If you're currently paying for your anti-virus software, today I'm going to potentially save your business hundreds of dollars.
Anti-virus software is one of those bits of kit that most people consider mandatory issue in today's computing environment. Computer viruses and malware are an increasingly concerning problem for businesses and users. Back in the good old days of computing, viruses fell more into the category of nuisances or annoying. They'd play pranks on you, pop up messages that I assume the virus author thought was funny and if you were really unlucky, they'd go the extra mile and maybe delete some of your documents.
Nowadays, malware is huge business. Most malware in the currently computing environment is designed for three primary purposes:
According to Antiphishing.org, as of mid-way through 2011 nearly half of all computers were infected with malware, the majority of which without the owners even being aware of it.
The beneficiaries of malware are making a LOT of money. Their viruses are allowing millions to be siphoned out of people's bank accounts, identities stolen, spam emails sent and so on. And the victims are losing much, much more. Not only is there the actual money and assets lost through cyber-theft, there is a tremendous cost associated with prevention and postmortem cleanup after an infection.
The last thing you want is for your fitness business to become infected. Not only is the security of your member's personal details at risk, but at the very minimum your computer systems will start mis-behaving, crashing and slowing down and then you're looking at a considerable cost to have them fixed.
If you are like the majority of people, the anti-virus software you're running is probably that which came pre-installed on your computer when you bought it. There's a good chance your computer came with an icon sitting on the Windows desktop for something like Norton's Anti-Virus or McAfee Anti-Virus. But here's where the problems begin.
That supposed 'free' copy of Norton's you scored with your new computer isn't free at all. It's trial-ware. It's usually only free for a certain amount of time (sometimes just 30 days, sometimes up to a year), after which you're expected to start paying. Things go bad almost from the start however because a lot of these products often immediately begin nagging you to upgrade to a paid subscription. You're constantly bombarded with annoying pop up messages exhorting you to throw your credit card at the vendor. Putting aside the rude and annoying nature of this, it can also lead to 'message blindness', where you become so accustomed to ignoring the popup messages (and you get into the habit of just clicking to close the message immediately without reading it), that if a legitimate warning message about a possible virus shows up, you're likely to miss it.
But the biggest problem is the false sense of security the trial software gives a lot of people. Many non-technical computer users just assume that because the software is installed, they're safe and secure. But that is most certainly NOT the case. I won't go into the overall dubious efficacy of anti-virus software in the first place (that's a topic for another day), but the issue I want to point out here is that once your trial period expires, your anti-virus software is no longer updating itself. With literally tens of thousands of new viruses being released each week, it doesn't take too long before your anti-virus software is so hopelessly out of date that it's no more effective than using your body hair to protect you from sunburn. And at this point, you might as well just completely remove the software from your system; at least you won't get the nagging popup messages.
If you are one of those who are tempted to succumb to the electronic nagging and pay for subscription for your anti-virus product like Norton's or McAfee, I'm here to tell you- DON'T.
Save your money and go with something that is not only FREE but in my opinion superior- Microsoft Security Essentials.
Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is an anti-virus product offered by Microsoft that is freely available for download from their Web site. It is a fast, lean, very effective product that does as good (if not better) job at protecting your computer from viruses than the paid-for commercial products like Norton's.
I have a lot of respect for this product as an alternative to the other products, and it's especially hard to argue with 'free' for a product of this quality. If your business has just one computer, then substituting a subscription-based product for this can easily save you up to $100 per year. If you have more than three, then you are potentially looking at savings of hundreds of dollars per year.
There is one significant caveat to MSE. You must be running Microsoft Windows Vista or newer. If you're still on Windows XP (and I hope you're not :-), then you will still have to stick with alternative products. But if your computer is relatively modern, running a modern version of Windows, then unless given specific reasons not to, I can't suggest any significant reason to pay for your anti-virus solution (more formal, larger network infrastructures such as Microsoft Windows Server 2008 often have different requirements and so MSE may not be appropriate for your business. In this case, check with your IT professional).
Important note: if you are currently using one of the other products, you must completely uninstall that product BEFORE you proceed with installing MSE. As a rule, you should never have more than one anti-virus product running at the same time. There are technical reasons behind this which I won't go into right now, but please take my word for it.
Also, as usual check with your membership management software vendor BEFORE installing anything like an anti-virus product. They'll let you know if there are any compatibility issues with their particular product.
Interestingly, Microsoft has announced that their Security Essentials and Windows Defender security products are to be merged and come built directly into the upcoming Windows 8 due out later this year, completely negating the need for other products. I believe this is an excellent decision, and as a techie I applaud them for doing this. I look forward to a time when customers aren't contacting technical support because their Norton's or McAfee products have once again broken something on their computers!
If you're running Microsoft Windows Vista or 7, then I recommend you have a good look at Microsoft Security Essentials for your anti-virus needs (at work and at home). You might just save your business a lot of money.
Microsoft Security Essentials Home Page
Have fun!
Mike.Ryan
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