10 years ago the Internet was a relatively novel and new idea in the UK. The ability to communicate across the world and receiving information from around the world in several seconds (or minutes on 28kbps) was an amazing achievement. It was the start of the true digital age in which we live and rely upon now. With the increase in speed and the lower cost, the higher the usage became. Now it feels like everyone and everything is online. Sadly however there are people out there who like to take advantage of the fact we are all online, and this is where online protection comes in.

Now we are plagued by the the fear that a virus can delete our data, break our computer, spyware can steal our information, copy our credit card details and only yesterday was it announced that out of 144 countries the UK ranked 30th for the most dangerous place online, above China!¹ Originally it was important that you had anti-virus software but now that spyware is bigger than ever along with malicious code that allows people to gain access to your computer Internet Security software has been getting smarter and now includes firewalls which blocks access to your computer by these intruders and often anti-spyware measures.

Many people use the built in security from Windows however this only includes a Firewall and Spyware Scanner called Windows Defender. However this software is rather basic and doesn’t scan for viruses. You can get a free antivirus online scan from Panda, a leading provider in Internet security. The online scan lets you scan your computer for free without having to buy and install a full protection suite and is great for checking if you have a any viruses.

If you want realtime protection, which means a software package that is constantly giving you the ultimate protection in the background without you having to do a thing, then you can buy Panda software from just £8.99 if you feel it meets your needs. That is totally up to you but I would really recommend  using the scan just to see if you do have any viruses especially if you have not ever used an antivirus software.

¹AVG Study - IT Pro

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