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Should You Pay for an Anti-Virus Program?

Submitted by dixonk
on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 15:11

Anti-virus? We don’t need no stinking anti-virus!

Uh, yes. As a matter of fact you do. What’s that? You use a Mac, so this doesn’t really apply? But Macs get viruses just like PCs, and it’s getting worse.

Many people ask me if it is the anti-virus companies that are writing the viruses in order to sell their software. My answer: nope. It’s simple. There are plenty of ne’er-do-wells out there who are trying to cause trouble for their own amusement, to make money or even as an additional bullet point on their résumés.

The decision of using an anti-virus really boils down to free or subscription programs, and while there are some differences between the two, the core difference is customer support.

Almost all mainstream subscription anti-virus products have customer service options that include phone support, whereas the free versions of the same anti-virus programs do not.

Phone support can be a great comfort, especially if you have a machine that contains a lot of business files, music or pictures and the virus has locked you out. The downside to the subscription service is that it more often than not comes as an all-inclusive set of programs.

Designed to protect your system from a host of scenarios, this suite can dramatically slow down your system. Let us also not ignore the fact that virus writers try to target specific anti-virus suites so that by knocking out the program, it leaves your system defenseless.

Although most of the free anti-viruses come as standalone programs and do not include much support, they do offer the same level of protection as their subscription counterparts. There are some real benefits by going with the free version. If your hard drive crashes and you lose all your invoicing, you’re not out the money of the purchase.

Also, if you have separately running anti-virus and anti-malware programs and a “nasty” knocks out one of them, it is often the case that the other standalone program will dampen the effects of the bug long enough to either back up your data or get it removed.

There are a lot of great programs out there, but here are a few that have served very well many of the people I've worked with.

Anti-virus: Eset Nod32, TrendMicro, Avast, Avira, Kaspersky, MS Security Essentials.

Anti-malware: Malwarebytes, Super Antispyware.

Some of these offer both free and subscription services, so take your time and look for the one that best fits your needs

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