Antiviruses are known for a long time.About these programs, absolutely all people have heard, even distant from computer technology. In principle, speaking in general terms, an antivirus is the key to understanding the security of the entire computer system and the security of data.
Если говорить о том, что представляет собой antivirus software, then, roughly speaking, this is one application or a set of software tools that are designed to protect the system and information from malware, to search for and identify viruses, to remove or treat infected system components in the form of files or installed applications.
Thus, we can say that the antivirus issoftware for complex protection of the computer system from external threats that can penetrate it from the Internet, by e-mail or using removable media.
With regard to classification, antiviruses are conditionallycan be divided by purpose and technology of the analysis, not to mention the operating systems in which they are supposed to function.
In the sense of purpose, the antivirus is eitherone program for the analysis, detection or removal of 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 work on the World Wide Web, receive and send e-mail, protect against spyware capable of stealing 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 opportunities and may notonly deal with determining the presence of viruses in the system, delete them and treat other files. There is enough powerful functionality here even to protect the computer system and data with a constant connection to the Internet, and even the program has a function of "proactive" protection, can create backup copies for recovery, can encrypt data and much more.
An important place in the classification of such software is occupied by the methods of analysis. They are divided into signature and probabilistic.
Signature method is based on the fact thatThe antivirus program compares the structure of suspicious files with those stored in the signature database. That's why we can say that an antivirus is an application that constantly requires updating. As it is already clear, such a methodology does not give a 100-percent security guarantee, because the program is able to determine only the already known virus. Among the simplest programs of this type is Avast, an antivirus that is free.
As for the analysis of this type, it is divided into heuristic, behavioral and comparative checksums.
In short, in the sense of heuristicanalysis antivirus is a tool for comparing the structure of files based on already known viruses, as well as identifying the algorithms that they use in their work.
Behavioral analysis implies a probabilitycertain actions. For the most part, this applies to executable macros, scripts, or applets. In other words, this technique is able to predict what action can be taken by a suspicious file or application.
Comparison of checksums is a method, withwhich checksum 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 simultaneous or mass change of the objects of the system.
As it is already clear, practically in all methodsthere is a very conditional definition of the presence of the virus. For example, Avast is an antivirus that can take the threat of the execution of some macro command, while in fact it is not a virus or malicious code. Each method for assessing the probability of a threat has its pros and cons. But their combination in one software product gives more tangible results, allowing to identify viruses, malicious codes or spyware based on aggregate analysis.
As for the antivirus softwareThere are now quite a few simple applications and whole multifunctional complexes in the world of computer technologies. Perhaps the most famous software package can be called "Kaspersky Anti-Virus", which currently has the greatest capabilities in comparison with all other products.
True, this package is designed for fairly powerfulin terms of system performance, because it gives such a load in an active mode, that low-power computers and laptops simply "drown" in the process of functioning. However, Kaspersky Anti-Virus has its minimum and recommended system requirements for the computer hardware. So it's not on every computer you will install.
Not less popular are productscorporations Eset. Here the most popular are Eset NOD32 and Eset Smart Security systems, 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, provided you use licensed software). It goes without saying that you can also find "cracked" versions on the Internet. That's only guarantees of full functionality can not even give the crackers themselves.
Among free programs, many usersprefer the same Avast, antivirus Panda, 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.
Probably, most users already understood,that the antivirus is a program for full protection not only from viruses, but also from a variety of external threats related to espionage or the theft of confidential information, in general, from everything that could threaten the operating system, the "hardware" (there are also such viruses) and user files that are stored on a hard drive, removable media or even in a "cloud" storage.
