After all, the research and development performed by antivirus manufacturers has to be sustained, especially if they are doing a good job at protecting your devices against continuously evolving attacks that could steal your personal data, identity, or even empty your bank accounts. The good news is that it should generally cost you only a few dollars a month to renew your subscription. That’s not too much, considering the cost of the risks involved if you don’t.
Here are seven reasons why not to use expired antivirus and to renew it before the expiration date.
1. It is not able to fight viruses and malware anymore
Even though expired antivirus software may still allow you to perform a system scan, it most likely doesn’t enable the user to tackle security dangers.
2. It won’t defend your system against the latest threats
If the antivirus program is not regularly updated, it cannot protect your device against the latest threats. Antivirus programs function by comparing the device’s files and the files you access over the internet to an identified virus and malware database, which are named virus definitions. When the program cannot keep up with the latest virus definitions, your device is at risk.
3. It slows down the device’s performance
Not only is it unable to do the job it was designed to do, antivirus software, even when expired, occupies the same space on your hard drive and will only slow down the performance of your device without bringing any real benefits.
4. A false sense of security
Having expired antivirus still set up and performing scans on your PC without being able to fight against potential malware will give you a false sense of security in the hope that you might still be defended.
5. Limited features
Most free and paid antivirus solutions nowadays offer plenty of additional features that are extremely useful in a world of evolving e-threats, such as antiphishing, antimalware, antispyware, password managers, or parental control. Mind you, when antivirus is expired, hence outdated, none of these features are enabled anymore, which leaves your device wide open to new online attacks.
6. No more browsing protection
While your antivirus license is still active, the software confers protection while browsing the internet. Many times, even though you might think a certain website is safe to visit, the antivirus will block access to it because it might be the cause of malware infection. With outdated antivirus, this no longer is the case.
7. More costs involved
When you are using expired antivirus and your device becomes infected with viruses or malware – which will happen, sooner or later – you’ll actually end up spending much more money on repairing the damages caused by such infections than you would have if you had just purchased the update in the first place.
Daniel C.
Richard C.
