Antivirus or anti-virus software, also known as anti-malware software, is computer or network defence software used to prevent, detect, and remove malicious software.

Antivirus software solutions were initially developed to detect and eliminate computer viruses. However, with the increase of other kinds of malware, antivirus software started proving advanced protection from other computer threats. Modern antivirus software can protect computers from malicious Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), browser hijackers, ransomware, key loggers, backdoors, rootkits, Trojan horses, worms, malicious LSPs, diallers, fraud tools, adware, and spyware. Some products also include protection from other computer threats, such as infected and malicious URLs, spam, scam and phishing attacks, social engineering techniques, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), online identity theft (privacy), online banking attacks, botnets DDoS attacks.

Bitdefender

  • Bitdefender Antivirus
  • Cloud/On-Premise Security
  • Protects Physical, Virtual, Desktops & Servers

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Virus & Malware Detection Methods
There are several techniques which antivirus software use to identify viruses & malware:

Anti-virus Signature-based identification
Out-of-date antivirus software relies heavily upon signatures to identify malware. Substantially, when a malware reaches an antivirus firm, it is analysed by malware scientists or by their dynamic analysis systems & engines. Then, once it is confirmed to be a malware, a proper signature of the file is extracted and added to the signatures database of their antivirus software, which in turn is updated with their antivirus software users across the globe, at the time of their periodic update. When a particular file must be scanned, the antivirus engine compares the contents of the file with all the available malware signatures in its database. If the file hits a match with any of its signatures the engine knows which malware it is and performs predefined procedure in order to cleanse that infection.

Signature-based detection method maybe very effective. However, clearly, this time of virus detection cannot actively defend against malware unless some of its samples have already been obtained, a proper signature generated, and the antivirus product updated with the related malware information and its counter defence actions. Signature-based detection systems rely on the idea that, the more infective a malware is, the faster arrives in the hands of security researchers. Thus, even if it does not guarantee perfect defence, it protects from the most widespread threats. However, this approach is not categorically effective against next-generation malware, i.e., malware that has not been yet encountered or analysed by the antivirus software provider.

Heuristics Analysis Method
Advanced antivirus software uses heuristic analysis to identify new malware or variants of known malware, unlike signature-based identification methods. Many viruses start as a single infection and through either mutation or improvements by other attackers, can grow into dozens of slightly different strains, called variants. Generic virus detection refers to the detection and removal of multiple threats using a single virus definition.

While it may be advantageous to identify a specific virus, it can be faster to detect a virus family through a generic signature or through an inaccurate match to an existing signature. Virus researchers developing antivirus software find common areas that all viruses in a family share distinctively and can thus create a single generic signature. These signatures often contain non-contiguous code, using wildcard characters where differences exist. These wildcards allow the scanner to detect viruses even if they are padded with extra, meaningless codes. A detection that uses this method is said to be "heuristic detection or heuristics analysis method."

Rootkit Detection Method
Latest antivirus software attempts to scan for rootkits. A rootkit is a type of malware planned to gain administrative level or privilege user control over a computer system without being detected. Rootkits can change how the operating system functions and, in some cases, can tamper with the installed antivirus program and render it useless. Needless to say, rootkits are also more difficult to be removed, in some cases requiring a complete formatting and re-installation of the OS.

Real-time virus protection
Live shield, Real-time protection, on-access scanning, background guard, resident shield, auto-protect, and other synonyms refer to the automatic protection provided by most anti-virus, anti-spyware, and other anti-malware programs. This monitors computer systems continuously for suspicious activity such as computer viruses, spyware, adware, and other malicious objects in 'real-time', example, when inserting a CD /removable media, browsing the web, downloading emails or when a file already saved on the computer is opened or executed.

Key benefits of Antivirus & Antimalware Software

  • Increased productivity antimalware, anti-virus, and antispam technologies. - Implementing an effective anti-virus protection gives users the advantage against malware attacks, positively improving network & computer security. Constant innovation to catch advanced or 0-day threats keeps the sensitive information and data from being affected.
  • Comprehensive network security - Protection now extends to workstations, servers, or mobile devices with comprehensive defence and efficient management, thereby shielding all data against attacks with centralized management.
  • Complete Protection - Advanced Antivirus systems protect against Internet-based threats such as hacking, ransomware and phishing using Firewall, Intrusion Detection
  • Effective Device Control, Web Filtering, Search Advisor, Web, and Application Control
  • Keeps your network, endpoints, and organization resistant to the daily influx of new-born and/or polymorphic malware.
  • Secures endpoints and improves endpoint performance with coordinated scans and security policy execution.
  • Efficiently extends security beyond secured systems to include removable devices like USB sticks, CDs / DVDs, and printers.

Anti-virus and Anti-malware Solutions Categories

Anti-virus and Anti-malware Solutions help eliminating the burden of managing the online security of devices, data, and people across your business & network. Advanced Anti-virus and Anti-malware solutions offer flexible and simple to deploy setups, centralizing all management of security services from a simple, single screen dashboard and give confidence to any organization that their applications and data are protected on supported devices, all the time.

