Whether you choose a free or paid antivirus solution, it must offer robust protection against both online and offline threats. A minor loophole in antivirus security can lead to a fatal ransomware attack or identity breach. And even one incident is too many. The potential loss of account access, financial fraud or a corrupted system is simply not worth the risk. When I evaluate an antivirus software for my PC, I ensure it doesn’t lack these essential features.
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- 1. Sandboxing
- 2. Email and Web Protection
- 3. Firewall Integration
- 4. Phishing Protection
- 5. Identity and Dark Web Protection
- Lastly, a VPN
1. Sandboxing
When running a free trial of an antivirus solution, they all seem to have powerful features going for them. But how do you know if they can stand the test of zero-hour threats?
There’s a concept I learned called “sandboxing” during my work for the cybersecurity division of Sophos. It involves a virtual machine running a separate operating system where suspicious files, URLs, and objects can be scanned without risking your main system. This helps you isolate and examine the latest threats in a safe, virtual environment.
You don’t need to be a techie to try out sandboxing. Many, but not all, commercial antivirus programs have this feature built in. For instance, Avast Premium Security offers a sandbox feature where you can drop an application’s EXE file. If there are potential issues, you’ll get a sneak peek right here.
Malwarebytes’s “ThreatDown” endpoint protection solutions have a “Malware.Sandbox” which look for adware, ransomware, rootkits, and more. AVG, a popular antivirus provider, surprisingly, has this feature missing in its Internet security suite. This is one product I’m definitely not considering at the moment.
Related: you can test programs for malware online before installing them on VirusTotal and Metadefender. But antivirus sandboxes do a lot more.
2. Email and Web Protection
Besides PC applications, browsers and local email clients are especially vulnerable to online threats. I spend most of my time on a browser or an email client like Outlook, so having these tightly sealed would give me peace of mind. Fortunately, almost all commercial antivirus solutions offer some measure of browser and email protection.
Out of the many antivirus solutions, I find Bitdefender‘s approach to email and web security to be the most pragmatic for my needs. It scrutinizes every single web page unless exceptions are made, which I find really useful. It even delves into the core of encrypted web pages if they’re using untrusted certificates.
Additionally, Bitdefender scans every incoming and outgoing email to keep you protected from threats almost anywhere. When combined with a secure browser like Brave which can open onion links for browsing the dark web, it effectively plugs all security gaps. The best part is that all these email and browser protection features are available in the free version of the software.
Did you know? Windows Security and Microsoft Defender are entirely different products with a few overlaps in feature names.
3. Firewall Integration
Windows Security has a very powerful firewall feature called Windows Defender Firewall, which you should keep enabled. However, in my experience, having an additional powerful firewall to inspect incoming and outgoing network traffic helps provide an extra layer of protection for your operating system.
It’s easy to visualize all the Trojans, rootkits, or backdoor programs being forced to deal with your primary antivirus firewall before they can snoop around your host firewall’s settings. On a Windows device, you can easily keep two firewalls working together without any conflict or PC slowdown issues.
Before Windows Security became popular, most PC users depended on third-party firewalls. All antivirus programs came bundled with firewall and intrusion prevention features. But the introduction of Windows Defender Firewall somehow made it optional. Currently, among many other antivirus solutions, Bitdefender and Norton Internet Security offer very strong, robust firewalls.
Also read: we answer the big question on do you need an antivirus if you have Windows Security and Windows Defender features on your device.
4. Phishing Protection
Now that we’ve covered a majority of malware-based attack vectors, it’s time to address the elephant in the room: social engineering attacks. Whether it’s a nicely written email seeking to solicit your payment information or someone impersonating your friends and family, it is very common to lower our guard against such last-mile threats.
On average, many phishing attempts are successful because they utilize the human element of “trust” in seeking a target’s response. By far, it is the most commonly deployed method by cybercriminals to insert vulnerabilities in a system or steal data. I strongly believe that being deceived is a personal mistake. An antivirus solution with strong phishing protection, however, can drastically lower your chances of encountering the rogue elements lurking on the web.
How do they do it? Firstly, they constantly update a large collection of web pages having a reputation for phishing behavior. You may have seen Google Chrome browser issue warnings for web pages with suspected phishing behavior. Most commercial antivirus solutions issue similar warnings, encouraging you to be highly alert and vigilant in dealing with such contents.
Related: what exactly is the dark web, and is it really illegal? Find out more.
5. Identity and Dark Web Protection
Real-time data breaches always take us by surprise. When an incident happens, it sometimes leads to a compromise of information for millions of people. A good antivirus solution should always have an identity protection feature to warn us of such breaches in real time.
At the time of writing this, I encountered a fresh data breach for Gravatar which exposed millions of names. It’s one of the most commonly used platforms for bloggers and is also used in image editing solutions. A decent antivirus solution warns you of such looming threats. You can quickly check your online details on the platform to assess if you’ve been impacted.
Another aspect of identity protection is dark web scanning. Increasingly, many antivirus solutions such as Malwarebytes Premium now offer a dark web scanner to check for your personal information leakage on the dark web.
Lastly, a VPN
So far, we’ve looked at the important features of an antivirus solution that you should always have access to. I would like to throw in one more desirable feature that is quite common in antivirus products today – VPN. From Malwarebytes to Bitdefender and Avast, all leading antivirus solutions are featuring VPNs, often with multiple servers in different countries.
This is because a VPN offers elementary protection against IP spoofing, DNS hijacking, and other browser-based threats. When you combine both products, you get two benefits at one price. That is why many leading VPN providers such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN are now offering antivirus-like protections.
Image Credit: Pixabay. All screenshots by Sayak Boral.
Sayak Boral –
Staff Writer
Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over eleven years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.
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