Cyber threats are real and are affecting every organization and possibly, even individuals. The statistics pertaining to online frauds and cyber threats are growing by the day, with more people and organizations falling prey to these hackers.
Though the nature of cyber attacks varies greatly, the one commonality that exists through all of them is there is some mistake on the part of the user too. It mostly is due to ignorance because obviously nobody would want to lose money directly. It can be simple acts like clicking a link on a computer, believing that something is wrong and making money transfer to an unknown account, or any other simple act that allows hackers to enter your system and network and exploit the vulnerabilities in it. 
One good way to reduce the possibility of these cyber attacks is to install antivirus software on your system.
Antivirus software, as the name suggests, is software that identifies viruses, malware, and other small computer programs through which hackers gain access to your computer. When you install this software, it will prevent any program from installing itself on your computer and it will even send you a warning if there are any unknown or unverified programs that are trying to access your content and system. For these benefits, most security experts recommend antivirus software and it is often seen as the first line of defense in any attack.
Considering the importance of this antivirus software to your computer and its safety, it is important you find the best anti-virus software that perfectly fits your needs. This is not as easy as it sounds when you take into account the different antivirus software that is available in the market today. Since all of them are not created the same, here are some aspects to keep in mind while choosing the right antivirus software that will protect your computer in the best way possible.
Whether it is a malware that has been around for decades or a new one that made its entry to the world today, the antivirus software that you have installed in your computer should be able to detect it, no matter what. AT the same rate, your software should not be raising the wrong flags or seeing everything as malware. If your software does this, it could impede the way you access files and is more trouble than actually needed. In fact, the inconvenience may even cause you to remove the antivirus software from your system.
One of the big decisions you will have to make when it comes to antivirus software is to choose between a free and a paid one. While free software is good in many cases, it may not be as comprehensive in detecting and removing viruses from your system. Also, the paid products tend to have a lot of extra features and may even come with a good customer support service to make it easy for you to reach out to them in case of any concerns or problems.
Whether you should go in for free or paid software ultimately depends on your budget. Most antivirus software has annual subscription fees, which means, you should be ready to dole out the same amount of money each year if you take this option. You can also consider the free software, but it may not be as efficient, and in some cases, could defeat the very purpose of having this software in the first place.
The holy grail of any software product is usability.
The software you buy should be highly usable by all people, regardless of their familiarity with the software or for that matter, even their level of technical knowledge. The user interface should be intuitive and this means you should naturally know how to navigate and what is being said, even if you’re using it for the first time. While not all software is so intuitive, this is definitely a benchmark you should keep in mind.
This is probably why most software today have a free trial period and in this time, you have access to the complete software. You can sue it to know more about its ease of use and even its efficiency and performance and based on your experience, you can decide if you should go ahead with it or not.
To conclude, antivirus software is absolutely essential in order to protect your system and through it your network, from hackers and other cyber criminals who are always looking for a way to steal passwords and other sensitive information. But choosing antivirus software is also not easy and the above factors can go a long way in helping you make the right choices that are necessary to protect your system.