07/05/2009
Is free antivirus software worth it?
That may sound like a funny question, but it's one worth asking.
I'll avoid the cliche of, "you get what you pay for," because all too often in life that's just not true. Often you end up with something wonderful and inexpensive or something that's mediocre and expensive.
Instead I'll quote David Hall, Symantec's Asia-Pacific Customer Manager, who said in speaking to BLORGE (a self-described "team of experienced writers from around the world") recently about free antivirus software,
"'Imagine what it must be like for somebody who is not actually charging to be able to pay their security researchers to be able to keep up.
'We’ve made more virus definitions last year than we have in the last 10 years.'"
This is only half the battle as far as we're concerned.
We've discussed the topic of free antivirus software reviews on our site before, and now that Symantec's exec has also shined some light on the subject, I felt it was a good time to add some other considerations to the subject.
Another significant thing about free antivirus software is: what's missing from free antivirus software?
As we've shown in our reviews and our new head-to-head antivirus comparisons, there is a huge difference in support from one antivirus vendor to the next.
And, it's not even a case of you-get-what-you-pay-for, as the software we've rated the 2012 best antivirus software, VIPRE, is also one of the cheapest antivirus software applications made and it has the best support, too.
That said, back to the question: what is missing from free A/V programs?
Some free antivirus programs are lesser offerings from commercial vendors. The biggest "gotchyas" with such offerings are:
| consideration | what it means to you | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Are you getting the maximum protection from the free version of a company's software? | Free antivirus software from commercial vendors are "stripped down" versions of their commercial software offerings. What protection are you missing with these stripped down versions?
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| 2. | Where do you turn for support? | Commonly, there is little, if any, real support for free antivirus software. You're at the mercy of: the search engines, forums, newsgroups If you can't get the answer there, you have no alternative short of taking your computer in to your local computer repair center, i.e. Best Buy, etc. or calling your geek friend/relative/neighbor. [With the former, you're always going to be paying *far* more for the support from a repair center than you would have paid for commercial antivirus software to begin with. With the latter, the geek friend/relative/neighbor, we're (almost) always happy to help the first time or two that it happens, but after that, believe me, offering free tech support to friends/family gets old. Fast.] You're also at the mercy of their relative skill levels, too, and as good as they may advertise themselves as or seem to be in speaking with them, do you really want to trust the removal of a virus to someone who isn't an antivirus technician? |
| 3. | What about licensing? | With many free antivirus programs, you can only use the free versions in home and non-commercial environments. This means if you work from home, many free A/V programs cannot legally be used. [Sure, maybe you're "fine" using this software as long as you don't get caught, you justify to yourself, but that's not the point. If your livelihood depends on the software, and it's not to be used in a commercial environment for free, you should pay for it. Otherwise you're stealing.] |
Microsoft Security Essentials / Morro
What about Morro / Microsoft Security Essentials, the new free antivirus software from Microsoft?
In the same article at tech.blorge.com, Symantec's Hall says,
"'Microsoft’s free product is basically a stripped down version of the OneCare product Microsoft pulled from retail shelves.'
'Consumers don’t need less protection, they need more.'"
Agreed. In 2009, the threats to consumers' and business' computers from viruses, worms, trojans, and such are only getting smarter, more prevalent, and harder-to-detect.
There are so many important considerations with antivirus software, but here are just a few:
(Microsoft, for instance, abandoned OneCare, their previous A/V offering. What will happen with Morro / Microsoft Security Essentials given that it's free? Microsoft is definitely in business to make money, but how can they with a completely free product? Or will they start charging for it? Or will it, too, get abandoned and see no ongoing development?) |
The bottom line is this: is protecting your computer from viruses and other security threats worth $20 or $30 a year?
This might just be a case of "you-get-what-you-pay-for" after all.
06/15/2009
Morro: Microsoft's Free Antivirus Software
There's been a bit of a discussion lately about Microsoft's upcoming antivirus software, dubbed "Morro" and currently in beta.
Given the time we've spent in and on Internet security-related software and other matters, I'd like to add another voice on the subject. Some things to consider about Morro:
| Facts about Morro | Considerations | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Morro will work by routing all of a users Internet traffic to a Microsoft datacenter, where the Morro application will process the traffic and identify and block malware in real-time, by examining all of the rerouted traffic." | Do you really want all of your Internet surfing going through Microsoft's servers?
