What is Antivirus?
Antivirus is software that prevents, detects and removes malicious code (malware) from your computers, laptops or mobile devices. Malware can damage or corrupt data, steal passwords and other sensitive information, slow down device performance, and even cause a system to crash. Antivirus programs scan for and identify threats, quarantine them or delete them to keep your devices and data secure. Modern antivirus products update themselves automatically, ensuring they are always using the latest malware detection technologies.
Viruses are one type of malware, but there are many other types. For example, worms can exploit system vulnerabilities to self-replicate and spread to other computers without user intervention. Spyware can record keystrokes to steal login credentials and other personal information. Ransomware can block access to a computer or file until you pay a ransom, or can even wipe your entire hard drive.
Antivirus programs are designed to stop malware in its tracks. They can perform automatic or scheduled scans of your entire system, specific drives, files or folders, or individual programs and documents. Many use a combination of detection methods such as signature-based detection (comparing new files against a library of known virus signatures) and heuristic analysis (examining code structures and behavior to detect potentially malicious activity). Some programs also utilize sandboxing, where suspicious files are run in an isolated environment to see how they behave before allowing them to access the rest of the system. Finally, some advanced antivirus solutions incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning to anticipate and predict new malware attacks based on evolving attack patterns.