What is Antivirus software?
How antivirus software works? Why do we need it?
We all know that hackers are working around the clock to spread new viruses, steal your personal information and destroy your computer and its files. Hackers don’t just target large multinational corporations who can easily spare a few thousand dollars, they target anyone with a weak defense like small businesses, individuals and even nonprofit organizations. It’s impossible to be 100% protected, the best and most effective method of securing your devices is prevention which is the main purpose of antivirus software.
What is an antivirus software?
Antivirus Software is a data security utility which is installed in a computer system with a purpose of protection from viruses, spyware, malware, rootkits, Trojans, phishing attacks, spam attack, and other online cyber threats.
Antivirus protection is essential, given the array of constantly emerging cyber threats. If you don’t have protective software installed, you could be at risk of picking up a virus or being targeted by other malicious software that can remain undetected and wreak havoc on your computer and mobile devices.
If you already have antivirus software, you may believe you’re all set. But it might not be that simple. With new and savvier cyberthreats and viruses surfacing, it’s important to stay current with the latest in antivirus protection.
How it works?
Antivirus software scans all the files in the system to ensure that no file can cause harm to the system in any way. It also checks for any malicious activity happening in the system. Signature detection is a method by which antivirus keenly scans files that are brought into a system to check for any hazardous files.
Antivirus applications come with a directory of already checked-viruses and match the codes and patterns in files and web pages to unique bits and patterns that make up the code of a virus. If they match, the file is deleted or quarantined, means that it is moved to a new and safe location so that it does not infect any other files on the system.
Antivirus programs also checks for any malicious behavior on a system such as suspicious registry entries or executing an unknown program automatically upon system startup thus protecting our computer against encrypted viruses or viruses that are still unidentified.
Why is updating Antivirus Software so important?
Updating antivirus is critical for the security of any system. This is because any system gets constantly threatened and attacked by new viruses every day. Antivirus updates would have latest definition files that are needed to identify and combat new viruses. Without constant updates you can’t be protected from new viruses.
Virus Detection methods:
1.Signature-based detection
This is essentially the first method conventional antivirus software utilize to identify virus. The programs look for signatures to detect new malware. The antivirus companies analyze and extract an exact signature of the file and keep them in a database to which threats are compared and devices are then protected in case the signatures match.
2.Heuristic-based detection
This is the most common form of detection that uses an algorithm to compare the signature of known viruses against a potential threat. An antivirus packed with this type of detection can also detect viruses that have not yet been discovered and released as a new virus but it can also generate false positive matches which means an antivirus scanner may report an uninfected file as an infected one.
3.Behavior-based detection
If a virus passes the above detection methods, the antivirus then observes the behavior of programs running on the computer. The antivirus triggers a warning if a program begins to perform strange actions like
- Changing settings of other programs
- Modifying or deleting other files
- Remotely connecting to computers
This is a useful method for finding viruses or any other type of malware that attempt to steal or log information.
4.Sandbox Detection
This is a type of detection method in which antivirus software run programs in a virtual environment and record the actions it performs to identify whether the programs are malicious or not. If the program is found safe, it is then executed in the real environment.
This technique is rarely used in consumer antivirus solutions as it is both heavy and slow but antivirus solutions designed for corporate and network use offer this.
5.Data Mining
Data Mining is the recent development in malware detection that security companies now provide with their antivirus products to detect and eliminate forms of malware that has just been released. First, a series of features of files are extracted from files and then data mining and machine learning algorithms are used to determine the behavior of a file to detect whether the file is malicious or not.
Types of Scans
1.On-Demand Scan
The term ‘On-demand’ scanning itself means that this feature either runs when the user wants to scan his computer on suspecting any abnormal behavior or the user schedules it to run at a specified time. It searches the contents of the disks, directories and files and boot sectors and system components as well. These are used either as a preventive maintenance activity or when a virus is suspected. This method helps when you have just installed antivirus software in your system.
2.Real-Time Protection
Almost all modern antivirus programs offer this type of automatic protection that runs in background thereby increasing chances of catching malware before it does damage. Thus, these types of scans are also known as ‘background guard’. It basically monitors the system for any suspicious activity in real time while data is loaded into the active memory. For example, when a USB drive is inserted or a downloaded file is executed.
3.Smart Scans
Under Smart Scans, an antivirus only scans the selected files that are more suspicious to be infected. This type of scanning lowers the need of system resources while protecting against the more common types of viruses, threats and risks. This is helpful for older systems or devices with low resources.
Features
1.Anti-malware and anti-spyware
Anti-malware and anti-spyware guard against viruses, Trojans, Zero-day attacks and much more, and it’s the crux of your antivirus. Both features protect your PC from malicious software that might arrive via phishing email or visiting a malicious website.
