If there is any problem that all computer owners dread, then it is viruses or malware. VIRUS, or vital information retrieval under siege, can be very devastating to the operation of the computer, slowing down its performance and corrupting files. The most effective way of dealing with viruses is by installing antivirus programs. These are designed in such a way that they would protect the systems of the computer from viruses.
There are various ways in which antivirus programs detect viruses.
They may detect them through virus program footprints. In this case, the antivirus software compares virus’ footprints with a library of the known footprints matching that of viruses. Footprints are patterns of data that is included in particular files. In this method, the viruses are identified as such and then incorporated in the footprints’ library. One thing that you would appreciate about this method is that it is rare to have false positives.
However, it comes with the disadvantage that time elapses between the release of a virus and the updating of footprints’ library. This implies that the virus may not be recognized, therefore risking infection to the computer.
Antivirus programs may also detect a virus through looking at its characteristics. This is known as heuristic scanning which involves examination of the actions the virus program takes or attempts to. It looks into the program’s executable code especially the function calls and if there is something suspicious about it, then it would flag it as a virus therefore asking for intervention of the user. One thing you would appreciate about this method is the computer system would be protected throughout even when viruses have been released. However, it comes with the disadvantage that there would be numerous false positives. In addition, some of the viruses may never be identified.
Antivirus programs do not stop at detecting viruses. They also wipe out the malware infection. There are numerous antivirus software that may be good at detecting viruses but fail miserably in eradicating the same.
Antivirus programs may also quarantine malware and suspicious files. This is aimed at preventing offending files from damaging the computer system while allowing the user to have the quarantined object restored back to original location incase it was a false positive.
As you may acknowledge, there are viruses that are designed to attack the antivirus programs by disabling their accessibility as well as shutting them down. In this case, if the antivirus software does not have self defense or is devoid of protection against current viruses or other viruses targeting it, its capacity to protect the systems of your computer would be greatly hampered. The antivirus program therefore works by offering self-protection. In your effort to complement the antivirus from similar attacks, it would be important that you incorporate extra protection. This is done by installation of additional antivirus programs from other vendors while ensuring that it is compatible with the current antivirus. In addition, it would be important that you ensure that the antivirus program is always updated so that it can be protected from current viruses.
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