Top reasons why you should not install expensive anti-virus software on your newly purchased PC/laptop
We live in a day and age where security has finally begun to take its place as an important subject in the general conscience. From Snowden leaks to the Apple-FBI federal case, security has become an important topic. Considering the dangers of modern day technology, how important is it to have anti virus software on your machine ? Some would like to argue that there is absolutely no need for one. Before you begin to question our rationale, lets explore this.
In Built Mechanisms
Every device that you own has always contained some in-built security applications. With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft has managed to strengthen the in-built Microsoft Defender to such an extent that most critics admitted there was no more a need for a user to install a separate anti-virus software. Thus, Microsoft has plugged the loop holes in the most susceptible platform for viruses.
If you were wondering, what about my phone and tablet ?, iOS & Android have always been much more tightly managed than the windows platform. With the advent of the app store, the respective companies can now filter out any and all suspicious software right at the source, thereby eliminating the need for you to even bother with safeguarding your device against a malicious app. This very writer has never installed an anti-virus on any of his smartphones or tablets and hasn’t regretted the decision.
Browsers
The most common source of malicious software making its way onto your machine, are websites. And all the three big internet browsers – Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox & Internet Explorer – provide pretty strong security measures. Chrome for example, will warn you before you visit a site that has been suspected of containing potentially harmful content. Heeding these warnings and browsing safely automatically removes the need to have any other software since its cutting off the problem right from its roots.
Smart Use
The most common way for a virus to make its way onto your device has always been a user visiting a page and/or downloading the virus unknowingly. Many users tend to ignore the fore-mentioned warnings or just end up clicking the wrong links. On a website with pop ups and ads, its not unusual to miss the actual download link for the big flashy button on the screen. Most likely than not, this turns out to be the reason most machines get infected. In this regard, following a safer browsing technique will eliminate the sources of a majority of viruses. At this point, I also need to mention a habit of a lot of  users to download content from torrent serves or other less legitimate sources. Using such sites are a sure fire way to attract viruses, if not more dangerous consequences. Just sticking to genuine sites reduces this risk by a magnitude.
Ransomware
Now this is potentially the most damaging among all the malicious software that can infect your machine. Ransomware, for those unfamiliar with the term is a software that encrypts data in your machine and then asks you for a fee to decrypt it. This is one malicious code that has no real solution. With the abundant ways available to encrypt data, the probability of a second person being able to decrypt your data is close to 0. Even if you do pay up, there are no guarantees that your data will be decrypted. Thus, the only way out, is to have your data backed up on a local hard drive and the cloud. An anti-virus, is beyond useless against a ransomware, so no point using one in the case your machine gets infected with one.
All in all, technology has matured enough for any alert individual to manage his/her security without the need of an anti-virus software. Browse safe.
