Internet Safety

What protection do you need?

The best defense against Internet threats is good antivirus software, or anti-malware as it is sometimes known. Antivirus software can protect you from infected email attachments, corrupt websites, Internet worms, and spyware. There are a ton of antivirus products on the market, so figuring out what you need can become confusing and overwhelming. Therefore, we will outline the things you need to consider to give you a better idea of what you should be looking for in an antivirus program.

Multiple protections

The protection you obtain should include the following three components:

• Antivirus: Specifically protects against viruses
• Anti-spyware: Protects against malicious software that may be gathering your information without your knowledge
• Firewall: Screens out threats that try to reach your computer over the Internet

Some security suites offer a lot of additional protections, but these are the three main components you will need.

Security suites

Most antivirus companies offer both a stand-alone product that only scans for viruses and a packaged security suite that offers additional protections like firewalls, spam filtering, and other anti-spyware tools.

• Security suites
  Security suites are generally easier to manage and offer a wide range of protection, which can be useful if you are a beginner. However, in some cases the extra functions of a suite are not as good as the stand-alone products for that function. In addition, some suites have a tendency to slow down a computer.
• Stand-alone products
  More advanced users sometimes prefer to take a pick-and-mix approach, researching and selecting the best products for each component and building their own security systems.