by Ero Gray - This is one post in a continuing series aimed at nonprofit organizations with limited access to IT staff. The advice and opinions here will tend to be most useful to small and startup nonprofits, which often need to make IT decisions and accomplish IT tasks despite not having qualified folks to help. It should be assumed that all suggestions here are my attempt to recommend the simplest/easiest/most effective options for most offices. Your office may be quite different (or it may not even be an office). Also, as I'll frequently note, IT staff are necessary for any organization to function for long. Links to all posts in this series follow this post.
The most important thing to install on your computer -- desktop or laptop -- is antivirus software. Do this immediately and take it seriously. You cannot use a Windows computer without an up-to-date and fully functional antivirus program. If you neglect this, your computer will become infected and bad things will happen.
Choosing an antivirus product gets complicated, because the most prominent brand names (which shall remain nameless here) are, in most cases, absolutely useless. And expensive.
The idea behind every antivirus program is the same: it monitors your files and your email, and looks for nasty behavior and/or known types of malicious behavior. These known types are constantly changing, so your antivirus software must have regular access to the internet so that it can download updates. For this reason, all antivirus software is subscription-based and time-sensitive.
There are a couple free antivirus applications whose licenses cover organization/office use: Comodo Internet Security is one, and Panda Cloud Antivirus Free is another. These free versions will be a bit limited in some functions, and probably suitable for only small offices. But if you’re reading this, you’re probably in a small office. Google these product names and/or follow the links above, and check them out.
Non-free options will typically run you about $20 to $30, per user, per year, and offer cool suites with lots of features you don't need. Brand names of excellent packages, in no particular order, include Panda Antivirus, Trend Micro, Eset NOD32, AVG, Avast, BitDefender, Kaspersky, and Sophos. For some of these, you'll need to talk to a reseller to negotiate a package deal and/or nonprofit price; for others, just buying individual licenses online is the way to go. You'll need to do some math and/or make phone calls to sales staff to work out which is best for you. Pretty much every brand offers trial versions, though evaluating these can be kind of exhausting. Antvirus software is very competitive: you can find all sorts of charts online that tell you which product is best-- but everyone measures slightly different things. It's worse than evaluating NYC pizzerias, which are similarly competitive, because antivirus software isn’t delicious. Luckily, though, you only need to choose one antivirus program, and all of the companies above make good products.
There are lots of truly excellent free antivirus programs available for home use; use of them in the workplace, even by nonprofits, is an infraction of the software license. However, I mention them because lots of small nonprofits are unstaffed, volunteer-led, or run by a single person. My current favorite is a Microsoft product called Microsoft Security Essentials, or MSE, completely free and downloadable. This does a great job and is pretty unobtrusive. Avast, Avira, and AVG all make excellent free products as well. I make sure one of the above is present and up-to-date on every home computer or laptop I come across.
One thing to beware of: new computers usually come with pre-installed antivirus subscriptions that expire in a few weeks, leaving users unprotected. I see this time and again. Please double-check to make sure you're not in this situation. It’s shameful behavior on the part of manufacturers, but extremely common. Take a few minutes to install good reliable antivirus software (which, generally, is not the pre-installed brand).
Another warning: you can find all sorts of fake anti-virus software out there, and much of it is actually the worst kind of malware. Things called "AntivirusXP2010" and the like are absolute nightmares to get rid of, so be cautious and evaluate carefully before you install. Last but not least, make sure you have only one antivirus program on your computer: if you have two, they'll fight each other and slow your computer to a crawl.
If you skipped everything above, please read this: make sure your computer has working, up-to-date antivirus software. Check now. Ok? Good.
Now, you may be thinking, my computers are safe from viruses, so what do I do about connecting to the Internet?
We'll cover that next week: IT Without IT, Part 5: Simple Networking
Previous posts in the series can be read here:
IT Without IT, Part 1: Introduction
IT Without IT, Part 2: Choosing and Acquiring Computers
IT Without IT, Part 3: Operating Systems and Office Software
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