Most targeted machines run Microsoft Windows or Apple MacOS, both of which feature built-in antivirus software.<\/p>\n
Apple’s system is called XProtect and primarily runs deep in the background, which means many users might not even know they have it installed.<\/p>\n
Windows Defender has become increasingly capable in recent years and is somewhat more visible to end-users on Windows 10 or Windows 11.<\/p>\n
It offers a main dashboard similar to third-party security suites, allowing users to manually schedule and scan their systems by accessing it in the taskbar or through Settings.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Windows-Defender-screenshot.png\")
<\/a>Screenshot of main Windows Defender dashboard<\/p><\/div>\n
Unfortunately, some of the protections offered by Apple and Microsoft’s built-in systems require that you use their products.<\/p>\n
For example, Windows Defender’s SmartScreen feature, which identifies and blocks malicious websites and downloads, only works on its Edge browser.<\/p>\n
If you use another browser \u2014 such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox \u2014 you are left relying on those providers’ security systems.<\/p>\n
The same applies when you use productivity apps like Google’s Workspace instead of Microsoft 365, or video chat apps like Zoom or Meets instead of Teams.<\/p>\n
If you frequently browse the Internet or constantly plug in USB flash drives or memory cards that may often hop between computers, a more fully-fledged cybersecurity suite can provide an additional layer of protection.<\/p>\n
Be wary of performance hogs<\/h2>\n
Many of the best antivirus and cybersecurity programs also have an unfortunate reputation for degrading system performance.<\/p>\n
Tom’s Guide regularly tests<\/strong><\/a> some of the world’s most popular antivirus suites for home users to see which has the worst impact.<\/p>\n It uses three main metrics \u2014 background\/passive system slowdown, full-scan slowdown, and quick-scan slowdown \u2014 to assess the effect of the programs.<\/p>\n We focused on those products with a background slowdown impact of less than 5%.<\/p>\n Threat scans are also essential and should be done regularly, but they can be carried out according to a schedule or on demand.<\/p>\n Passive or background operation is a component over which users don’t have much control.<\/p>\n One of the best performers in terms of passive system impact was Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, which made the test system marginally faster.<\/p>\n It’s important to note that this product is very limited compared to the rest of the field.<\/p>\n This tends to be a trend with free computer security suites, although Kaspersky’s rivals offer many more features on their free tiers.<\/p>\n The best paid-for antivirus program with minimal impact on performance was ESET’s Smart Security Premium.<\/p>\n Its list of protections and features is extensive and even includes a gamer mode to reduce system impact.<\/p>\n Below are the five best antivirus programs that South African households can consider, which have minimal impact on performance while running in the background.<\/p>\n These cybersecurity programs provide a wide range of powerful features without significantly impacting system performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":479691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[79226,52915,22485,72252,15227,18484,199,461,35,1595,801,30150,22075,3812],"class_list":["post-479639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-antivirus-software","tag-avast","tag-bitdefender","tag-cyberattacks","tag-cybersecurity","tag-eset","tag-hackers","tag-hacking","tag-headline","tag-kaspersky","tag-malware","tag-ransomware","tag-security-software","tag-trend-micro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479727,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479639\/revisions\/479727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKaspersky Security Cloud Free \u2014 0.9% better<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Kaspersky-Security-Cloud-Free-new-.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nESET Smart Security Premium \u2014 2.0% worse<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ESET-Smart-Security-antivirus.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBitdefender Antivirus Free Edition \u2014 2.2% worse<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Bitdefender-Antivirus-Free-.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTrend Micro Maximum Security \u2014 3.9% worse<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Trend-Micro-Maximum-Security_new-.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAvast Antivirus Free \u2014 4.4% worse<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Avast-Free-Antivirus-new-.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNow read: RSAWeb hit by ransomware attack<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"