If you’ve ever been unfortunate to be mugged or had your house burgled, then you’ll know what an upsetting experience it is.  You feel like your defences have been breached and you are left feeling vulnerable.

Sadly, you can have exactly the same experience through your computer or mobile phone – unless your hardware is protected from prying eyes or spyware programmes with an antivirus programme and security suite.

A few years ago, having antivirus protection didn’t seem such a necessity – after all, you only used the computer to type a few documents and send a few emails. But with the advances in internet use, and the amount of services we all use online now – like our bank and savings accounts, paying our utility bills, even applying for jobs and passports – then day by day we increase our vulnerability and the amount of personal information we store about ourselves online.  So, nowadays decent antivirus protection is a prerequisite.

Macs used to be much safer from viruses than PCs, but now even they are more prone to attack because there are so many cross-platform programmes and services online.  Fortunately, there are specific Mac antivirus programmes available to download or buy in a computer store.

Getting antivirus software is easy, you just pick the one you want, then download it – either as a free version, a free trial or a pay for product.  The difficulty comes in deciding which is the best for you.  It’s good to search for neutral, unbiased endorsement – internet technology forums are a good place to ask questions and find out how user-friendly different software is, but make sure you explain your level of technical know-how in the question, so that you can get answers you’ll understand!

The best aspect of trial and free versions is that you can try them out without committing yourself to one straight away. Remember, though, to uninstall an old antivirus programme before installing another – they don’t work in tandem!