When we start talking about antivirus products, we are actually trying to deal with anti-malware products. Malware is a catchall term that represents any malicious program that has been designed to damage, disrupt, or take charge of a victim’s computer. Types of malware include not only viruses but spyware, trojan horses, adware, ransomware, and scareware. 

Every year we experience billions of malware attacks worldwide that keep getting sophisticated as cyber threats are constantly evolving and for that matter, millions of people rely on anti-viruses software to protect their systems from threat actors. 

Recently, Josh Brunty, who had a decade-long career in cybersecurity; worked as a digital forensics analyst for the West Virginia State Police, then joined Marshall University and started teaching cybersecurity as a subject and that was the time when he discovered that his father Butch Brunty was still spending a lot of money every year for third-party antivirus protection on his home devices, which he felt unnecessary for most people for years. 

“He was talking about renewing his antivirus. I said, ‘Are you literally paying for antivirus?” Brunty said. “I don’t know how he ended up doing it, but he ended up getting connected to Norton, spending, like $60 a year.” 

Like him, many people use Antivirus software because Antivirus software still centers on its original use: looking for and mitigating software viruses. However, modern devices already coming updated and assuring full protection from cyber threats including monitoring the dark web to see whether someone posts customers’ personal information, etc. Additionally, built-in security protections in most major browsers help greatly and virtual private networks are useful only in specific scenarios, such as streaming video that is restricted in specific regions or countries or getting around government censors like China’s “Great Firewall.” 

“He had no understanding of those two technologies, really. I think he just felt like if he spent the money, the investment of paying for it was going to protect him from everything” Brunty said.

Following the incident, Bob Lord, who led the Democratic National Committee’s cybersecurity strategy for the 2018 and 2020 elections after the party was hacked by Russian intelligence in 2016 warned the users over poor password hygiene. 

“When I look at all the personal account compromises I’ve seen over the past three years, I don’t think any of them were caused by malware. They happened because the victims had poor password hygiene and didn’t have two-factor authentication on their accounts” Lord added.