Anti-Virus & Security Software
The Need for Protection
Most people these days are aware that it’s necessary to protect computers from threat of malicious softwaresuch as Viruses and Trojans, as well as from other Internet users. But how many know just how well protected they really are? And what is the risk of disaster?
Fact: All computers need the following security software installed:
- Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware Software – This software detects and protects your system and you from viruses, Trojans, worms and other malicious software that may inadvertently be run
- Firewall – This software protects your system from other people or systems attempting to connect to your system
Microsoft Windows provides an adequate firewall, but you really must ensure it is enabled. Additionally if you are connecting to the Internet through a broadband router, then that probably also provides a firewall between you and the Internet.
We recommend the leading Anti-Malware products:
Further Information
Viruses and Other Malicious Software
Viruses, Trojans, worms and other malicious software used to be written by geeky techieswhose main motivation was to show off their skills to other like-minded techies, rather than to cause any real harm. Therefore if your machine was infected with a virus years ago, then probably the worst that would have happened was that your computer would proudly announce this to you, & of course report back to base, so the author was aware of another successful infection.
How things have moved on these days!
Most viruses these days are designed by criminals, whose main motivation is to part innocent Internet users with their hard-earned cash, or possibly personal details they can sell or use themselves to make money illegally. Most of these criminals haven’t suddenly learned the programming skills necessary to do this themselves, they simply buy in software that allows them to design the malicious software themselves. As with any market based on supply and demand, there are those who want this capability, therefore there are those who provide it, for money of course.
This change therefore means that most malicious software now really is malicious; for example, there are many viruses and Trojans out there that try very hard to go undetected, in order that they can do their job for much longer and on many more computers. And this includes secretly hijacking computers without their owners’ knowledge in order to send Spam email, access websites or services at the same time as many other computers in order to overload the websites or services, monitoring the use of computers in order to harvest personal information– to name but a few.