Antivirus Software

Computers are constantly attacked by malicious software.   Antivirus (AV) software will search
for the signature (attributes) of known viruses. Without the latest AV updates, the system will be
susceptible to attack by new viruses.

 Virus

Computer viruses are a type of malicious program designed to self‐replicate and spread across
multiple computers. The purpose of the computer virus is to disrupt normal processing. A
computer virus may commence damage immediately or lie dormant, awaiting a particular
circumstance such as the date of April Fools’ Day. Viruses will automatically attach themselves
to the outgoing files. Antivirus software will stop known attacks by detecting the behavior
demonstrated by the virus program (signature detection) or by appending an antivirus flag to the
end of a file (inoculation, or immunization). New virus attacks can be detected if any program
tries to append data to the antivirus flag. Not all antivirus software works by signature scanning;
it can also use heuristic scanning, integrity checking, or activity blocking. These are all valid
virus detection methods.

 Worm

Like viruses, computer worms are destructive. Worms are able to travel freely across the
computer network by exploiting poorly authenticated system maintenance ports or other known
system vulnerabilities. Worms are independent and will actively seek new systems on their own.
Most AV software will help you defend against Internet worm attacks.