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The digital world can be a pretty dangerous place with the presence of viruses, ransomware, malware, and phishing in it. Therefore, it is necessary to use quality protection to safeguard your device and data from all kind of threats. 
As long as one is connected to the internet, using either a smartphone, laptop, desktop or a tablet, the threat of becoming exposed to unwanted hazards does not go away. Obviously, one needs to use antivirus protection.
However, with so many different antivirus products available, it is easy to become confused while trying to choose the best antivirus overall.
What are the types of threats against which a good antivirus will provide protection?
It is not just viruses that one needs to worry about anymore. The general term for e-threats is malware, and using a quality antivirus software will provide security against all of them, mainly:
- Virus – This is harmful software that has the ability to replicate itself and infect other devices as well.
- Ransomware – When infected with it, the user is denied access to their files and personal data until and unless they pay an amount as a ransom to retrieve the blocked data.
- Spyware and Adware – These are mainly found in freely available software, and they generate unnecessary advertisements while disrupting normal processes. They can also track patterns sometimes.
- Phishing – In this case, some websites are so extensively manipulated that they will redirect a search to some other harmful website which steals the personal data of the user, and sometimes even steals login credentials of vulnerable accounts.
For many users, they consider any security present in their system as the ultimate line of defense against malware. However, malware is upgrading all the time, and it is becoming increasingly harder every day to protect your device.
Therefore, one needs to have a good idea about the characteristic features that are present in a top-notch antivirus.
Features that make an antivirus product best
Many options are out there if one is searching for the best antivirus protection. Some of them are:
- Providing protection in browsing that can help with the removal of threats while surfing the internet.
- Helping to protect the device against suspicious links and phishing in various networking platforms.
- A strong firewall that can completely block advancing threats to a computer.
- Controls which can be customized such that the activities of other people who are accessing the device can be limited.
- Effective and advanced identification procedures for viruses as well as their complete removal.
- High-level security with minimal usage of the system memory, such that the performance of the device is negligibly affected.
- To provide complete protection from the new types of threats as well by providing updates immediately as and when required.
- The availability of a mode where the virus is removed from the device into a safe and strongly secured area where it cannot do any harm, before the total deletion of the virus from the system.
- Providing sufficient backup options, which can help one in retrieving lost and corrupted data on the device if any mishaps happen.
How can one choose the best antivirus protection?
Before finalizing the purchase of an antivirus, one should consider the devices they are trying to protect. Also, one should see whether the other family members need the same protection or not for their devices as well.
Quality is the most important factor, and up next comes the budget. Same quality antivirus products often have different pricing. Therefore, one should go for the one where the protection level is high and the cost is reasonably low.
Equally important is to check out the user interface of the antivirus. A good antivirus should be easy to use. Overall, the interaction of the antivirus with the software should be smooth.
Top antivirus products like Bitdefender provide protection on multiple devices with different operating systems as well.
Protection layers of a good quality antivirus
- Intrusion prevention and Firewall – The Intrusion prevention Solution or the IPS is a technology that provides in network protection while checking the incoming data and blocking out suspicious sites. This includes preventing the opening of websites which are not trusted.
- Protection based on files – A good antivirus will also provide a file based security which will identify the malware present in a corrupted file currently in the system and isolate it such that no files can get infected or corrupted further.
- Protection based on reputation – When one of the best antivirus products come into play, the security system is so advanced that it can assign a threat level to a certain website based on its behavior or reputation. Obviously, the sites or ads that have a certain bad reputation are either blocked automatically or the scan goes on whenever such sites are accessed.
- Protection based on behavior – An advanced antivirus program also monitors the behavior of the different files using AI or Artificial Intelligence. With the help of this, the risk of being infected from unknown threats decreases substantially.
- Ability to repair – Even with the highest levels of security, sometimes a few files become damaged or corrupted. It is in this case where the best antivirus products can help. Not only will an antivirus identify and remove the threat, but it also can repair the corrupted file and restore a normal version of that file on the device.
In conclusion, we’ve looked at the various methods, features, and the workings of the top antivirus programs. When one needs to choose the best antivirus protection, keeping these certain things in mind will greatly help in the selection process.