It's an anstonishing statistic but one that should not be taken so lightly. According to IT security provider Panda Security, over 30 million people have been tricked into installing fake antivirus software. If you have surfed the Internet, you know what I am talking about. If not, they usually appear as pop-up ads that disguise themselves as helpful computer diagnostics, claiming you have a computer virus or problem. If you click on them, they let you install software, for a fee of course, and then supposedly remove the problem from your system. The only thing they are removing, however, is good money from your wallet.

Unfortunately, the fake antivirus software scam appears to be a lucreative one at that. Ryan Sherstobitoff for Panda Security says,  "The information we have at present suggests that approximately 3 percent of these users have provided their personal details in the process of buying a product that claims to disinfect their computers. Extrapolating from an average price of $68.31, we can calculate that the creators of these programs are receiving more than $13,666,000 per month."

Of course if you are giving scam artists your credit card number, who knows what else they could be charging to your account? The best method to follow when on the Internet is to be suspicious at all times. Buy your own antivirus software from a box and keep it up to date. And if you are ever surfing the net and a pop-up window tells you that your computer has a problem, don't believe it. If in doubt you can always run your own antivirus software that you purchased to scan for potential issues.

Norton AntiVirus 2009 provides fast, responsive defense against all types of malicious software including viruses, spyware, worms, and other software threats. It protects your system without slowing it down. Rapid pulse updates every 5 to 15 minutes help to ensure that you're protected from the latest threats.

Working quickly and quietly in the background, Norton AntiVirus requires little memory and system resources. The new Norton Insight relies on extensive online intelligence to target only those processes at risk, resulting in faster, shorter, fewer scans. And the new Norton Protection System employs a multilayered set of security technologies that work in concert to detect, identify, and block attacks. Version 2009 improves on product performance.

Key Features of the Norton AntiVirus 2009

   Stops viruses, worms, spyware, bots, and more-Keeps your system protected against malicious software

    NortonTM Insight-Delivers innovative intelligence-driven technology for faster, fewer, shorter scans

   NEW! Pulse updates for up-to-the-minute protection-Delivered every 5 to 15 minutes to detect and eliminate new threats

   Prevents virus-infected emails and instant messages from spreading-Feel secure while you keep in touch

   Blocks browser exploits and protects against infected web sites-Surf the Internet with confidence

Free antivirus software may be the only option for those on a limited budget. The question, of course, is how well free antivirus software protects your PC, how easy is it to use, and if something goes wrong will you be left out in the cold? The answers may surprise you. This review looks at three free antivirus solutions: AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic, AVAST 4 Home Edition, and AVG Free Edition.

Each of the products tested has been certified (VB100%, ICSALabs, or Checkmark) to be effective at detecting 100% of in-the-wild viruses.

For this reason, we turned to AV-Test.org, a project of the University of Magdeburg and AV-Test GmbH, Andreas Marx. Each year, Andreas subjects antivirus scanners to a wide range of tests, extending the basic wildlist testing to include a collection of 159322 zoo virus tests, as well as the ability to detect viruses in 37 compressed and archive formats, and any false positives (detection of viruses in non-infected, legitimate files) resulting from these tests. We also performed our own in-house tests to determine whether any of the free products were capable of providing a high level of protection against adware and spyware.

The Scorecard
To ensure objectivity, we rated each of the free antivirus scanners based on system impact (install size and number of active running processes), detection of zoo viruses, detection of spyware/adware, compressed/archive types handled, number of false positives, product support options, and response times (how quickly the vendor releases updates after a new virus is discovered in-the-wild).

Scan speeds were not included in scoring, as these can vary widely depending on system configuration and whether any infections are present and, in any event, have no bearing on detection or capability of the product. Likewise, though we comment on ease-of-use and costmetics of the interface, these are subjective opinions that will vary from user to user and thus were not used to score the products.

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