As internet reaches to more countries, states and cities, security related issues too are on the rise. Increase in the number of threats and complexity levels surrounding threats implies users require to safeguard their data through anti-virus and related product. Threats range from hackers, viruses, bots, spy-ware to malware, phishing and others. So, the question that arises is that can a plain anti-virus deliver the desired protection and which one?
The market has moved beyond plain anti-virus and that reflects in the offerings of vendors in the consumer security space, be in Symantec, McAfee or Kaspersky. They have realized that given the complex nature of threats, the end user’s security requirements have gone beyond the remote PC’s protection and now include aspects pertaining to internet, which is the primary source of all malicious content.
Well, there are a host of offerings from vendors. There are heavyweights in Symantec’s Norton and McAfee while few others have joined the race recently in Quick Heal, Kaspersky, K7, and BitDefender with low cost offerings. We at WittySparks thought of providing a small snapshot of the home user security by covering vendors, their products and related details which would help viewers to arrive at the best alternative.
Here’s an overview snapshot of consumer security products available online as well in retail outlets:
| Antivirus | Internet Security | Total Protection | |
| Vendors | |||
| Symantec | Norton Antivirus 2010 | Norton Internet Security 2010 | Norton 360 |
| McAfee | McAfee Virus Scan Plus 2009 | McAfee Internet Security 2009 | McAfee Total Protection 2009 |
| Kaspersky | Kaspersky Antivirus | Kaspersky Internet Security | |
| QuickHeal | Quick Heal Antivirus | Quick Heal Internet Security | Quick Heal Total Security |
| BitDefender | BitDefender Antivirus 2010 | BitDefender Internet Security 2010 | BitDefender Total Security 2010 |
| K7 | K7 Total Security | ||
| G-Data | G Data Antivirus 2010 | G Data InternetSecurity 2010 | G Data TotalCare 2010 |
| Panda | Antivirus Pro 2010 | Internet Security 2010 | Global Protection 2010 |
There are three basic categories as can be seen from the above table into which offerings of vendors fall into (a) Anti-virus (b) Internet Security (c) Total Protection.
Plain anti-virus provides basic protection and would be suited for remote desktop users. However, with growing complexity and threat levels arising out of increasing reach of internet, plain anti-virus might fall short of the desired protection. Internet security offerings from vendors come with some more features cater to threats coming from web. Total Security offerings are a mix of both internet security features as well as standalone products which cover the security from all round perspective.
In the next post we would look at each vendor’s offering, the pros and cons, number of user licenses to help you arrive at the right product from a plethora of choices. So, watch this space…
very much helping stuff with security.