BotNet News

The term “Antivirus” is a bit of a misnomer. Though it’s often associated with protection software that defends against viruses, antivirus programs actually protect against much more than that—all forms of malware (malicious software), not just those known as viruses.

The first computer virus ever created, called Creeper, was not malicious in nature and served as a test to show that a self-replicating program could identify other connected devices on the same network, transfer itself to them, and then find yet more devices to infect. By the late 1980’s, programmers were creating more sophisticated viruses that were designed to steal data, corrupt files, or degrade system performance.

To combat these emerging threats, cybersecurity vendors developed a variety of anti-virus programs that use different methodologies to detect and remove malware. For example, signature-based detection uses a database of malicious signatures built up over time by cybersecurity vendors to match the digital fingerprint of an infection. This approach works well against existing malware strains, but it becomes less effective over time as attackers tamper with their creations to avoid detection and release polymorphic variations of the same malicious code.

Virus scanners use a variety of scanning and detection techniques to detect and block viruses, including heuristic analysis, sandboxing, machine learning, behavioral analysis, and cloud-based threat intelligence. The best antivirus software is comprehensive and includes real-time protection, automatic updates, deep scanning, user-friendly interfaces, and reliable customer support. Those seeking additional layers of protection should consider products that also provide firewalls, customizable security policies, and website blocking for safer browsing.