Anti-Malware Software – What You Need to Know
Malware:
The word “malware” derives from malicious software. Malware is software designed to gain unauthorized access to systems and then do harm. Its purpose might be theft, extortion, damage, or disruption. Malware infects systems either through networks or plug-in storage devices.
You have probably heard of at least some forms of malware: viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, keyloggers, ransomware, adware, and rootkits. The only things that you really need to know about them are that they pose a huge risk and that you need capable anti-malware software installed to prevent them.
The Risk:
Successful malware attacks can be extremely expensive and disruptive. If your technology stores financial data, your bank and credit card accounts might be drained, and you may have to shut down all of your existing accounts and open new ones. If your technology stores personal data, your identity might be stolen. If the data stored on your technology is valuable, it might be held for ransom or erased. The technology upon which you depend might be rendered unusable, which could disrupt your life and/or business.
Anti-Malware Software:
Not surprisingly, anti-malware software is designed to prevent malware infections.
Beware, however, not all antimalware software offerings are equal. Some of the best-known offerings are ineffective, inefficient, and annoying. They are ineffective because they do not detect and remove all threats. They are inefficient because they take too long to do their job, and they slow your device down by consuming way too much of its resources. They are annoying because they continually bombard you with ads and unnecessary messages. One is even offered by a Russian-owned company, and Russia is home to many malware developers.
All anti-malware software offerings scan your system to detect and report threats. The best ones scan your system’s memory, startup items, the registry, and files system. Most offerings have free versions, but the paid versions offer significant advantages. The paid versions automatically and frequently update their threat profiles, do regularly-scheduled and manual scans, facilitate quarantining threats, and in some cases, offer real-time network and plug-in protection. The free versions only do manual scans, and many do no not have quarantining functionality. Given the risks outlined above, ClickAway strongly recommends paid offerings.
ClickAway recommends, sells, and installs best-in-class anti-malware software, and we would be happy to help you get this layer of security in place.
