GSBot

In a discussion with tech.blorge.com, David Hall, who is Symantec's Product Manager for Asia-Pacific Consumer Products and Solutions, voices his concerns over the popularity of free antivirus programs.

"People tell me, 'oh well look I use free antivirus because it is free and it protects me from everything in those areas,' but when you compare that with what's really going on in the threat landscape, there is a very, very big gap between what antivirus does and the threats that are being delivered today."

He later continues, "[...] attackers are not necessarily only targeting the web browser. Think about all the plug-ins you have installed on your machine - RealPlayer, Flash, QuickTime - all of these have vulnerabilities too."

Yes, the threats we face on the Internet have changed over the years and In some respects, Hall is correct.

Like many of you, I no longer rely only on AV software. It's a starting point in keeping my systems protected. I also use a firewall, OpenDNS or a hosts file blocker, and browser addons like NoScript and NoFlash. For added protection, I'll use Sandboxie (and sometimes Windows SteadyState). All of these tools are totally free, and they've been doing the job quite nicely on my home systems.

Hall's quotes do help explain why I've seen several machines on my workbench running only Symantec's own Norton Antivirus that have fallen victim to drive-by attacks. Yes, Symantec, even users running your AV protection aren't totally safe. And it's not free. They paid for it.

In fact, they're still paying for it.

See what I did there?Symantec's Hall says free antivirus is for chumps originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

maroush

Reminds me of something Mirch bhai mentioned a couple of days back...

Why do people spend a bomb on buying PCs.... then use trial versions of anti virus software to protect it??? There is frugality, and then there is being a tightwad.

At least have the decency to protect your PC by obtaining the full AV software "through other means..."

Sinner

mostely viruses & Trojan comes 4m " by other means" ...

teggy

naughty subliminal suggestions

On a serious note: Some PC users do a trial anti-virus just to test it out and see how it compares. And then make the permanent switch.

TofiBaba

M$ does provide another "free" utility that locks the computer down. Its called Stead State, lock your C:\ drive down and move everything else to another partition.

Cheegum

The best antivirus is known as common sense. Unfortunately its something money can't buy.

I once spent half a day rebuilding a family friend's virus infested machine from scratch, backing up their data, checking the data for viruses, formatting the hdd and reinstalling genuine XP and then restoring all their data. After i handed them the machine, on my way back home the uncle jee calls me and goes "Beta i went to this website and i got a message saying your computer is infected, please click here to fix it. So i clicked on that message and now im being told to pay $40 to buy this antivirus."

Sheeda Pistol

Someone should tell Hall saab that norton is for chimps

aaho

The best solution is freezing the OS partition while putting your personal data in other partition.