The past few years have seen a sea-change in the technological landscape, with names such as ILoveYou, SoBig and CodeRed making front page news in the mainstream media instead of being relegated to the IT sections. These are some of the largest viral threats to surface in recent times, and it seems that not a week goes by without another virus warning.

While it's easy to take the cynical view that these are press beat-ups, and that virus attacks are something you'll never encounter, those that watch and monitor these things know that only a very small portion of the malevolent data bobbing around the internet is actually reported on, and that the threat is very real.

And the threats aren't just viral, either. There are Trojan Horse packages that drop malicious code onto your PC, or even wait until a certain time is reached before activating, and there are backdoor programs which totally open your PC up to control by hackers. These aren't amorphous claims either - the threats are real and they do happen.
And when they do, most people are unaware of the fact. What makes this a sadder story is that protecting yourself from viral attacks is amazingly simple. Anti-virus programs are exceptionally easy to install and configure, and they're capable of fully protecting you from viruses you may already have on your system and from threats as they arrive in your Inbox or as you surf the internet.

We've rounded up 10 consumer anti-virus packages and had them tested thoroughly with tens of thousands of viruses, Trojan Horses and backdoor programs to see which ones cope the best with a full onslaught.

Are you protected? If not, you should be.