Whether you’re running a computer or device using a Windows, Mac or Android operating system, there are significant risks to avoid. Modern cybercriminals have sophisticated tools that target a wide array of OS, so antivirus software is essential to protect yourself. But, there are many antivirus software solutions on the market and it can be difficult to find the right one to meet all your needs.
Some are more complex to configure and use than others and they may not mesh with how you plan to use your devices. In extreme cases, a poor antivirus choice may even make your devices more vulnerable to a potential attack and you may be none the wiser! So, let’s take a closer look at how antivirus software works, features you may need and offer some recommendations to flatten the learning curve.
A Brief Antivirus Software Primer
The best way to start with antivirus software is to think about the type of protection that the product offers. As you might expect, the primary purpose of the software should be to protect your computer and other devices against viruses. But, good products can offer protection against other cyberthreats that can compromise your safety and privacy. Let’s take a close look at two common cyberthreats that should factor into your decision-making process when you choose an antivirus software product.
- Malware: These are unwanted software projects that are secretly placed onto your devices to use, gather and disrupt your personal data. Malware can include viruses, adware, spyware and ransomware.
- Scams: These tend to be less subtle than malware and the most common examples are phishing and pharming. The user is enticed into clicking a link on an email, text, website, online message or shady app to gain access to a device.
There is some overlap between these two cyberthreats and a hacker will often use both to reach their goals. A common tactic is to use a scam to deliver the malware onto the device. But, some malware can be found in surprising places on connected devices or the web. In the case of ransomware the malware is a scam and it’s used for extortion purposes. Good antivirus software should offer robust detection and protection against these cyberthreats in isolation and when they are used together.
Threat Prevention Features
The internet is constantly evolving and your antivirus software must have the capability to identify and prevent security risks. Certain products only treat a problem after it’s occurred which is a less robust solution than most of us would be comfortable with. The very best antivirus software is proactive and this is commonly referred to as “threat prevention”. There are three main threat prevention features that your next antivirus software product should include.
Web Browsing Protection
This will filter the URL, web pages and links to evaluate their level of potential risk and safety history. This is important because the vast majority of cyberattacks occur via an internet connection to your browser.
Complete System Scans
This reviews your devices for data that has become compromised. This can help you to find any malware or spyware that could be hiding on your device.
Reactive File Scanning
This vets any new files by comparing them to a database of known risks. This will help you to determine if a file is safe to open on your device.
As you can see, filtering and scanning are essential for cybersecurity, but how does the software know what is and what isn’t malicious?
Known-Threat Databases
These are databases that are compiled by antivirus providers to identify dangers for their users. They are constantly updated to identify emerging threats in a game of cat and mouse with evolving cyberthreats. It’s a difficult task to protect every device against adware, spyware and malware and certain tools offer more than others.
When you’re evaluating antivirus software, pay attention to the detection rates that determine how accurately it can identify potential threats and clean files. If the detection rate is good there will be a high success rate for true positives and true negatives.
- True Positives: This is when the antivirus software determines that a harmful file is malware.
- True Negatives: This is when the software determines that a file is harmless and safe to open on your device.
Good antivirus should not give you false positives and false negatives.
- False Positives: This is when the antivirus software determines that a harmless file is malware and this can occur if the threat threshold is too high. In extreme cases, the software may remove files that are completely safe to use on your device.
- False Negatives: This is when the software determines that a harmful file is safe to open. This may occur if the threat database has not identified a new or novel threat.
Pay close attention to false positive ratings or you may choose antivirus software that removes files you rely on. Choose an antivirus program that’s been tested and verified by multiple labs. Read the reviews on TechRadar, Virus Bulletin, NSS LAbs and others to learn more about antivirus software for your chosen OS. This is important because there can be differences in performance between the various OS choices. What may be working well on Windows may not be the best choice for Mac users and vice versa.
How Do I Choose Antivirus Software?
