Top Anti-Virus Software Programmes

An anti-virus software programme is used to prevent, detect and remove malware such as computer viruses, malicious BHOs, hijackers, ransomware, keyloggers, backdoors, rootkits, trojan horses, worms, malicious LSPs, dialers, fraudtools, adware and spyware.

Some of the widely used and latest anti-virus programmes that offer Computer security, including protection from social engineering techniques are – AVG Anti-Virus 2013, Norton Antivirus 2013, Kaspersky Antivirus 2013, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 and McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2013. Indian users mostly use the Kaspersky or McAfee.

AVG Anti-Virus 2013

AVG Anti Virus Free 2013 received a 5 out of 5 star rating on Cnet’s Download.com. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD computing platforms. Developed by AVG Technologies, a Czech company AVG features most of the common functions available in modern anti-virus and Internet security programs, including periodic scans, scans of sent and received emails, the ability to “repair” some virus-infected files, and a quarantine area ( called “virus vault”) in which infected files are held.

Norton AntiVirus

This AV is developed and distributed by Symantec Corporation, provides malware prevention and removal. It uses signatures and heuristics to identify viruses. Other features include e-mail spam filtering and phishing protection. Norton AntiVirus runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Bitdefender

Developed by Romania-based software company Softwin, the Bitdefender products feature antivirus, anti-spyware, firewall, e-mail spam filtering, backup, tune-up and parental control components. It’s Home editions support Microsoft Windows, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, Mac OS X, Android and iOS while the business editions support Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X.

Kaspersky

Kaspersky Lab is a developer of secure content and threat management systems and the world’s largest privately held vendor of software security products. The company’s products and technologies provide protection for over 300 million users worldwide and more than 250,000 corporate clients globally. The line of Kaspersky home-user products consists of Internet Security (KIS) 2012, Anti-Virus (KAV) 2012, Mobile Security (KMS) 9 and AVZ Antiviral Toolkit, Anti-Virus for Mac, Password Manager, and KryptoStorage.

McAfee

A wholly owned subsidiary of Intel McAfee is a California based computer security software company. Computer Shopper Magazine gave “McAfee Total Protection” a score of 2.5 of 5 stars. In August 2012, an issue with an update to McAfee antivirus for home and enterprise computers turned off the antivirus protection and, in many cases, prevented connection to the Internet. McAfee was criticized for being slow to address the problem.