Article provided exclusively by Bitdefender Antivirus
The Internet is a wonderful thing and for most of us, it caters to a multitude of needs, ranging from business opportunities, to spending leisure time or acting like the perfect tutor. However, this wonderful and complex environment has its dark alleys where you may get ripped off, tricked into divulging your identity or conned into signing a blank check to various groups of cyber-crooks.
If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re either considering getting an antivirus for the first time or migrating from one disappointing product to another hopefully better one. Here are some tips and tricks to help you get the greatest performance for your money.
First of all it is mandatory that you make sure you pick a LEGIT antivirus. Antivirus products are extremely often counterfeit and offer no real protection. They cost much more than a genuine security solution and offer no protection at all against malware. More than that, some of them popup out of nowhere and inform you that you are infected and in desperate need of a good antivirus. These are Trojans that end up installing other malicious applications on your PC without your consent.
It is always safest to download the desired antivirus solution only from the vendor’s website. Another trick is to pay a visit to http://av-comparatives.org and see if your product of choice is listed there. And if it is, you have the guarantee that it is a legit product that offers superior protection against online threats of any kind.
Another crucial aspect to consider when picking an antivirus is the frequency with which the security product receives its updates. The more often the product is updated, the more protection it offers against newly discovered threats.
A competitive antivirus successfully integrates behavioral analysis – a technology that allows the antivirus to accurately terminate when an application behaves abnormally. If, for instance, an application tries to delete system files, copies itself in reserved locations or injects itself in other processes, the antivirus deems it dangerous and kills it before harming the PC.
The presence of sandbox is also essential when it comes to a reliable antivirus. If you come across a totally new sample of malware that your antivirus hasn’t been trained to “recognize” yet, then chances are it will evade detection and infect your PC. If the antivirus features a sandbox, it will analyze the application in a contained environment in order to see if running it on your PC is dangerous or not.
Depending on how you use your PC, you might also need some specific features from an AV solution. That is, if you are actively surfing the web, using e-mail clients to get the messages from your inbox, shopping online, or keep in touch with friends via various social networking platforms, you definitely need a lot more than a proficient anti-malware utility. Your best choice of antivirus suite should also include antiphishing, antivirus and antispam protection, along a social media safety utility – basically any product that falls in the Internet Security category.
If you use every bit of resources in your PC and need a product that offers you the possibility to perform maintenance and tune-up, then you probably need a Total Security version of the antivirus.