4 reasons you should pay for your antivirus app

4 reasons you should pay for your antivirus app

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#1 You will get a broader protection

Most free antivirus apps are perfectly good at capturing most known malware threats – threats such as viruses, spyware, adware and trojans that can appear daily. This is largely due to the fact that they include the same signature databases and run the same malware detection engines as their paid counterparts.

However, the way users interact with their systems is continually changing and new software is being released. This means the threat landscape is also constantly evolving, with cyber criminals finding new ways to do harm to your system or network. Under this umbrella, free apps have a limited capacity to protect users.  

There are more malware threats than most people are aware of. In 2020, content control and network security provider SonicWall identified 268,362 never before seen types of malware. This was an increase of 74 percent from 2019. To counteract the unknown threats, some companies have begun incorporating sophisticated signature and AI behavioural-based algorithms into their antivirus solutions.

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These algorithms are more generic than the signature-based malware search engines in that they attempt to detect anomalous behaviours that indicate the presence of unknown threats, rather than the presence of known threats. 

Once suspicious behaviours are identified, the software can then attempt to prevent threats executing. While you might be lucky enough to find this level of protection in your free app, we think it’s highly unlikely, since this added security is more often than not reserved for users of paid apps.