Anti-virus giants fined over charging customers

It seems that the two biggest anti-virus companies Symantec and McAfee have been naughty boys. They’ve been hit with fines for £230k for automatically charging customers to renew their subscriptions. Oh dear. Customers complained because they hadn’t been given fair warning that this would happen.

This couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Californian based companies – Microsoft are currently prepping a beta release of their free anti-virus software, Morro.

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Consumers should also be aware that there are plenty of other free options available to them for their computer security. AVG and Avast are big names in terms of free anti-virus protection and there are plenty of others out there. Spend a little while researching – you’re sure to find a perfect option to suit your own circumstances.

Also, before you splash out for a commercial option check with your bank to see if you can get free protection through them. Many online banking sites will provide their customers with a link to get free protection with a service that they’d usually have to pay for. For example, Barclays has a deal with Kaspersky and HSBC offers McAfee for free.

It pays to be safe but why pay for something when you don’t have to?

Microsoft to release beta of the free anti-virus of to-Morro

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Microsoft is prepping a beta release of their free anti-virus software, Morro. There’s no fixed date as yet but with the full version set for launch by the end of the year The Soft has hinted that we’re looking at a matter of weeks/days.

The move comes as one hell of a pain for the likes of McAfee, Symatnec et al who’ve responded with the usual scaremongery about their experience in the field and superior levels protection and blah, blah, blah but their share prices have dropped by a per cent or nonetheless.

Morro appears to be a stripped down version of Microsoft’s failed $40-a-year Live OneCare suite, which was a commercial disaster, and is set to be pulled in November. Doubtless, it’ll have a significantly better uptake now that you don’t have to pay for it and I’ll be interested to see whether the likes of Dell still offer trials for subscription anti-virus. Looking forward to the waves.