Computers are all around us throughout our lives, from assisting us work and play to monitoring hospital patients and controlling critical manufacturing processes. But this convenience comes with a downside, as more computer-related devices are a more attractive target for malicious coders.
Antivirus protection scans files and programs to identify threats. It serves as a real-time shield against cyberattacks. It is able to identify infected files and programs by their signature – a few lines of assembly code that overwrite the stack pointer for instance and compares them to an existing database of malware. If the program matches the database, the antivirus software will stop it from running and send it to quarantine for a thorough scan and analysis.
Unfortunately, the creators of malicious software always create new software with distinctive and subtle signatures. Antivirus programs must update their databases. The good news is, once a virus has been discovered and added to the detection database it becomes more difficult for hackers to use that same signature against other machines.
This is Enterprise Resource Planning why the majority of trusted antivirus programs include numerous additional features to help guard against a broader range of malware threats. These include: