Sometimes in a desperate attempt to save some money off we look for free programs instead of their commercial counterparts. This is totally understandable, not to mention that freeware programs can outperform paid versions, and often the former have important features which commercial products lack.
However, if we care about our PC security and aim to protect it against as many threats as possible (preferably stop all intruders at the Internet gates), we should carefully consider what software we choose and if its trustworthy.
The three core elements of PC security are known to be:
- anti-virus
- anti-spyware
- firewall
The first one is more known and almost every PC users disregarding of his computer competence, seeks for "some antivirus program".
Anti-spyware programs seem to be much less popular among computer owners, though the danger spyware contains many times exceeds that of viruses. Research shows that roughly 15% of Internet threats nowadays are presented by conventional viruses; spyware, phishing and other criminal activities are responsible for 85% of dangers we can come across while surfing the web.
That's why the choice of anti-spyware program to complement anti-virus protection and strengthen overall PC security is crucially important if we care about sensitive private data and want it kept out of reach of outside web criminals.
However, every day thousands of people open their browsers and type in the queries: "free anti-spyware" or "free anti-spyware software". Of course we all would prefer something like "best free anti-spyware", but can we really count on free anti-spyware program being "best", compared to its commercial counterparts?
For you to answer this tough question, let's quickly compare some most important features we'd expect from a really good anti-spyware:
| |
Free anti-spyware
|
Paid anti-spyware
|
Real-time protection
|
Usually not available |
Always available |
| Number of products available |
Less than a dozen, but I hardly can count even 3 |
well over 100 |
| Technical support |
Usually non-existent |
Always available |
| Regular anti-spyware database updates |
Are not guaranteed
|
Always available
|
A quick comparison leads to simple conclusion: when choosing a free anti-spyware program, we put our PC at risk that's better be avoided by all means.
However, once a decision to go for a full-featured paid anti-spyware is made, what particular product should we look for?
That's a highly arguable qustions for which many IT professionals have quite different opinions. Yet I can give you a sound advice: avoid most popular anti-spyware products integrated into Internet Security Bundles by market leaders. Also, I do not recommend buying products that come stand-alone and have a long history. One of such is Lavasoft's Ad-aware. It certainly used to be a pioneer in the anti-spyware fighting field, but unfortunately started loosing its positions with latest versions.
There's also a little known danger connected to highly popular anti-spyware tools. I'll disclose it some time later in my new post.
To keep you reading, I'm recommending to have a look at xoftspyse antispyware hubpage where I describe its advantages over competing products from big security software vendors. It is meant to help you in creating a vision of "best anti-spyware", most suitable to your needs.
