Viruses / Spyware / Malware

These days, computers viruses are a very common threat. Along with the traditional 'viruses' there are many other types of threats that PC and Mac users need to be aware of. Vivid's technicians have over 14 years’ experience in this ever changing field. Every computer and every user will have their own specific vulnerabilities and therefore, their own needs in terms of security and protection.

In our experience, spending vast amounts of money on big name internet security programs is not the answer. We see a huge amount of computers infected with all types of viruses, some have been infected for months and all of these computers have the latest, big name internet security solutions installed.

So what's the answer? As discussed above, each computer and its user will need a slightly different solution depending on a lot of things. Mainly, these are; what will the user be using the internet for? How experienced is the user? What is the basic configuration of the computer? E.g. PC or Mac, age, operating system, service packs, browsers, hardware specs.... All of these things come naturally to us, so please, feel free to talk to us about having your computer evaluated. It's free, and you will be surprised at how little it can cost per year to keep your system secure.

Do Apple Mac's need any antivirul solutions?

The common myth is 'Mac's don't get viruses' is the furthest thing from the truth, and as each day passes, there are more and more threats being written to attack the Mac world.

The reason most people believe Mac's do not get viruses is simple = market share. When someone writes a virus, one of their objectives is to afflict mass infection. PCs and Macs are written and therefore operate on completely different languages. So, a virus written for a PC will not infect a Mac and a virus written for a Mac will not infect a PC. At the time of writing this, The PC has a massive 90% share in the personal computer industry, leaving 10% of Mac users. Getting back to the person who writes the virus, to achieve this mass infection, they will normally write a PC based virus, as they know there are more PC's connected to the internet to be infected.

In this ever changing industry however, The Apple Mac is gaining much ground on its PC brother. As such, with its increase in popularity is also an increase in the number of viruses being written to attack Mac's.

Feel free to speak to us about security options for your Mac. As with PC security, your Mac will require a custom solution based on its user and the type of Mac you have. There are plenty of retail and freeware options available and we would be more than happy to find out what is best for you.