THE’antivirus It is one of the main tools to protect our electronic devices from cyber attacks and detect any malware such as worm, trojan and spyware. This type of software takes care of scanning the computer in search of any harmful files, which could damage the system. An antivirus is mainly based on three fundamental mechanisms to identify malware: the Signification based on signaturesThe heuristic detection and that behavioral. Let’s analyze them in detail, so as to understand as an antivirus does to recognize a computer threat.
How antivirus works: three ways to detect computer threats
The signal based on signatures It is one of the oldest methods used in the field of cybersecurity and consists of Compare the device files with an already known virus database. Each harmful program has a unique “signature”, that is, a set of characteristics identifiable in its code. When the antivirus software finds a correspondence, it reports the file as harmful. As effective as it may be, this method has its limits, since it only works with threats already known And it cannot identify new malicious software, which have not yet been added to the antivirus database.
To overcome this limit, many antivirus use the heuristic detectionwho does not go to look for exact correspondences, but are looking for possible critical issues that arouse a certain suspicion in the software analyzed. This detection technique can take place in different ways. In some cases, the software source code is analyzed and compared with known viruses: if a certain correspondence is found with known viruses present in the heuristic database, the code is marked as a potential threat. This approach allows you to detect new variants of IT viruses that could escape the signal based on signatures. This, however, can also lead to a greater risk of run into false positivesthat is, incorrect reports of harmless files as threats. Emblematic, in this regard, what happened in 2011 with the browser Google Chromewhich was mistakenly classified as dangerous by the antivirus Windows Defender (also known as Microsoft Defender Antivirus AndSecurity Essentials).
Another method used by antivirus software is the behavior based on behaviorwhich observes the activity of a program while it is actually performed. If the program shows suspicious actions, such as attempts to infect other files or Connect to remote serversantivirus can report it as dangerous.
How the antivirus scan takes place
The scanning process of an antivirus usually begins with one Complete system scanwhich analyzes each file to identify potential threats. Subsequently, most antivirus software perform regular automatic scans at scheduled intervals or manual scansthat the user can activate the session right when he prefers most. The scan can be rapid (takes place in a maximum time of 30 minutes), focusing only on critical areas such as computer memory, the directory of the operating system and temporary files, or it can be more in -depth (like the one that takes place at the first use of the antivirus), in which each individual file (including those present in USB sticks and other external media) is carefully examined.
In addition to performing scans regularly, it is important Activate the automatic gciotte of virus definitions. These updates are essential to ensure that antivirus can recognize even the most recent threats.
When an antivirus should detect a threat, it will try Remove it from the system. If it does not succeed, it could take some ad hoc security measures. Among these is the so -called forty Which, as easily intuitive from its name, consists in isolating suspicious files in a safe area of the system, so as to prevent this from being damaged.
use of antivirus is not enough to protect us from malware
Despite the effectiveness of antivirus, it is important to underline that No software can guarantee total protection against all computer threats. This is because these I am constantly evolving And they are more and more widespread: according to some estimates from 2009 to 2019, malware infections went from 12 million to over 812 million, with a increase of 6,500%.
That’s why, in addition to relying on a good antivirus, we suggest you adopt a multi -level security strategywhich includes practices such as the use of robust passwords, regular updating of software and the adoption of tools such as VPN to protect sensitive information when you are online.
