You may feel daunted when you hear the term “virus” or “malware”.
Well, you are not alone as virus and malware threat is one of the most serious threats for cyberworld around the world. The last decade has witnessed some of the most serious ransomware and malware attacks that affected millions of users negatively.
While it wasn’t limited to data security, instead it has also affected financial and economical condition of normal human being. Now that the threat is real & persisting, one may wonder how to secure from this emerging threat.
Here, antivirus and antimalware software come as an effective solution to deal with all existing and emerging malware & virus threats. So, what is antivirus & antimalware software?
Let’s discuss in this article.
Antivirus vs Antimalware
Before we explore more about antivirus and antimalware, let’s discuss what is the difference between virus and malware?
What is virus?
A virus is a malicious piece of software that tends to self-replicate once it attacks your system. You may encounter virus threat through the Internet, malicious attachment or download, infected file or document, or more.
What is malware?
Well, malware is an umbrella term used for multiple malicious threats including adware, spyware, Trojans, Worms, ransomware, and viruses.
You can take it as, “a virus is a malware, but a malware is not always a virus”.
Coming to the main question, what is antivirus and antimalware?
What is antivirus?
As the name suggests, antivirus provides you security against virus threats. Here, it works on advanced anti-virus technologies to protect you from computer viruses. Furthermore, antivirus has evolved itself significantly from sometime back and started providing protection from other basic malware types such as rootkits, keyloggers, Trojans, phishing attempts, botnets, and other classic security threats.
People use antivirus and antimalware interchangeably, which is not the case. Here, antivirus can’t detect and remove every type of infection. These programs aren’t designed to protect you against advanced forms of malware. Thus, there is a significant difference between both the two security software updater types.
There are certain attributes of best antivirus software that you should consider while choosing the right security software for you. These attributes include background virus scanning, automatic updates, Heuristic analysis, blocks malicious scripts and prevent them from running, up-to-date virus database, vulnerability scan, phishing protection, browser protection, system optimization, and more.
What is antimalware?
Antimalware provides you protection from broad malware types and threats. It includes protection from spyware, ransomware, adware, phishing attempts, Trojans, Worms, spam, viruses, and more. Additionally, you can find specific security tools under broad antimalware software such as anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-spyware, anti-ransomware, etc. to protect your system from specific malware threats.
If you are looking for best free anti malware software for windows, mac or any other system, then it’s time to consider few important attributes of best antimalware software. These attributes include scan, detect and removal capabilities of all types of malicious content, offers second generation malware protection and more, automatic software update, traffic filtering, browser security, protection against PUPs, anti-phishing protection, and lot more.
Now that you know the basics of virus, malware, antivirus, and antimalware, it’s time to keep your system protected from all security threats using these powerful security tools. You should also keep your system firewall enabled for extra layer of security.
