An Overview of Antivirus Software

This guide offers an overview of antivirus software, and why it's highly recommended you have it installed on your devices.

What is Antivirus Software?

Antivirus software is typically installed on electronic devices to prevent computer malware, such as viruses, from affecting your device. There are many vendors that produce antivirus software, and many devices come with rudimentary antivirus software that has some barebones capabilities, such as Windows Defender on Windows devices or XProtect for Mac devices. Antivirus software also comes for mobile and handheld devices, and typically has the same capabilities as any computer-grade antivirus software.

How Does Antivirus Software Work?

Antivirus software has a primary function: It scans files and your computer’s memory for certain patterns that may indicate the presence of malicious software. These scans either happen manually or automatically, typically preconfigured to run every so often to check your device for malicious software.

However, you can initiate manual scans at any time. A lot of modern antivirus software is also capable of detecting harmful software whenever a file or application is installed on a device, giving an additional layer of security.

When the antivirus software discovers a malicious file or program on your computer, the software will produce a dialog box alerting you that it has found malware and ask whether you want it to “clean” the file (to remove the malware) or the software may attempt to remove the malware without asking you first.

This all depends on the provider of the antivirus software. It is very important to keep your antivirus software up to date, as new definitions for malware get updated frequently, allowing your antivirus to detect more threats with each new update.

Why Should You Use Antivirus Software?

• Antivirus software allows you to automatically detect and purge any threats that might affect your device
• Antivirus software is the easiest and most straightforward way to secure your devices, as it scans and deals with threats automatically and without your input
• It is also highly effective, since it also checks your files whenever you download them, preventing any accidentally installed malware from damaging your devices.
• It is also a good idea to get a secure and trusted antivirus software, as some threat actors online mask their malicious software as antivirus to trick people into downloading their harmful software