Do you need Antivirus ?
Antivirus software figures top in the list for anyone who uses computer systems and has become a must-know topic for us. Let us start with the basic question. What is a computer virus ? It is a self replicating program that can infect other programs by attaching itself to them. Viruses can spread inside the computer system and also to other networked systems. The effect of computer virus would at the least be nagging to the user, going all the way up to making the computer unusable. In the early days, viruses were usually spread by floppy disks that picked up infected programs from one system to another. Subsequently, virus creators have found out ways of spreading more rapidly without human intervention and these are called computer worms.
As the prevalence of computer usage kept increasing, more valuable information started flowing into the computers making it ripe for spying, which lead to spywares. Another nagging problem is the beaming of advertisements by programs called Adwares. These viruses, worms, spywares, and adwares are in general termed as malware (standing for malicious software). Antivirus software are programs that identifies malware, stop them from spreading and reverse damages caused by them. Two identification methods are prevalent in the antivirus software. One way is to identify based on signatures (special patterns ) that they contain and the other is through profiling normal behaviour and flagging anything that is unusual. While the former method identifies known viruses, the latter can identify unknown viruses. The knowledge base of signatures needs to be constantly updated, which we see as periodic antivirus software updates to keep the detection robust. To prevent malware at the perimeter of the network, solutions like firewall software or intrusion prevention systems could be deployed. While the antivirus software programs protect us largely, we should keep in mind that it’s a tussle between new virus arrivals and antivirus updates, which keep the antivirus software vendors on the run.