Not All Antivirus Programs Are Created Equal
Date : 20 Aug 2008 Category : Technology
NewsFactor NetworkThese programs offer differing levels of protection, loosely falling into three categories: free, paid antivirus and paid security suites. The differences between each are significant.
Free: These are readily available for download through the Internet and normally offer a basic level of protection against viruses but not other nasties such as spyware and adware.
The big drawback with these free products is that they are not normally updated as frequently or with the immediacy of paid-for programs. This means that if a new virus is doing the rounds, your antivirus may not get updated before it is too late.
Paid Antivirus: Paid antivirus products defend you against software virus programs that are intentionally written to alter or damage your computer and automatically distribute themselves to other computers.
Again, however, antivirus-only programs do not normally defend you against spyware and adware unless it is specifically mentioned.
Paid Security Suites: Security suites defend you against the full range of nasties that can infect your computer, be they viruses, spyware or adware.
They also normally provide you with a personal firewall.
So what is:
* Spyware: Software that you either unwittingly install or which automatically installs itself when you're browsing the Web.
Spyware secretly collects and distributes information about you. The information collected can relate to Web sites you visited or something more sensitive like passwords or credit card details. A spyware program can even track the keys you push on your keyboard.
* Adware: Software that installs on your computer (again either by you or automatically) and displays advertisements using pop-up banners. These may even appear when you're not on the...