We explain what computer antiviruses are and what these programs are for. Also, what types of antivirus exist.
What is a computer antivirus?
Computer antiviruses are pieces of application software whose objective is detect and eliminate computer viruses from a computer system. That is, it is a program that seeks to remedy the damage caused by these invasive forms of software, whose presence in the system is usually not detectable until its symptoms become evident, just like biological viruses.
During the 1980s, with the appearance of digital information exchange technologies such as floppy disks and, later, the Internet, it became possible to connect numerous computers successively. This brought about the appearance of computer viruses, and later, spyware, malware and other forms of harmful software that enter the machine without the user's consent and cause various types of damage: deconfiguring key sequences, deleting personal files, hijacking private information. , etc.
The remedy, then, was to acquire a computer antivirus, offered by various commercial programming companies to ensure monitoring, cleaning and protection of computers. If they were not available, the user ran the risk of damaging the system and also spreading the virus every time they copied a floppy disk or sent an email.
Currently there is a massive offer of antivirus services, essential given that we spend more and more time connected to the Internet receiving and sending information from and unknown computers.
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What are computer antiviruses for?
Nowadays, antiviruses do more than just scan and disinfect a machine that has contracted a computer virus. They generally offer active monitoring services to prevent full access of an infected document to the system, block unsafe web pages and delete risky files as soon as they enter the computer. This is often called active protection.
On the other hand, computer antivirus also deals with other pieces of unwanted software, such as spyware, malware either rootkitsand even hacking attempts. For this it has a firewall (remote connection blocking software) and a virus definition database, which is a kind of encyclopedia of already known viruses.
Computer viruses
It was never said who programmed the computer viruses, although numerous theories accuse the antivirus companies themselves of creating the problem and then selling the solution. The truth is that These viruses acted as a terrorist attack: anonymously and based on its own logic.
The magnitude of its damage to the system or the inconvenience caused to the user is variable, from deleting personal files to sabotaging essential processes of the system. Currently, due to the rise of Internet services, viruses usually seek to hijack vital usable information, such as credit card numbers or intimate photographs, if not administrative permissions to operate the computer remotely.
Types of computer antivirus
Several types of computer antivirus can be identified, according to their operation:
- Identification antivirus Those that track active sequences associated with certain viruses, but are not very effective when it comes to dealing with unwanted software. They have the virtue of being very light, some are executed from the network.
- Decontaminating antivirus Typically installed on the system like any other application software, these programs can be activated at will to scan the entire contents of the computer for viruses. If there are any, then they proceed to disinfection and, if not possible, to quarantine or erasure.
- Real-time protection antivirus Those that provide constant protection to the system, without the need to carry out an exhaustive review, but rather by reviewing all incoming and outgoing files and connections. These antiviruses are usually combined with decontamination functions.
