Antivirus

Antivirus or Anti-Virus is a computer programs that attempt to identify, neutralize or eliminate malicious software.  It can remove viruses from your computer.

Antivirus scanning software, or a virus scanner, is a program which examines all files in specified locations, the contents of memory, the operating system, the registry, unexpected program behavior, and anywhere else relevant with the intention of identifying and removing any malware.Antivirus software that protects computers from viruses and other malicious software. Earlier  Antivirus is used for designed exclusively to combat computer viruses however most modern antivirus software is now designed to combat a wide range of threats, including worms, phishing attacks, rootkits, Trojans, often described collectively as malware.

Antivirus software typically examines files when the computer’s operating system creates, opens, closes, or e-mails them. In this way it can detect a known virus immediately upon receipt. System administrators can schedule antivirus software will scan all files on the computer’s hard disk on a regular basis. Antivirus is protective software designed to defend your computer against malicious software. Malicious software or “malware” includes: viruses, Trojans, key loggers, hijackers, dialers, and other code that vandalizes or steals your computer contents. In order to be an effective defense, your antivirus software needs to run in the background at all times, and should be kept updated so it recognizes new versions of malicious software.

In computer technology, viruses are malicious software programs, a form of malware. By definition, viruses exist on local disk drives and spread from one computer to another through sharing of “infected” files. Common methods for spreading viruses include floppy disks, FTP file transfers, and copying files between shared network drives.

Once installed on a computer, a virus may modify or remove application and system files. Some viruses render a computer inoperable; others merely display startling screen messages to unsuspecting users.

Advanced antivirus software programs exist to combat viruses. By definition, antivirus software examines the contents of local hard drives to identify patterns of data called “signatures” that match known viruses. As new viruses are built, antivirus software manufacturers update their signature definitions to match and then deliver these definitions to users via network downloads

There are two different approaches used to identify malware, often in combination, although with an emphasis on the virus approach.

• examining (scanning) files, etc., for known viruses matching signatures in a virus       dictionary, and

• identifying suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate  infection. This approach is called heuristic analysis, and may include data captures, port monitoring and other methods.

When the antivirus software looks at a file, it refers to as viruses that antivirus software has identified. If a piece of code in the file matches any virus identified in the file, then the antivirus software can take one of the following actions:

1.   Attempt to repair the file by removing the virus itself from the file.

2.   Quarantine the file .

3.   Delete the infected file.

To achieve consistent success in the medium and long term, the virus approach requires frequent downloads of updated virus entries. Technically-inclined users, and those who want help find viruses not detected by the software, can send their infected files to the authors of antivirus software, who analyze them and include identifying features and removal information

Anti-virus approach can effectively contain virus outbreaks in the right circumstances, virus have tried to stay a step ahead of such software by writing “oligomorphic”, “polymorphic” and more recently “metamorphic” viruses

Emerging technique to deal with malware in general is white listing. Rather than looking for only known bad software, this technique prevents execution of all computer code except that which has been previously identified as trustworthy by the system administrator are unwanted by the system administrator are prevented from executing since they are not on the white list. .

Virus Attacks:- Study Says Virus has breached 75,000 computers.

A new type of computer virus is known to have breached almost 75,000 computers in 2,500 organizations around the world, including user accounts of popular social network websites, according Internet security firm NetWitness.

The latest virus — known as “Kneber botnet” — gathers login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites and email systems
from infested computers and reports the information back to hackers, NetWitness said in a statement.

A botnet is an army of infected computers that hackers can control from a central machine.”

The company said the attack was first discovered in January during a routine deployment of NetWitness software.

Further investigation by the Herndon, Virginia-based software security firm revealed that many commercial and government systems were compromised, including 68,000 corporate login credentials and access to email systems, online banking sites, Yahoo, Hotmail and social networks such as Facebook.

“Conventional malware protection and signature-based Intrusion detection systems are, by definition, inadequate for addressing Kneber or most other advanced threats,” Chief Executive Amit Yoran said in a statement.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Eric Auchard in London)

Source: Yahoo News