Computers have transformed nearly every aspect of our lives, from helping students learn and assisting in monitoring patients in hospitals and controlling crucial manufacturing processes. Cyberthreats, such as ransomware viruses and malware have also increased due to the growing dependence on computers. Antivirus software is designed to detect these threats and stop them from damaging your PC or stealing your personal information.
When you are choosing an antivirus program, you should consider the ability to scan for viruses and whether it is equipped with an firewall and how it performs in independent lab tests. You may also want to take a look at the customer support, how often it updates itself and the number of devices it will protect. Some programs, like Norton come with additional features that protect your online privacy and stop identity theft.
Top programs offer multiple protection options. These include heuristic detection which identifies behaviors that are typical of malware or viruses and signature matching that compares files to a list of known malicious codes. Certain programs employ sandboxing to keep suspicious files out of an environment that is completely sealed and protected from any harm.
Some of the best antivirus software is available for free. However, they may not offer as many features as paid-for alternatives. For instance, Bitdefender’s free edition performed well in our tests. It also includes a firewall, whereas its premium version comes with parental controls, a file shredder and a password manager. Malwarebytes which is free and scored top marks in AV Test for 2023, fell short of our test of usability. Intego Mac Internet Security X9, however, provides a powerful combination of tools (VirusBarrier and NetBarrier) that killed and slowed the most malware-related threats in our test.