What is antivirus? Antivirus software is a set of program programs that are designed for preventing viruses or malicious software to computer systems, is called Antivirus or anti-malware software program. In other words, we can say that Antivirus software, also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, there are the following names of some Antivirus programs-
- Quick Heal
- Norton
- Kaspersky
- K7 Antivirus
- Avira etc.
How Does Antivirus work
An antivirus software basically works by analyzing program files against a robust list of current signature/virus definition files.
any program that matches a signature/definition file is treated as suspicious and is either deleted or quarantined.
An alert would appear to warn the user of the threat.
Advanced antivirus programs today work by employing advanced technologies like heuristic-based detection, behavioral-based detection, and sandbox detection to analyze suspicious program files.
Antivirus Working Steps
There are the following working steps of Antivirus-
Definition Testing / What is the definition of Testing / Scanning
Antiviruses have their own huge database where the definitions of famous viruses are stored, antivirus scan the files and program in their own database if the definition matched with that program or file, the antivirus declares that program as a virus, and remove or quarantine them, this type of testing called definition testing or definition based detection.
Heuristic Based Detection /What Heuristic Based Detection / Testing
Heuristic analysis can employ a number of different techniques- One heuristic method, known as static heuristic analysis, involves decompiling a suspect program and examining its source code. This code is then compared to viruses that are already known and are in the heuristic database. If a particular percentage of the source code matches anything in the heuristic database, the code is flagged as a possible threat. Another method is known as dynamic heuristics. When scientists want to analyze something suspicious without endangering people, they contain the substance in a controlled environment like a secure lab and conduct tests. this type of testing is called Heuristic-based testing.
Behavior Testing / What is Behavior Testing / Scanning
Behavioral-based analysis or Behavior Testing as the name suggests analyses the behaviors of software on a computer to detect if any suspicious activity is occurring with respect to the file. These activities are well-documented, as there are a few suspicious behaviors that can go on in the background with the user being oblivious to it. Malware often searches for whether the computer is in a sandbox, installing a rootkit to lock out the computer, or even registering for starting up automatically as the computer does. After identifying the behavior antivirus removes that kind of program or file this type of testing is known as behavior-based testing.
SandBox Scanning / SandBox Analyzing
A sandbox scanning or analyzing is an isolated environment where users can safely test suspicious code without risk to the device or network. Another term used to describe a sandbox scanning is an automated malware analysis solution and it is a widely employed method of threat and breach detection.
