AntiVirus

Antivirus software is designed to find known viruses and oftentimes other malware such as Ransomware, Trojan Horses, worms, spyware, adware, etc., that can have a detrimental impact to the user or device.

Antivirus programs provide a way to protect against known threats. The effectiveness of an antivirus program is heavily dependent on how often it is updated. Therefore, it is important to have the antivirus program scheduled to update daily.  Most antivirus programs rely on a library or database of known viruses that they use to compare with programs on a user’s device. If a match is found, the malicious program will either be deleted or placed into a quarantine area from which a user can decide to restore or delete the program manually.

One limitation of traditional antivirus programs is that they only provide protection against known threats. Therefore, if someone cooks up new malicious code, an antivirus program may fail to detect it when a scan is done. Users should not consider an antivirus program to be universal protection against all viruses and malware. Instead, users should consider an antivirus program to be one part of a comprehensive online security hygiene regimen. Security experts refer to this aspect of information security as Endpoint Protection.

There are some antivirus manufacturers that are incorporating predictive analysis and artificial intelligence into their antivirus software to be able to detect new malicious programs. They focus on detecting malicious software based on what it does, as opposed to whether it exists in a library or dictionary. While we cannot recommend one antivirus program over another, we encourage users to do independent research to find which antivirus program will work best for them.

Have you ever downloaded a file, opened it and been a victim of excessive pop-ups thereafter? Chances are the file installed an adware program on your computer when you opened it. An antivirus program could have stopped this if:

1. The malicious software was known to the antivirus company. 
2. The antivirus program was up to date.

This example showcases the strengths and weaknesses of antivirus programs. They are very efficient at what they do, but they will only protect against malicious programs that are known, and only if kept updated. The good news is, there are countless types of malicious software that antivirus companies know about, and they are becoming more and more efficient at discovering new varieties every day.

We recommend that users take several steps to avoid infection by a virus or malware.

1. The first step a user must make is to decide which antivirus program will be best for them. There are many free and paid versions of antivirus programs available. We encourage users to examine trusted sources or reviews of different antivirus programs.
2. When installing the antivirus program, it is best to set up scheduled updates. The antivirus program will usually prompt you during the setup process to schedule a certain time or frequency for updates. We recommend a daily update at a time when your computer will be on but not in use. It is also a good idea to have a thorough first scan to remove any viruses or malware that may already be on the device.
3. Ensure scans are performed at regular intervals. We recommend daily scans at a time when you are not using the device.
4. If you are using a paid antivirus program, it is important to ensure the subscription is renewed to avoid gaps in coverage.
5. Finally, be careful what sites you visit. All an attacker needs is for you to land on their dirty page. Visit only reputable sites.

With an antivirus program configured with regular updates and scans, users should feel safe from known threats. Antivirus programs are a key part to a user’s total cybersecurity hygiene practice.

Advantages

1. Virus Protection

The main role of an antivirus program is to stand against viruses and other forms of malwares. The viruses will not only cause damages to your data, it can degrade the overall system performance. All of them can happen without your knowledge. The antivirus software installed on your computer detects and removes these malwares before they cause any harms to your computer.


2. Spyware Protection

Spyware as the name suggests is a kind of malware that spies on your computer stealing all the confidential informations. These details also include credit card details, passwords and other financial datas. This ultimately leads to identity theft. The antivirus software has the capability to prevent these kinds of spyware attacks.


3. Web Protection

While surfing the internet, users can come across various other forms of threats. In an untrustworthy sites, cyber attackers can gather your credit card and bank account details. One of the way to overcome this is by using an antivirus software. Using antivirus program you can protect your valuable informations while surfing the web.


4. Spam Protection

Viruses can also enter your computer through means of spam emails and ads. These emails and ads can show up many times even if your have no interest in it. Once the virus finds the way to sneak into your PC it cause irreversible damages. An Antivirus works by the way of blocking these spam emails and ads.


5. Firewall Feature

Most antivirus programs include a firewall feature in them. Antivirus program with firewall feature ensures 2 way protection to your PC. This means that whatever the information that is sent or received will be double checked here. Therefore, no hackers can dig any personal informations from your system.


6. Cost Effective

Even thought there are many premium versions of antivirus programs for a monthly/yearly subscription fee, there are some antivirus programs those are completely free of charge. These kinds of antivirus programs offer almost the same level of protection provided by the subscription based. Even if you choose to afford a premium version, they are relatively inexpensive.

Disadvantages

1. System Slowdown

Using an antivirus program means that a lot of resources from the memory and the hard drive is being used. As a result it can drastically slowdown overall speed of the computer. Moreover, the process of scanning can also cause lags in the network.


2. No Complete Protection

If you are using a free antivirus program, there is no guarantee that it will provide you the complete protection. Most free antivirus programs out there only offer a basic level of protection. Moreover they are capable of identifying only certain types of threats. In order for acquiring complete level of protection, you have to use a firewall as well.


