Your anti-virus software is not enough

Bob Gourley is featured in Popular Science in a post titled:

Your anti-virus software is not enough

Bob Gourley, cofounder of the security consultancy firm Cognitio and veteran of the intelligence community, says that his company recommends that people install protective software, as it will mitigate the risks people face.

“There’s a lot of security professionals who will point out that anti-virus software will not stop everything,” he says. “That’s true—it’s not the last line of defence. But it helps keep the noise down.”

His specific recommendation is that Mac users may want to use Sophos, which has a free antimalware program, and that Windows users should think about Symantec. (I tried the free version of Sophos on my Macbook Air, and it detected a virus hiding in a text document attached to an email that the Mail app had downloaded. I deleted it.)

One issue that Mac users should keep an eye out for, according to Gourley? Adware. This type of code is typically picked up when using a software as a service, like email or other things that require logging into an account. FCC rules state that adware has to identify itself to prevent classification as “spyware,” but it’s easy to pick up some adware, especially if you speed through those terms of service agreements.