Is antivirus software necessary in 2020?

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The case for and against antivirus apps

 

The perceived wisdom is that you should have antivirus software installed on your PC and an app of some kind on your mobile. Or that’s certainly been the case historically – if you don’t, the argument has always been that you’re running some major risks.

 

However, given advancements in operating systems and security in general, is this still true in 2020? Should you definitely be running antivirus software today? Or are there any good reasons why you might not want to?

Arguments against antivirus

The short answer to the titular question is: Yes, you should still be running some kind of antivirus software in 2020. It may even seem blatantly obvious to you that any PC user should be running an antivirus on Windows 10, but there are arguments against doing so. In some cases they’re not particularly valid ones, at least in our opinion, but they exist nonetheless.

 

One main pillar of the ‘anti-antivirus mindset’, as it were, is that if you’re sensible and careful enough about what you do online, only visiting legitimate websites, official software stores, and policing the links you click on with a suitable degree of vigilance, you probably won’t encounter any malware anyway.

 

And therefore the argument is you don’t need to pay for antivirus, and even if you install a third-party free antivirus app, it’s still another program on your system that might slow it down somewhat (some antivirus software can have more of an impact on system performance, and of course free software may also pop up ads and so on).

 

Another more pressing worry aired in recent times is that some of the antivirus software out there carries a number of vulnerabilities, and these could be a potential avenue of exploitation for an attacker. In other words, the potential irony is that your antivirus software could be an avenue for your machine to be compromised.

 

That’s a legitimate concern, as we’ve seen in recent times, when for example in March 2020, Avast disabled a major part of its antivirus software which suffered from a dangerous vulnerability that a respected security researcher flagged up.

 

So, as you can see, there are some gray areas when it comes to answering the question of whether you should run an antivirus. However, there are much stronger reasons as to why you should use an antivirus, which we’ll explore next.

 

Antivirus for the win

 

Clearly the most worrying issue raised in the above section is the final point, so it’s worth clarifying that the chances of your antivirus being used as an avenue of attack in some manner are pretty slim. In truth, there are far bigger targets for malicious actors to focus on than any given security app.

 

 

We’re talking about gaping holes in operating systems, and much more widely used software like web browsers, which will be far juicier propositions to exploit for hackers and other miscreants.

 

 

The thing is, it’s these major targets which are the real pay dirt for malware authors, and an antivirus can defend you against those far more dangerous threats. So really, the good that these apps are doing in that respect far outweighs any potential bad in terms of possible flaws within the security of the antivirus itself. It’s that simple – although also bear in mind that to minimize any risk at all, use one of the best apps out there which are pieces of software that benefit from being tightly and securely coded.

 

 

Moving on to consider the potential slowdown that might be visited on your PC by installing an antivirus, the trick here is to check out our antivirus reviews to discover the lean apps which have little impact on system performance – there are some very streamlined products out there (like Norton and Kaspersky, for instance).

 

As for the argument that being careful about what you download and click on is enough to keep you safe, well, that’s true to a large extent, but here’s the rub: even if you’re clued-up and super-safe, there’s always a slight chance that you might come a cropper if you’re online with absolutely no protection.

 

Even legitimate big-name websites can unintentionally become vehicles for malware via the adverts they serve, if the advertising networks who they’ve partnered with are compromised (this has happened to some high-profile sites in the past). So it’s a rather dangerous assumption to make that safe surfing habits and other good practices are all you need.

 

Besides, less tech-savvy users may not be all that confident about knowing how to stay safe online anyway, so would be seriously ill-advised to go without antivirus protection.

 

 

And for those who don’t particularly want to go to the effort of researching and trying to find the best antivirus out there, at least on Windows 10 PCs, you’re already protected by default via Windows Defender. And these days, Windows Defender provides a perfectly palatable level of protection to get by with.

 

 

The final major reason why you should use an antivirus app is the dangerous nature of the threats out there these days, with, for example, nasty strains of ransomware threatening to lock away your entire digital life, or stealthy crypto-mining malware slowing down your PC while you may not even notice.

Is antivirus software necessary in 2020?

 

Yes, in a word.

 

 

In truth, there are no compelling reasons to go without antivirus protection today, even if there are some valid concerns about the security of some antivirus apps themselves. Just be sure to pick a good antivirus solution, bearing in mind the factors we discussed above, because you’ll need it – particularly in 2020, with the threat landscape having become such a perilous place.

 

Source

[Tux 528]

It's a good informative article, but I find that it doesn't go into enough detail about why a computer could be infected by malware.
It is important to remember that most of the time, the user is infected by malicious software when he tries to obtain one or more paid content for free, such as video games, movies, software or e-books. It also happens that the user is tricked by a fraudulent advertisement or a phishing e-mail.

 

I think that Windows Defender is more than sufficient for the vast majority of users and that it is preferable not to install other antivirus software on your PC, at the risk of slowing down Windows.
Although the resource usage of antivirus software has improved in recent years, most of them include real-time protection against malware, a process that is quite resource-intensive, which can slow down entry-level computers that have a low configuration.
On the other hand, don't install antivirus software if you are concerned about your privacy, as free antivirus software can resell or use the personal data you transmit to them through their services (which is the case with Google, for example).

 

Besides, I was surprised by several of the paragraphs of this article, such as this one:

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As for the argument that being careful about what you download and click on is enough to keep you safe, well, that’s true to a large extent, but here’s the rub: even if you’re clued-up and super-safe, there’s always a slight chance that you might come a cropper if you’re online with absolutely no protection.

 

If a user is experienced in this area, he certainly uses an ad and/or tracker blocker when browsing the Web, and perhaps even other extensions to protect his privacy. This argument is confusing and therefore does not hold water. It is possible to get infected while visiting a website, but this is usually due to vulnerabilities in web browsers, which are regularly patched by their developers. However, it is true that less tech-savvy users should not do without antivirus protection, even if, once again, a user is infected by malware when trying to get paid content for free (Microsoft Office, Torrents...).

 

Then, there is this paragraph:

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The final major reason why you should use an antivirus app is the dangerous nature of the threats out there these days, with, for example, nasty strains of ransomware threatening to lock away your entire digital life, or stealthy crypto-mining malware slowing down your PC while you may not even notice.

 

To get infected by a ransomware or a minor cryptomware, you must first run a worm or a Trojan horse that will then download this kind of malware. And to get to this point, the user must have certainly lacked vigilance at one point or another.

 

The best antivirus is and always will be the user because only he has control over his computer and his mouse.

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4 minutes ago, Tux 528 said:

The best antivirus is and always will be the user because only he has control over his computer and his mouse.

The best (one 100% effective) antivirus is and always will be social distancing from the internet.