
Worms – a type of malware that replicates itself without human interaction and causes damage without attaching itself to a software program.Computer Viruses – unwanted programs that enter the system without the user’s knowledge replicate themselves thus affecting the system’s performance and user data.
Spyware – information-stealing threats. What does antivirus software protect us from? Unable to connect to the internet or open files. If anything, different from normal is detected it is classified as an infected file. This means the antivirus software will run the file or software considered malicious and observe its behavior. Alongside, antivirus software also uses sandboxing. This means instead of depending on one signature, they combine related ones and detect threats. To overcome this problem, antivirus programs use heuristic detection. But, what about the latest viruses, details of which are not yet added to the database? This is one way of detecting malicious files. When a malicious pattern stored in the database is detected, the file is flagged as malicious. Related: How To Test If Your Antivirus Is Effective Or NotĪntivirus software to identify a file as genuine or infected scans the signature of each file. They contain a signature (fingerprint) that sets them apart from other genuine programs running on the system, and this makes them unique, and recognizable as a threat by the antivirus software. They operate similarly however, their intent is not genuine.Ĭomputer viruses are designed to harm your system and steal data. Viruses are no different than a normal software program.
Virus vs antivirus is a never-ending cat and mouse race, hence understanding how antivirus detects computer viruses is a good idea. This gives the user peace of mind, as the computer virus designed to damage and infiltrate the operating system is taken care of by the antivirus you are using.īut how does antivirus software work? How Does Antivirus Work? When a threat is detected the antivirus or security tool running on the system blocks and removes it from the system.
This software checks the web pages, files, folders, software, applications, connected devices, and each part of the system for infections. They have been around nearly as long as viruses that call for their use. Here we will discuss how antivirus programs work, their benefits and which the best antivirus tool is for your PC.Īntivirus software as we all knows helps keep data safe from cybercriminals. If this is on your mind, you are at the right place. How does antivirus software work and protect our PC?