Your life is on your computer. Well, not really. However, much of your most important data: family photos, music collections, important documents are stored on one or more computers in your home. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to be aware of how to protect yourself from the many things which may threaten the security of your data. Over the next few articles we will look at several facets of home computer data security and what you can do to decrease the amount of risk to your important data.

One of the biggest threats to your data, of course, is malicious software (otherwise known as malware) being inadvertently installed on your computer. “Malware” is a catch-all description of any software running on your computer that threatens to corrupt your data, steal your data, slow down your system or even completely disable access to your system. It has become so easy to infect a computer these days that a quality security product – one that includes both antivirus and anti spyware protection – is essential.

Most users know that having a good antivirus program installed and running on their computers is a necessity. However, it can be difficult to determine what constitutes a “good” program. Is the software made by one of the big vendors, such as McAfee or Norton better simply because it’s more recognizable? Is the software better just because you paid an annual subscription fee? Here are a few things to note about antivirus products on the market today:

There is no one product which will make your computer bulletproof and totally insusceptible to malware infection. The amount of malicious software being created on a daily basis is too great for any one program to conceivably catch everything.
All of the major antivirus software vendors share information with each other. If one company discovers a new infection in the wild and creates a signature to detect it and/or a process to remove it, they will share that with other companies, fully expecting that those other companies will do the same. This is the only way for these companies to keep up with the flood of malware which exists on the internet today.
An antivirus product should be used as one element in a layered security plan. There are many things that you can and must do to protect your data. Running a decent antivirus program on your computer is just one of them.
The Next Level of Security: Managed Antivirus

Crespo IT Solutions recently began offering a Managed Antivirus solution to our customers. When a software vendor sells you an antivirus product, they are doing just that: selling you a product. They have little concern or control over whether or not the product is installed correctly, is working correctly, or it is regularly updating to prevent infection. They may provide limited support during the period of your product subscription, but this may or may not be helpful to you. What makes a Managed Antivirus offering different is that it is a service, not simply a product. While we use a quality antivirus product to provide this service, we are not simply selling you another piece of software. Our Managed Antivirus solution includes:

Quality antivirus and anti-malware software which will work to prevent malicious software from being introduced into your computing environment.
24/7 Monitoring to ensure that virus definitions are up to date and that the software is running properly.
Mitigation if the software does detect anything on your system, including examination of results in quarantine, deletion of malware and initiating additional scanning when necessary.

We are able to do all of the above remotely, in the background on customer computers without affecting your productivity. It’s like having a set of professional eyes watching your computer for you, making sure that your system is protected. Our Managed Antivirus solution is also affordable – you can purchase it by itself or bundle it with our Maintenance Plans. Please contact us, if you would be interested in protecting your computer or computers with our Managed Antivirus.