Some of the leading players in the antivirus software market in the U.S. are Symantec (Norton Antivirus), Computer Associates (CA - eTrust), McAfee and Trend Micro (PC-cillin). These companies have major share of the US antivirus software market. Microsoft is also planning to enter the market in a big way. In this connection it acquired the IP (Intellectual Property) rights and technology from a Romanian company called GeCad software based in Bucharest in 2003. It also bought Pelican software who have developed behaviour based computer security, Giant Company Software who have developed solutions for spyware and Sybari Software for antivirus, filtering of spam and phishing.
Industry watchers are anticipating Microsoft to attain a dominant position in the antivirus software market by bundling its software along with its operating system free of cost. This technique has already been applied by it for word processors and internet browsers.
Worldwide there are many antivirus software vendors with some having regional domination and slowly increasing their presence. Some of them are GriSoft and Alwil Software of Czech Republic, Avira of Germany, Sophos of UK, Panda Software of Spain, Kaspersky of Russia, F-Secure of Finland, AhnLab of South Korea, SoftWin of Romania, Norman of Norway, VirusBuster of Hungary, Aladdin (eSafe) of Israel, Proland Software (Protector Plus) of India and Arcabit of Poland. Many of these companies have got their antivirus software tested by independent industry standard testers like Virus Bulletin (VB), ICSA Labs, West Coast Labs Checkmark services etc. Some of these vendors offer their antivirus software as freeware for personal use while some are offered as shareware.
The future of antivirus software market is not clear and the landscape is changing fast. Enormous effort is required to meet the challenges of the ever increasing number of viruses appearing everyday. Not only is the quantity increasing but also the viruses are becoming more and more complex. All companies may not have the necessary resources required to meet the challenges that lie ahead. Literally hundreds of new samples of viruses are arriving at these companies everyday. It is estimated that the no. of new viruses is increasing at the rate of 11% each year. They are also smarter as they spread quickly and lay hidden by renaming themselves in order to escape detection.
Even though antivirus software may not be able to protect your computer from 100% of the risk out there due to the new viruses that are released regularly, you should still take steps to protect your computer and your files from invasion. Antivirus software is very effective against known viruses and could just save your computer when you are attacked. Most importantly, make sure you update your antivirus software often to keep on top of the newest threats to your security.
