Why Are You Still Spending Money on Antivirus Software?
A couple months back, Microsoft offered its Security Essentials antivirus software free to businesses with up to 10 PCs.
Many of you probably thought, "Um, no, I'm not putting my mission-critical systems in the hands of a freebie." And I can understand that reaction: How could a freeware security solution possibly compare with commercial-grade protection?
Well, there's mounting evidence that Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is not only comparable to the likes of Norton and McAfee products, but actually better. Witness Ed Bott's recent report: Microsoft vs. McAfee: How free antivirus outperformed paid. A snippet:
How effective is free antivirus software? I had a chance to see a real, in-the-wild example just this month, and the results were, to put it mildly, unexpected. The bottom line? Microsoft's free antivirus solution found and removed a threat that two well-known paid products missed.This is a fascinating read, and while it highlights only one anecdotal incident (well, two, actually, if you note the post's update), it does make a strong case for abandoning pricey commercial antivirus software in favor of Security Essentials (which, as Bott notes, uses "the same scanning engine and definitions as [Microsoft's] enterprise-grade Forefront product, which is most assuredly not free.")
For my one-man (but multi-PC) shop, I've found MSE a fast, reliable, and quiet soldier. I use it in conjunction with Windows' built-in security tools, browser add-on Web of Trust, and some common sense. Total price: zero. Total number of security issues (of any kind) in the last several years: zero.
What kind of anti-virus software do you use in your shop?