BotNet News

Viruses, malware and other threats can be more than just an annoyance. They can lead to follow-on attacks that target your finances, your identity or your privacy—or a mix of all three. And that’s why antivirus is a must-have security measure for your home or business.

Antivirus software scans your computer to identify files that are known to be malicious based on detection patterns and flags them for removal. It can also detect and prevent the spread of viruses between computers or other devices on your network. Additional security functions that some antivirus programs include are detecting and blocking unsafe websites, offering safe browsing protection and helping you identify and remove ransomware when it’s detected on your system.

A computer virus needs a host program to trigger it, and that can happen in many different ways. For example, you might open an infected email attachment or click on a suspicious link on social media. When triggered, the virus will typically try to replicate itself by infecting other programs on your computer or infecting new hosts through emails sent to contacts.

The best antivirus software protects against both existing and emerging threats. It protects against existing ones by using a large database of threat signatures—and updating that list regularly (another good reason to set your antivirus software to update automatically). And it protects you from entirely new threats through technologies like heuristic analysis, which can recognize suspicious behavior that might indicate an intention to cause harm.