Comments on: Antivirus Renewal

By: hedgehog

hedgehog — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 07:37:11 +0000

Hi coop2000

Bob is right on the money (as usual

I have been in the anti-virus and security business for years, and the reason that (usually) convinces the difficult customers is this: There are 100′s of new malware discovered EVERY DAY. Without up-to-date protection, YOU (as the business owner/director/CEO/CFO/head-honcho) can be PERSONALLY liable for the losses caused by a NEW virus, etc that YOU have failed to protect against (by not renewing a lic.)

I’m not sure about other parts of the world, but here in Europe there are “Negligence” laws that punish those who failed to protect their systems and cause damage to 3rd parties. That usually convinces them.

You can/should also use financial arguments comparing the cost of renewing licences with the cost of a breach (in terms of downtime, labour, potential embarrassment, etc).

But it’s a toughie sometimes, I agree…

Good luck!

By: bobkberg

bobkberg — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 21:16:39 +0000

All good answers, but I feel there’s a key point that’s been missed.

When you buy an Anti-Virus license, it’s yours forever. No additional fees whatsoever.

But…No Anti-Virus package can defend against viruses that do not yet exist. They do try to watch out for certain behavioral clues and flag those. Since all software contains bugs of one kind or another, the bad guys are always looking for another way in, which means using behavior that the anti-virus companies do not yet know about.

As one of the previous posters pointed out, it takes money to keep doing the research, and to keep up with new developments in operating systems and application software.

The renewal fee is just that: “renewal”. It makes your anti-virus package just like a new one from the store shelf – except that the renewal process typically costs around one-half (often less) what a new purchase would, since the companies like keeping existing customers.

Bob

By: madmaxb

madmaxb — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 21:05:45 +0000

Oh Take a look at this.
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032286231&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

By: madmaxb

madmaxb — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 20:43:01 +0000

I feel for you!!! Stressing the importance of keeping your ?Anti-intrusion software? up to date is paramount. However, even more important is that your clients have trust in your guidance. I think that ?IT professionals? that work in the wild ?Having multiple clients and not working for a single employer? need to think like a doctor ?Some times you have to give bad news? and not be afraid of them. There is an arsenal of information on why we should keep our ?Anti-intrusion software? up to date. Part of the profession is to know how to prescribe the right salutation. If a client uses one salutation that may not be the best but get the job done, if you show them data for another salutation that might make them uneasy. ?Oh you want me to buy this salutation $$$? might be there reaction. Look for generic information.
http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/eac/knowledgebaseCategory/0,295197,sid63_tax296729,00.html

By: jlnewmark

jlnewmark — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 17:49:37 +0000

Try http://www.messagelabs.com, or http://www.symantec.com. These are two of the companies most likely to catch a new virus or other threat almost as soon as it hits the ether. And they have articles, graphs, charts, and some very compelling statistics (for instance, 1 in 52 emails contains a virus).

In addition, there have been recent articles which you should be able to find discussing the fact that viruses are no longer written by geeky teenagers looking for attention. They are written by organized criminals who install keystroke loggers, backdoor trojans and other nifty nasties designed to compromise businesses and individuals. They don’t want publicity — they want passwords, network access, computer control, customer information…

Good luck. If you have the kind of folks who think seat belts are for sissies, only the school of hard knocks is likely to convince them. On the other hand, Message Labs, Symantec and some of the recent articles can give you some pretty compelling reasons to keep your computer “seat belts” up to date.