VIEW FROM THE LABS
The security industry has come a long way from its hippy-dippy origins – but sometimes the old ways have their advantages
They say you never forget your first antivirus scanner. Mine was a simple program called VirusX on the Commodore Amiga. It was free – or “public domain” as we used to say – and it saved my bacon once or twice when friends came to visit with dodgy disks full of pirated software.
I was lucky, because with no domestic internet service to speak of, there was no easy way to ensure that your copy of VirusX was au fait with the latest threats. If you wanted to update your protection, you had to send off a cheque or postal order to your chosen software library, and wait for a 3.5in floppy to arrive in the post a few days later containing a complete new version of the software.
How times change. Modern security suites check for updates every day, or even more frequently. Some do their analysis in the cloud, so all users get the benefit of new signatures the instant they’re added to the publisher’s database. Speed is of the essence: AV-Test reports that it registers more than 350,000 new malicious programs and potentially unwanted applications every day.
Needless to say, staying on top of this endless flood of malware isn’t something that can be done on the cheap, and today’s suites have forsaken the philanthropic publicdomain philosophy in favour of a software-as-a-service model. Even if your chosen security product gives you the core protections for free, the publisher won’t miss an opportunity to upgrade you to a version that provides a recurrent revenue stream – or to get you to sign up for some other subscription-based app.
That brings us to the theme of this month’s Labs: don’t waste your money. Part of that means shopping around and making informed choices. As our reviews show, it’s possible to pay through the nose for mediocre security, or to get better protection at a much lower price.
More than this, though, it’s important to remember that when you choose a product, you’re not making a one-off purchase but entering into an ongoing contract. The headline price only covers your first year of service and, as we note in our buyer’s guide, customers who stick around beyond that are liable to find that the rate shoots up. Any savings you made in year one could well be wholly erased.
So our advice is this: today’s security vendors can’t afford to be as generous as the public-spirited developers of VirusX, but that doesn’t mean they should take advantage of you. Indeed, if you want to get the best deal, take a cue from the publicdomain software scene of old – and replace your security software with a fresh installation from time to time.
“It’s perfectly possible to pay through the nose for mediocre security, or to get much better protection at a lower price”