Computers are omnipresent in our lives, from helping us work and play, to monitoring patients in hospitals and regulating critical manufacturing processes. However, this convenience comes with a downside, as more computer-related devices are a more attractive target for malicious coders.
Antivirus protection scans programs and files to identify threats in the process, acting as a real-time defense against cyber-attacks. It detects infected files and applications by their distinctive signature – just a couple of lines of assembly code that overwrite the stack pointer for instance – and compares them against the database of malware that is known to be infected. If the program matches the database, the antivirus program will stop it from running and then move it to quarantine for thorough analysis and scan.
Unfortunately, malware creators constantly create new programs with subtler and different telltale signatures. Antivirus programs must update their databases. The good news is, once a virus is detected and added to the database of detection it becomes harder for hackers to make use of that same signature against other computers.
The most trusted antivirus programs come with several features to protect you from an array of malware threats. These include:
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