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June 11, 2009 – I like it when my clients want to do things for themselves. For example, a staff member at one of my client’s, whom I trained, has been handling adding new users, deleting users when they leave, and changing passwords as needed. An intern, whom I also trained, does the physical setup of computers for new users. It saves me time for more productive work and saves them money. Another client decided to replace his old Anti-virus (A/V) software with new software, did a little research, and chose a good product. I like collaborating with clients like these. On the other hand, sometimes clients makes choices using criteria that, I think, could have been better. One client’s staff member was concerned about the (slight) slowdown their business A/V product was causing and chose to replace it with a free product. I would have made another choice and that got me thinking about how I evaluate A/V products.
To start with, I use the same product installed on the computers at
the company where the staff member thought his computer was starting too slowly. I compared start-up times with the software he chose and it
is only a matter of a 20-30 seconds difference. Second, there
are some features in the enterprise A/V software that do not exist in the
product he choose. Third, even as a purely A/V product, this product he is usuing lacks some
of the anti-virus features of the paid version. Do theses things make
a difference. You decide.
So, let's start with anti-virus security products: Virtually all of today's products include anti-spam, anti-malware, scanning of incoming email, and scanning of websites for phishing attacks (attempts to steal personal information from your computer). If you have an older anti-virus software that does not contain these features, you should definitely upgrade. Also, these products normally depend on Windows' built-in firewall to protect you from attacks from the Internet and attempts to penetrate your computer.
Now, I have done a little research into reviews of anti-virus packages. After looking at six comparative reviews, I have identified those packages that were mentioned more than once in the top five. The number of times each is mentioned are shown in parentheses: Bitdefender (4), Kaspersky (4), Norton Internet Security 2009 (2), Norton Anti-virus 2009 (2), McAfee (2), and AVG [paid not free version] (2) . From these, I would go with Bitdefender.
This is good, basic protection. But suppose your computer is already infected with software that is busy doing nefarious things on your computer {Where do you think all that spam comes from?) and that your A/V software doesn't detect. The Windows firewall won't help at all because it only protects you from something coming in from outside. For malware that is already inside trying to get out, you need a firewall that it watching traffic out as well as in. To do this, you need some kind of Internet Security suite, rather than a standard anti-virus package. They are a little more expensive, but, in my view, worth it.
The firewalls in Internet security suites examine outgoing traffic to determine whether it is safe. For example, a query from your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) to a website will be let through as will traffic from other programs that the firewall recognizes. If the firewall doesn't recognize the source of the outgoing traffic, it will ask you about it. If you recognize the source (your new music program trying to get to a music store) and okay it, the firewall will let it through and will remember so it won't ask you again.
But suppose you don't recognize the source -- say "BigBadTrojanHorseOutToRipYouOff." You tell the firewall to block it and it will do so forever. This is also a tip to run a scan and maybe get a second A/V program if yours doesn't find Mr. BigBad.
Eventually the firewall learns all the programs you use and you don't hear from it again until, that is, you install some new software.
You say you already have a firewall on your home and office networks? Very good. However, we had a very powerful firewall at a company where I was IT Director. Then, someone came in and plugged his laptop into our network. All work stopped as our network became overloaded with traffic from a computer worm in his computer trying, unsuccessfully, to infect the rest of our computers. So, a network firewall is a good start, but you need one on your computer as well.
As with the anti-virus software, I have compiled a list of software that occurred more than once in 4 reviews I found: Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 (3), Norton 360 (2), Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite 2009 (2), and Trend Micro Internet Security (2). These represent something of a consensus among reviewers.
I hope this is useful in helping you think about your security needs.
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