Anti-Virus Users Are Restless, Avira Survey Finds (Update)

Anti-Virus Users Are Restless, Avira Survey Finds

Over 60% of Consumers Tried Multiple Anti-Virus Products in a Year’s Span; 1 out of 4 Have Actually Turned Off AV Protection on their PC

It’s not surprising that consumers try multiple security products each year since everyone is trying to find the right security product which can effectively balance protection and a computer’s resource usage” said Sorin Mustaca, data security expert of Avira. “The scary take-away from this survey is that 25 percent of the respondents admitted to just turning off their security products because they feel that it hurt the performance of the machine. That’s not a good idea because such a practice leaves the computer totally exposed to the even simplest of viruses, allowing the bad guys to include it in a botnet used to distribute malware and phishing. It is a clear sign for the vendors that even more care has to be taken in order not to overload the security software with features which may have a great impact on system performance. In the end, when it comes to security, it is better to have minimal protection which goes unnoticed than protection with all whistles and bells which the user deactivates in order to be able to use his computer.”

What do I call “minimal protection” ?
A minimal protection is a realtime scanner (aka On Access Scanner).
It doesn’t matter how the scanning takes place: local (signatures, heuristics, generic routines,HIPS) or online(in-the-cloud services).
Whether or not this is enough for current threats in the wild, this is another discussion, which I will not start here.


© Copyright 2010 Sorin Mustaca, All rights Reserved. Written For: Sorin Mustaca on Cybersecurity


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7 thoughts on “Anti-Virus Users Are Restless, Avira Survey Finds (Update)

  1. Financial Times picked up the article:
    (need an free account)

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a4972378-0dd9-11e0-8b53-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1941BRd00

    Please respect FT.com’s ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article – http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a4972378-0dd9-11e0-8b53-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1941BRd00

    Avira warns fellow antivirus vendors against overloading

    Comfort for all those who wasted hours trying to remove a bloated antivirus program from their PC … only to repeat the process a few weeks later. You are not alone. According to Germany antivirus firm Avira, more than 60 per cent of users have tried multiple antivirus products over the course of a year. In addition, 25 per cent of respondents admitted to turning off their antivirus protection because they thought the programs were slowing down their computers. Avira warns its fellow antivirus vendors against overloading the security software with features which may have a great impact on system performance. “It is better to have minimal protection that goes unnoticed than protection with all whistles and bells which the user deactivates in order to be able to use his computer,” says Sorin Mustaca, data security expert of Avira.

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