The protection of a good antivirus application is essential to maintain the security of any computer system. That is why it is worth knowing how an antivirus works, its functions, and its limitations.
Antivirus software tries to cover the primary forms of attack on your device, be it a computer or a smartphone. It is not having any protection. Knowing how an antivirus works is foolish since there are many threats that you can find browsing the Internet or copying files to your device.
If you do not have a security barrier with some antivirus, you will most likely end up with the infected computer. Currently, it is possible to find good free or low-cost antivirus. Antivirus must be updated frequently to ensure protection against the latest threats. Almost all antivirus can be configured to update automatically. This option should be enabled.
How an antivirus works
All antivirus act in the background, inspecting every file or page that is opened on the device where they are installed.
Antivirus Software uses three methods to protect the system:
- Analyze our files by comparing them to a database of malicious software or programs
- Monitor computer files as they are opened or created to ensure they are not infected. This is real-time protection against viruses, which can affect system performance.
- Periodically inspect the entire system to verify if there are corrupt files and eliminate existing viruses if they could have entered your computer.
The antivirus compares each file on the hard disk with a dictionary of known viruses. If any piece of code in a file on the hard drive matches the virus known to the dictionary, the antivirus software kicks in, taking one of the possible actions.
How McAfee works Antivirus functions
Repair the file. The antivirus tries to repair the infected file.
Quarantine it. The antivirus will protect against the virus, making programs inaccessible to this file, preventing its spread and execution.
Delete the file. The antivirus removes the file. If it cannot be removed from the file, it will always ask us first to do this.
Analyze the behavior of system files. In this case, the antivirus will keep track of all the running programs on a system. For example, suppose a program tries to perform a suspicious activity, such as writing data to an executable program. In that case, the antivirus alerts the user of this fact and informs him of the measures to take. Lots of times, mcafee slows computer to a crawl.
One of the advantages of scanning files for suspicious behavior is that it offers protection against new viruses. No information is yet available and is not part of the list of known viruses.
When a new virus is created, antivirus software companies analyze its characteristics, eliminate the virus (if possible) and update the database with this information to ensure that the antivirus can detect new threats.
On the other hand, it is prevalent for these types of programs to incorporate different kinds of features that allow them to expand the security they offer, such as:
Analyze web addresses (URL’s). It allows you to check if a web address links to a page that contains viruses or if, on the contrary, it is safe.
Email protection. Scans incoming and outgoing emails to verify that they do not contain viruses. They usually include an ant spam filter to prevent “junk mail” from entering the inbox and an anti-phishing filter to detect attempts to impersonate trusted pages, banks, public administrations, prestigious companies, etc.
Antispyware. Capable of detecting and eliminating spyware, those installed on the computer or device in a hidden way to know the user’s browsing habits, passwords, and other data, which could later be transmitted to an unauthorized entity.
Anti-pop-ups. Its main objective is to prevent the opening of annoying pop-up windows that may appear while browsing the Internet. Various spyware can be hidden in some of these windows and mcafee product key.
How an McAfee works
Antivirus programs, despite being constantly updated and offering more and more functionalities, also have certain limitations in keeping your computer system safe.
Having an antivirus installed on your computer almost always means that your computer slows down a bit. That is, it works slower than it should. This is mainly because antivirus programs use a lot of system resources.
