Anti-virus Software

Anti-virus software can be used to identify, quarantine or completely eliminate malicious content on a computer. The term relates to earlier programs that were strictly designed to eliminate legitimate computer viruses. Most anti-virus programs available today are designed to combat a variety of system threats including worms, Trojan horses, rootkits and many forms of malware. Most anti-virus software will examine a computer’s file, refer it to a list of known infections, and take one of the following actions: • make an attempt to fix the problem by removing the infection from the suspected file • neutralize the file so that it isn’t inaccessible to other applications and can not infect them • completely eliminate the infected file In order to get the best results from this approach, users should frequently update their anti-virus software. This gives updates to virus definitions which enables the program to notify a user of any new viruses that may have been categorized “in the wild.”