What Is Antivirus Software

Project By:Sandeep Roll No:- 22

What is antivirus software? Antivirus software is a computer program that detects, prevents, and takes action to disarm or remove malicious software programs, such as viruses and worms. You can help protect your computer against viruses by using antivirus software. Computer viruses are software programs that are deliberately designed to interfere with computer operation, record, corrupt, or delete data, or spread themselves to other computers and throughout the Internet. To help prevent the most current viruses, you must update your antivirus software regularly. You can set up most types of antivirus software to update automatically.

History Of Anti Virus Back in 1988 viruses grabbed the mass media attention and some of the best researchers in the antivirus world begun their work before 1989. So 1988 was the year in witch antivirus comerciants emerged, and their launch produced a big agitation over what was at the time only a potential problem. The comerciants were only small firms that sold their software at very low prices (something like 5 or 10 USD). Some f the programs were shareware, some of them freeware. Many companies tried to make a name for themselves, but no one was really paying serious money for a potential thread. This situation gave viruses like stoned, cascade and Jerusalem a chance to propagate without being discovered

Features Antivirus software have the capability of searching an entire file on a computer system. Instead of just looking at a small section of an existing computer file, the antivirus software thoroughly analyzes it. This prevents viruses, spyware, and malware from hiding on your computer system and compromising the data stored on it. On-access scanning is another useful feature of many antivirus software. The real time protection will notify you of any irregular file activity that may indicate your computer system has been infected. Virus removal features are also included in antivirus software to take them off your current computer system. With frequent virus database updates, your antivirus software will effectively keep track of the latest threats that could harm your computer system.

Function of Antivirus Software Antivirus software is used to detect harmful viruses and other spyware on a computer system. Hackers frequently embed viruses on popular websites to infect the computer of anyone that visits their website. You'll need to locate a suitable type of antivirus software to stop them from invading your computer system unknowingly. With antivirus software, viruses and spyware will be properly removed from your infected computer system to protect your important data. Most antivirus software programs can usefully identify common and uncommon malware applications that have been unwittingly installed on a computer system

What is a Computer Virus? A virus is a computer code that has been designed to "spread" and replicate itself by passing from computer to computer. It is a piece of software that piggybacks on legitimate programs like Excel, Word, WordPerfect, Outlook, etc... When the program is run, the virus is triggered to run too. Viruses can be destructive in nature, and can cause a wide range of problems ranging from operating system and file corruption to getting blamed for email spamming. Some viruses are just annoying, but cause no damage.

How do Computers get Viruses? Viruses usually find their way into computers through networks (local networks as well as the internet) by taking advantage of unpatched security vulnerabilities (holes) in software or by receiving an infected file via email, download or shared disk. Depending on the type of virus, it may be embedded in an Excel or Word file, or may be designed to infect upon the opening of an email. Once infected, a computer can literally infect thousands of other computers by quietly spreading the virus without the user even knowing about it.

How Anti Virus Software Works Virus definition files tell the anti virus software what code characteristics to look for while monitoring your computer. When a certain file type or activity occurs that matches a characteristic, the anti virus software blocks the execution of code and alerts you that a virus has been found. The virus is then isolated and destroyed. Hundreds of new computer viruses are introduced onto the internet each week, and as antivirus software developers find these new viruses, they create updates of the virus “definitions” in order to provide the antivirus software with a way to identify and destroy even the newest of viruses. It is extremely important to update your antivirus software every day in order to make sure you have the most current virus definitions available. Fortunately, most modern anti virus software comes with an “automatic update” feature that makes this task a one time “set it and forget it” kind of thing.

OTHER COMPUTER PROTECTION METHODS

Antivirus Card This method was used in the early 1990s by DOS users and involves the installation of an ISA interface card which takes over the DOS interrupt and monitors the WRITE operation

Network Firewall Network firewalls prevent unknown programs and Internet processes from accessing the system protected. However, they are not antivirus systems as such and thus make no attempt to identify or remove anything. They may protect against infection from outside the protected computer or LAN, and limit the activity of any malicious software which is present by blocking incoming or outgoing requests on certain TCP/IP ports. A firewall is designed to deal with broader system threats that come from network connections into the system and is not an alternative to a virus protection system.

Online detection Some antivirus vendors maintain websites with free online scanning capability of the entire computer, critical areas only, local disks, folders or files. Examples include Kaspersky Online Scanner and ESET Online Scanner

Virus removal tools A virus removal tool is software for removing specific viruses from infected computers. Unlike complete antivirus scanners, they are usually not intended to detect and remove an extensive list of viruses; rather they are designed to remove specific viruses, usually more effectively than normal antivirus software. Sometimes they are also designed to run in places that regular antivirus software can't. This is useful in the case of a severely infected computer. Examples of these tools include McAfee Stinger and the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

USE MORE THAN ONE AT A TIME Although there are multiple types of antivirus software to help keep your computer system safe, you shouldn't use more than one at a time. Having several antivirus software programs installed on a single computer system will expose it to vulnerabilities. A missed malicious file could cause your entire computer system to crash or prevent it from accessing a stable Internet connection. Instead of tracking a virus threat, each antivirus software will prevent the other from correctly functioning

Why Should Update Your Antivirus If you don't update your antivirus software to its most recent version, it will not effectively protect your computer system. Activate the feature that allows automatic connection to the Internet for virus database updates. This can usually be done by accessing the "Settings" feature within your antivirus software