A well-designed antivirus program helps prevent malware infections and eliminates existing threats or attacks on singular computer systems, networks, or entire IT systems. The software scans websites, files, installed software as well as user data for malware types that are known to exist; they also monitor day-to-day program behavior to identify potential threats and notify the user.
Most antivirus protections offer different scanning methods that include scheduled, speedy and on-access scans. On-access scans check directories in the operating system as well as common file areas to look for malicious code upon launch. Scheduled scans let you set up a daily, monthly or weekly schedule for running a complete system scan at a specific time. Quick scans typically last a few minutes long, and they examine commonly used areas of your computer, such as temporary files or the operating system directory, and memory.
Certain programs use heuristic detection to detect malware by looking for similar tendencies or patterns. This is a more sophisticated type of virus detection in comparison to signature-based detection and can catch malware other programs miss. These advanced forms of antivirus detection may not work as well for small businesses, as they are often prone to false positives–identifying secure parts of files and programs as potentially harmful.
As the world of business is becoming more interconnected hackers are targeting companies more frequently to steal consumer information or to make some name for themselves with hacktivism (disrupting professional systems due to social or political reasons). The protection of antivirus is crucial for all types of companies to have in place to safeguard against cyberattacks, and keep your company and its customers protected.