2.Intuitive interface
Let’s not underestimate the power of a simple design. An intuitive interface is one that works the way the user expects it to. Ensure the software provider has a design that makes finding and navigating the features easy. Without a good and easily accessible user interface it’s difficult to use the software.
3.Advanced protection
Look for cloud-enabled advanced protection of some kind. This leading technology is specifically designed to catch emerging threats and better defend against them.
4.Instant behavioral analysis or immediate detection
You want your software to detect a threat fast. Check out the features section of the software and look for something that indicates new and emerging threats will be caught instantly.
5.Email protection
An email component of your software is extra important as most computers are infected via a phishing email. That means a hacker or cybercriminal sent you an email under the pretense of something else and included a link or attachment that downloaded dangerous malware on your computer. Antivirus software should include a component to recognize those as spam and help prevent you from opening it.
6.Patch management
This feature ensures third-party applications (like Java, Adobe Acrobat, etc.) are up-to-date and secure. Many hackers attempt to get in through outdated versions of these applications, so it’s extra important you update all of them. An ideal AV solution must update all the software and constantly check if they are up to date.
7.Exploit protection
An exploit kit is a software kit that tries to identify software vulnerabilities and then attack accordingly. A strong antivirus will detect and prevent those exploits from doing harm.
Benefits of using Antivirus
1. Protection from viruses
This is the primary function of an antivirus program. The program protects the computer from viruses, malware, spyware, and other unknown threats and eliminating them before these malicious programs can harm the device’s system. An effective antivirus would have developed a list of good and bad files to help distinguish a program as to whether it is harmful or not.
2.Protection from identity theft
Spyware attacks are designed to steal personal information from the computer. These can include banking data, social security numbers, passwords, credit card numbers, and other important data. Some sophisticated spyware can even run silently in the background, waiting for the computer user to buy something online and enter their credit card information to pay for it. The spyware records and use it as if it were their own, fostering identity theft. Antivirus blocks spyware from accessing the computer’s data, allowing secure shopping and online banking.
3. Scanning removable devices
An antivirus is capable of quickly scanning any removable device connected to the computer to identify potential threats. Some antivirus software automatically puts unknown executable files in a virtual container. The container allows the program to run for the computer owner to use, but it prevents the program from accessing the computer’s data and other resources.
4. Protection against online threats
With continuous access to the Internet, computer owners have to fight off numerous cyber threats. But a good antivirus can block them from accessing the computer.
5. Firewall protection
A good antivirus software monitors data going in and out of the network system through the Internet, monitors suspicious data, and blocks suspicious data from getting transmitted.
6. Blocking spam sites and ads
Most of the spam ads and viruses infect computers through pop-up ads and other spam sites. These spam attacks aim to steal information from a user’s computer, compromising their privacy, or even causing substantial financial losses.
7. Convenience
It is more convenient to simply run the antivirus than having to waste time trying to locate it, delete it, and restore any data that it has damaged.
Disadvantages
- Anti-virus software slows down PC or network, Installing and running anti-virus software can use up a lot of computer memory & hard disk space and slowing down your PC .
- There are new security holes to exploit in the operating system and networking software that would give the viruses another entry point that bypasses the anti-virus software making it inefficient. Anti-virus software in use today is fairly effective but only if it is kept updated and the user takes the precautions.
- When you install anti-virus, It is not a firewall & it will not prevent you from getting hacked , Sometimes you need to install a firewall software also or install a full internet security suite to fully protect your computer.
- Because of the large amount of software out there, it’s possible that antivirus programs may occasionally say a file is a virus when it’s actually a completely safe file. This is known as a “False Positive.” Occasionally, antivirus companies even make mistakes such as identifying Windows system files, popular third-party programs, or their own antivirus program files as viruses. These false positives can damage users’ systems — such mistakes generally end up in the news, as when Microsoft Security Essentials identified Google Chrome as a virus, AVG damaged 64-bit versions of Windows 7, or Sophos identified itself as malware. Heuristics can also increase the rate of false positives. An antivirus may notice that a normal program is behaving similarly to a malicious program and identify it as a virus. Despite this, false positives are fairly rare in normal use. If your antivirus says a file is malicious, you should generally believe it.
Difference Between Paid and Free Antivirus Software
An Antivirus software can either be free or paid. There are some basic differences between the free and paid versions. Free Antivirus softwares mostly happen to be programmed to do signature-based detection, as per which malware is detected by matching signatures of the file scanned with an existing list of identified signatures. On the other hand, paid Antivirus Programs use the much more advanced heuristic technique to capture advanced threats as well. This would include even sophisticated zero-day threats. Paid antivirus programs work by executing malicious files in a virtual space, through sand boxing, an advanced method of containment.
They even offer additional features like file shredder, VPN, multi-layer malware protection, password manager, cloud storage and many more.
Top 5 Paid Antivirus
2.McAfee
3.Norton
