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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Amber Bouman

Do you really need to pay for antivirus software?

A woman's hands holding a smartphone with a lock symbol on it, in front of a laptop that also has a lock symbol on it. .

Even though you absolutely should protect your computer with one of the best antivirus programs, one of the first questions you may ask yourself is: Do I really need to pay for an antivirus program? And the answer is, in a word, no.

However, you still need to protect your computer with something, and though reasons should be obvious just in case they're not here’s why. Not having any antivirus software at all on your computer leaves you utterly defenseless from all sorts of different malware, spyware, ransomware, viruses, trojans and bots that can wreck havoc on your system, steal your sensitive and personal data and if worse comes to worst, even completely upend your life.

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