You can’t move 10 feet on the Internet without bumping into an ad for some sort of antivirus software. Pop-Ups, emails, banner ads, they pretty much follow you wherever you might roam. If your own cybersecurity system is inefficient, or heavens forbid, you’re not using one at all, it’s high time you made the upgrade to protect your home, business, or both from the litany of threats out there trying to steal your information and pretty much ruin your day/week/month/year.
Picking the right antivirus software for your specific needs is a little like hiring an employee for an open position at your company. There is going to be an overwhelming number of applicants, and the temptation might be there to merely hire the first antivirus software company that walks through the door to avoid the seemingly insurmountable task at hand.
But that probably will get you the coverage that is a poor fit, and for something as serious as protecting your system and all of your data, this task worth doing is worth doing right.
Make Your List
If you were hiring that hyperbolic employee for an open position at your company, the first thing you would do was create a list of responsibilities that they would be undertaking and requirements that they would need to have to qualify for the job. You’ll do the exact same thing for the antivirus software you will ultimately purchase. Make a list of things that you use your computer for – storing financial records, employee healthcare information, your family’s archive of photos – whatever is valuable and needs looking after. If you’re in business, add how many employees you have, if you expect your business to grow significantly in terms of staff or hardware in the next 1-3 years and things of that nature. Now you’ve got your list of parameters that the antivirus software has to align with.
Check out the Candidates
There are tons of guides online, not to mention professional product review sites that can help you narrow the field from thousands down to 3-5 top choices. Go over the reviews, not just ones that are on websites that might have an affiliation with the product, but also read reviews from your fellow humans. They are the ones who are most like you and are the ones whose opinions should matter the most. Cull the list down to your finalists.
Interview Time!
Now you can’t bring a piece of software in for a sit-down with the board of directors, but you can contact the company and ask for a free demo or to speak to a sales rep. These companies love if you’ll just press “Buy Now” on their site and blindly purchase their product, but you haven’t come all this way to do that. For instance, if Malwarebytes is among your finalists, go its website and click to have a representative contact you. Most reputable firms will have a 7-30 day free demo you can install and see how it fits your system and your needs. At the least, you should be able to talk to a sales rep. If your company is large enough, you might even be able to broker a discounted deal for a larger number of licenses.
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