Not all antivirus software products are created equal and some may be lacking in usability, reliability and protection against cyberthreats. Let’s take a look at five key factors that you should consider carefully before you make your choice.
Usability
This is a difficult aspect of software to quantify because people tend to use their tools in ways that are specific to them. But, for day-to-day use, it’s fair to say that the average antivirus user doesn’t want software that requires special skills to use.
The learning curve should be fairly flat and the software should be intuitive. If the antivirus software is asking complex questions and requiring the user to make highly technical decisions, it’s failing most people. When the software is too complex there is a higher incidence of “operator errors” and it’s too hard to run many users will disable it.
Robust Protection
The antivirus software you choose should offer constant protection for any computer domain. Any network element or file type can be subject to an attack using a virus and other malware. The software should have the capability to detect any malicious code and protect the entry points to your devices. This should include emails you receive, FTP, sites you may visit online and more.
High Quality Protection
Good protection is important, but many modern cyberthreats are extremely aggressive in nature and they evolve constantly. Certain viruses, trojan viruses and worms are more complex than the malware that we’ve become acquainted with over the past decade.
These cyberthreats have proven to be adept at circumventing antivirus software that isn’t updated regularly with a comprehensive known-threat database. The quality of the protection can depend on the effectiveness of detection, ability to remove infections, the frequency of updates and delivering protection without significantly degrading the device performance.
Efficient Performance
In ideal circumstances, the antivirus software should work constantly in the background without slowing your computer. The best products will be scanning as you conduct a wide variety of tasks, such as launching apps, downloading files, achieving and unarchiving, copying and pasting files and browsing online.
Some security software performs well in each of these tasks and others are more efficient at certain tasks. So, it makes sense to choose antivirus software that’s tailored to the type of computing that you’re engaged in. Circumstances can change, perhaps you want to turn your home computer into a work computer or vice versa. For this reason, it’s a great idea to choose software that will have features that you may need in the future.
Reliability
The best antivirus software in the world will be virtually useless if it doesn’t work all the time. One of the more common problems is an antivirus product that conflicts with the other software that you have on your device. These conflicts can cause a temporary suspension or a malfunction that can have an impact on your productivity. To make matters worse, your device will be more vulnerable when the conflict occurs.
5 Popular Antivirus Software Picks
There is no one-size-fits-all antivirus solution that would be a great fit for every user. This can present a challenge for buyers when they are exposed to the vast range of antivirus software products on the market. To make the choice easier we’ve compiled a short list of five popular antivirus products (in alphabetical order).
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus
With Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, you’re getting a utility that goes way beyond what most antivirus software products offer. The “Plus” refers to the extra features included with this product, such as: a hardened browser for finances, VPN protection, auto security patch detection, Ransomware detection and many more.
Independent testing granted this software perfect or almost perfect scores in all the key areas. The ransomware defense system is especially noteworthy and it’s a feature that’s lacking in much of the competition. For antivirus protection and more, this is an excellent product that’s well worth a look.
Pros
- Offers excellent phishing fraud protection.
- The browser is isolated for banking safety.
- Advertisers cannot track you online.
- The ransomware protection is deep and multi-layered.
- The independent lab testing scores are excellent.
- Full protection for MacOS, iOS, Android and Windows systems.
Cons
- The hands-on malware blocking test scores were sub-optimal.
- The hands-on malicious URL defense test score is mediocre.
- A separate subscription is required for full VPN access.
Malwarebytes Premium Security
For many years, Malwarebytes Free was the go to tool for cleanup when a standard antivirus product couldn’t get the job done. It’s fair to say that many PC users relied on the free version and often preferred it over products with high price tags. Malwarebytes garnered a reputation as that quirky speciality tool that just works. But, for some this was not a tool that they turned to for regular day-to-day problem solving.
This has all changed. Malwarebytes Premium now has every feature that you would expect to see in a full antivirus software suite. This product has scanning on demand, real-time protection, ransomware activity detection, protection against exploit attacks, behaviour-based detection and more.
