Lee.org

Short form: don’t buy Norton Antivirus. They are almost as ruthless about extracting money from people as the Russian scammers they are protecting you against. Instead get Microsoft Security Essentials and don’t click on offers that sound too good to be true.

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Long form:
Years ago, having an antivirus program on your computer was an important part of keeping bad people off your computer. Today this generally is not generally the case. Here is why:

– Bad people don’t use “frontal attacks” to get onto your computer any more. Instead, they use social engineering. They won’t try to hack your IP address, instead, they will sneak their way into a product you will download willingly and when the antivirus program asks “Are you sure?” You’ll naively say “Sure!”
– Norton and Symantec, the two biggest antivirus companies, make products that do 1 thing well, scare you into thinking you need them. They are almost as bad as the scammers they are protecting you against, really.
– By far the best antivirus program out there is YOU. If an offer seems too good to be true and all you need to do is install a piece of free software, IT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. It is a scam and you will get what you deserve.
– Remember, on the internet, you are literally 1 click away from the world’s best, highly paid, amoral Russian scammer professionals!
– There are FREE antivirus programs out there that work very well. Namely Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG Antivirus. Yes Microsoft Security Essentials is from Microsoft and yes it’s free.