Top 5 Reasons You Should Have Security Installed

A frequent question asked is do we really still need an Anti-Virus? Even with advances with Windows 10 built-in security, we do believe that third-party software is essential.

We give our reasons you should have security installed

I am sure you have seen the headlines, many news articles covering the news on recent hacks and ransomware causing major issues for companies, but why was it possible to be infected?

Let us delve into it a little better and show you the reasons you should have security installed regardless if you use a Mac or a PC.

Windows has built-in virus protection, right?

Yes, it does, however, generally a free product that is bundled with the Operating System will never be as strong as a dedicated product.

Windows Defender has improved a lot considering in the past it was often panned by IT firms and in reviews.

Microsoft is doing more to protect against Ransomware and look after its users so it is a step in the right direction.

In honesty, if you were using the free version of a major brand it would be very similar to today’s version of Windows Defender.

Performance, is this the key?

Performance has to be great, to use an Anti-Virus product that bogs the system down is unacceptable.

The key thing when working on any system is how it performs when you are carrying out daily tasks while in the background the product you chose is working on tasks. We will be providing our recommendations later, however, it is worth noting with Windows Defender is baked into the OS so it will have minimal impact.

Macs don’t Get Viruses

Although this saying does still ring true, however, there is more to it. The Mac typically has a low user base and therefore it hasn’t been targeted very much.

The Mac is not immune from Malware and there have been recent outbreaks. However, the Mac user typically needs to go through more hoops to get infected such as entering the administration password.

User account choices can make a big difference

A good way to mitigate infection would be to set up the user account you use as a standard user rather than an Administrator account.

Make sure you use User Account Control (UAC) in Windows and Gatekeeper on the Mac to keep you protected to at least a minimum.

Okay, but why should we use a paid product?

Customers frequently ask this, there are many options to choose from as we begin with our reasons it is worth noting we do offer Virus Protection in our store,

so our opinions may be considered biased.

Although Microsoft has got better, there have been lots of issues in the past with security which is one reason why you see so many Windows updates now,

Windows 10 has made things a whole lot better. Especially with the sand-boxing. However, a dedicated product will be stronger as the company generally focuses on making sure they keep the product up to date.

It isn’t baked into the OS you know that it will be dedicated to keeping you safe.

A Managed Anti-Virus is a much better alternative to Windows Defender or Mac’s built-in defences, the reason for this is it can be managed and checked regularly, and consider this, do you think Microsoft will be keeping an eye on your machine to help in case of an infection?

We look after our customers and through the use of a portal we can see if the product is running, kept up to date, and also infection history.

Using a reliable Anti-Virus means avoiding future repair costs

You turn on your machine and suddenly it is crawling, you open your favourite browser and are greeted with a big popup telling you that you’re infected, no one truly wants to see this happen.

By making the decision to get an Anti-Virus product such as Bitdefender, you can avoid this issue, browser hi-jack is a common thing to happen and in our experience, Windows Defender has not been so great at preventing it.

Consider the alternative, you bring your computer to an IT firm such as us and we book the machine in for repair and quote you on one to two hours.

That cost could be expensive depending on when we receive the machine and also a small quote can often be changed due to unexpected situations such as hardware failing a machine so infected it exceeds the original estimate.

So having a Managed Anti-Virus can make all the difference to avoid losing those important files/pictures or presentations.

What do we recommend?

Our answer to this depends on a few factors, if you’re not using the computer online then a free product will be fine.

However, anything was taken online then your protection is of the up-most importance.

Can you imagine an infection of a Malware/Virus means you lose all your valuable files/photos?

Imagine you recently had a baby and you had photos of your baby for the last few years and suddenly they were lost?

We’d be devastated I am sure you would be too, we hope you agree this should be enough reasons you should have security installed.

We recommend Bitdefender if you just need standalone virus protection.

However, we do offer Managed Service Plans which not only cover you for viruses but also offer full patch management, software updates, and maintenance to make sure you can keep working without difficulty.

Still not convinced?

I believe we provided you with enough reasons you should have security installed.

However, we invite you to just Google issues about Viruses and Malware, it is crazy to conceive how big of a problem it has become.

Our goal is to be clear so we will be hosting additional content in the coming months on this subject, also check out av-test.org’s viewpoint on Bitdefender as they put it through strict tests.