Over they years, the amount of malware, ransomware and spyware created, has increased drastically. These advancements in technology have only given cyber criminals added avenues to attempt to gain access to your devices and ultimately, your personal information.

With the increase in cybercrime, it is of the upmost importance to stay protected while browsing the web.

Antivirus Software Stops More Threats Than You May Realize

When you think of ‘antivirus’ software‘, you more than likely immediately think of computer viruses – which is common and accurate. However, there is so much more to antivirus software now – than ever before.

There are many different types of online threats that are out there in the innerwebs. 20-years-ago, the common internet user only faced a few menacing online viruses, viruses that would slow down your device or even cause it to stop working all together. Now a days, viruses are not just out to harm a device, they are out to gain access to that device and your personal information. That’s where things like malware, ransomware and spyware come into play. These are not viruses, but rather little pieces of code that get installed onto a device – which will them look to extract personal information. Personal information such as passwords and banking info.

Having a proper antivirus protection program, will routinely search for not only viruses, but malware, ransomware and spyware too.

Say Goodbye To Phishing Scams

What is ‘Phishing’? Phishing attacks are used to lure an online user into giving out their personal information.

Most often times, Phishing scams take place via email. If you have spent any amount of time on the internet and have an email address, than we can just about guarantee that you have received at least one phishing scam email in your lifetime.

Phishing scam emails will often times mimic popular websites, such as Paypal, Netflix or Amazon. These emails often times have a subject heading that will notify the user that something is ‘wrong’ with their account, or that a payment has been made in error. These emails with then ask you to click a link in order to ‘login’ and rectify the situation. However, when a user clicks that link, they are sent to a website that not that of the actual company website, but one that mimics it. This puts the user at ease and they then login. Once they enter their login credentials, the person at the other end is able to see those credentials and now has the ability to log into the real website using your information.

A good antivirus suite will prevent these phishing emails from ever reaching you, thus lowering the risk that you will be fooled into giving up your personal information.

So to answer the initial question of, ‘Do you need antivirus software?’….

The short and simple answer is, ‘YES YOU DO’.