Using AV Software Today

AV software or anti-virus software plays an important function in detecting, preventing, and removing malware, computer viruses, computer worms, Trojan horses, spyware and adware. It is true that the Net has proved to be an excellent means of communication, but at the same time it is an simple target for computer viruses and worms that can cause great chaos to a networking system. Computer viruses and worms have the capacity to modify, delete and steal data, with worms also having the ability to multiply and spread themselves to cause great trouble. The necessity of loading AV software is imperative because it is fairly possible that a infection or worm could have been in a computer a long time before one knows it. This could leave your computer infected a long while before you take action for its removal. So the proper functioning and storage of indispensable and confidential data requires the latest version of the software which can help to not only keep your personal computer clean and uninfected, but would also inform you of threats where prompt action is desireable. A number of strategies can be used in anti-virus protection using signature based detection involving searching for known patterns of data within executable code. But it is necessary to know that this does not always prove effective if the computer is infected with new malware. there are constantly new updates made for the software to counter such so-called zero-day threats. Some of them use heuristics to foresee new dangers. Generic signatures, one heuristic approach, has proved effectual in identifying new versions or variants of current viruses by looking for known malicious code, or slight variations of such code, in files. Some AV software has, in addition, the capacity to test what a file will do by running it in a sandbox. It can also evaluate what it does to see if it will perform any malicious actions. The necessity of installing AV software on your computer for Internet usage arises out of a need for computer safety and the protection of vital documents and files that could get damaged or lost forever. The two foremost ways that AV software works involve, firstly, that it scans for all the viruses that are specified in the virus dictionary. Then it warns the user, after having discovered them, of their suspicious nature like port monitoring, spyware or data capturing. Then it takes action to be rid of infected files either automatically or on instruction from the user. Most decent
AV software will update these files automatically, which is achieved by having the software connect via the Internet to the vendors? server for the daily downloading and installation of the latest virus patterns. I would say that anti-virus software is without doubt necessary for the effective use of computers and the Internet, but it does not come without drawbacks such as the slowing down of the computer. Along with impairing the computer's speed, it could give prompts and make decisions that are very difficult for laymen to understand, thereby leading to confusion and possible security breaches. In addition, AV software that employs heuristic detection may occasionally not be able to accomplish the right balance between false positives and false negatives, with both of them proving destructive. Lastly AV software running at the extremely sensitive kernel level of the operating system creates a potential avenue of attack.