The What, Why And How Of Antivirus Software

Every force of evil in the world has a competitor - an agent of goodness and purity. Think Batman and Joker, Sherlock and Moriarty or even John McClane and Hans Gruber! Similarly, we consider ourselves adversaries of technological disinformation. (Be sure to check out our Introductory Guides where we “raise the curtain” on several technologies!)

We believe there is a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to antivirus solutions. Some say they can completely prevent viruses from affecting your devices, while others say they were invented by businesses that made viruses in the first place. No matter what, Antivirus Software is a critical tool that every individual and business needs to ensure a virus-free system. Even more so, given the fact that hackers and bad actors are desperately working to destroy, steal or sell your personal information.

We mean, you won’t find a business computer at your workplace without Antivirus Software – and for good reason. So, let’s start by understanding what antivirus solutions are.

What Is An Antivirus Software?

The viruses are meandering all over the digital realm. It takes a blink of an eye to lose one's files or get hacked while working in our digital world. So, wouldn't it make sense to take steps to prevent it? You know, prevention is better than cure!

That's why Antivirus Software was developed. Most offer virus prevention, detection and removal features on the installed system. Once installed, these solutions operate automatically in the background to deliver real-time protection against virus attacks. Some comprehensive antivirus tools protect your data and systems from viruses such as worms, Trojan horses and spyware through extra security features such as adjustable firewalls and website filtering.

However, these features evolved over time, as did the tool itself – let's take a look!

When Was The First Antivirus Software Made?

The first virus and antivirus were created in a controlled environment. In 1971, a computer scientist named Bob Thomas developed the Creeper, an experimental program that infected and spread to PDP-10 mainframe computers. To counter the Creeper, American computer programmer Ray Tomlinson created the Reaper, a virus-eradication program.
 

• The late 1980s laid the groundwork for the initial antivirus software industry. Bernd Robert Fix, a German computer security expert, created a program in 1987 to remove Vienna, a virus that infected.com files on DOS-based devices.

• By the end of 1987, two more antivirus tools — FlushShot Plus by Ross Greenberg and Anti4us by Erwin Lanting — were launched. Even though these tools are no longer available, they are regarded as the first heuristic antivirus software.

• In 1988, Alan Solomon founded S&S International in the United Kingdom and developed his antivirus, Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit.

• By the 1990s, the industry was rapidly expanding. In 1990, the Computer Antivirus Research Organization (CARO) was established to research and study malware. Amongst the organization's members were Alan Solomon and Eugene Kaspersky (sound familiar?).

• The antivirus sector advanced further in the 2000s, with the Finland-based company F-Secure developing an anti-rootkit tool called BlackLight in 2005. They were the first cybersecurity company to do so.

• McAfee added Artemis, a cloud-based anti-malware function, to their VirusScan product in 2008. AVG soon followed in 2011 with Protective Cloud Technology, a similar system.

Now that you know how this tool evolved, you might be wondering: what on earth does Antivirus Software really protect us from?

That’s what we have covered next – read on!

How Does Antivirus Software Work?

You can’t always count on John McClane to fight the cyber baddies – hence you need a solid tool to counter viruses and malware.

Antivirus Software operates by scanning your computer system and its files against a database of known types of malwares. If a match is found, the malware is eliminated and the user is notified of the malware source. This leaves a conspicuous gap, though. What about new viruses that the software hasn't updated in its database? How would it deal with new encrypted viruses? Just like viruses in real life, there can be mutations that make regular viruses much more destructive! To address this issue, Antivirus Software has more comprehensive functionalities such as:
 

Heuristic Analysis

This technique categorizes viruses with comparable characteristics to give the antivirus solution a better knowledge base of viruses that behave similarly. It looks for known types of malware or patterns that are associated with a common codebase. Imagine having your DNA; now, you could identify all family members (people with the same DNA pattern) even if there are some mutations!

Machine Learning Analysis

Several leading antivirus providers are combining datasets of previously known malware with Machine Learning algorithms. This helps businesses anticipate malware and virus attacks from previous outcomes and eliminate the virus before it harms the system.

Thus, Mark the-one-who-lost-his-business-presentation, Antivirus Software protects your systems from known and unknown viruses/ malware before they can cause permanent damage. However, that’s not all – here are some more reasons to install one!
 

Benefits Of Using Antivirus Software

Here are the benefits businesses and individuals can expect from Antivirus Software:
 

• Complete protection from online threats, malware, spyware and other unknown threats

• Prevention of phishing attacks to steal or infect your system

• Scanning removable devices to prevent them from accessing the system's data and other resources.

• Firewall protection to monitor suspicious data on the network and stop its transmission.

• Elimination of identity theft as spyware is disabled and deleted.

• Faster performance of systems as unwanted folders and files are removed.

Now that you know what to expect, we’re sure you can ace the quiz on Antivirus Software we have up next – just kidding! What we have next is a brief on the types of Antivirus Software that will help you assess the one best suited for your business.

What Types Of Antivirus Software Exist?

Every type of Antivirus Software keeps you safe from viruses. That's what they're designed to do! Yet, depending on their capabilities, you can classify them into three categories:

Standalone Antivirus Software

Standalone Antivirus Software are specialized tools designed to detect and remove specific viruses. It is also called portable Antivirus Software as it can be installed on a USB and flash drives. Administrators commonly use it to run an emergency scan of an infected system. However, most portable programs aren't designed to provide real-time protection, which is why they cannot substitute enterprise security software suites.

Security Software Suites

As mentioned above, security software suites are more than just antivirus programs. In addition to detecting and removing viruses, they fight other types of malicious software and provide round-the-clock protection for your computer and files. These program packages include anti-spyware, firewall and access control features. Some may include additional functionalities such as password managers, VPN, etc.

Cloud-based Antivirus Software

Cloud-based Antivirus Software is a relatively new type of antivirus technology that analyzes your files in the cloud rather than locally to free up computational resources and allow for a faster response. Malware scans can be run without consuming too much memory as web services process and inspect files for viruses and malware.

With that, let’s jump in the time machine and check out how these tools will look in the near future!

What’s The Future Of Antivirus Software?

Yes, there's no reason not to have Antivirus Software. Safeguarding your professional data and protecting your classified information from hackers is essential - and will remain essential. That is why we will see much more intelligent Antivirus Software soon!

Organizations will employ behavior-based and network-based protection techniques in addition to traditional file-based antivirus. Businesses will adopt an authentic Zero Trust approach to build infrastructures that prevent malware access. It has the potential to provide complete malware immunity in the future.

Then there are next-generation antivirus tools that will use a combination of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to identify and remove threats more effectively. NGAV employs algorithms that examine processes, data, application use, network activity and end-user behavior to understand any suspicious activity.

To Sum Up

We all remember Thomas Gabriel who leads a group of cyber-terrorists to systematically shut down America’s infrastructure – that's why you need Antivirus Software!

Antivirus Software are solutions designed to prevent, search for, identify and eliminate software viruses and other malicious threats such as worms, trojans, spyware and others. Every day, over 60,000 new pieces of malware are created, necessitating the use of Antivirus Software for both individuals and businesses.