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What anti-virus and anti-malware products to small businesses REALLY need?
I have had good results from my free version of Avast, but I constantly see ads for the 'premium' version. Is it necessary? What are the features that are really important for a small business?
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2 Answers
The most important thing is that it can detect and prevent the latest attacks. I haven't looked at Avast in a few years, but here's what I've currently got on the only Windows machine in my network:
Microsoft Security Essentials
Immunet Protect
Secunia PSI
All of those are free. I chose them primarily because I've been impressed by the technical people who work on each product, after meeting them at security conferences -- that tends to be far more reliable than comparing marketing claims.
(Note that I have no personal stake in any of those companies. I did work for Microsoft in the past, but not on that product.)
I'd recommend that you please check your license. You should make sure that any 'free' software you use is intended to be free for business use, because in many cases they are only free for home/personal use. To my understanding, Avast's Free version is only free for 'personal and non commercial use'. I would hate for your attempt to protect your business from malware to put you at legal risk.
There are easily more than a half dozen reputable anti-virus/anti-malware software packages available for business use, and quite frequently they leap frog each other on detection capability, system performance, and ease of use. Short of engaging a consultant, you can search the web for posted reviews from well known publications/organizations to get a feel for which software is leading the pack.
There is no 100% guaranteed method of avoiding malware short of turning off your computer. That said, proper precautions in place will prevent the need for paranoia ( that's a LOT of 'P' words )
You should, at a minimum :
- always have a good on access anti-virus program installed to catch malware in the act.
- always keep the anti virus definition files up to date, the software cannot detect what it does not know
- run a full disk scan with your antivirus software at least weekly to help ensure that no malware snuck in between definition updates.
- always keep your operating system and other software patching up to date to reduce your vulnerabilities ( less for your anti-virus software to do if malware cannot get on your system by taking advantage of unpatched vulnerabilities )
- use a spam filter for your email ( either email server based, or from a service provider. Even most free email like Gmail includes spam filtering )
- always have some type of firewall between your systems and the public internet
- always try to use business computer systems for business and not personal use
- for your business, make sure you are in compliance with regulations/laws for the type of data you might have ( SOX, PCI, HIPAA, etc ), often being in compliance with these regulations also improves overall security for your business system
Remember that security is an ongoing process, not a one time event.
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