CA Anti-Virus Plus is antivirus software for home and home-office PC users. It does not include a firewall. It works together with the Windows firewall or with CA’s separate firewall product. The interface is well thought out, and the software fights spyware as well as malware in all of its forms: viruses, worms, rootkits, Trojan Horses.

There are so many reasons to use antivirus software. Spyware steals personal information and it can switch your home page and re-direct your web searches. Spyware can also record every keystroke that you make so that it can steal passwords. A true computer virus is a computer program that can duplicate itself and spread to other computers. Computer worms also self-replicate, but their method of transfer is usually restricted to the network and to exploiting shortcomings in the operating system of the target computer. Worms also use email to spread themselves. While viruses alter files on the target computer, worms do not have to attach themselves to existing programs. Worms cause harm by sucking up network bandwidth. More harmful worms carry a payload and can delete files from the target system or install a backdoor to capture the PC into a zombie network that the worm’s creator controls. These zombie networks are called botnets, and they are a source of much spam because the IP addresses can’t be traced to the hacker who masterminded it. Rootkits mess with administrator privileges to cover their intentions. With so many threats poised to strike, it is no wonder that there is a brisk market for software such as CA AntiVirus Plus.

Performance
The vendor’s online marketing copy claims “CA AntiVirus Plus’ Windows protection is second to none.” However, according to tests conducted by AV-Test, protection performance is quite average. To its credit, a number of independent test labs have certified CA Anti-Virus Plus. West Coast Labs awards this antivirus software a Platinum Checkmark, an AntiVirus Desktop Checkmark and an Anti-Trojan Checkmark. It also has ICSA Labs Certification on Windows 7. But when it comes to the test results that we most respect, those from AV-Test in Germany, this security software does not win any contests in any category. It does better at repairing damage caused by malware than at protecting against the possibility of damage.

Features
CA AntiVirus Plus is light and fast. It installs easily. It does a quick scan prior to installation. It automatically scans USB drives upon insertion. The product continuously updates itself. You can monitor the status of the system with reports that show user activity and system alerts. This antivirus software integrates with search engines to help block malware. In order to maintain a current list of virus signatures, this security software updates itself automatically. However, if the antivirus software has never seen a particular file before, it can’t match it with a known threat. To protect against new virus outbreaks that haven’t made it into the list of known malware, this product also scans files and compares them to known families of viruses and analyzes file behavior in order to ascertain threat. This type of threat detection is based on a set of rules that allow the software to identify a new variant of a virus whose behavior matches a virus from a known threat family.

Help & Support
The publisher of this antivirus software supports customers by telephone.