Antivirus programs What to look for

By Tony Angiola
Field Technician

 The Internet used to be a safe place to browse and explore back in the old days when not many people knew what a virus let alone antivirus meant.  By that I mean the early 90's when websites were few and not so graphic but instead mostly text.  If you did not know where you were going you could not easily find it.  Today websites not only find you but they keep an eye on you and you must have some kind of antivirus software protecting you. They track where you're going, where you have been and try to predict what you want. If you happen upon a malicious site, information can be stolen from you!  How do you protect yourself? What is the best program out there? Will the bad guy find a way around programs designed to protect you?

Antivirus programs where created to protect you and preemptively detect threats to keep you from suffering data loss and destruction.  Over the years they have become stronger and stronger.  But it seems the bad guy will always have the advantage because even though you may have the best of the best software on your computer to protect you computers still get infected and there is always a way around protection.  Ultimately the best protection is you.  Social networking and email with links or embedded code seem to circumvent even the best systems in the government.  How does the bad guy get around these systems?  The answer is people! Unfortunately most people are honest, hardworking and trusting. 

One of the more notorius and unsuspecting methods used by the bad guys is designing an email or website that looks so legit users can't help themselves.  This was so true last year with the "Antivirus 2009" Virus.  Users would get an honest looking pop from a well known website that looked so legit using the fear factor by telling the user that they are infected with a virus.  The message also indicated that the only way to cure their problem was to click the link for a free scan.  This "free scan" would infect the unsuspecting users computer with the virus which would report an infection that could not be removed unless the user pay for the program.  When the user paid for the program nothing would change and the computer would creep to a halt many times or fail to boot.

Hackers or Crackers rather seem to be everywhere.  These terms have been debated for years but Crackers are the malicious ones you need to worry about.  I won't get into Symantec's in this article about this terminology so I like to use the term "bad guys".  They seem to be everywhere and not just on the Internet.  Have you ever received a postcard in the mail that said you have won a million dollars and that you need to call some 800 number right away or by a certain date? When you call you are passed around to a couple different people that collect information from you then finally a "specialist" comes on to try and sell you on something or say whatever it takes to get your credit card number for some kind of trial.  It's all a scam in one way or another because when they have your credit card number and you have no control what system it's entered into and where it goes from there.  So, it always comes back to the old saying "Never look a gift horse in the mouth".  I am not saying all free offers are evil either.  There are plenty of well meaning marketers out there that have some valuable free offers for joining their mailing lists and I am personally subscribed to dozens.  I have signed up for free newsletters about antivirus, eBay wholesale products, internet marketing, and Windows operating systems.  Some of the free reports are very useful.  Some are not.  You take the good with the bad and ignore some of the things they are trying to promote.  However, you may find something of interest once in a while that makes it all worthwhile. 

The most dangerous websites I have seen people encounter happen to be from users surfing porn sites, downloading free games, online gambling and free music downloads from a program called "Lime Wire".  I am not saying everything published on Lime Wire is bad but that some of the worst infections come from a poor choice of file downloads from users that perhaps should not have been trusted so easily.  File sharing sites have a huge potential for capturing a nasty virus.  Some of the best places to download virus free content are Rapidshare, Megaupload, and Hotfile.  Always run virus and anti-malware scans on files downloaded from these sites to be on the safe side.  Once again, you are still taking a chance by not personally knowing the people that posted these files. 

When it comes to content downloading its best to purchase from a reputable website that you can research on the Internet Better Business Bureau (This is an article about the Internet Better Business Bureau).  Also take a look at another article on how to research Online Businesses.

My best advice is, when in doubt don't click.  Do your research.  Watchout for free stuff and stay away from places like "Lime Wire".

(For more detailed information and a breakdown of antivirus specifics check out the antivirus page under resources)

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