The pros and cons of antivirus and antispam software

The pros and cons of antivirus and antispam software

It is never a good idea to use an unprotected electronic device. Whether it's a laptop, tablet or cell phone, your business and customer data is a target for hackers. With so many data breaches occurring in the past 5 years, including Desjardin, CapitalOne, Adobe, LinkedIn (there are honestly too many to name them all), organizations of all sizes need to be vigilant.

Antivirus and anti spam software are the minimum requirements for cybersecurity. Businesses need to determine the best offer that suits their needs and look for additional cybersecurity services to reduce their risk of hacking.

What is antivirus software?

You may have heard of these big names in the antivirus industry: the Norton brand of Symantec, McAfee, Kasperksy and Avast. These companies, among others, have developed antivirus software that has protected your company's electronic devices and data for years.

How it works

Antivirus software primarily blocks, detects, quarantines, and eliminates computer viruses by scanning your device's hard drive and connected external devices. Antivirus software searches for files, software, web pages, and applications.

Characteristics

You can schedule a scan of your device where the antivirus software searches for known threats and will report suspicious behavior. Users can also choose from different types of analyzes according to their needs: personalized, complete system, rapid analysis, etc.

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Antivirus software can also provide add-ons, for example, a search tool that can be added to your Internet browser. It will warn the user when he clicks on a potentially dangerous link. On mobile phones, you can have the choice to protect it with an anti-theft option and a fingerprint lock.

The threats

Antivirus software searches for these cyber threats:

·         Malware: any malicious program or code designed to damage an electronic device

·         Adware: malware hidden in unwanted ads

·         Spyware: malware that secretly obtains information about the activities of an electronic device and transmits it to another device

·         Worms: malware that spreads independently in a system

·         Trojans: codes or malware masquerading as files and applications

·         Viruses: malicious code or software designed to attack and corrupt devices, as well as to spread to other devices

·         Spam: spam containing scams and malicious code

Antivirus software has grown over the decades to include advanced protection against new threats, including ransomware.

The inconvenient

The major disadvantage of any antivirus software is that it cannot protect your devices and data from each attack, as various types of threats evolve and are constantly created. It is important to add multiple layers of security, not just antivirus and anti spam.

What is anti spam?

 According to Techrepublic, 52% of all phishing attacks target Canada . Considering the fact that 3.4 billion malicious emails are sent every day, Canadians are at great risk. Fortunately, many antivirus solutions offer an anti spam function to reduce the number of spam emails you receive and to increase the protection of your device against threats that may be contained in spam.

How it works

Spam is indeed unsolicited and spam e-mail. You may have seen a "No Spam" sticker on the mailboxes. Anti spam acts like this email sticker while doing much more, like protecting your electronic device from phishing.

Characteristics

Depending on the company and the solution you choose, anti spam can be integrated into email software and added to the toolbar, which groups the lists of blocked and authorized senders. This functionality allows the user to classify the e-mail addresses he recognizes or block those which are unwanted.

Once the anti spam is configured, you can adjust the filtering parameters so that they correspond to the aggressiveness that you want for the analysis of your emails in addition to creating personalized filters.

Anti spam software can also install a folder in your email client and send the emails it has flagged as spam to that location. It allows users to browse emails and verify that they are spam. If the mail has been misclassified, you may be asked to send a report to anti spam support. If you are worried about phishing, follow the advice of our experts!

The inconvenient

Anti spam will sometimes misclassify important emails, which can cause frustration and confusion. For example, if a customer sends an email to your business, but the representative does not receive it because it has been classified as "spam", there will be a delay in taking care of the customer's needs. If a business receives a large amount of spam messages per day, it will be a difficult task to find emails that have been misclassified.

Why should you use both?

Antivirus and anti spam software protects different aspects of your system: one targets threats on your hard drive and the Internet while the other monitors and manages your emails, separating good messages from bad ones. Using both types of software increases the security of your electronic device and reduces your risk of infiltration. More layers equals better protection.

Anti-virus and anti-spam solutions managed by MicroAge

Our Managed Antivirus & Anti spam solutions mean we take care of everything. Not only do we install AV and Anti spam remotely on each device in your office, we also take care of software updates. In addition, our team of experts is notified if the AV or Anti Spam ever detects a virus on any device and we fix it instantly. For businesses looking for an extra layer of protection, 24/7/365 monitoring is also available through our managed service offering.

Benefits of additional cybersecurity measures

Antivirus and anti spam software are the basic components that every business must install on its electronic devices. However, businesses can benefit from additional cybersecurity services, including:

·         Management of information and security events (SIEM). While monitoring 24/7/365, SIEM searches for unusual behavior in your company's IT infrastructure using Machine Learning and reports it to our SOC team for investigation.

·         Firewall solutions. We configure a firewall that meets your company's security and network requirements. You will benefit from a real-time report, a complete correction, a replacement of equipment and much more.

·         Email protection. With a comprehensive site of solutions, such as archiving, backups, security and email management, your email is treated securely and constantly monitored.

The article is associated with DICC offers ethical hacking courses.

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Created on Apr 17th 2020 04:21. Viewed 464 times.

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