10 Essential Features of an Antivirus

 10 Essential Features of an Antivirus

Introduction

In this article, you will be able to know and learn about some essential features of an antivirus.

Some common and essential components of antivirus are:

Antivirus engine

Antivirus engine detects viruses and malware by comparing files on endpoints against code samples (signatures) of known virus and malware components, called definitions.

Antivirus database

·       Antivirus databases hold the data needed for a signature-based scanner to find and remove malicious code.

·       Antivirus databases contain a series of virus signatures or definitions, unique sequences of bytes specific to each piece of malicious code.

Layered security

Layered security refers to a network security approach that deploys multiple security controls to protect the most vulnerable areas of your technology environment where a breach or cyber attack could occur.

Some essential features of antivirus are:

Real-time protection

Real-time protection is a feature of an antivirus that protects your devices from incoming threats, scan your entire computer regularly for known threats and provide automatic updates, identify, blocks, and deletes malicious codes and software.

Password manager

A password manager is an essential feature of an antivirus that enables you to create unique, strong passwords for each of your accounts without having to remember them all.

Parental control (safe kids)

·       Parental control refers to a feature of an antivirus that allows you to monitor and restrict what a person does online.

·       Parental control feature enables parents to keep their kids safe while online from location tracking (Android and iOS only), geo-fencing, and social network monitoring (Facebook and VK).

·       Parental control feature enables you to block and filter websites, apps, and objectionable or illegal content, record their activities, limit their time online, and view their browsing history and communications.

·       Parental control feature provides windows store and game restrictions to set age, title, and rating limits on the apps your child can use.

Antivirus scanner

·       Antivirus scanner refers to a component of antivirus software that scans a hard drive for viruses and other malware.

·       Antivirus scanners are made for various operating systems, and scanning methods can be manual or automatic.

Different types of antivirus scans are:

Quick scans

·       Quick scan checks common areas for computer viruses.

·       Quick scan generally scans the computer memory, the objects loaded at the OS start-up, boot sectors, common areas of the hard drive, temporary internet files, and operating system directory.

·       A quick scan takes less than 30 minutes to complete.

·       Quick scans may not detect some malware.

Full scan

·       A full scan is a comprehensive scan and checks your entire PC for threats.

·       A full scan checks all drives and folders on your PC for threats including viruses, spyware, tracking cookies, rootkits, bots, Trojans, and worms.

·       A full scan checks every area of the computer, including memory, hard drives, and sometimes any external devices connected to the computer, like external hard drives and USB flash drives.

Selective scan

A selective scan is a feature of an antivirus that enables you to scan a file, folder, or drive for viruses and other threats.

Removable drive scan

·       Removable drive scan is a feature of an antivirus that allows you to scan removable drives that are connected to your computer for viruses and other malware.

·       Removable drive scan is a file threat protection component.

Vulnerability scan

·       Vulnerability scan refers to a computer program designed to assess computers, networks, or applications for known weaknesses.

·       A vulnerability scan detects and classifies system weaknesses in computers, networks, and communication equipment and predicts the effectiveness of countermeasures.

Unused data cleaner

Unused data cleaner is a feature of an antivirus that checks for log and temporary files, as well as for files in the recycle bin.

Privacy cleaner

The privacy cleaner is a feature of an antivirus that helps you to clean browser history, cookies, and other traces of your online activity.

Cloud-based antivirus security

·       Cloud-based antivirus is a feature of an antivirus that helps you to move antivirus workloads from an individual’s computer to a cloud-based server that contains a comprehensive and complete antivirus suite.

·       Cloud-based antivirus helps to avoid slow-downs on your computer and your system experiences the minimal impact of threats.

·       Cloud-based machine learning is used to detect all types of malware.

Anti-phishing protection

·       Anti-phishing protection refers to the security measures that individuals and organizations can take to prevent a phishing attack or to mitigate the impact of a successful attack.

·       Anti-phishing protection may block emails containing phishing attacks from entering a company’s email system at all.

Multi-layered cyber security

·       Multi-layered cyber security is also known as defense-in-depth.

·       Multi-layered cyber security is used to mitigate threats and delay or prevent threats.

·       Multi-layered security effectively secures data from being breached by hackers and other malicious individuals.

·       Multi-layered cyber security critical for protecting small businesses or corporations.

Webcam protection

·       Webcam protection refers to a component of an antivirus that prevents unauthorized access to your web camera.

·       Webcam protection feature of an antivirus allows you to deny all applications access to the web camera, or create groups of trusted applications that will be allowed to access it.

·       Webcam protection feature of an antivirus monitors apps that try to access your camera and blocks those not listed as trusted.