Why?
An antivirus product is designed to detect and remove viruses and other kinds of malicious software, known as malware or ransomware from your computer or laptop.
Malicious software is designed by criminals to harm your devices and the data on them. They can become infected by unintentionally downloading malware that is in an attachment linked to a suspicious email, or even by simply visiting an unsafe website.
Once it’s on your computer or laptop, malware can steal your data, encrypt it so you can’t access it, or even erase it completely.
How?
To help protect your organisation install internet security software, such as anti-virus and/or anti-malware, on your devices and keep it up-to-date.
These types of software scan for viruses in a number of different ways: by scanning incoming emails for attached viruses, monitoring files as they are opened or created to make sure they are not infected, and by performing periodic scans of the files on your computer.
Antivirus software is just one cyber security measure to be taken alongside the others outlined in this cyber security guidance.
