Antiviruses have been known for a long time. Absolutely all people heard about such programs, even those far from computer technology. In principle, in general terms, an antivirus is the key to understanding the security of the entire computer system and the safety of data.
What is an antivirus? General concepts
If we talk about what antivirus software is, then, roughly speaking, this is one application or a set of software tools that are designed to protect the system and information from malware, search for and detect viruses, remove them or treat infected system components in the form files or installed applications.
Thus, we can say that antivirus is software for comprehensive protection of a computer system from external threats that can penetrate it from the Internet, by email, or when using removable media.
Antivirus Classification
As for the classification, antiviruses can conditionally be divided by purpose and technology of the analysis, not to mention the operating systems in which they are supposed to operate.
In terms of purpose, an antivirus is either one program for analyzing, detecting, or removing malicious codes and applications, or a combined software package that can not only perform the above actions, but also provide comprehensive protection in terms of working on the World Wide Web, receiving and sending email , protection against spyware modules that can steal information in the background when the user does not even know about it, etc. (these are the so-called versions of antiviruses).
The simplest example is two software products such as Eset NOD32 and Eset Smart Security.
The second package has more features and can not only deal with determining the presence of viruses in the system , delete them and disinfect other files. It has powerful enough functionality even to protect a computer system and data with a constant connection to the Internet, and the program also has a “proactive” protection function, it can create backup copies for recovery, it can encrypt data and much more.
An important place in the classification of such software is occupied by analysis methods. They are divided into signature and probabilistic.
Signature Analysis
The signature method is based on the fact that the antivirus program compares the structure of suspicious files with those stored in the signature database. That is why we can say that antivirus is an application that constantly requires updating. As already clear, such a methodology does not give a 100% guarantee of security, because the program is able to detect only the already known virus. Among the simplest programs of this type, Avast is an antivirus that is free.
Probabilistic analysis
As for the analysis of this type, it is divided into heuristic, behavioral and comparative analyzes of checksums.
In short, in the sense of heuristic analysis, an antivirus is a means of comparing file structures based on already known viruses, as well as identifying the algorithms that they use in their work.
Behavioral analysis implies the likelihood of certain actions being performed. For the most part, this applies to executable macros, scripts, or applets. In other words, such a technique is able to predict which action can be performed by a suspicious file or application.
Checksum comparison is a method in which checksums of files are written to the cache and then compared with subsequent values. The conclusion about the presence of a threat can be made on the basis of the fact that a simultaneous or massive change in system objects is made.
As already clear, in almost all methods there is a very conditional definition of the presence of the virus. So, for example, Avast is an antivirus that can take the execution of some macro command as a threat, while in reality it is not a virus or malicious code. Each method of assessing the probability of a threat has its pros and cons. But their combination in one software product gives more tangible results, allowing you to detect viruses, malicious codes or spyware based on aggregate analysis.
The most famous antiviruses
As for anti-virus software, now in the world of computer technology there are a lot of simple applications and entire multifunctional complexes. Perhaps the most famous software package can be called Kaspersky Anti-Virus, which today has the greatest capabilities compared to all other products.
True, this package is designed to be quite powerful in terms of system performance, because it gives such a load in the active mode that low-power computers and laptops simply "drown" in the process of functioning. However, Kaspersky Anti-Virus has its own minimum and recommended system requirements for computer hardware. So it’s not yet installed on every computer.
No less popular are the products of Eset Corporation. Here, the most popular are Eset NOD32 and Eset Smart Security systems, which are mentioned above. It is worth noting that the products of Kaspersky Lab and Eset are paid or shareware, so you will have to pay a round sum for them (of course, subject to the use of licensed software). It goes without saying that on the Internet you can also find cracked versions. That's just the guarantee of full functionality can not even give crackers.
Among free programs, many users prefer the same Avast, Panda antivirus, AVG, McAffee, Norton Antivirus, etc. In principle, there are a lot of antivirus software now, so each user chooses what to work with and how to protect the system.
Conclusion
Probably, most users have already realized that antivirus is a program for complete protection not only from viruses, but also from many third-party threats associated with espionage or theft of confidential information, in general, from everything that could be a threat to the operating system , Hardware (there are also such viruses) and user files that are stored on a hard drive, removable media, or even in a cloud storage.