Switched from free antivirus to paid and saw a huge difference after a ransomware scare last month

My roommate's laptop got hit with ransomware last month from clicking a bad email link. I was running the free version of Avast and he had nothing. His files got locked and he lost everything. Mine was fine but it scared me enough to actually pay for Malwarebytes Premium. Ran a full scan and found 3 tracking cookies my free one never caught. Has anyone else noticed a big gap between free and paid security software?

2 comments

2 Comments

umaanderson2d ago

Wait, aren't tracking cookies more about privacy than actual virus protection?

wendy_park762d ago

Umaanderson, this actually makes a lot of sense now that I say it out loud. I guess I always lumped cookies in with the same bucket as popup blockers and browser security, but you're right - tracking cookies are mostly about following what you do online, not stopping viruses. Kinda embarrassed I didn't catch that distinction myself before reading your post. Makes me wonder how many other things I've been mixing up like this.