  • Antivirus
  • Antimalware
  • Firewall
  • Intrusion detection & prevention
  • Device Control
  • Web Control
  • Search Advisor
  • Content Filtering
  • Application Control
  • Email Security
  • Cloud based virus protection
  • Virus alerting options

Anti-virus & Anti-malware Softwware Companies

Minor

GFI  | Agnitum  | Cisco  | Quick Heal  | Dr. Web  | AhnLab  | BullGuard  | G Data  | Fortinet  | ClamWin  | iolo  | FRISK  | VirusBlokAda  | Check Point  | K7  | Intego  | TG Soft  | Malwarebytes  | Lavasoft  | Kingsoft  | Zemana | Webroot  | TrustPort  | PSafe

Major

Bitdefender  | avast!  | Kaspersky  | McAfee  | Comodo  | Qihoo  | Avira  | ESET  | AVG  | F-Secure  | Microsoft  | Panda  | Trend Micro   | Symantec  | Sophos

World renowned Antivirus & Antimalware Products and Solutions

Desktop, Server based

Microsoft Security Essentials  | Bitdefender  | Windows Defender  | AVG  | Avira Internet Security  | Avast!  | McAfee VirusScan  | Comodo Antivirus  | Kaspersky Internet Security  | Trend Micro Internet Security  | F-Secure  | Kaspersky Anti-Virus  | Symantec Endpoint Protection  | AhnLab V3 Internet Security  | Clam AntiVirus  | ClamWin  |  ESET NOD32  | Comodo Internet Security  | VIPRE  | STOPzilla Antimalware  |360 Total Security  | PSafe TOTAL  | BullGuard  | Dr. Web  | Panda  | Mac Internet Security  | VirusBarrier  | Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware  | VirIT eXplorer  | Advanced SystemCare  | Element Anti-Virus  | Norton Internet Security  | K7 Total Security  | Norton AntiVirus  | iolo System Shield  | NANO Antivirus  | Fortinet  | Spyware Doctor  | Immunet  | Vba32 AntiVirus  | G Data  | Outpost Security Suite  | F-PROT  | TrustPort  | KingSoft  | Sophos

Mobile, Tablet based

Bitdefender Mobile Security  | McAfee Mobile Security  | AhnLab Mobile Security  | Avira Free Android Security  | AVG AntiVirus  | Trend Micro Mobile Security  | F-Secure Mobile Security  | Comodo Mobile Security  | ESET Mobile Security  | PSafe TOTAL Android  | TrustPort Mobile Security  | VirusBarrier |  STOPzilla Mobile Security  | FireAMP Mobile  | Dr. Web Mobile Security Suite  | Lookout Mobile Security  | BullGuard Mobile Security  | G Data MobileSecurity

Alternative Antivirus solutions
Alternative Antivirus solutions to standard Anti-virus Products - Apart from the installed antivirus solutions, running on individual computers, alternative solutions are also used, including Cloud-based antivirus and on-line scanners, Unified Threat Management (UTM), hardware and network firewalls.

Hardware and network firewall
Network firewalls thwart unfamiliar programs and processes from accessing the protected system or computer network. However, they are not anti-virus systems and make no attempt to identify or eliminate any suspicious processes. They may protect against infection from outside the protected computer or network and limit the activity of any malicious software which is found by blocking incoming or outgoing requests on predefined TCP/IP ports. A firewall is designed to deal with broader system threats that come from network connections into the system and is not an alternative to a virus protection software or antivirus system.

Cloud antivirus protection solutions
Cloud antivirus is a method which deploys lightweight agent antivirus software on the protected computer, while offloading most of the data analysis to the antivirus provider's infrastructure. One approach to realizing cloud antivirus involves scanning suspicious files using multiple antivirus engines. Parallel scanning of files using potentially incompatible antivirus scanners is achieved by laying a virtual machine per detection engine and therefore eradicating any possible issues. Cloud antivirus can also perform "retrospective detection," whereby the cloud detection engine rescans all files in its file access history whenever a new threat is identified thus improving new threat detection speed. Cloud antivirus is a solution for effective virus scanning on devices that lack the computing power to perform the scans by themselves.

Online Virus scanning
Some anti-virus vendors maintain websites with free online scanning options for the entire computer, or only critical areas, or local disks, folders, or files. Regular online scanning is an additional scanning or backup assurance for those that run antivirus applications on their computers because those applications are often slow to catch threats. One of the first things that malicious software does in an attack is disable any existing anti-virus software and sometimes the only way to know of an attack is by turning to an online resource that is not installed on the infected computer.

Specialist Virus removal tools
Virus removal tools are offered to help remove obstinate infections or certain types of infection. A bootable rescue disk, such as a CD or USB storage device, can be used to run anti-virus software outside of the installed operating system, to remove infections while they are inactive. A bootable anti-virus disk can be useful when, for example, the installed operating system is no longer bootable or has malware that is repelling all attempts to be removed by the installed antivirus software.

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