In this modern-day, swindlers and scammers have developed sophisticated means of invading your digital privacy to steal sensitive data and savings. They use malicious software (malware), ransomware, adware, spyware, and keylogging to attack and leave you at bay. One would be so careless not to have at least understanding is McAfee LiveSafe good to protect their PC/mobile from these threats. But that’s not enough either. You need to find the right antivirus software. Read on to learn the key features you should look out for when evaluating antivirus software.
The Basics You Will Need
The antivirus software you choose should protect your devices against viruses, ransomware, and all forms of online threats. Most importantly, it should be available for Mobile (Android/iOS) and computer (Windows/MacOS) devices.
Besides harbouring numerous security features, it should have the right performance and optimization tools you need for the general maintenance of your devices.
Digging Deeper
Antivirus protection
Anti-cryptojacking
An antivirus software stops viruses, worms, and rootkits from harming your devices; it also defends against cryptojacking software. Cryptojacking software uses your computer for cryptocurrency mining.
Ransomware-protection
Users who are in the U.S and Australia can have access to Ransom Guard. This feature backs up your files at the hint of a potential attack by ransomware. Ransomware can encrypt your files, making them inaccessible.
Scanning
You need a solution that can perform both a quick or full scan. Good antivirus software will enable you to scan a single and specific file.
Gaming mode
Several reputable antivirus software now also add a gaming mode to stop the program from disturbing you with alerts and updates when you’re busy on your device. The program will run in the background in silence.
Security and Privacy Features
Data shredder
With the right antivirus software and a data shredder, worrying about privacy protection will become a thing of the past.
Vulnerability scanner
A vulnerability scanner helps to search for unpatched programs, password weaknesses, and potential tunnels into your system.
Optimization
Most reputable antivirus software offers 3 performance optimizers. They provide an App boost to enhance the speed of applications on your device. The Web boost tool is used to balance playing videos online with battery life and overall performance. And lastly, you’ll have a QuickClean to clean up all registry files, temporary files, shortcuts, and file fragments.
Firewall
A two-way firewall in an antivirus software will replace the default built-in firewall in Windows. You can add your own rules to it for effective protection.
This firewall not only finds holes in your networks but also comes with WebAdvisor, which is a browser extension for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer & Edge. The Web advisor warns users of dangerous sites.
VPN
Virtual Private Network (VPN) is used to hide your online activity from hackers, government organizations, or even your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
A good antivirus software’s VPN should have the bank-grade AES 256-bit, stronger encryption that keeps your online habits and browsing information secured at home and wherever you may be.
Parental control
The Safe Family is parental-control software that comes with 10-license plans. To use it in antivirus software, you need to download it separately and install it. It’s useful for filtering out potentially dangerous websites, allowing family breaks, scheduling screen time, tracking and stopping app purchases, and finding family member’s phones on a map.
Other extras
Anti-spam
Good antivirus software also comes with extra features such as anti-spam. These features block junk mail that’s sent to you before it gets into your inbox.
Identity Theft protection
If you’re enrolled in auto-renewal, you can also have access to Identity Theft protection. This provides online monitoring and 24/7 support and against identity thieves.
Password manager
A password manager is also available to help users easily secure and manage their passwords. The password manager does this by storing and auto-filling passwords. It can even help to generate unique passwords.
File lock
The File Lock is used to lock your sensitive files using a 256-bit AES encryption. This helps to make sure that nobody can get access to your information in your absence.
Over to You
There are thousands of antivirus software on the market. However, only a very few provide the features mentioned above. This is what separates the leaders from the laggards!
Go ahead and make an informed purchase. Save yourself from the dreaded buyer’s remorse!
