Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The more security programs = less secure

 If you read my blog a lot you will remember that a few days ago I wrote about Windows Defender. Now I knew writing it that some people would like the article some would dislike. While going through the comments my friend/fellow Panda Cloud forum Mod Shadowman brought up the "usability factor". Now I figured instead of replying to the comment I should just write a whole blog post to everyone can gain some knowledge.

 I think the best way to talk about this is to compare it to something I think all of us are familiar with, and the item that came to mind was a jacket. One jacket can keep you warm, easy to take on and off, and does not make you too hot or too cold. However wearing to many jackets will make you get too hot and make you struggle to take the jacket off. This goes the same way with computer security, having to much security software running at the same time can over-heat your computer. It can cause the software to struggle as it fights the other security software to remove the malware. Just as to little security software is bad to much security software is also bad.

 This to little to much line is normally called the usability factor. It is different for every person and every machine. Some users can make it by on very few security programs while others prefer to run 20 different security programs. However it is important to remember to still be able to use your machine. It should not be all work and no fun, remember to enjoy your time on the computer. You should not have to answer 20 alerts just to get to a websites.

 Another thing to remember is running more security programs does not make you more secure. The security programs will start to fight each other to remove the malware. In the end this will cause you to have less security then you would have had with one program. Also a few times I have noticed security programs detecting each other causing one security program to stop working and causing heavy CPU usage.

 So it is bad to use more then one security program? No, especially if its built to work with other security programs. However be careful not to run to many security programs for running to many can do more harm then good. Finally, remember to enjoy using your computer and not just work on securing it 24/7 

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