What is antivirus software and how do they work?

Antivirus Software

Antivirus Meaning

Anti-virus software is software that detects, prevents, and removes viruses, worms and other malware from the computer.

Antivirus software also removes or blocks spyware and adware with viruses.

Most anti-virus programs include an auto-update feature. This downloads new virus definitions and anti-virus programs are able to detect new viruses.

Antivirus programs are essential for any computer, laptop or smartphone.

Why Do We Need Antivirus Software?

We need antivirus software because, in today's world, any PC on which the effective antivirus software is not installed can be injected in a few minutes after connecting the Internet.

But some users think that their PCs are not connected to the Internet, so they do not even need antivirus. However, without the antivirus, when users insert infected USB drives or DVDs into their PC, their PC is immediately infected with viruses.

Today computers, as well as other devices, such as a smartphone or tablet, are constantly bombarded with viruses, which damage the device or steal sensitive data that can be used for other criminal activities.

So if you bring something (a file or an email) from elsewhere in your computer, then you can get the virus in your computer.

Where do the viruses come from?

Computer viruses can come on your computer from the Internet, email messages, software and other things downloaded from the Internet or other sources, from the network drive, USB drive to your computer.

How does antivirus software work?

Understanding how anti-virus software works are not as complicated as it seems.

Although there are many types of anti-virus software, their way of working, which you can call Virus Detection Techniques is almost the same.

Only familiar with these technologies can help you understand how antivirus software works.

Virus Detection Techniques can be classified as follows:

1) Virus Definitions:

This is the first method of traditional antivirus software to detect malware practically.

This program relies on signatures to detect new malware. Provided that the company already analyzed a proper signature of the file and extracted it into the database.

Threats are compared to this database, and your device is protected when it matches the signature.

But when this approach prevents malware from spreading, then cybercriminals try to be one step ahead by writing new types of viruses that do not match virus definition or encrypt themselves and modify their code.

2) Heuristics:

Heuristic base detection is used to detect malware in combinations with virus definition, which are based on known and modified malware.

Even without Modified Malware Definition, antivirus software is capable of recognizing the variations of malware and editing it in quarantine.

Antivirus uses extensive signatures for this purpose and can identify malware with different fingerprints.

Other methods of antivirus software have a file analysis in which it is seen that there are no instructions for changing or deleting some files in executable.

Regular software does not attempt to modify or delete important system software and therefore this action can be considered malicious behavior and therefore should be considered malware.

3) Behavioral Blocking:

Behavior detection is a signature approach to detect malware that helps in creating a complete context around all process executable paths in real time.

Suspicious behavior involves unpacking malicious code, modifying host files, or keeping track of that stroke. This type of action allows an antivirus program to detect previously unseen malware on the system.

4) Sandbox Detection:

Generally, a sandbox is an isolated computing environment in which the program or file can be executed without affecting the application in which it runs.

The best way to detect unknown threats is to allow these files to be executed in safe, virtual environments. In this sandbox, attention is given to this execution and in this, it is detectable to malicious activity.

Once Malicious Activity is Detected, Signature is created, so that it can be blocked immediately after the next attack.

In addition, it is recommended to automatically update the IP blacklist in a firewall or proxy.

5) Data Mining:

This is one of the latest ways to detect malware, which security vendors have now provided with their antivirus and antimalware products.

With the set of program features, Data mining helps to know if the program is malicious or not.

Types of scans in an antivirus:

All these different types of detection capabilities are fine, but one more, equally important, to know how many antiviruses scans in order to protect the system.

Basically, antivirus programs offer regular scanners that look for known viruses in hard drives.

But Modern Security Solutions provide the full range of scanning. These include both traditional and behavioral scans.

1) On-Demand Scanning:

A conventional scan is run when users are requested or scanned at daylight.

This type of scan disk, the contents of directories and files, as well as the boot sectors and system component search. Traditional disk scans are either used as a preventive maintenance activity or when the virus is detected.

2) Real-Time Protection:

It is also known as the Background Guard.

This type of scanning is related to automatic scanning that almost all of the modern antivirus programs offer.

It basically monitors any suspicious activity in real time, while data loads in active memory.

For example, when a USB plug is done or the browser is open or a downloaded file is excusable.

This type of scanning may reduce the performance of the system, but it is very important for protection.

Detection Rates in Antivirus

Different antivirus programs have different detection rates, which include both virus definition and heuristics. Some antivirus companies may have more effective heuristics and may have more viral deficiency releases than their competitors, which results in high detection rates.

2-Antivirus

Some organizations compile these antivirus programs with one another and perform regular tests. One such organization is AV-Comparatives, which regularly releases the antivirus detection test.

 

Difference Between Paid And Free Antivirus

Antivirus software is either free or paid. There are some basic differences in these free and paid versions.

The main difference between the free and paid version of antivirus is that most basic features are available in the free version, whereas the Paid version has more advanced features that provide more comprehensive security for the device.

The biggest drawback of free entry is that you do not get technical support. Apart from this, some free antivirus may also include advertisements.

Types of Antivirus Programs

There are lots of antivirus programs. But today we will see the list of the top antivirus across the world.

McAfee AntiVirus Plus
Symantec Norton AntiVirus
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus
Kaspersky Anti-Virus
Avast Pro Antivirus 2017
Trend Micro Antivirus + Security
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 10