Computer viruses are very like real-life viruses; they got their name due to this similarity. To protect your body from viruses, you will be required to get vaccinated once a year. Whereas, to keep your system safe from viruses and other various threats, you will need to use antivirus software that will be able to provide complete protection. There are many versions and types of antivirus software that are available in the market. Yet, any antivirus software’s primary goal is to protect and remove viruses and malware from the system.
What is Antivirus Software?
Antivirus software is an application or program specially designed and developed to find and remove viruses from computers and networks. Apart from detecting and removing viruses, most antivirus programs can remove different types of malicious software such as Trojans, worms, spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and ransomware keyloggers and rootkits.
As computer viruses are a pervasive threat on all platforms, these antivirus software’s are specially designed to protect various operating systems and all internet-connected devices. Some statistics show there is more than 350,000 new malware that is released daily. The best antivirus software should be updated for different virus definitions at least once a day to have the greatest protection.
How Does An Antivirus Software Work?
Generally, all the Antivirus software runs in the background, where they scan computers or servers to detect and restrict the spread of malware. There are various types of antivirus software programs that consist of real-time threat detection and protection features to guard against potential susceptibilities as they happen and do system scanning that can track device and system files at risk of being corrupted.
Any Antivirus is generally capable of performing these functions -:
- This software does scan all directories and specific files that are doubtful of containing a virus or the presence of any malicious software.
- Capable of providing schedule scans and runs them automatically. If users want, they can start the new scan immediately.
- Helpful in removing any malicious software that is detected. Few antivirus software programs have the feature to do this automatically in the system background. In contrast, others will notify the users about the infections and ask them if they want to clean the file or repair it.
Different Types of Antivirus Software
There are different types of antivirus software distributed in several forms, such as antivirus scanners and internet security suites. They provide antivirus protection, firewalls, privacy controls, and various security protections. Some antivirus software offers a basic version at no cost. But, users need to have the premium version of any antivirus software to have advanced features.
The antivirus programs can be mainly categorized into the given below categories:
1. Standalone Antivirus Software
Standalone antivirus software is specialized software designed to detect and remove specific viruses. This type of antivirus can be easily stored on a USB drive which makes it portable software. Administrators use these kinds of antivirus software’s to operate an emergency scan of an infected system. But, most of the standalone antivirus programs are not designed to provide real-time protection to the system. Due to this issue, they cannot replace any internet security suites that consist of various advanced features.
Examples of Standalone Antivirus Software
i. Spybot – Search & Destroy Portable
ii. Emsisoft Emergency Toolkit
iii. Sophos Anti-Rootkit Portable
2. Security Software Suites
Security software suites are a collection of software programs that can protect computers from viruses and malicious software. Besides to this, these security suits can detect and remove viruses. Furthermore, they are equipped with advanced features that can fight different types of malicious software and provide continuous protection for your computer and files. Most of these security packages include various advanced features such as firewall, anti-spyware, and parental controls.
Examples of Security Software suites
i. Norton 360 Deluxe
ii. McAfee Total Protection
iii. Bitdefender Premium Security
3. Cloud-Based Antivirus Software
Cloud-based antivirus software is a new and different antivirus technology that can analyze cloud files instead of doing it on the computer to free up your computational resources and respond faster. By performing all the required activity on the network, cloud-based antivirus can detect trojans, viruses, and malware compared with any traditional antivirus software. This kind of software usually consists of two parts. The client has installed the software on their computer and periodically checks virus and malware scans without consuming too much memory. The software also checks the web service for processing the data gathered by the client and analyzing it for the virus and malware database.
Examples of Cloud-Based Antivirus Software
i. Sophos Endpoint Protection
ii. Webroot
iii. Avast Cloudcare
Benefits of Antivirus Software
Antivirus software does not only protect computers, laptops, or smartphones; they are known for preserving the essential documents and files that could be corrupted by virus or malware. Having good antivirus software can probably be the significant difference between the long life of any laptop, computer or network PCs. Always be sure that your antivirus should be up to date so that it is capable of defending against the latest threats.
Benefits of having good antivirus software are -:
- Capable of Detecting and removing a different kind of viruses and malicious software
- Helpful in preventing theft and block phishing and fraud.
- Give advanced warning for dangerous websites and links before you click them.
- Helpful in keeping online accounts protected by having secured password encryption
Which software should you use?
Now the question arises which software is best to use? There are various companies that are producing antivirus software. But, choosing one from those could be a little bit confusing. All the Antivirus software usually performs the same functions, so your decision should be driven by features, compatibility, and price. Irrespective of which companies’ antivirus you choose, installing any antivirus software will increase your system’s protection.
Wrapping Up
With the advancement of Technology and various internet devices connected, everyday living has been quite convenient and riskier. But to evacuate this risk, you will need having good antivirus software that can protect your system. Today’s market is flooded with various antivirus software that claims to provide the optimal protection for your system, files, and data. Due to tough competition, finding the perfect antivirus software for your computing could turn out to be a difficult task. But when choosing antivirus software for your personal use or office, you should consider its effectiveness against detecting and fighting cyber threats. The number of features includes performance on the operating systems you are using and the number of devices it can protect. This software’s the only way to ensure that your system is protected from all harmful viruses and malware.
