Why is it important to actually use antivirus software?

Cyber crime is becoming a common occurrence in the digital age and is predicted to cause $6 trillion of financial damage by 2021. Whether it’s data leaks, ransomware campaigns or DDoS attacks that shut down entire companies, this threat is growing every day and puts everyone at risk.

One of the best ways to protect yourself from cyber crime is by installing one of the best antivirus solutions on your computer, tablet PC or smartphone. A good antivirus programme will look for cyber security threats, alert you of anything that is deemed suspicious and mitigate incoming attacks, meaning you don’t have to worry about hackers. Here are some of the reasons why antivirus is important.

Viruses slow down your computer

When a computer falls victim to malware, a virus or any other type of cyber attack, its performance will be hindered significantly. A virus can take up a lot of memory, perform malicious actions in the background, disrupt the way in which your computer operates, make it difficult to access the internet and cause legitimate applications to crash. Overall, you’ll find your computer a lot slower and more difficult to use. But an antivirus solution will prevent these things from happening.

Protecting your data

Hackers are increasingly launching devastating attacks on unsuspecting victims. From spying on people’s social media accounts to sealing their personal information, cyber crooks are causing mayhem online. And if they manage to hack into your computer because it’s insecure, they can do more damage. By downloading one of the best antivirus programs, you’ll always be safe from the threat of hacking.

Prevent data loss

It’s likely that you store a great deal of important data on your computing device, from family photos to business documents. If you’ve not backed up your hard drive and a hacker then breaches your computer, you could end up losing everything on it. Worse still, cyber crooks can even tamper with your personal data. A good antivirus application will keep hackers out of your device and ensure the contents of your computer can’t be deleted, stolen or changed.

Protecting children

The web can be a dangerous place, particularly for children. Whether it’s pornography or gambling websites, a lot of content found on the internet isn’t suitable for youngsters. Without antivirus protection, it’s possible for young people to come across websites, search engines, forums and other internet services containing inappropriate content and malware. Put simply, antivirus makes the internet safer for children.

Ensure your device is hack proof

With the risk of cyber crime growing, technology companies are increasingly providing their devices and software with built-in security features to protect users from hackers. But unfortunately, perpetrators are constantly developing new methods to sneak past security measures and hack into devices. If you want to make your device more secure and protect your privacy, investing in antivirus software is an excellent idea. When antivirus is combined with built-in security features, your device becomes much stronger and can’t be breached by cyber criminals as a result. So much is at stake without antivirus.