3. Security Holes

When security holes are present inside the operating system or the networking software, it will provide a chance for the virus to bypass the antivirus software. Unless the user takes actions to keep it update, the antivirus software won't be effective.


4. Limited Detection Techniques

For identifying a potential threat, there are always more than one method available. However in the case of antivirus program, it mostly executes the method of virus scanning. Basically what happens in the process of scanning is, it will try to search for the virus code patterns. Sometimes the antivirus programs can give you false alarms if the scanning matches with the normal file. Furthermore, if there are any new types of viruses the antivirus program will fail to identify it completely. That is the reason why antivirus software needs to be updated often.


5. Frequent Advertisements

Apart from premium versions of antivirus programs, through some means the free antivirus softwares needs to generate an income. Advertising is one of the ways to achieve them. Many at times these advertisements degrade user experience by showing up every time.


6. No Customer Support

Another drawback of a free antivirus program is that it lacks on the side of customer support. Unless you pay for the premium version, there won't be any customer support given to you. In the event of any problem, the only way to overcome is through forums and knowledge bases.

 

 

What is computer security?

Computer security basically is the protection of computer systems and information from harm, theft, and unauthorized use. It is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of your computer system.

There are various types of computer security which is widely used to protect the valuable information of an organization.

What is Computer Security and its types?

One way to ascertain the similarities and differences among Computer Security is by asking what is being secured. For example,

• Information Security is securing information from unauthorized access, modification & deletion
• Application Security is securing an application by building security features to prevent from Cyber Threats such as SQL injection, DoS attacks, data breaches and etc.
• Computer Security means securing a standalone machine by keeping it updated and patched
• Network Security is by securing both the software and hardware technologies
• Cybersecurity is defined as protecting computer systems, which communicate over the computer networks

It’s important to understand the distinction between these words, though there isn’t necessarily a clear consensus on the meanings and the degree to which they overlap or are interchangeable.

 

So, Computer security can be defined as controls that are put in place to provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability for all components of computer systems. Let’s elaborate the definition.

Components of computer system

The components of a computer system that needs to be protected are:

• Hardware, the physical part of the computer, like the system memory and disk drive
• Firmware, permanent software that is etched into a hardware device’s nonvolatile memory and is mostly invisible to the user
• Software, the programming that offers services, like operating system, word processor, internet browser to the user 

Computer security threats

Computer security threats are possible dangers that can possibly hamper the normal functioning of your computer. In the present age, cyber threats are constantly increasing as the world is going digital. The most harmful types of computer security are:

Viruses

A computer virus is a malicious program which is loaded into the user’s computer without user’s knowledge. It replicates itself and infects the files and programs on the user’s PC. The ultimate goal of a virus is to ensure that the victim’s computer will never be able to operate properly or even at all. 

Computer Worm

A computer worm is a software program that can copy itself from one computer to another, without human interaction. The potential risk here is that it will use up your computer hard disk space because a worm can replicate in greate volume and with great speed.

Phishing

Disguising as a trustworthy person or business, phishers attempt to steal sensitive financial or personal information through fraudulent email or instant messages. Phishing in unfortunately very easy to execute. You are deluded into thinking it’s the legitimate mail and you may enter your personal information.

Botnet

A botnet is a group of computers connected to the internet, that have been compromised by a hacker using a computer virus. An individual computer is called ‘zombie computer’. The result of this threat is the victim’s computer, which is the bot will be used for malicious activities and for a larger scale attack like DDoS.

Rootkit

A rootkit is a computer program designed to provide continued privileged access to a computer while actively hiding its presence. Once a rootkit has been installed, the controller of the rootkit will be able to remotely execute files and change system configurations on the host machine.

Keylogger

Also known as a keystroke logger, keyloggers can track the real-time activity of a user on his computer. It keeps a record of all the keystrokes made by user keyboard. Keylogger is also a very powerful threat to steal people’s login credential such as username and password.

Why is Computer Security Important?

In this digital era, we all want to keep our computers and our personal information secure and hence computer security is important to keep our personal information protected. It is also important to maintain our computer security and its overall health by preventing viruses and malware which would impact on the system performance.

Computer Security Practices

Computer security threats are becoming relentlessly inventive these days. There is much need for one to arm oneself with information and resources to safeguard against these complex and growing computer security threats and stay safe online. Some preventive steps you can take include:

• Secure your computer physically by:
  • Installing reliable, reputable security and anti-virus software
  • Activating your firewall, because a firewall acts as a security guard between the internet and your local area network 
• Stay up-to-date on the latest software and news surrounding your devices and perform software updates as soon as they become available
• Avoid clicking on email attachments unless you know the source 
• Change passwords regularly, using a unique combination of numbers, letters and case types
• Use the internet with caution and ignore pop-ups, drive-by downloads while surfing
• Taking the time to research the basic aspects of computer security and educate yourself on evolving cyber-threats
• Perform daily full system scans and create a periodic system backup schedule to ensure your data is retrievable should something happen to your computer.