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| 2. | How will Microsoft use the data other than for virus detection? | Even if Microsoft claims to be "anonymizing" data (which I haven't heard any mention of), as AOL claimed it was doing when it released search data, this is of great concern here. AOL couldn't anonymize it all and released tons of sensitive information including people's social security numbers and credit card numbers. Does anyone expect anything different from Microsoft in this regard? Truly, this seems like a privacy nightmare. And then some. |
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| 3. | "How it will remain free is beyond me. The only viable way Microsoft makes money out of these things is by providing advertisements to their programs and applications. This is not only why Windows Live and other Microsoft products are free, but you’ll find it’s why the Internet as a whole is pretty much free." Source: ibid
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I'm with Zack on this, and I'll throw in one more thing: what happens when it's time for support? My own personal experience of calling Microsoft for help--even when I paid their absurd $195.00/call for their so-called "enterprise support"--was, to be purely honest: useless in upwards of 75% of the cases. In one instance, I called in noting precise URLs to the MS technician revealing that they had a hotfix that would solve my problem, and only after climbing through hoops for nearly an hour did the tech email the patch to me. In another instance, I called looking for support with a licensing issue, and after, literally, over two dozens calls and transfers, they acknowledged the problem as theirs and solved it. I'm sure others have had different experiences with Microsoft's support, but the real question here is, "What kind of support do people expect on a free product?" Given that the best antivirus software out there for 2012 can be had for under $20 and that you get full-fledged U.S. based telephone tech support for your $20, it seems a truly small price to pay for such high-quality, fully supported software. |
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| 4. | "A replacement for Live OneCare which failed to gain much traction, Morro will, in effect, compete with similar antivirus products from security vendors such as Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro." | Microsoft's initial foray into A/V software was called, "Live OneCare," and it was met almost universally with silence. After failing to get any noteworthy market adoption, it's now being replaced with Morro. Given Microsoft's history of abandoning products, not just in antivirus, but also with music / media with the Microsoft PlaysForSure* files, this begs the question: what else might the unsuspecting consumer be in store for by using the Microsoft A/V product? [* Microsoft rolled out PlaysForSure in 2004, only to just two years later in 2006, ironically fail to allow music licensed with the Microsoft PlaysForSure to work on their own Zune player.]
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We'll no doubt have more news and commentary on Microsoft's Morro Antivirus as more details become available.
06/04/2009
Sluggish System? Your Antivirus Software is Probably to Blame
| While many consumers are starting to realize the importance of antivirus software, many are unaware of the significant differences in performance from one antivirus program to another. Why is this so important? Realizing that many consumers just go with whatever is pre-installed on their system when they get it or with whatever their ISP installs/recommends, it seemed important to question the rationale behind that. Often, the security application that has been installed is chosen for one reason: money. Understanding the relationship between the PC manufacturers and ISPs and the antivirus vendors is an easy one: the AV makers often pay to have their software installed (if not, they often let the manufacturers install it for free.) Huh? The reason is, the A/V makers realize that many, if not most, consumers will renew their antivirus subscription when it expires, thus while they may have to "pay" for their antivirus software when they get their computer, they do buy the renewal subscription. And, once they're in there, they have a revenue stream from you. Sluggish System?So, you're cruising around with your PC for a while--maybe even a year or more, when it just doesn't feel as fast as it once did.All those files and pictures and videos you've created and viewed over the many moons you've had your computer are stored somewhere, often they live in your Temporary Internet Files directory. Over time, as these files accumulate in the various places of your hard drive, your antivirus software has to work harder and harder to keep up. What happens next is where it gets ugly. You get fed up with it slowing things down and disable it, "just to get some stuff done." The problem is the software stays off for a while--sometimes for a long while, maybe even forever. Now that antivirus subscription you just renewed is totally, completely, utterly useless. Real Antivirus SolutionsWhat this boils down to is that choosing your antivirus software, and not just taking the easy route, is critical.This is part of the reason we rate VIPRE antivirus so highly: it's highly efficient and uses very few CPU, RAM, and system resources to keep your computer safe and virus-free. We're not the only ones saying this, either. I just came across a VIPRE review from August 2008 on ZDNet's Hardware 2.0 blog by the much-respected Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. The lowdown: "Security software can have a shocking effect on performance, and can take a new system and make it feel like one that’s a few years old. (N.B. emphasis mine) Adrian's images, originally located here ZDNet (archived now at our site), really tell the story about VIPRE well. (Visit ZDNet for complete details.) In his review, he compares system performance with: |
| Take a look at the below images and judge for yourself... |
Original source: http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/av_shootout_system01.png Original source: http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/av_shootout_system02.png Original source: http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/av_shootout_system03.png It's good to see we're not alone in leading antivirus review sites singing VIPRE's praises, they're well-deserved. |
05/25/2009
Nearly Two Months In: What's the Latest with Conficker?
In case you thought things had settled down with Conficker, you're wrong.
Just because it's nearly two months after the official Conficker activiation date, and just because the main stream media isn't talking about it anymore, doesn't mean it's not a real threat.
In fact, Computerworld, one of our favorite resources for computer security news, brings word of it in this statistic: 50,000 computers/day are still being infected with Conficker. [Full details on it from them: here.]
We learned via Computerworld that Symantec, like us, made mention of the media hype dying down but Conficker still being alive and well, saying in a recent Conficker blog:
"Much of the media hype seems to have died down around Conficker/Downadup, but it is still out there spreading far and wide."
The folks at Symantec even include a world map of Conficker infections.
What this means is that the chances of getting infected by this virus/worm are just as bad as ever. Even if fully 50% of the Conficker worms are caught within a week that still means 175,000 new computers are being infected weekly.
At this point, having covered the Conficker worm (and about removing the Conficker worm) extensively here at our site, it should come as no surprise that this worm is no joke, but what's amazing to me is that after so much has been said about such malware that still so many people go without antivirus protection. Even without our coupons, getting the best antivirus / security software out there for Windows isn't that expensive.
Full sticker price of top-rated antivirus software like, VIPRE or BitDefender is under $30; with our coupons it's even less. Even if the *only* worm in the world were Conficker, which (obviously) it isn't, $30 seems like a small price to pay to avoid the problem altogether, and in the case of Conficker, it's clear, it's not going away anytime soon.