What Is Antivirus and How Does It Work?
Antivirus is a program, or suite of programs, that detects and protects your computers and mobile devices against malicious software, also known as malware. It can detect a threat before it lands on your system, as well as scan and remove malware that’s already present. Antivirus software can protect you against worms, trojan horses, spyware, ransomware, adware and spam, among other threats.
A Bit About Malware
Hackers are always developing new tools to infect your computers and devices with viruses, spyware, adware and other malware. Some of these threats are designed to snoop on your activity, while others may crash your computer, steal personal information, and even make it unusable. Antivirus programs are able to identify and remove these threats as soon as they’re discovered, protecting you from malware attacks that can destroy your data or steal your identity.
Most antivirus programs begin by scanning your files and programs for the presence of malware. They do this by comparing the files’ characteristics to a database of known threats. This is called signature analysis. But since cybercriminals are constantly creating and distributing new malware, the programs must also use behavior detection, which analyzes how the code works to determine whether it’s safe or dangerous.
Most antivirus programs also scan URLs and web pages in real time, looking for the signs of a virus or malware. They will usually quarantine the file, or delete it completely, preventing its spreading to other parts of your device.