Anti-Virus software Reviews
Anti-virus software is critical to ensuring your system is clean from threats that cause such harm from stealing your data to completely destroying your computer. Below we have reviewed anti-virus protection software that we recommend primarily for doing its job, defending against threats, feature functionality and on all round use.
There are a handful of anti-virus software vendors to choose from and a mix review over which one is the preferred choice. What makes it more complicated is that viruses are never predictable; virus creators are finding new ways to creating viruses to fool anti-virus packages. This means anti-virus software can perform differently from year to year. To add to this, vendors aim to bring a new major version of their product out once a year so a particular version may not be at all the same as the one in the previous year.
Luckily though, VB100 (Virus Bulletin 100) is an independent body which provide tests on anti-virus packages. They test anti-virus software products on a few areas such as the effectiveness at catching viruses, the speed and response time of the product and how well the anti-virus software product is able to detect and clean files from viruses.
Anti-virus Software Recommendations
Below we have outlined a couple of important areas to look at when choosing the right anti virus package:
Anti-virus Protection
First and foremost important aspect within an anti-virus product is how well it performs at detecting viruses and other malware such as spyware and rootkits.
The choice of anti virus software I would recommend is Kaspersky when it comes to protection. This year again Kaspersky has passed the VB100 tests on all operating systems tested. It has excellent detection rates for stopping viruses and other threats.
F-Secure and Symantec (Norton) also have performed very well on the VB100 tests.
Anti virus product Features
Secondly what additional features does the anti virus software come with? Below are some of the features you may want to look for in an anti-virus software package.
Protection for spyware, rootkits and other threats
E-mail scanner
Heuristic scanning
Real-time protection against malicious sites
Set a password so no one can change security settings
Some DLP functionality or identity theft protection
Flexibility to change features within the advanced settings
Back up and restore settings feature
Support for VPN - Either block or allow
Wireless support (Warning you of un-protected wireless access points)
Program control
Tidy, neat, organised and simple to use
Light on resources, responsive
Silent mode will not interrupt you when watching games and movies Quick and
Recovery tool
White list feature
Intrusion prevention
Rescue disk feature to recover your system if corrupted from malware
Wizards to help you configure features
Instant Messengers protection
Scans OS and application vulnerabilities
Excellent scanning functionality (The first scan will scan all files, but after this it will only scan files that have changed. This means after the first scan, the others will be very quick)
Auto Scan (Will scan when your computer is idle and so not slowing your system, down)
Toolbar for internet browsers to warn you about unsafe websites.
Virtual keyboard to help protect against key loggers
Heuristic scanning help protecting against zero day attacks
Good logging and reporting functionality
Easy to install
Reputable vendor (been around for a few years)
Our preferred choice would be to go with Kaspersky and Norton for being very feature rich. They both consist of some very useful and advanced features.
Overall Anti-virus Recommendation
We would recommend Kaspersky anti-virus software package as the all round complete package simply because it is great in all departments such as security, usability and has a very good feature set. Kaspersky is also very competitive for cost.
Norton has also in the recent years improved massively in a number of areas such as now being light on resources and much better to un-install. It has completely taken a u-turn from being a very resource heavy product into a very well built, and light on resource anti virus package. The key aspect that stands out with Norton is it is very simple to use and has an excellent virus detection engine. Norton however is a little more for the money. However the end user is paying for the brand and the security of a well known and reputable anti-virus package.
The other product we would recommend is F-Secure. F-Secure has a great anti-virus engine, has performed excellent in the VB100 tests and is a good all round package.
To visit Symantec (Norton) - Norton website
To visit Kaspersky -
Kaspersky Anti-Virus Products
To visit F-Secure -
http://www.f-secure.co.uk