Without proper protection, it is impossible to imagine the world of technology and digitalization. Cyberattacks, malicious files, and viruses are the flip side of the coin of high-speed Internet, useful applications, and computer use. The field of cybersecurity is now actively evolving. Providers offer many antivirus options, existing products are improving themselves, and if they are not good enough to use, they can show their best side in a couple of years. In this article, we will discuss one such case, Malwarebytes.
Malwarebytes – a brief overview
Malwarebytes in 2022 is a simple and minimalistic antivirus program that does the basic tasks of an antivirus program: it is good at protecting against viruses in real-time, and it is also good at detecting malicious files that have already entered the device space. In other words, Malwarebytes is a quality basic antivirus, but it can have problems providing additional features. For example, the program does not have password managers, parental controls, firewalls, or system configurations. Still, for some users, these qualities may be key when choosing their antivirus, so this should be indicated in advance. Nevertheless, Malwarebytes offers three pricing plans, the most expensive of which has a VPN feature, but in terms of quality, it falls short of the best VPN offerings. Malwarebytes antivirus is no-frills protection, and if this option suits you, then the provider is just right for you. Besides, it offers quite reasonable prices and a free version.
Malwarebytes security options
Below we will look at Malwarebyte’s security features and their capabilities:
- Virus Scanner
This Malwarebytes feature is very effective; it is good at blocking most malicious files in real-time and on demand. It works with both Windows and Mac, and its scanning principle is that it uses a database of malware to detect them on your system. However, it doesn’t automatically do a full system scan; you must initiate it yourself. The program offers four types of scans.
- Real-Time Protection
This feature of the paid versions of the antivirus has four levels of protection. They include protection against malware, ransomware, exploits, and web protection. However, the implementation of these protections can also vary in quality. For example, malware and exploit guards performed very well during testing, but ransomware protection did not perform as well.
- Browser Guard
Browser Guard is a free extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge that is good at blocking phishing sites but lacks the power to block ads. However, it’s easy to use because all its features are enabled by default. It is also easy to do if you want to disable any of its protection levels.
- VPN
Malwarebytes Privacy provides users with a decent VPN feature that offers a proper level of privacy. It has over 300 servers in 30 countries, one of the fastest and safest protocols, the WireGuard protocol, and a strict policy that does not store user data. It also has good connection speeds, but it doesn’t have an emergency switch feature, which causes you to lose your anonymity if your VPN connection goes down. Unfortunately, the VPN is not powerful enough to connect to Netflix (which has high protection against the VPN), and it does not work in countries with restricted access.
Ease of use
Overall, Malwarebytes has an intuitive interface. It takes a couple of minutes to install, and you can easily determine the location and purpose of all the features the provider offers. In addition, it does not degrade the performance of your computer system and does not require any personal information to perform the installation.