Do you have antivirus protection? "Of course I do," you may say, "It came with the computer!" Don't be so sure. Most pre-loaded antivirus products require renewal in three or six months. If you don't renew, the product expires, and your protection takes a nose-dive. A recent
blog post from Microsoft's Tim Rains reveals that systems "protected" by an expired or out-of-date antivirus are almost as prone to infection as systems with no antivirus at all.
Just what happens when your antivirus expires varies by product. Vendors who offer a free product may smoothly downgrade your protection to the free edition; that's the best-case scenario. Others may keep functioning, but stop getting signature updates. And you may find that the antivirus just stops working.
