You may receive hundreds of spam email messages and various popups on your computer every day, all of them stating that they offer the best possible antivirus protection. While we have been taught that anything that appears in your inbox in that manner is probably no good, the reality is also that there is now so much competition between the various manufacturers that they do actually exploit the weaknesses in your computer to get you to consider their service.
The internet is so incredibly large that it is incomprehensible. And, since billions of people are now online, viruses are more dangerous than ever. It takes just minutes for a piece of malware to travel all over the world, affecting thousands of individuals and businesses. This is why all PC users should look into the best antivirus 2016 will have to offer now.
What Is a Virus?
In order for something to be classed as a virus, it has to be a program that can replicate, and that can be activated as a result of a specific event. All viruses are part of what is known as maliceware. Two other types of programs are part of maliceware, being worms and Trojans. What an antivirus program does is protect you from each of these three malicious programs.
The Job of an Antivirus Program
There are two main approaches utilized by the majority of antivirus programs. These are:
- Signature detection, which helps the program to scan your computer, storage devices and drives in order to spot any file that holds a virus variant code.
- Activity, which means it will look at what your computer actually does and flag up anything suspicious like modifying folders and system files, or suddenly connecting to the internet.
Signature detection is only possible if the manufacturer knows the code of the virus. This is where it becomes somewhat of a cat and mouse games, with hackers working very hard to create new codes, and antivirus programmers coming up with ‘antidotes'. As soon as a code exists to disable a virus, the virus becomes useless, after all.
The best antivirus programs, therefore, do not rely solely on signature detection. They also determine activity that could be indicative of a virus and then give you warnings about this. On the other hand, some programs are so strict that you will receive one message after the other, which is also not desirable.
As such, it is recommended to find a program that uses both signature detection and activity monitoring.
How to Pick the Right Program
Unfortunately, a simple Google search for the best antivirus program will reveal thousands upon thousands of packages, all claiming to be the very best. Naturally, they can't all be right. This is why it is generally recommended to go to a trusted IT or security source in order to find their review lists. They will usually have a number of top 10 programs, while also highlighting what their benefits are.
