Barclays to offer free AV software

[Gareth]

link: http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=15358

In a bid to cut online fraud levels, high street bank Barclays is providing free virus protection software to customers and is also launching a text messaging service that alerts account holders to new Web transactions.
Barclays says it will offer its online customers F-Secure's anti-virus software free of charge. The bank had previously agreed to provide the anti-virus and spyware technology at a discounted price, but is now providing the software for free.


The F-Secure package prevents viruses and worms being downloaded to a computer, scans e-mails, protects users against spyware and comes with free 24/7 technical support.

This is bound to spark similar actions from other banks, which can only be good for the consumer

[Russ B]

My mate paid £27 for it from them last week

[Pia]

Oooh anyone know when this will be available?

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by Pia

Oooh anyone know when this will be available?

Why the excitment, dont you have AV now ? if you do, are happy with it? why change to something new ?
IMHO it's just another gimmick, sorry Gareth, not putting you or your post down, but online banking has been around for eons ( slight exaggeration ) to little to late IMO

[Pia]

Originally Posted by bopdude

Why the excitment, dont you have AV now ? if you do, are happy with it? why change to something new ?
IMHO it's just another gimmick, sorry Gareth, not putting you or your post down, but online banking has been around for eons ( slight exaggeration ) to little to late IMO

Yeah i use Avast, but i've used F-Secure before and i liked it a lot, i just don't like paying for things that you can do without!

[Gareth]

Originally Posted by bopdude

Why the excitment, dont you have AV now ? if you do, are happy with it? why change to something new ?
IMHO it's just another gimmick, sorry Gareth, not putting you or your post down, but online banking has been around for eons ( slight exaggeration ) to little to late IMO

You're probably right... consumer confidence in online banking isn't where the banks want it to be, mostly because people think it's too insecure, and they're worried about their PC being vulnerable to getting compromised. This is 100% a marketing ploy to try to allay those fears, but for once, it's the consumer that's going to be better off as a result of this gimmick. It's better than having a ballpoint pen and a pack of Post-Its

I'm not a fan of the freebie AV software... paid-for versions are inherently better. Whether it's the end user or your high street bank that is effectively paying for it is kinda irrelevant. I hope that all the banks jump on this bandwagon, and we'll all hopefully be able to save a little bit of money.

I'm already a Barclays customer, so will consider changing from NOD32 to this nearer the time... not sure if I'd switch to Barclays as a result of this though.

[LSainsbury]

Don't give a monkeys about the software, but the txt message thing is a good idea!

[Maggy J]

This reminds me of the phone call I had from Barclays about online security and Identity theft last month.I topped everything the poor woman was trying to tell me by saying "Oh yes I've got a good AV,firewall,three spyware scanners,popup blockers, and an email filter software that also filters out phishing emails and I don't use IE.So why not send me the information on the ID theft insurance you are trying to sell me through the mail?"

The reply is that she couldn't do that..I guess she wouldn't get her commission that way.

[ADd]

Originally Posted by Gareth

I'm not a fan of the freebie AV software... paid-for versions are inherently better. Whether it's the end user or your high street bank that is effectively paying for it is kinda irrelevant. I hope that all the banks jump on this bandwagon, and we'll all hopefully be able to save a little bit of money.

While everyone has their own opinions on the quality of different AV software, IMO it is misleading to say that pay-for versions are inherently 'better' than free versions.
An example of this is AVG, both versions free and pay-for, use the same definitions and get updated the same, the only difference with the free version is certain features are not available. These make no difference to the protection you recieve.
Any AV product is only as 'good' as the definitions provided by the AV company, and these definitions are not 100% perfect. You are only protected about known threats that are In the Wild.
The best form of protection is an approach which involves several products, but only one anti-virus and one firewall. Conflicts can occur by running several firewalls/AV software products which can reduce your protection.
While I admit some AV products perform better in tests, generally all reputable AV products offer good protection (having some sort of protection is better than none!) The important thing is scan with your AV regularly (at least once a week), use anti-spyware/amti-malware products (spybot S&D, adaware SE, ewido anti-malware, windows defender beta which are all trusted by the anti-spyware community). These are all free, and will give you solid protection, much more than AV products alone.
My experince of AV products has been formed over many years of computing, my first computer was a BBC Micro, and just because something is free does not necessarily mean it is useless. Indeed many companies prey on people's concerns regarding online safety to market their products. I applaud the move by Barcalays, it is ultimately in their interests to protect customers money, if it is virtual or not.

[Pia]

I got my letter yesterday with the registration key for the software, will check it out soon