Antivirus (or anti-virus) software is used to prevent, detect, and remove:
- 1Malware (short for malicious software) computer viruses (a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer)
- 2Worms (a self-replicating computer program)
- 3Trojan horses (sometimes referred as trojans, is non-self-replicating malware that appears to perform a desirable function for the user but instead facilitates unauthorized access to the user's computer system)
Antivirus software may also prevent and remove:
- 1Adware (advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used)
- 2Spyware (Spyware is a type of malware that is installed on computers and collects information about users without their knowledge), and other forms of malware.
A variety of strategies are typically employed. Signature-based detection involves searching for known malicious patterns in executable code.
However, it is possible for a user to be infected with new malware in which no signature exists yet. To counter such so-called zero-day threats (a previously-unknown computer virus or other malware for which specific antivirus software signatures are not yet available), heuristics (an adjective for experience-based techniques that help in problem solving, learning and discovery) can be used.
One type of heuristic approach, generic signatures, can identify new viruses or variants of existing viruses by looking for known malicious code (or slight variations of such code) in files. Some antivirus software can also predict what a file will do if opened/run by emulating it in a sandbox (a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs) and analyzing what it does to see if it performs any malicious actions. If it does, this could mean the file is malicious.
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