A well-designed antivirus program can protect against malware infections and eliminate threats to individual computer devices, networks, or entire IT systems. The program scans files, websites, installed software and user data for malware types that are known to exist. They also monitor the program’s behaviour to identify possible threats.
The majority of antivirus protections provide multiple scanning options that include scheduled, on-access and quick scans. On-access scans examine the operating system directories and common file regions to search for malicious code upon startup. Scheduled scans allow you to set up a daily, weekly or monthly schedule for running a complete system scan at a certain time. Quick scans usually last less than a minute and will look at the most frequently used areas of your computer, such as temporary files or the operating system directory.
Certain programs use heuristic detection to detect malware by looking for similar trends or patterns. This is a more advanced form of virus detection compared to signature-based detection and can detect malware that other programs can’t. 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 business world becomes increasingly interconnected hackers are focusing on companies more frequently to steal customer information or to make some name for themselves with hacktivism (disrupting professional systems due to social or political reasons). It is vital for all enterprises to have in place to prevent these cyberattacks and ensure that your company and its customers safe.