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The alarming proliferation of malware and cyber attacks, reported almost daily in the news, has generated not only greater awareness of antivirus software but plenty of questions about it as well. One of these questions, ‘What antivirus do I need?’, is one of the most frequently-asked questions, and for a good reason. Knowing which antivirus you need is the first step toward protecting your privacy, With that in mind, below is a checklist of the key features to look for in antivirus software.

**Real-time malware detection and removal.** This is one of the most important features of any antivirus software as it scans and checks, in real-time, everything you download, looking for viruses and malware. When malware is detected, the infected file is either removed or quarantined.

**Automatic virus updates.** One way that antivirus or antimalware software detect malware in your computer’s files and programs is by scanning them and checking their ‘signatures’ against a database of known malware signatures. Accordingly, anti-malware companies periodically update their signature database with new malware signatures. Your antivirus software should be automatically updated whenever this signature database is updated so that new virus signatures will also be detected.

**Multi-layer protection**. In addition to real-time protection, which detects known viruses, antivirus software also needs to be able to detect new and emerging threats. For this, behavioral and heuristic detection methods are used. Behavioral detection analyzes the behavior of programs and files looking for behavior that might be suspicious and indicative of malware, and heuristic detection looks for atypical commands or instructions in applications that might be indicative of malware. In this way, these methods are able to detect previously unknown malware.

**A high detection rate.** Antivirus software should have a 100% detection rate when malware is present on your system. This may vary depending upon whether scanning is done online or offline, but anything less than 100% leaves your computer vulnerable

**Safe browsing technology**. Your antivirus should also protect you from navigating to malicious URLs or websites where hackers try to steal and use your personal and private information.

**Email protection**. According to cyberdefensemagazine.com, 91% of cyber attacks are launched with a phishing email. Your antivirus software should be able to secure your email correspondence and prevent confidential information from falling into the wrong hands by detecting and blocking email threats.

And finally, make sure your antivirus software is easy to install and has a light footprint so that there is negligible impact on your computer’s performance.

While antivirus software features vary between brands, and between paid and free versions, the checklist above can be used as a guide to help you better understand which antivirus you need. If you can check off all of the statements above, then you know you have the right antivirus protection.

![](https://cms.reasonlabs.com/cdn/shutterstock_1206388969.jpg)

If you perform a Google search to find out which antivirus is good, the search results you’ll receive will be a bunch of antivirus software companies claiming that their software is the best, but what you really need to know to answer this question is what features to look for in antivirus (AV) software. When you know what features to look for, then you can figure out which antivirus is good for you. With that in mind, what follows is a list of the most important features to look for in antivirus software.

**A high malware detection rate.** Look for an antivirus that has a 100% detection rate when there is malware present. Anything less than that leaves your computer exposed. Keep in mind, however, that detection rates can vary depending upon whether the virus scans were performed offline or online.

**A light system load.** Whether running in the background or during active scans, your antivirus software shouldn’t noticeably slow down your computer.

**User-friendly.** The AV software’s installation process should be quick and simple so you can install it and then, if you’re like most people, just let it do its job once installed. Some people, however, do prefer to customize its operation, so the user interface should be intuitive and easy to use too.

![](https://cms.reasonlabs.com/cdn/shutterstock_1116947918-e1578844085803.jpg)

**All-inclusive protection.** Today, the malware that can infect your computer is much worse than the malware of the past and employs more methods for infecting it as well. Therefore, AV software should also offer browser protection, email protection, and download protection in addition to standard protection against viruses, Trojans, spyware, trackers, etc.

**Real-time protection.** One of the most critical features of AV software is real-time protection, which scans any new program or file before it’s opened to make sure that it is malware-free and can’t infect your computer.

**Automatic updates.** – AV software scans your files and compares them against a database of known malware to see if any of your files have been infected. To be able to check for the latest malware, your AV software must be updated automatically whenever the AV company adds new malware to its malware database.

Behavioral and heuristic analysis detection methods. These detection methods look at the behavior of a file and label it a threat if it is behaving the way malware does. While real-time scanning can detect known cyber threats, behavioral and heuristics detection methods are used for catching unknown and emerging cyber threats.

Different AV software packages do come with more advanced security features, such as parental control, camera and microphone protection, coverage of more than one device, etc., but whether you need these features will depend on your specific security needs. The critical features that every AV software must-have, however, are the features listed above.

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