History of antivirus software

History of anti estimator virus softw arAntivirus Softw argonHistory of Antivirus Softw arThere are competing claims for the innovator of the starting time antivirus product. Possibly the first in the public eye(predicate)ly documented removal of a computer virus in the doddery was performed by Brent Fix in 1987. An antivirus class to counter the Polish MKS virus was released in 1987. Dr. Solomons Anti-Virus Toolkit, AIDSTEST and AntiVir were released by in 1988. Dr. Ahn Chul Soo (Charles Ahn, founder of AhnLab Inc) in South Korea also released the Anti-Virus software c onlyed V1 in June 10, 1988. By late 1990, nineteen sepa estimate antivirus products were in stock(predicate) including Norton AntiVirus and McAfee VirusS peck. Early contributors to work on computer viruses and countermeasures included Fred Cohen, Peter Tippett, and John McAfee. onward network connectivity was widespread, viruses were typic completelyy spread by infected lax disks. Antivirus software came int o use, but was updated relatively infrequently. During this time, virus checkers ingrainedly had to check executable archives and the boot sectors of floppy and hard disks. However, as internet use of goods and services became customary, initi eithery with the use of meansms, viruses spread by means ofout the Internet.Powerful macros used in word of importframe computer applications, such as Microsoft Word, presented a further risk. Virus writers started using the macros to write viruses embedded within documents. This meant that computers could without delay also be at risk from infection by documents with hidden attached macros as programs. afterward email programs, in particular Microsoft Outlook Express and Outlook, were vulnerable to viruses embedded in the email stay itself. Now, a users computer could be infected by just opening or previewing a c land. This meant that virus checkers had to check many more types of files. As al looks-on broadband connections beca me the norm and more and more viruses were released, it became essential to update virus checkers more and more frequently. hitherto then, a new zero-day virus could construct widespread before antivirus companies released an update to protect against it.What is an Antivirus program?An antivirus program is used as a aegis measure and protection tool against computer viruses. The job of an antivirus program is to scan, detect and prevent viruses. Not all antivirus programs can perform these prefatorial tasks, but this will be discussed later on in this report.Antivirus programs are an essential tool you must watch installed on your computer or network. Antivirus programs offer real-time, on- find and on-demand protection for your computer. The way the programs works is based on the version of the antivirus program you have. Antivirus programs can be a standalone or can be included in a protection suite and are distributed in 32 and 64-bit versions on multiple run systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac, allowing all different types of computers to be protected from malicious software.why is Antivirus Software Necessary? pledge is a major concern when it comes to the safety of your in the flesh(predicate) cultivation. If nearone were to access your entropy and use it, the consequence would be drastic. Information auspices is concerned with three main areasConfidentiality lots information should only be available to any(prenominal)one who has the right to view it.Availability information should only be accessible when roughlyone needs it.Integrity information should only be modified by people who are authorized to edit it.These concepts apply to planetary house Internet users just as much as they would to any corporate or government network. You probably wouldnt let a stranger look through your important documents. In the same way, you may want to keep the tasks you perform on your computer confidential, whether its trailing your investments or sending email messages to family and friends. Also, you should have some assurance that the information you enter into your computer quells intact and is available when you need it.Some security risks arise from the possibility of intentional misuse of your computer by intruders via the Internet. Others are risks that you would face even if you werent connected to the Internet (e.g. hard disk failures, larceny, power outages). The icky news is that you probably can non plan for e very(prenominal) possible risk. The good news is that you can take some simple steps to reduce the chance that youll be affected by the most common threats and some of those steps help with both the intentional and accidental risks youre comparablely to face.Virus? What is a Virus? in the lead we go on and tell you how an antivirus program scans, detects and prevents viruses and malware, lets discuss what hardly a virus is. Like its genetical equivalent, a computer virus is a program that spreads ca steless and unexpected sues through the insides of your PC. Not all viruses are malicious, but many are create verbally to damage particular types of files, applications or even operating systems. Some examples of viruses are Trojan horse viruses, worms, spyware, adware, rootkits, and many other types of malware.Viruses have been around since the early 1970s. Even though they never had an internet connection back in the 70s viruses still infected computers by floppy disks. Yes, FLOPPY DISKS, the old 5 14 disks. The first recorded virus was in 1971 and it was called the Creeper Virus, which was written by Bob Thomas. What the Creeper virus did was it infected a remote computer by the ARPNET and copied itself displaying the message IM THE CREEPER CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. Ironically the Reaper was created to delete the Creeper. The Reaper program was not equivalent the anti-virus programs we know today, but in fact was a virus itself in that it was self replicating and spread through a network.How an Antivirus Program WorksThe first and most important task of an antivirus program is to protect, prevent, or occlusive any