Antiviruses are software applications that have been designed as a protection and security measure to protect data and the operation of computer and business systems. These serve as a shield against viruses, which are those applications also known as malware or badware; it is malicious code and malicious software or malicious software, which is intended to alter, disrupt and even destroy the performance of computers.
What is antivirus
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It is a computer program that has the purpose of detecting viruses and other programs that can harm before or after they enter a computer system. These viruses are computer programs that are usually made or carried out, and that are introduced without the consent of the user or owner of a computer that performs various functions that are harmful to the system.
In addition to viruses, it also detects other corrupt codes for the PC, such as worms, Trojans, among others, whose objective is to corrupt files and compromise the functioning of the computer and render it useless. Worms are malware similar to viruses, but they can replicate and spread without human intervention, being able to take advantage of certain characteristics of a file to be transported in it.
The term "antivirus" is a neologism that is made up of the Greek prefix anti (which means "against") and the Latin term virus (which referred to the juice of plants harmful to health).
History of antivirus
The first application of this type in the world, it was called Reaper, was born out of the need for a defense mechanism against the threats of the first Creeper virus (a program based on the self-replication concept). Reaper was created in 1972 to find and eliminate Creeper (created in 1971). However, it had characteristics more similar to viruses than antivirus.
Creeper passed from one computer to another on the same network and Reaper was a kind of virus that spread in machines, which when it found the virus, destroyed it.
Different theories are presumed about the creator of this first antivirus. One of the hypotheses is that it is the same creator of Creeper, considering that this virus was the product of an experiment that got out of control; Another is that the virus was a military experiment to check the reliability of the security of the ARPANET network, and consequently its antivirus was also created.
However, it is said that the American programmer Ray S. Tomlinson (1941-2016), the creator of email, created Reaper. Years later, in the 1980s, large companies such as G Data, McAfee, NOD, and F-PROT, launched their first antivirus products, presumably G Data being the pioneer in this. In the 90's Symantec / Norton, AVG, Bitdefender and Kaspersky, would do the same.
In these years, viruses were limited to displaying annoying messages on screens. Years later, with the advent of the Internet and new devices, the form and scope of malicious programs evolved. Now they were looking to steal confidential data, such as bank account information. That is why these applications soon became antimalware, which are tools that protect computerized systems from viruses, worms, Trojans, among others.
These computer programs in principle scanned files and disks, but did not have a residual characteristic, granting the equipment constant protection. Years later, artificial intelligence arrived as the solution for detection and analysis of the type of threat and its elimination.
Its evolution allowed these applications to block the threat, disinfect and also prevent future attacks, by recognizing other types of malware. Despite this, malware has diversified, so the evolution and improvement of computer programs continues.
Antivirus features
- They are constantly updated to improve effectiveness.
- Ability to detect and react to threats.
- In general, the detection carried out is for true cases of viruses (minimal chances of false positives).
- Alerts the user by different methods about the existence of a threat.
- Create backups in case of infection in the system.
- It does not affect the performance of the team.
Antivirus operation
Digital signature
This method allows you to see the implicit characteristics of a file (its signature), such as its size, creation date, sequence of instructions, type of file, among others.
Files recognized as malware also receive their own signature, which can be detected by the application. However, if it is not up to date, it may not detect a new virus this way.
Heuristic detection
It is the ability to detect malware that the program has, so that it can be anticipated. However, it is not a very effective method, since it can generate false positives, since there are files with characteristics that can pass as malware without being so. Furthermore, it does not allow the detection of new malware with characteristics different from those already known.
Behavioral detection
This technique consists of the analysis of suspicious behavior of a program to determine if there is an invasion in the system. If the antivirus determines this, it is able to disable the execution of the suspicious program.
Sandbox
This technique consists of executing programs safely individually, very useful when executing a new or questionable program. It allows a better monitoring and closer to the resources that said program requires to run and not get out of control, affecting the system.
Popular antivirus
The best known over the years have been McAfee, Norton, Kasperksy, PC Tool, Panda, NOD32, Avast, Panda. However, others have emerged that have been effective in fighting and preventing viruses, as well as those that act as a junk and virus cleaner.
Best antivirus to download
There are currently free, high-quality antivirus on the market with very complete features, such as Avast Antivirus, Panda Antivirus, Norton Antivirus (in its free trial version) or Baidu Antivirus. For smartphones there are free antivirus for Android, such as Bitdefender, Avira, ESET, AVG and McAfee, and Clean Master (junk and virus cleaner).
In 2020, the best in terms of protection, performance and usability are:
- Norton 360 (best of the year)
- McAfee Total Protection (home network)
- Avira Prime (optimizes the system)
- Bitdefender Total Security (complete protection)
- Kaspersky Internet Security (perfect for online purchases and operations)
- TotalAV (for beginners)
- Bullguard (for gamers)
- Panda Dome (budget plans)
- Trend Micro (anti-phishing protection)
- AVG Antivirus (protects confidential files)
- Cylance Smart Antivirus (lightweight and powerful protection)
