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5 Best Antivirus Products for Suppressing Unwanted Programs

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5-Best-Antivirus-Products-for-Suppressing-Unwanted-Programs_infographics_v2As a busy professional, you rely heavily on your electronic devices throughout the day. Whether you’re trying to find the best place to take a client for lunch or conducting research for a report, it’s important that your internet browsing experience be as painless as possible. Unfortunately, the web too often has other plans for you, as websites push unwanted programs and applications to your device.

For this reason, every business needs a good antivirus suite. The right program protects against spyware, viruses, and unwanted programs that attach themselves to legitimate downloads. Here are a few of the top antivirus products for keeping unwanted programs off your computer.

AVG

One of the best things about this popular antivirus suite is that the basic suite is completely free. The free version protects your computer against viruses and spyware, as well as providing link protection for some social media sites. For $59.99, you can add protection against harmful downloads, prevent spam, and block hackers while shopping.

Kaspersky

For the same price as AVG’s paid version, Kaspersky offers an online security edition that keeps viruses and other online threats away from your device. The suite’s application control feature blocks dangerous applications that can harm a system and a two-way firewall blocks hacker attacks.

McAfee

McAfee offers four layers of protection against threats, preventing viruses, spyware, adware, and more from infiltrating your device. The software has built-in controls to detect threats before they make it to a business’s servers or devices.

Norton Security

For a slightly higher price, Symantec’s Norton provides malware and virus protection for all of a user’s devices. If a device is lost or stolen, the software can be used to help locate it, preventing possible data leaks. For $10 more per year, users can access Norton Security with Backup to automatically move up to 25 GB of files over to a secure cloud-based server.

Avast

Like AVG, Avast has a free version, but its paid version is slightly cheaper than the competition. For $39.99 a year, your business can add a silent firewall and anti-spam controls. The free basic plan protects devices against spyware and rootkit threats, as well as providing intelligent antivirus protection.

Unwanted software can slow down a device’s performance and cause crashes. By employing the best technology for protecting your sensitive devices, you can prevent downtime and remain productive throughout your day.

The Malconents of the Internet: the New Malware

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At the dawn of the Internet, the idea of malware was the expression of a few malcontents.  This is where the image of the stereotypical hacker came into being.  For example, the super computer worm, Slammer, infected 90 percent of the Internet in less than an hour.  The worm didn’t actually do any harm to a computer’s data, but rather to show the prowess of the creator.

However, like with many things, it became monetized.  The malware that we are most familiar is the kind that steals information and sends it back to its creator.  As more and more of our wealth becomes digital this will become more of a concern.  Like war, it will be a neck-and-neck race between attack and defense.

Such attacks as usually perpetrated by individuals or small groups.  But what happens when you get a nation state or corporation making malware?  You get Shamoon.  This malware worm enters and devours entire networks.  It travels in the form of a 900KB folder.  After entering a computer, it copies all the information to send to a command control server somewhere else, and then it uploads itself to the next computer on a network before wiping the drive clean.

It’s a pretty dastardly piece of code.  Although many corporate security firms have updated their antimalware software to include Shamoon, they can’t be certain of the next contender.  One sure way is to back up your information at the end of the day into a drive that isn’t connected to the internet.  If Shamoon could get into that, then I’d be impressed.