As people become more savvy about how their data is used, it’s important the businesses they trust have adequate protection in place against cyber threats.

Cyber-attacks increased now a days, so businesses need to be ready to defend themselves.

Ransomware, data breaches, and supply chain weaknesses have already crippled some businesses, with the National Cyber Security Centre revealing that 34 ‘significant’ cyber-attacks took place between October 2016 and the end of 2017.

Small businesses might think their size means they’ll be overlooked, but the hackers know that smaller companies are often unprepared to deal with an attack.

That’s why we’ve carried out some research to find out the best small business antivirus software. The software we list have been reviewed well and perform strongly in AV-Comparative’s Real-World Protection report, but as your business will have unique needs, it’s important to do your own research before making a choice.

Is small business antivirus software necessary?

As your business grows, so does your customer base – and the data you store. And everytime you do business over the internet, you’re opening your network up to whatever the outside world might throw at it.

While a consumer-level product might be suitable if you’re a one-man-band operating from a single laptop, if you have lots of devices with multiple users, you’d better get some more protection.

It’s not just the devices that stay put in your office that need protection, either. When a device like an employee’s mobile connects to your network, someone could hack in on that connection. So, a good antivirus package will have ‘endpoint protection’, which monitors all the devices that have access to your network.

Ideally, you’d have an IT security expert protecting you, but you might not have the budget to hire someone full-time. That’s why choosing the right software package is important.

Most of these options have a trial period you can take advantage of, and will have a dedicated team you can speak to before making your choice.

And they all follow the ‘software as a service’ model, where the manufacturers host the applications and make them available over the internet. This should make managing them simple.