I work from home and use my computer for both work and private use. I connect to the internet every day in order to do my work, check my bank balance, emails, utility bills and more. My plan was to back up regularly, however the last backup disc on my desk is dated at least 6 months ago. Well, it's a hassle, takes ages and I keep putting it off for a time when I'm less busy.
I have a friend in a similar position to me, works from home somewhere on the other side of the country; we chat on MSN quite regularly and after a week or so of not hearing from her, I was surprised one day to get a message that went something like this:
"Sorry I haven't been in touch for a while. My computer got infected with some sort of virus and is completely beyond repair. My last backup was over 3 months ago, so I've lost everything I've done in that time. When I went to buy a new hard-drive, my credit card was declined and it seems a hacker or spyware or something managed to get hold of my details and clear out my account. Are you still umming and aahing about spending a few quid on PC security? For goodness sake just do it!"
Once the cold chills had passed slightly, the first thing I did was send a very sympathetic email back to my friend. The second thing I did, was finally dust off my box of CD-R's and backup all my work. Then I set about trying to find a decent anti-virus programme …
There are hundreds if not thousands of different products on the market, at very different prices and offering differing levels of protection, and I had no idea what sort of protection I would actually need. As a home-worker, yes my life was on my PC, but I didn't have the kind of money (up to thousands of pounds!) that some of these companies were looking for. Ideally, I wanted to spend no more than £50 and have something that would guard against viruses and spyware, the two things that had crippled my friend.
I came across the Kaspersky Personal Security Suite, which seemed to do everything I needed it to. It was a programme package which offered comprehensive protection from viruses, hostile software, adware and spyware, hacker attacks, information theft and even guarded against the continuous barrage of spam emails that I received. My search for the cheapest instance of this suite led me to www.vaultlock.com where it was available for under £40. I liked this site as it allowed you to search based on what you use your computer for – home, small to medium business or enterprise – so I didn't need to look through a list of products that would be of no use to me.
The Kaspersky Personal Security Suite has certainly done what I wanted it for – it was excellent value for money, easy to install and use, and more importantly has given me peace of mind. The last backup disc on my desk is dated yesterday – after all I don't want to tempt fate and end up suffering a non-virus-related hardware failure or something – but I can breathe easy knowing I've done all I can to protect myself.
At this price, it really is fool-hardy not to protect yourself and / or your business. I've done all the work for you, so all you need to do is visit www.vaultlock.com to get the Kaspersky Personal Security Suite so you can surf safely. To echo the sentiments of my friend – for goodness sake, just do it!
