Computers have transformed almost every aspect of our lives in every aspect, from helping students learn and assisting in monitoring patients in hospitals and regulating crucial manufacturing processes. The increasing dependence on computers and gadgets has also brought a rise in cyberthreats, including malware, viruses and ransomware. Antivirus software is designed to spot these threats and prevent them from causing damage to your computer or stealing personal information.

When selecting an antivirus software take into consideration the capabilities of its virus scanner, whether it has a firewall, and how it does in independent laboratory tests. It is also important to consider its customer service and frequency of updates itself and the number of devices it can protect. Some programs, such as Norton have additional features that will help you secure your identity and protect your privacy online.

Top-rated programs offer a variety of security options. They offer heuristic detection which searches for behaviors that are typical of malware or viruses and signature matching that compares files with a list of known malicious codes. Some programs also use sandboxing, which isolates the suspicious files and puts them in a sealed virtual environment where they cannot cause harm.

Some of the best antivirus software is available for download. However, they may not offer the same features as paid alternatives. Bitdefender’s premium edition comes with parental controls, a file shredder, and This Site password manager, however its free version scored very well and comes with firewall. Malwarebytes, whose free version was a top performer in our AV Test for 2023, fell short of our test of usability. Intego Mac Internet Security X9 has a solid combination of tools (VirusBarrier and NetBarrier) that killed and slowed the most malware threats in our test.