Although you can find free antivirus, anti-spyware, and anti-adware software, most of the better ones cost money. The problem with this cost for some people is that it isn’t typical. Only in rare cases can you buy these programs outright and never have to spend additional funds. Most of these programs in fact require a paid subscription — some by month, others by year.

It’s important not to let that subscription turn you off from the protection you need. Some of these subscriptions are pretty low (we’re talking a measly $29.00 bucks a year here) but when you think about what could be lost, these fees aren’t even significant.

Spyware for example could send your Paypal password to a cyber-thief. You could wake up the next morning to discover that your sweet fund of a thousand dollars or more is - poof - gone.

A virus could shut down your computer for weeks and prevent you from hosting your website or completing transactions. Depending upon how successful your business is, you could loose thousands more.

When faced with losing significant funds, a small subscription fee kind of puts everything into a sensible perspective. And it also enables efficiency. That subscription fee isn’t just a license fee. It pays for the monthly updates you need to fight and ward off new attacks — attacks that show no sign of slowing down or stopping any time soon.