Antivirus Program

Antivirus program helps in identifying and removing computer viruses and other harmful software that affect the functioning of the computer.

Our computer often gets targeted by harmful software when we are surfing the net. We fall victim to these malicious software unknowingly most of the time which cause a serious threat to the system. Antivirus program helps in protecting the computer from the programs which affect the stability of a system by timely alerting the user whenever there is a suspicion. This harmful software is generally referred to as malware. The malware could be in the form of a virus, trojan etc. For a strict PC security, it is advised to load an antivirus program and a firewall and steps must be taken for updating them at regular time intervals. Virus is not a new term that has been spread because of the new electronic communication technology. It dates back to the time when communication was done with the help of floppy disks. But now, the viruses are spreading frequently because of the increased usage of the internet.

For a better maintenance of the system, one should always install an anti-virus program. It constantly scans for any viruses or harmful software in the operating system, the registry, memory and other locations and alerts the user for the same. They help in preventing data loss and system crash. On identifying the virus, the antivirus program repairs the file by removing the virus from the file, or deletes the file or causes the file to be inaccessible to other programs. Various methods have been deployed by the anti-virus programs to scan the suspected file that may disrupt the system. They are:

• Blacklist Approach: This is a dictionary based approach where the detected virus is compared to a defined list of malware.

• Heuristic Approach: This approach studies the behavior of the file to check if it is of the same manner as the previous examples of malware.

• Whitelisting: This new technology questions the files that are not trusted.

Apart from anti-virus programs, firewall and system virtualization are two other methods to prevent virus infection. For the best results, a proper evaluation of the security product should be done before they are deployed.