All about Antivirus products & beyond in 2009

As the internet reaches more countries, states, and cities, security-related issues too are on the rise. An increase in the number of threats and complexity surrounding threats implies users require to safeguard their data through anti-virus and related products.

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, reflecting 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. They now include aspects about the 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 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 the internet’s increasing reach, plain anti-virus might fall short of the desired protection.

Internet security offerings from vendors come with some more features that cater to threats coming from the web. Total Security offerings are a mix of both internet security features and standalone products that cover security from an all-around perspective.

In the next post, we would look at each vendor’s offering, the pros and cons, the number of user licenses to help you arrive at the right product from a plethora of choices. So, watch this space…