Technology has moved forward dramatically in a few short years, and more people than ever are connected to the Internet, many of whom have never even asked themselves the question “How effective are antivirus programs?“
The Connected World Is A Criminal’s Paradise
The Internet is certainly not entirely safe, and there are plenty of cyber criminals ready to take advantage of the web surfers who are unprotected or unaware of the risk they pose. Some viruses are simply a nuisance, written by some devious programmer to prove to themselves they can do it. Other malware is more sophisticated and can be designed to ultimately steal money or even the identity of an unsuspecting victim.
The Landscape Is Changing
The problem with answering our question “How Effective Are Antivirus Programs” is that the threat is ever changing. More threats to our computer security appear every day and firms developing the software to guard against them are constantly reacting to new variants appearing. Anyone with antivirus software will know how often it needs to download files to update itself.
[Read also: Why Having Only One Antivirus Product Isn’t Enough Anymore]
The Future Of Virus Scanning
Companies developing antivirus software are continually looking to become more proactive rather than reactive with the protection offered by their scanners. The techniques they use look for patterns of behavior of programs trying to install themselves on your computer, as well as detecting known characteristics of viruses. Whilst the technology already in use is very sophisticated, each advancement in antivirus software triggers a new advancement in viruses themselves to evade detection. By understanding more about the techniques the virus programmers use, the antivirus vendors can pre-empt the success of their rivals, and thwart their attempts either before, or soon after the malware is released.
[Read also: How to Scan Your Computer Without an Antivirus]
So, How Effective Are Antivirus Programs?
In general, antivirus software is very effective, but it does rely on being up to date. Always prioritize updates of your antivirus protection ahead of any other activity, especially when connected to the internet. Cancelling an update to access your email a little faster is foolhardy, as you may well have the latest incarnation of a virus waiting to appear in your inbox.
From my experience, I can tell that antiviruses are effective only when the user wants them to be. It needs routine updates and regular scans. I am able to find new updates for my antivirus software even after just one day from when I last updated it, this shows that new and new viruses are found everyday. There stand out to be some more effective as well as some less effective antivirus softwares. Choosing the right one is in the hands of users.
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Yes Mahaveer, I agree with you. Only with regular updates of antivirus programs will make them effective and it is on the hands of users. Thanks for dropping by 🙂
I have tried many AV programs. I have found ESET NOD32 Antivirus to be the best AV software by far.
I’ve read some good reviews about ESET NOD32 too Ellie. Thanks for the comment 🙂
Avast is a great Anti Virus however it’s eating too much Random Access Memory that sometimes could slow down your computer. I prefer Avira for the free Anti-virus and Kaspersky for the paid one.
cool article i recommend a effective antivirus called zenok free antitivirus also have a great service for backup online .. im using it for 1 year and is great ! check it 🙂 http:\\www.zenok.com/en/free-antivirus/
I’ll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation Donald.
My anti-virus barely ever finds any viruses on my computer, so I guess it stops them at the door. But for anti-virus to get updated against new threats, new threats need to be found first, meaning people need to get infected or else the anti-virus company doesn’t know if it’s existence.
I hope one day anti-virus companies will find a way to guard us so well that it is nearly impossible to infect any computer. But then their business would come to a halt and they don’t want that.
There’s no way viruses can be stopped from infecting computers Danny.
very informative.
I consider outdated antivirus as ineffective… as I agree that viruses are always updated than the antivirus.
well,an anti-virus is just part of your security layer.along with a good updated anti-virus software you would also
need a good firewall and an anti-spyware software.i recommend using comodo free firewall or zone alarm.
as far as anti-spyware is concerned you could use spy-bot search and destroy or superantispyware.
also, make sure to update them as well!
Thanks for the recommendations and comment Abhijeet! Appreciate it!
For myself I have used a few different ones over the years from AVG to Avast and currently am using Avast with no issues that I see. I agree that unless you keep your anti-virus up to date it is ineffective in helping you avoid viruses but on the other hand better to have one than nothing at all . Nowadays most update automatically unless the user specifically states not to update which is a major no no .