Is Your Antivirus Sufficient to Protect Against Online Threats? 2021

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Is Your Antivirus Sufficient to Protect Against Online Threats? 2021


The first thing people do after installing an operating system is to install antivirus software. With antivirus installed, they think their computer is safe now. But how effective are these antiviruses? New malware is recorded every day, while old ones are being improved to bypass signature and behaviour antivirus protection. In the current environment, it's safe to say that antivirus software can be used by intruders to compromise your computer. Does antivirus software really work? Is Antivirus good enough to protect you from today's online threats? Is it still necessary and relevant? Do you even need it? We'll talk about that in this post.

Is Antivirus Still Good Enough to Protect You?

Antivirus software is either offered as a free basic version or a paid pro version with some additional features. The same is true for Internet Security Suites.


Of the two, platforms tend to be the bulkier, take up more space, take up RAM, and use more CPU, etc., while offering integrated protection at the same time.


The problem starts at the moment when advanced antivirus programs start getting in the way of your operating system and browsers. This security software accesses the OS kernel and configures it for continuous monitoring. They also bypass built-in browser features that detect dangerous web pages. This means that installing such security software can present you with more dangers lurking out there on the internet.


Does Antivirus Really Work?

According to the Google Zero Day blog, a security researcher discovered many vulnerabilities in Symantec's antivirus suite that allowed malware to infiltrate the database and exploit operating systems. The post also mentions Norton security software and explains that since this antivirus software can tweak the OS and browsers, they can be easily targeted to compromise your computer.

The blog contains examples of compressed applications. When developers want to reduce the size of their applications, they compress the applications and are therefore not easily identified by the antivirus. To solve this problem, antivirus software from Symantec or Norton unpacks the application directly into the kernel instead of using sandboxing technologies. You can imagine what might happen when an infected application is unpacked in the operating system database.


As for Symantec, it has released several updates and says that the problems pointed out by Google are being resolved at the moment. But Symantec isn't the only one. There are many other anti-malware packages and more zero-day vulnerabilities that need to be investigated and fixed.


Taking this into account, one might think that using basic antivirus software is better as it not only saves resources but also does not go to integrate yourself with the operating system files.


Do You Need Antivirus?

Yes, of course, you need anti-virus software not only for your Windows computer but even for your Mac or Linux systems. While it is useful to use a modern operating system such as Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7 to protect your computer from online threats, security software offers an additional layer of protection against malware. This will help you stop almost all known malware and even detect unknown heuristics, although this is not always possible.


Most malware today enters systems due to user-initiated actions. It could be a user clicking on a bad link, visiting a malicious website, ignoring the installation, opening infected attachments, etc. So these days, to stay safe online, you don't need to protect your computer with Windows OS, but you also need to exercise common sense and follow these basic Internet safety tips:


Always keep your free antivirus software and operating system browsers up to date

Don't download email attachments from unknown senders that you didn't expect or that look suspicious

Don't blindly click on any link - whether it's in an email or a web page.

If you must download software, only download it from the official homepages or safe software download sites, and exercise caution when installing them.

Install additional free tools like EMET to add an extra layer of security. Use our Ultimate Windows Tweaker to tweak a few settings on your computer to further enhance your Windows security.

Conclusion: So your antivirus is still good enough to protect you from today's online threats? Good is good, but not enough!


Many people today think that antivirus software has become superfluous. How do you think and how do you protect your computer? Are you using or not using antivirus software? If so, which one do you trust?

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