How to Get The Best Antivirus Support

Computers have effectively changed our lifestyle but they are always prone of virus intrusion. As their importance is increasing a proper protection for them is also required. A virus can intrude into a computer through any data storage device which carries infected data and comes in contact with the system. If a computer is connected to a network, chances of virus intrusion become very high if it is not protected by effective antivirus software. The Internet has changed the whole method of communication and now the world seems as an area without boundaries. In this scenario chances of virus intrusion in a computer connected with the Internet have become very high.

What is a computer virus?

A computer virus is not like of a virus which infects a human body. A computer virus is a program that can copy itself and infect a computer. A computer virus is also called malicious software or malware. There are many kinds of malware also that can not reproduce themselves but can infect the computer. If files on a network file system get infected by computer virus, chances of spreading of virus will become very high because that file system is accessed by other computers too.

What is Antivirus software?

Antivirus software is a program that can detect and eliminate viruses on a computer. A virus removal software application uses two common methods to detect viruses. One method is of using a list of virus signature definitions. In this method the contents of computer's memory (RAM and boot sector), files stored on removable or fixed drives (floppy drives, hard drives) are examined, and then compared with files against the database of known virus signatures. This method gives protection to the computer against only those viruses whose virus signatures are stored in the database.

The second method is based on heuristic algorithm to find out viruses based on common behaviors. This method is more effective as it can detect those novel viruses that antivirus security vendors have yet to create a signature for.

A user can download and install computer security software from the Internet for protecting his system. There are many vendors who provide solution against different kinds of security threats from computer viruses. Some names like Avast, McAfee, Norton and Kaspersky are very common in virus removal software.

Although it is very easy to download and install antivirus program but it must be done under an expert's guidance. There are several things that need to be checked before installing this type of software on a computer. First of all, make sure that your computer is not infected by any kind of virus. Virus removal software might not work on a computer that is already infected by viruses. Some type of computer viruses mimics the behavior of different files; antivirus software may not be able to detect them.

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Does free antivirus offer a false feeling of security?

Antivirus software is not the solution, antivirus software is part of the solution.

Consider the results from the latest Anti-Virus comparative review for May 2009 against new malware, indicating that Microsoft’s OneCare achieved an Advanced+ rating (60% detection), putting it on the second position, with Symantec achieving a mere 35% detection rate — ironically a huge percentage of AV-Comparative’s visitors are running free antivirus software according to their voting poll.

Moreover, similar results can be seen in Virus Bulletin’s comparative review for April, 2009 (subscribers only), where OneCare once again outperforms Symantec.

Does this mean that free antivirus is in fact outperforming commercial applications? Given the dynamic nature of today’s threats, what’s true for a particular moment in time can become totally irrelevant at a future date. For instance, some real-time time statistics on antivirus rankings have the potential to offer an entirely different comparative view — free antivirus scanners again rank pretty well — which shouldn’t be considered as the primary benchmark when attempting to answer whether or not free antivirus offers a false feeling of security.

Both, commercial and free stand-alone antivirus scanners suffer from a similar weakness - they’re over-positioned in the mind of the average Internet user. This over-positioning results in higher expectations which on the other hand results in lack of security awareness on what an antivirus scanner can, and cannot protect against.

Cybercriminals have been tricking signature based scanning engines for years, and their quality assurance practices are becoming even more professional and automated through the user of underground versions of popular community services such as VirusTotal, or by using multiple offline virus scanning engines before a campaign is launched. Similar services attempting to verify whether or not their malware sample will bypass popular personal firewalls are also known to be available on demand.

For more visit here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3733