Best PC anti-virus program?

An annual review by PC World: “Best antivirus: Keep your Windows PC safe from spyware, Trojans, malware, and more” (updated August 27, 2018):

Antivirus software is nearly as crucial as a PC’s operating system. Even if you’re well aware of potential threats and practice extreme caution, some threats just can’t be prevented without the extra help of an AV program—or a full antivirus suite.

You could, for example, visit a website that unintentionally displays malicious ads. Or accidentally click on a phishing email (it happens!). Or get stung by a zero-day threat, where an undisclosed bug in Windows, your browser, or an installed program gives hackers entry to your system.

Read the entire article for a list of all products which were reviewed (with links), but here’s their short list:

ANTIVIRUS SUITE CHEAT SHEET
Our quick-hit recommendations:

  • Best overall antivirus suite: Norton Security Premium[symantec.com]
  • Best budget antivirus suite: AVG Internet Security[avg.com]
  • Best antivirus suite for newcomers: Trend Micro Maximum Security[trendmicro.com]

Paid versions are subscriptions, annually debiting your credit card (unless you disable that setting in your account). And if you only have a single PC, look for a product edition for an appropriate number of devices (rather than a more costly “premium” edition which may cover 5 or 10 devices).

And remember that best practice is to use one of these highly rated security programs and at least the free version of Malwarebytes.

Note that many of these products have mobile editions.

Mac (Apple): Here’s MacWorld’s review for Mac, “Best antivirus for Mac: Protect yourself from malicious software” (September 4, 2018).

Macs may be a far less tempting target for malware and viruses, but they’re not immune from attack. Even if you don’t care about adware or being used as a means to infect users on other platforms, it’s still possible to fall victim to ransomware, password theft, or stolen iPhone backups.

Our quick-hit recommendations:

Note that Malwarebytes also is available for the Mac.