anti virus software

1431 Words3 Pages

2.2 Do we need an Anti-Virus product?
In everyday use, the antivirus products help to protect the users who might be ignorant towards the basic “safe” usage of the computer systems, like clicking on unreliable links in mails and visiting unauthorized websites. In addition to this, few business also require basic desktop protection software in order to meet the requirements for regulatory compliance, for an example PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).
There is no uncertainty regarding the fact that though the detection rate might differ but antivirus software’s definitely help to add on an additional layer of security. Though it is a known and proven fact that the detection rate cannot be 100% but with a combined effect of heuristics provided in the new software, the malware that is usually faced by common users can be well detected and protected from. The main concern rises in case of zero-day infections and specifically targeted attacks. These make the security professionals “anti-antivirus”. But installing patches and regularly updating the antivirus can help to provide a certain level of protection in these cases as well.

3. Would money be better spent elsewhere?
Few of the security suggest that less money should be spent on antivirus and other similar security software. It is debated that it is better to invest that money over other areas like analyzing the huge amount of data over the computer network, which proves a huge surface area for attack. It is believed that investing on learning on how the cyber attacks are conducted and changing the business in order to have relevant protection from such attacks is a more viable option. One of the alternate ways for protection is to know about cyber attacks...

... middle of paper ...

...gainst one incident, abandoning that security measure is not a wise decision. A security measure can also help to mitigate the overall losses due to a breach. Although a good security measure must prevent the breach at first place but as not any measure can guarantee complete protection, mitigation of losses can also be very helpful. Hence security awareness helps people to detect, prevent and responding in a prepared manner against any attack
It can be very clearly stated that anti-virus solutions are not pointless solutions but alone they can also not guarantee a complete solution to the current security issues. This doesn’t render them a waste of money and ignoring them completely would not be a wise decision. It is highly recommended that the antivirus solution are integrated in the overall security plans for the business in order to add further security layers.

Open Document