I was doing some researching on the latest antivirus programs. It seems today the viruses are really not viruses at all; a virus is an entity that infects the host computer and replicate replacing executable files with its own code and corrupting and / or destroying the system. Lately or the past few years infections are not viruses, they are considered malware or adware programs. They do not replicate, but they do act like a Trojan horse, in which back in the day Trojan horses are used to create a backdoor into the host to control the computer or spy. Malware as I would like to call it, creates a worm like system collecting data, open up a backdoor using a robot as I would like to call it a drone that phones home to its creator. Also have seen some Malware use the rootkit technology that *hides* it’s existence from the user and its antivirus tools but creates malicious ways to use that computer. Such as key logging, browse snooping, browser redirections especially for search strings with google, yahoo, and msn. Viruses these days are very complex and a long time ago I help construct the very first ones in its existence. So I do know how deep they like to embed even down to the bios level, but my question is that I get asked a lot is what antivirus is good to use.
I am not going to do what ¾ of the other techs will do and benchmark them, but I will tell you exactly what I have used and why I like it overall. There is a lot of techs out there that is hardcore to AVG, Avira, and even Avast or one I use these days called Microsoft’s Security Essentials. I personally think the best one is the one that uses fewer resources and doesn’t restrict you from your own computer. Because firewalls these days are built into the router you use “Linksys, D-Link, etc… “And you are virtually behind a NAT anyways, and that means you are on a virtual network inside behind the router.
Now what about them corporate antiviruses? Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, etc. personally they are no different but maybe worse than the ones you find free, they are most attacked by the malware makers to exploit the users.
So how do you defend from the malicious places of the world wide web? Well my suggestion and in which I help teach typical users how-to safely browse the internet of today, it’s all about click smart. Know what you are looking for and know what to not look for. Typically any antivirus will protect you from viruses, and don’t get scared by the media “viruses” that claim has hit the internet. Media uses Norton, Kaspersky, or even other corporate antivirus new flags as an internet news tactics.
If you are using internet explorer, I would recommend please stop using it. Closed source browser is ok and all but typically it’s always naturally flawed and it will always be a weak source to contracting viruses, I always advise users to use either Firefox with Adblock Plus and WOT.(Web of Trust) add ons. Or Chrome is another alternative. This will help you when you are browsing because with AdBlock Plus you are stopping malicious 3rd party adds that could possibly contain (malware) stopped at the source and while WOT will tell you if the link is OK or a reported bad site, and WOT also works with google searches. Which is awesome you will get no more fake sites listed on google with high ranking SEO that is a fake and rated very poor site.
Overall, it’s turned more into a personal reference now days of who uses what and why, no one has a real reason why they choose Avast over AVG or AVG over Avast, or Avira over both etc… personally I use Microsoft’s products with Microsoft’s software. Why not? if you benchmark it on some of the top sites, MS Acquired an antivirus company that is strictly for this as a department. It works, it’s less a resource hog, and it I have not had an issue with it. It wont stop tool bars from being installed but to fix that is have to fix the problem that exist between keyboard and chair. In a corporate setting it is actually different, I would still use MS Security Essentials, but would focus more on their security software they also provide, I used to use Symantec and Trendmicro.