Computer Security Antiviruses - Computer Security

What are the functions of Antiviruses?

To secure our computers, one of the method is installing and updating the antivirus software. If you don’t install this antivirus software, there is a chance that your system will be hit and effected by various viruses.

The antivirus scans the engine regularly. The virus signatures to be updated regularly to detect the latest malware that hit your system.

Basic Functions of Antivirus Engines

The antivirus engines contain mainly three components to function. These functions will help us for better manual cleaning of viruses.

• Scanning: The antivirus producers start writing the programs that scans for similar signature strings, when a new virus is detected in the cyberspace.
• Integrity Checking: The manipulated files in OS from the viruses will be checked by using this method.
• Interception: It is used to detect Trojans and checks the request made by the operating system for network access.

The following image shows the schema for an antivirus engines functionality.

Online Virus Testing

If the antivirus is not installed and if the administrator finds some file is infected. So, use online testing antivirus engine that is virustotal.com/.

Why online testing?

It uses multiple antivirus engines (41 anti-virus engines), so its result will be showing for all the 41 engines. Online virus testing updates the engines in real-time and provides free and independent service.

The below figure shows that, wherein I uploaded a file with virus and the result is 33/41 (Detection Ratio), which means that it has virus and did not pass the class, so it should not be opened.

The above site helps to check the URL that whether the entered site has infection and can harm you.
The below figure shows that the URL entered in and the site is clean 100%, so I can visit it without my computer being infected.

Free Antivirus Software

• This tutorial will help you to get free antiviruses and where to download in case you don’t have enough budget.
• The free versions of anti-viruses have identical malware detection to the paid versions produced by the same company. The performance of security in commercial antivirus is more. We are system administrators and we want maximum protection in the work environment.
• From the PCMagazine (in.pcmag.com/) you can get a review which is the best top rated free antiviruses at the moment. In the following URL you can check by yourself www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp

The detail description about some of these antivirus software are:

Avast Antivirus

This antivirus has good review in malware blocking and anti-phishing test scans, it can be downloaded from www.avast.com/en-eu/index
For server installation you need a commercial version.

AVG Antivirus

This can be downloaded from www.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download. For server installation you need a commercial version.

Panda Antivirus 2016

This can be downloaded from www.pandasecurity.com/usa/homeusers/downloads/.
This software has the following features:

• Rescue Disk
• USB protection
• Process Monitor

For server installation you need a commercial version.

Bitdefender Antivirus

This can be downloaded from www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html. this antivirus can work entirely in the background. And there is no need of any configuration setting. For server installation you need a commercial version.

Microsoft Security Essentials

The Microsoft itself offers you a free antivirus which is called as Microsoft Security Essentials.
It can be downloaded from windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download.

Commercial Antivirus

The producers of free antiviruses offers their commercial versions too. the best commercial antiviruses are:+

• Kaspersky Anti-Virus
• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2016
• McAfee AntiVirus Plus (2016)
• Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (2015)

The following link helps to check by yourself : www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp.

Kaspersky Antivirus

• This can be downloaded as a free trial from www.kaspersky.com/free-trials/anti-virus
• There was a good review in anti-phishing.
• It also helps in security tools like credit card protection in your computers.

McAfee AntiVirus Plus

It can be downloaded as a free trial fromhttp://home.mcafee.com/downloads/OneClickTrial.aspx.

This software helps to protect all the operating systems like Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS devices. And also good at malicious URL blocking and anti-phishing.

Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus

This can be downloaded as a free trial from www.webroot.com/us/en/home/products/av
Some of its features are:

• Recover files encrypted by ransomware
• Uses tiny amount of disk space
• Very fast scan
• Handles unknown malware
• Includes firewall