Fighting malware and spam

Survey reveals apathy surrounding anti-malware protection

Inconvenient subscription models preventing UK consumers from protecting their PCs adequately.

A survey conducted in the UK by security firm GFI Software has revealed that 40% of respondents would rather let their anti-malware software lapse at the end of the initial subscription period than pay to renew the subscription, while 15.3% said that they would probably let their subscription lapse due to the renewal process being too difficult or inconvenient.

35% of those surveyed could not recall when their existing anti-malware subscription was due to expire, while 20% said they had already decided not to renew their subscription when the current one expires.

The survey - commissioned by GFI as part of the company's marketing strategy for its GFI VIPRE Lifetime Edition - asked respondents whether they would be prepared to replace their existing anti-malware solution with one that offered lifetime coverage for a one-off fee (the model offered by the VIPRE Lifetime Edition) and 40% of users claimed that they would.

While this piece of research is obviously part of a vendor marketing ploy, it does call into question the value of the paid subscription model for consumers - and whether the industry should, in fact, be making it as effortless as possible for end-users to secure their machines and avoid compromise.

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18 November 2010

Tags: gfi software, survey, vipre.   

1 comment

The model in the US (for the most part) is actually straightforward - You buy the software, you provide a credit card number, somewhere there is a box (usually pre-checked, for better or for worse) that you're signing up for auto renewal. Relatively painless until auto renewal time comes up.

You may have cancelled that card, for example. Different companies are/were more diligent in telling you that your card would be charged, in "x" days. Different companies made it difficult to find where to cancel out of autorenewal. McAfee and Symantec both paid 6 figure fines a few years ago, I believe, and revamped their methods (no, the font sizes about renewing were the same as the rest of the doc!).

Internet Security vendors can send emails and pop-ups about renewing, but then, people would have to read them, and accept pop-ups from their security vendor. "Lifetime" payment - until the next major release? For that specific PC? Is this for the SW or the pattern file updates? craig kensek

by craig kensek, 18 November 2010, 16:09

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