Anti-virus software is a type of installable software that is used to prevent, remove, and detect malicious software commonly known as Malware. Malware is basically everything from computer viruses, Trojan horses, and worms. Viruses are corrupt programs that harm and destroy the hard drive on a computer. Trojan Horses are computer programs that collect, store, and transfer data on the user of the computer in which they infect. This information is used for a variety of illegal and unethical practices such as identity theft and credit card theft and fraud. Worms are self-replicating computer nodes that latch on to a part of the computer's software and then multiply, infecting everything it latches to. This destroys documents, saved settings, and part of the hardware.
All of these things are caused by fraudulent programs or websites that are sold or downloaded. Most of them require consent to access by the user, normally they hide behind official looking pop ups or "needed" software notifications. Sometimes, they appear by replicating a website page stating that there is a certain program that is needed to fight infected software on the computer. The user is then asked to download this. Though it appears legitimate, it actually is a means of software infiltration.
Many reputable programs are on the market to fight this spyware and destroy it before it does damage to the computer's hard drive. Within antivirus software, a wide variety of methodology is employed to fight the infections and defeat them before they cause too much of an effect on the computer. Some of these strategies include systematic checks of the computer's programs on a regular basis where the antivirus software scans the computer with signature based detection which searches for viruses in executable codes that are documented based on the current archives of malware programs. However, this method is useless against new and undocumented malware programs.
If this is the case, a program function called heuristics is employed. This manually identifies new virus types searching for infected areas of the software by using current documented codes to determine new variants. Basically, Heuristics take all of the variables of existing malware executable codes and strings them together until a new code is found and matched with the current infected computer.
Other similar antivirus software programs take a riskier approach and create a simulation of the computer's current state of being. The computer creates what is known as a sandbox to directly duplicate the virus in a controlled, simulated replication of the computer programming. Every variable of the computer is factored in and evaluated. The virus code is then implanted to see what it affects and how. Then, correct diagnosis can be executed to solve the problem from the outside and work in. This allows the symptoms of the virus to be dealt with first before finally discovering what the cause of the virus was and dealing with it. The sandbox method is one of the best ways to fight a virus, though it is risky because it voluntarily replicates the virus. In some more advanced virus situations, the virus is able to determine that it is on a simulation sandbox and "break out" of this condition, though this is rare and takes very advanced software to accomplish. The sandbox method does take longer to actually destroy the virus, but it does well to fight it off for some time.
Matthew Kerridge is a developer of computer software. For more information about antivirus software please visit http://www.ebuyer.com
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