Computer Security Articles

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How Does Anti Virus Software Work?

The anti virus software program is the computer program, which are used to scan the files in order to identify and eliminate all computer viruses and some other malicious software. They help prevent any damage done by the virus and give you an option to remove it. There are lots of different anti viruses in the market some and free and some are paid.

An anti virus, software typically makes use of two different methods to accomplish all this:

1) Checking files to search for known viruses by a means of virus dictionary.
2) Knowing suspicious behavior from a computer program that may indicate infection.

Most of the commercial anti virus software makes use of both these approaches, with the emphasis on virus dictionary approach.

The virus dictionary approach

In virus dictionary approach, when anti virus software checks file, it refers to dictionary of known viruses, which are identified by author of an anti virus software. If a piece of code in file matches any of the viruses that are identified in dictionary, then anti virus software will then delete this file, quarantine it so file is inaccessible to some other programs and the virus is not able to spread, and type to repair file just by removing a virus itself from file.

To be successful in long-term, virus dictionary approach needs periodic online downloads of an updated virus dictionary. As the new viruses are recognized "in wild,” civically minded and technically inclined users will send their files to authors of anti virus software, who after that include info about new viruses in the dictionaries.

Dictionary based anti virus software generally examines files while computer's operating system makes opens and closes them; and when files are mailed. In this way, known virus is detected immediately on receipt. You can download lots of good anti viruses from the Internet without too much of a problem by searching on the Internet with the help of your favorite search engine. You can find lots of good anti viruses, which can protect your computer without spending a fortune.