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How Does Antivirus Software Identify Potential Viruses?

When you are choosing an antivirus software for your business or home it’s important to think about more than just a program’s detection rate in controlled tests. It is also important to ensure that it’s able to recognize new viruses and malware. The virus writers are always developing ways to thwart antivirus software. They create viruses to disable them, evade detection methods and even evade antivirus software.

One of the earliest types of antivirus programs operated by comparing the files that enter devices against their database of signatures for malware that are known to be in. This type of signature detection works well for malware that is older. However, the virus creators can develop new signatures at any moment for new types of malware.

Modern versions of antivirus software utilize heuristic detection in order to detect potential threats. Heuristics do not search for exact matches, but rather at the tendencies of incoming software and files to determine whether they match known malware. This method has been enhanced by a method known as behavior-based detection which examines how a file or program acts to to determine if it is malicious.

Some viruses attempt to stop anti-virus programs by hiding from detection, blocking access to the antivirus program’s update system or destroying library code files that a virus scanner requires to function. Certain viruses are more sophisticated and will directly alter or disable http://webroot-reviews.com/how-to-choose-best-antivirus-software/ components of the antivirus software. These kinds of viruses are becoming more widespread and often come with features like the worm component which spreads from computer to computer.

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