What Is Antivirus and How Does It Work?
Antivirus is a term used to describe software that protects computers against malicious software and code designed to damage the computer or data. It helps prevent a computer from being infected by viruses and other malware, which can harm your personal information or data and cause other problems such as slowing down the device or allowing spammers to send email through your account.
Originally, antivirus programs relied on signature-based detection to flag malicious software. These programs compared stored virus signatures against a list of known viruses and blocked or deleted the files that were found to be malicious.
Today, most antivirus security vendors employ a variety of techniques to detect and remove malware. Some utilize machine learning to analyze application codes for suspicious or dangerous behavior.
Other methods of threat detection include heuristics and behavioral analysis. These techniques look for applications that may perform certain functions, such as scanning the web or attempting to download other software, and then quarantine or delete them if they are found.
Modern antivirus software has also evolved to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies have proven to be highly effective in combating new and evolving cyber threats.
A well-protected PC or mobile device can often ward off most viruses, but there are still threats that even the best security software cannot avoid. These could include malware that slips through the net or benign apps that suddenly become updated to push malware.