How antivirus works on your computer
Antivirus is a comon word for any computer user. It is simply the reverse of virus. The users from basic to expert also knows what is virus and how your virus attack the computer. Virus, malwares, trojans etc are simply the scripts which start malfunctioning the computer program. Now we go into deep how the virus works with some logics.
Virus definition files tell the anti virus software what code characteristics to look for while monitoring your computer. When a certain file type or activity occurs that matches a characteristic, the anti virus software blocks the execution of code and alerts you that a virus has been found. The virus is then isolated and destroyed.
Hundreds of new computer viruses are introduced onto the internet each week, and as antivirus software developers find these new viruses, they create updates of the virus “definitions†in order to provide the antivirus software with a way to identify and destroy even the newest of viruses. It is extremely important to update your antivirus software every day in order to make sure you have the most current virus definitions available. Fortunately, most modern anti virus software comes with an “automatic update†feature that makes this task a one time “set it and forget it†kind of thing.
Your first line of defense are all those virus definitions, signatures, and updates that your anti-virus software is always downloading. They provide identifiable characteristics, or finger prints, for malicious code. This is what is meant by “Specific” scanning—your anti virus program takes all these updates and stores them in an internal database. The anti-virus then matches them against any new files being introduced to your system via email or file download for known threats.
Using virus definitions is great for known viruses, but new viruses are growing exponentially every year and it is possible to not have a definition in time to properly diagnose a dangerous line of code. Heuristic and sandboxing are “Generic” scanning methods. They are not perfected yet and can bring up some strange issues including system slowdown and incorrect diagnoses. Generic scanning is really in its infant stage and is used more in larger networks where a server can do all the scanning (not individual PCs). Antivirus companies use Generic scanning to construct new virus signatures and I feel that these methods will be more widely used by single users in the future.
Most antivirus software will offer to delete or contain (quarantine) the malicious code. Remember, the antivirus program runs in the random access memory (RAM or memory) of a computer. All communication from that computer through TCP/IP or IPX is programmed to be monitored by the antivirus software, thus when malicious code is detected it is stopped before it can damage the computer.
Great article. So many users just dont understand that their protection is only as good as the last update. They just assume that they are protected since their AntiVirus is running.
Wow! it`s a nice article about the working of anti virus software in our computer system.Anti Virus software blocks the virus execution code and alerts you that a virus has been found.