The PC Security Software of yesteryear is far different than the applications of today. Thinking back to my early days in front of a computer and the internet I go back into the late 90’s and remember that the biggest threat to my computer where simple worms that really didn’t do much other than replicate itself on my machine and slow things down a bit. These days we are faced with zero day attacks as well as things like spyware and malware, all of which can be detrimental to both your computer and the data you store within it.

Back in ’97 Desktop Security consisted mostly of a simple antivirus program that scanned our hard drives for possible problems and that was it. The majority of people in that decade usually chose not to have such a program installed and a good portion of the crowd that did install an antivirus program rarely ran it. Though they are simple in design and complexity by today’s standards at the time you really had to have some sort of intermediate to advanced computer knowledge to operate any of them. In those early years of the internet most computer owners knew very little further complicating things.

Those older PC Security instruments where also subject to the same definitions in many cases and updates came only on a quarterly or even a yearly basis in some cases. I remember one program even charging for updates which had to be mailed to you in the form of a CD and by which time it reached your home had already become an obsolete update as new viruses had arisen. There where also a number of Free Antivirus Software programs available both as trial versions of paid applications and as complete freeware or shareware. Normally however these programs never really excelled in any particular area or where so limited in what you where allowed to test the product was useless.

These days though most of the same vendors are still in business their applications have become quite complex both in their user interfaces as well as how they function and the options each programs provides. As most people know its no longer enough to just run drive scans a few times a month and hope for the best. Most of us store important and private data in our PC’s and we don’t want anyone getting their hands on such information. Today we have to consider running a Vulnerability Assessment and then determine or have our programs determine the next course of action. Security Management must not only have the ability to detect existing and common threats but must be able to identify new and catalogue new threats so that it can stop them at the door during their next attempt through your network.

In addition to that these programs are generally more difficult to use as the majority of antivirus programs are stuff full of options of which not all are clearly labeled. There are exceptions to this rule however and if one performs some extensive Security Research they will find that there are some very good programs that provide professional functionality and protection but present a user interface that even the most inexperienced person can manipulate.

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