Did you know that 16 million households have had serious computer virus issues in the past two years? Antivirus software uses multiple strategies to protect your computer against attacks and malware that can lead to either damage, slow loading, or stolen information. Need antivirus software advice? If you are looking for the best computer software programs for free antivirus protection, then check out this list of the top four recommended programs.
1. Free Blocking with Avast
Did you know that, overall, U.S. households lose about $4.5 billion dollars a year due to spyware, phishing and viruses? Avast Free Antivirus not only finds 99% of all known threats, but it also deals a lot better than many other programs do with zero day threats. Zero day threats are attacks that exploit a previously unknown vulnerability. In other words, they are threats the antivirus program needs to be able to detect without relying on known data. Avast picks up on 98% of these threats, which is far higher than the industry standard.
2. AVG
An incredible eight million households have had spyware programs in the last half year. AVG protects against spyware and other types of malware with a system that can detect almost 100% of unknown threats. This free product also has better system performance, meaning that it can be a better fit for owners of underpowered PCs.
3. ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus and Firewall
ZoneAlarm protects well and offers less false positives than any other antivirus, meaning that your PC will not get slow down or get spammed with updates. Although it deals well with known threats, it only averages finding 92% of zero day attacks, lower than the industry average. One reason this happens is that the free version software antivirus database is only updated daily, meaning you get higher exposure to new threats. Paying for the upscaled version of any anti-virus is going to get you better performance.
4. Panda Cloud
If you want a simple yet effective real time antivirus protection solution, Panda Cloud Antivirus is a good choice. The free version lacks a few features that the pro version has, such as protecting you at public wifi networks. It can run well along other security tools, though, making it a nice lightweight choice.
Our antivirus soft advice is to download at least one of these products. Do you have any antivirus software advice? Let us know!