anti virusUnlike other malware such as spyware, worms, adware, rootkits, phishing and Trojan horses, viruses are computer programs that have the uncanny ability to spread to infect various system files and can be transmitted over networks, the Internet, email email, instant email. Messaging, file sharing channels, and removable media such as floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, or USB. Some computer viral infections display symptoms that most computer users will eventually notice. However, the vast majority of computer viruses are covert, wreaking havoc that goes undetected long enough for the damage to be irreversible. Those are the reasons why antivirus software products are so important.

Antivirus software programs were originally created to combat computer viruses that began to spread in the 1980s. Today’s more sophisticated antivirus software programs are more prolific and can therefore identify and remove viruses along with all all other harmful malware. Finding any malware, antivirus software programs will quarantine or encrypt infected files to make them inaccessible or ineffective; they will try to repair the files by removing the malware, but that can’t always be done successfully; or they will remove the infected files completely from the system.

Antivirus software programs are numerous and all use one or more of the following three key methods to identify malware: The most widely used is the signature-based detection method. This method divides files into small segments and compares the contents of each of these segments with a virus signature dictionary, which is essentially a list of known virus codes. This method is somewhat limited in that you can run your comparison only against known viruses and therefore won’t be able to detect any new ones. Antivirus software that is based on the signature-based detection method requires frequent updates to its virus signature dictionary and is configured to scan all files when the computer’s operating system creates, opens, closes, or e-mails them. .

The malicious activity detection method monitors the behavior of all programs and thus provides protection against new viruses. Any suspicious behavior is reported to the computer used to decide how to proceed: reject or accept. The heuristics-based detection method is used by the most advanced and high-end antivirus software and is designed to identify new and as yet unknown viruses.

To perform its task, antivirus software using the heuristics-based detection method used one of two techniques: a) File scanning – scans files that contain suspicious and virus-like instructions that can significantly slow down the computer; or b) File Emulation: Runs programs in virtual environments, takes note of their actions and performances, and then determines if those programs are malicious or not.

It goes without saying that the optimal and most effective antivirus software is the one that uses a combination of several of the methods mentioned above. After all, antivirus software is all about protecting against antivirus computer infiltration and maintaining security.