It’s crucial to know the way your antivirus software detects threats. Cyber-terrorists keep creating more dangerous malware and viruses, which can infiltrate computers and steal data, corrupt documents, and cause other harm.
As you probably know the primary purpose for most antivirus software is to find and take out these threats before they cause harm. They do this by studying your system files, your data and computer programs.
Antivirus programs have historically relied on signature-based detection. This method compares documents that are received by your device to an inventory of known viruses signatures. This method looks for fingerprints and matches the program or file with the virus. It will notify you if the match is found. It’s a good technique however, hackers continue to create new kinds of malware. To identify them antivirus programs must keep their definition files up-to-date with the most current malware samples.
Encrypting the malware’s payload is another method used b
y hackers to get around antivirus scanners. Once a virus is encoded, it will be able to escape scans and signatures since it’s not executable. This is usually accomplished by tagging a small header program on the front of the encoded virus which allows it to leap the counter for the program and execute at the first chance.
Antivirus software uses a variety of methods to identify viruses. They include heuristics-based detection and behavior-based detection. Heuristic-based detection is similar in concept to signature-based detection in that it analyzes the behavior of a program in search of tendencies and patterns. Heuristic detection, based on an approach of trial and error can identify malware that signature-based methods cannot.