Fortress Data Protection

Leading antivirus vendors in the United States include Computer Associates, Mcafee, Microsoft, Symantec, and Trend Micro. Microsoft acquired several companies over the past decade, which provided security components that they have built into their Windows Defender and other product lines.

Outside the United States, several companies are building market share in the international security software business. These include F-Secure in Finland, GriSoft in the Czech Republic, Kaspersky in Russia, Panda Software in Spain, and Sophos in the United Kingdom.

The antivirus software market is a rapidly changing one. A huge amount of effort is required to find and provide fixes for viruses. Malicious programs are getting more complex and the number of them is constantly increasing. Many companies may find themselves without the resources to effectively combat this threat. Moreover, the new viruses are getting “smarter” in that they propagate themselves quickly, often moving across the local network to infect numerous computers. They often hide themselves by moving around in a system and by renaming themselves. Viruses that rename themselves to names close or identical to legitimate system files can be difficult to detect. The capabilities of malicious software has multiplied, and now there are software threats that send emails, act as servers, and provide remote control of system functions. Malicious software often combines multiple features of viruses, trojans, emailers, etc., and these are called “hybrid” threats.

Although my recommendations for a good antivirus program has changed over the years, at the time of writing, I like AVG by GriSoft.com. It comes in a free and a paid version; see the site for specifics about their licenses. AVG antivirus actually does a good job at detecting lots of different kinds of malware, including viruses, trojans, rootkits, and various adware.

For companies with about ten or more computers, it makes sense to consider a provider of endpoint security services that can roll out protection to every computer and manage it for you. Endpoint security solutions from Fortress Data Protection provide effective and totally automated antivirus and anti-spyware protection.

Filed under: Blog by Dr. David Johnson