The security solutions seem to become useless

Aug 23, 2007 10:57 GMT  ·  By

A famous quote says that in order to protect your computer, you must install an antivirus solution, a firewall or an application that contains both of them and is able to protect your computer. And I agree with that, but the recent security notifications are not so encouraging as that quote is. At this time, the Internet users are able to choose from a huge number of antivirus solutions such as Kaspersky Antivirus, McAfee, Norton Antivirus, NOD32, Panda Antivirus, BitDefender Antivirus, AVG or many others. All these security solutions were, one by one, the subject of the security notifications published by experts from all over the world.

Obviously, the notifications refer to more or less critical vulnerabilities that were discovered in the security solutions that might enhance the hackers' attempts to exploit the flaws and infiltrate into the systems. So, the security products that were supposed to defend our information can become dangerous and might invite hackers to connect to our computers.

Yesterday, this statement was confirmed when the security company Secunia discovered a vulnerability in Trend Micro, an antivirus solution that always struggled to compete with the security giants Kaspersky or Symantec. But even those top companies such as the one I've just mentioned proved us that they are vulnerable. Take the example of Symantec, a firm that became popular due to its Norton Antivirus technology. A few weeks ago, Symantec's antivirus product incorrectly flagged some vital Windows files as dangerous and quarantined them. Obviously, the operating system was broken and some of the users lost their data. In order to repair its image, Symantec offered some free licenses as compensation for all the affected customers.

That's why I'm asking you: is it worth buying an antivirus product since most of them might create more problems to our computers?