideas about which antivirus is the best, lets go over the more well known and used programs to give you a more informed idea on which product is best for you!
Norton Antivirus
Norton is a well known company, providing antivirus products for the last 31 years. Norton was launched in 1991 and is owned by Symantec Corporation.
This software is well known by many and offers five different versions of protection for your machine. Their prices range from $60/year to $350/year and you will receive a small discount for your first year!
This program is user-friendly making their website and program east to navigate through. Norton also has good virus detection rates making it reliable in that aspect. However this program also requires you to constantly update the program, and they are not updating their codes when doing so. It requires a considerable amount of memory to run, Norton uses more RAM then other programs bogging down your machines overall performance. When uninstalling the program people often find remnants of the program still on their hard drive after uninstalled, and lets not forget to mention that cancelling is a bigger hassle then its worth, constantly getting a run around just so they wont charge you!
Recently it has also been brought to light that Norton is adding and installing a Crypto Miner to their Norton 360 Security Suite while not informing customers of this addition or installation. Customer's can cash out the crypto mining however Norton receives a percentage of the money earned. Since this development, Norton has began turning into the one thing its supposed to prevent, malware.
McAfee
McAfee was acquired by Intel in 1987 and was then sold to TPG. They have advanced their product over the last 35 years making it one of the more sought out antivirus programs. They offer four different packages allowing you to cover more devices if needed but they do have quite a few price plans. This program is a tad more budget friendly it can still seem like a lot especially with their different plans, they have prices ranging from $40 to $130 a year.
This program does offer some special features which allows parents to let their kids enjoy their devices without having to look over their shoulders. This feature is called the Safe Family and it offers parental control capabilities letting parents remotely monitor websites, which apps are opened, and how much time their kiddo is spending online.
However, they do not offer email security which is a big deal for many! McAfee has always had aggressive advertising and just like Norton, they do not update their codes nearly as frequently as they should. While they offer cool features their performance rate is low, and they do not have a high detection rate for malware, letting pups, trojans and other slip through your network.
McAfee may be more on the budget friendly side but the low performance isn't worth the price you pay for the coverage or if something major happens.
Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes is a United States based company that was founded in 2008 by Marcin Kleczynski. This company is based out of Santa Clara, CA. While it in a younger and new program it has held its own against others.
While the others offer multiple plans or packages Malwarebytes offers three. Their premium plans offer 1 or 5 devices or you can get their Premium + Privacy plan, these plans range from $40/year to $100/year making them far cheaper then their competition. They also allow a monthly plan making even smaller payments!
Not only is Malwarebytes extremely user friendly, it has the fastest and most effective scans, a low system impact which allows your machine to still run fast and snappy but it also is the strongest against exploits and ransomware. Not only does it protect you against the small things but Malwarebytes will also protect you and your machine against hackers, malicious sites, infected ads, and ransomware!
While Norton uses a bunch of RAM and bogs down your machine Malwarebytes uses 50% less CPU Resources and every customer can customize their protection to their needs!
Of course everyone will have to decide on their own but coming from our tech team, we see more computers come in with scams when they have Norton and McAfee then we do computers that have Malwarebytes. Doing some research on these types of programs can help you save a pretty penny or overall just make the best conscious decision for yourself.
For any questions regarding Antivirus protection give our local Woodland Park shop a call today at 855.728.6824!