Other times, malware is even more sophisticated. For example, an attacker may use malware to take over a target computer and add it to a botnet, a collection of hijacked computers they control, allowing them to leverage the combined forces of several hijacked computers to carry out cyberattacks and other cybercrimes. Sometimes these are simple, unsophisticated viruses that their creators use to trick users into letting them hijack their computer for use in automated attacks. These strains are, however, a rare condition.
They won’t know everything however, and bespoke malware designed to infect only very few and specific targets may fly under their radar. These signatures come from the antivirus industry, along with others in adjacent industries and academia, investing research time to stay abreast of emerging malware designs. For example, does a suspect program contain code seen in other malware? Is it communicating with servers known to be used for cybercrime? The combined heuristics are then used to detect and remove or quarantine the malware, to prevent it from changing anything on your computer. Much like a biological immune system with antibodies that detect pathogens, antivirus software can detect known malware by using a collection of malware definitions, or "signatures" weighed with other signifiers based on the malware’s behavior or composition.
Each product has its own set of differentiating features, but a common aspect to all of them is being able to find and nullify malware (viruses, worms, etc.). But what does antivirus software do to help protect our devices, what does it not do, and do we really need it? What does antivirus software do?Īntivirus software is one of the oldest products to come out of what is now an entire industry around cybersecurity. Antivirus software is one of the oldest offerings available from the now billion-dollar cybersecurity industry.
0 kommentar(er)
