Risk: Informational
A recent Which? survey has revealed that many free anti-virus programs are as good as paid-for brand solutions, such as Norton and McAfee. The survey found that the only drawback was that customer support might be inferior to paid-for solutions.
The report looked at 15 free security suites and assessed them in four categories - anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and anti-spam.
Five of the 15 free programs scored 5 stars - the top rating - for performance, and 11 scored 4 or 5 stars for ease of use. Those coming out on top were Avira, AVG, Avast! and Checkpoint.
In response to the Which? results, a Symantec spokesperson said: "We have more than 40,000 sensors monitoring the newest threats on the network in more than 180 countries. The benefit of purchasing from one of the established manufacturers is that you also get the expertise, research and development infrastructure and experience."