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Insights by Industry Experts on Choosing an Internet Security Suite

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Rahul
New Update

Q1. What are the parameters which need to be considered before buying an

Internet Security suite?

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Ritesh Chopra: Internet penetration in India is rising at an accelerated pace with IAMAI predicting 24.3 crore Internet users by June 2014. In fact as per Symantec's Norton Report 2013, 50% of online adults in India have fallen victim to attacks such as malware, viruses, hacking, scams, fraud and theft. This points at the rising significance of Internet security as users are increasingly moving to the Internet for their day-to-day functions. Internet security suites are a collection of software that provide safeguard against a wide spectrum of threats to privacy, the integrity of a computer network,

and control of workstations. Basic points you need to consider before activating an Internet security product:                                                                                   

- Users should understand their Internet usage pattern such as, online shopping, downloading files online and how regularly they click on links and open attachments

- Users should go through all security features that are being offered

as part of the bundled package with the security software suite,such as, parental controls, password managers, game modes, safe browsing options, type of privacy and social network protection

- Users should take note of the licensing period that is being offered and the renewal policy/offers of the security software package

- Users should confirm that during the validity period of Internet security suite, the product is entitled for auto upgrades to latest versions/additional features. Users should also make note of the total cost of the package.

- Users should take into account the help and support that's being offered, such as telephone, email and chat support, in case anything goes awry with the software.

Jagannath Patnaik: The Internet pervades every aspect of our lives today and this brings with it the risk of an attack by those who want to protest online, steal data or sabotage a system. Since technology itself evolves, attacks will certainly develop alongside this - new systems will mean new attack techniques. Threats are becoming increasingly complex, and you need a suite that is proven to protect against the latest security threats. And since these threats come through all forms of Internet activity, like via email scams, Internettracking cookies, social media scams and attackers who prey on public Wi-Fi networks, this suite has to have robust capabilities to identify and assess the safety of the sites you're browsing. So the first thing to be asked it what are the capabilities are and how much does it truly protects.

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- What are feature sets available - With the threat landscape increasing its necessary to ensure that the internet security suite you select has the necessary feature set to protect from the latest threats

- Impact on the system and what is the resource consumption The best protection systems on the market won't do you a lot of good if they suck up your device's resources to operate. If your system has been bogged down during system scans or other times that the protection suite has been operational, it may be time to find a solution that is just as powerful but operates with a much lighter touch

- Does it protect all my devices? Chances are someone in your household has gotten a new tablet or laptop in the last few months. Are these protected under the terms of that license? It is better to have suites which can support multiple devices with a single license.

- Ease of use: User should not be burdened with loads of questions and technology all this have to be done at the background as most users in India are novice when it comes to security.

Q2. How does an Internet security suite make a difference?

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Ritesh Chopra: Internet security suites safeguard users' online activity with solutions such as anti-spam, anti-spyware, parental controls and privacy protection. The need for a good Internet security suite is of higher priority as we lead a digital lifestyle and cybercrime is becoming a profitable business. With the rise in volume of data being exchanged online through social networks, emails or over the cloud, consumers are constantly at the risk of losing critical information and suffering financial loses. Therefore, deploying a robust Internet security suite would help the users to stay protected from online threats such as malware, viruses, Trojans, etc on almost all web portals.

- Protect personal information online by guarding browsers, passwords, and private data for various online activities such as online shopping, social networking etc.

- Stay a step ahead of cyber-attack with on-the-go runtime virus detection and elimination

- Access cloud-based security with complete control on protecting various devices, servers, workstations and laptops.

Jagannath Patnaik: At the present time, we detect some 200,000 new malicious programs every day. Besides malicious files, there are also other types of threats including malicious sites, network attacks, exploits etc. As before, 90% of all security incidents that we record are targeted at regular users. To be more exact, they are designed to extort money using all sorts of methods, or make money from infected users. Having an internet security suite is like having first line of defence against cyber threats. With an Internet security suite you get protection of all your online activities, in addition to which you get parental controls, automatic filtering of spam, a 2-way firewall to protect you from hackers

Q3. What steps have you taken to ensure that the user is protected against the latest wave of Cyber warfare?

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Ritesh Chopra: Our endeavor is to protect and keep digital lives safe and enable people to focus their energies and time on achieving their aspirations. So a few things we feel that are important to have in an Internet Security Suite include:

- Multiple layers of protection to quickly detect and eliminate threats

- Network Defense Layer Protection that stops online threats before they can reach your computer

- Threat Removal Layer that targets and eliminates hard-to-remove threats less sophisticated products often miss

- A scam warning system to alert users before they expose personal information

- Single Sign-on to allow users to log in once and access all aspects of protection.

- V ersion-less and Reboot-less Updates to ensure customers have the most-up-to-date protection. All product updates are downloaded in the background and installed automatically, and don't require a re-boot.

Over and above these most advanced features, it's important to have 24x7 assistance through phone, live chat, or online in order to ensure that time and place don't become barriers to user safety.

Jagannath Patnaik:

- Back up your sensitive information - Backing up your data protects you in the event of a computer crash or electrical outage or surge, like a lightning storm might produce. It also helps if you fall prey to the newer type of ransom ware, which encrypts your sensitive data. You can do your back-up manually by transferring important documents to an external hard drive.

- Stay away from rogue websites - Look for a green lock in the address bar and the code prefix "https://" at the beginning of the URL while visiting banking sites, entering your credit card data or accessing your web mail. Be careful when shopping at a website that ships items from overseas, and don't click on links sent to you in email messages, go directly to the website itself instead.

- Avoid sharing sensitive information online - No matter what website you're on be careful of the sensitive information you reveal.

- Have strong passwords and change them frequently.

- Handling emails - Never open an email from an unknown or suspicious source, and definitely never open any attachments contained in them. You have to be careful of emails coming from people on your contact list as well, especially if the sender's account has been hacked.

- Update your OS - Whenever your OS offers you a patch update, you should be downloading it. Patches are released to improve upon imperfections and vulnerabilities within your software,

- Don't copy executable files - Executable files can cause your computer to perform tasks that have been assigned by encoded instructions.

- Have strong internet security suite to protect your digital assets and vital information and regularly update the same with the latest virus signatures and upgrades.

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