Reviewers have scored this software highly in hands-on tests and it offers excellent protection against malicious web pages. Anyone familiar with Malwarebytes Free to fix problems will certainly appreciate this significant upgrade. Those new to Malwarebytes will appreciate the scan speeds and intuitive interface that helps to flatten the learning curve.
Pros
- Excellent protection against fraudulent sites.
- At least one independent lab gave this software very good scores.
- The ransomware protection is very effective.
- In hands-on testing the malware detection score was impressive.
Cons
- Despite the upgrade the feature set is basic in comparison to the competition.
- Certain test scores have dropped over the last year.
McAfee Antivirus
The earlier incarnation of this product was McAfee AntiVirus Plus which offered cross-platform protection. But, for Windows computer users, this “basic” software is a great option for a single PC.
There are no volume discounts for the purchase of multiple licenses which could deter those that want to install on multiple machines. That said, the independent testing labs praised this company for their impressive malware protection.
The majority of labs returned scores at or near maximum and despite the moniker it offers plenty of advanced features including a firewall, ransomware protection and more. The switch to a single windows PC licence has made McAfee a valid choice for those that need to protect one computer.
Pros
- The independent lab testing scores were virtually perfect.
- The company offers a money-back virus protection pledge.
- Most of the hands-on tests have achieved excellent scores with reviewers.
Cons
- Only a single PC can be protected with this product.
- There is no volume discount.
- Some long-standing McAfee features are no longer present.
Norton AntiVirus Plus
Along with McAfee, Norton is probably the most recognized name when it comes to antivirus software. Over the decades, this company has innovated consistently and Norton AntiVirus Plus is now their flagship product.
Independent lab testing scores are excellent and most reviewer hands-on tests achieved similar outcomes. One test pitted the “Data Protector” feature against a dozen ransomware samples and defended against them.
Beyond the antivirus capabilities there are other exciting features, such as an intelligent firewall, a software updater tool, vulnerability scans and an optional powerful back system.
Pros
- Top scores in hands-on and independent lab testing.
- Intelligent firewall protection is impressive.
- The Data Protector offers plenty of protection against ransomware attacks.
- Suite-level features such as vulnerability scans are included.
Cons
- The feature set is impressive and the price tag reflects it.
- The user cannot create local backups.
Webroot AntiVirus
Webroot may be a lesser known name outside techie circles, but this is a mature company and it has a proven track record in the industry. Back in the day, users would marvel at how much protection earlier iterations offered with a tiny footprint on their computer. Most of Webroot’s current presence is located in the cloud and this latest antivirus tool will wipe out malware quickly.
Where Webroot AntiVirus differs is in how it interacts with unknown files which it sends for analysis in the cloud. Until the authenticity is verified, the program can be run in isolation and system changes are only virtual. This ensures that a change on your system cannot be permanent if you’re in a hurry to check a file or evaluate a piece of software.
Cloud analysis can take some time to complete, but if the program is found to be malicious it’s eliminated and any system changes are rolled back to their previous state. This advanced feature can make standardized tests difficult to evaluate and this is reflected in a range of test scores. But, reviewers found that in hands-on testing the system worked well and it earned top marks. It is true that some of the advanced features may be beyond the skills of most users.
Pros
- Ultra-fast scanning.
- Tiny footprint on your device.
- System resource requirements are light.
- Ransomware damage is remediated.
- Plenty of advanced features to explore.
Cons
- The firewall settings can confuse most casual users.
- There is no volume discount.
- Remote monitoring and configuration are no longer offered.
- The lab test results are sporadic and limited.
- Limited protection against hand-modified ransomware attacks.
It’s an unfortunate fact that most people tend to avoid buying and using antivirus software until they fall victim to an attack. This could be a weird glitch or a slower computer or something far more sinister such as a ransomware attack. Adopting a proactive approach to potential problems is always the smarter move. Any of the five antivirus software products we’ve discussed in this article will offer good protection from a variety of cyberthreats. It’s always a good idea to do your own research, however.