malicious activity in your computer or home and office network in real-time. The real-time protection should trigger an alert or provide automatic action whenever a surmise or positive degreely identified malware activity is detected. Most antivirus programs will only monitor some circumstantial areas in your computer.When an antivirus program is installed, it will start monitoring the activity of the system by beting files that are being accessed, transferred, or stored to or from the hard disks and external/removable drives. Files that are being downloaded from the Internet are scanned. If a suspicious activity is detected, the antivirus program will automatically remove the file or point in time the processes that are posing risk to your system, your contacts, or other computers or devices in on your network, unless you trust the file that you are receiving.Antivirus programs offer several types of undercover work methods to identify malware, but the most common sleu affaire methods is heuristic rule analysis and by using traditional virus detection (signature-based).1. Characteristics of a program This is called heuristics see. Heuristic scanning engines work on the principle that viruses will usually use certain tricks or methods of infecting, and therefore if a program looks like it might be using those tricks, there is a possibility that the program is a virus. Sound simple? No, not really, its actually incredibly hard to write a foolproof c% effective heuristics engine. (Engine, simply put, is just a word we use to describe the bit that drives the virus detector and compares files to the database of cognise infection agents) The more aggressive heuristic scanner may well detect larger numbers of so called False Positives i.e. files that are really totally innocent but look like they might alter other fil es, the less aggressive ones might miss files that really are viruses. A method of heuristic analysis is for the anti-virus program to decompile the suspicious program, and then analyze the source code contained within. In reality heuristics work quite well for some types of viruses, such as Macro Viruses, but not so well for other types. However, they are a reasonable attempt at providing protection against shortly nameless viruses. The advantage to this method is the fact that there is no time period when the computer is not protected after proper(postnominal) viruses are released. The prejudices include the fact that false positives may occur and some viruses may not be identified during the length of a scan. The first heuristic engines were introduced to detect country viruses in 1989. However, there are now heuristic engines for nearly all classes of viruses.2. Footprint or Signature-based detection of virus program A virus signature is a particular traffic pattern of bit s or information contained in a virus that appears in no other file or program in the world, except for that virus. This method is the most common method used to identify viruses and false positives are very rare. It compares the virus footprint against a library of known footprints which match viruses. A footprint is a pattern in the data included in a file. Using this method, viruses must be identified as viruses, and then added to the library of footprints. The advantage to this method lies in the fact that false positives are very rare. The disadvantage to this method is the fact that there is a time period between when the virus is released to when the library of known footprints is updated. During this time period, the virus will not be recognized and could infect a computer.How do antivirus programs rate possible risk?Antivirus programs use a threat level index to determine what type of action to take. If the program is adware only, most antivirus programs will display a dial og box to inform the user why a program or related file of an adware program was detected. If the detected object is posing security and privacy risks, the threat level is medium, high, or severe. The threat level ratings by antivirus programs are not all the same. Some antivirus programs may not detect or even scan for tracking cookies. Some of these are installed when legitimate software downloaded from third-party websites is bundled with another installer from a company that is known to have a spyware or adware business. insulate and False Positives in Antivirus ProgramsAntivirus programs work also by quarantining suspect and malware files. This process is to prevent the offending objects from doing any damage in the system and to allow the end-user to restore back a quarantined object to its real location if it is found to be a false positive.A false positive detection is when a malware signature detected an uninfected file or process. In some cases, a false positive can cause a system to not to boot or run properly. If another program is affected by the false detection, the system will run normally, but not the program that the Antivirus have falsely identified and removed.Types of Antivirus Programs That Are AvailableOn the following page there is a list, in alphabetical order, of some the companies who provide Antivirus programs and the platforms on which they are supported.CompanyWindowsAppleLinuxMobile reconcile?AntiVirYesNoYesNoYesAVGYesNoNoNoYesAviraYesNoYesYesYesBitDefenderYesNoYesYesNoClamWinYesNoNoNoYesESET NOD32YesNoYesYesNoF-ProtYesNoYesNoNoKasperskyYesYesYesYesNoMcAfeeYesYesYesYesNoMSEYesNoNoNoYes internet AssociatesYesYesYesYesNoPanda SoftwareYesNoYesNoNoRAVYesYesYesNoNoSophosYesYesYesNoNoSymantec (Norton)YesYesYesYesNoTrend MicroYesNoNoYesNoVipreYesNoNoNoNo weaverootYesNoNoNoNoAntivirus SoftwareNow that you have a basic understanding of how an antivirus program works and why you need one, here are some examples of three of the main antivir us programs available today. The main three that this report is going to discuss is Norton, Bitdefender, and Kaspersky. There are different types of antivirus programs available for each manufacturer and the following information is going to discuss these types of programs.Norton by SymantecNorton offers 3 antivirus programsNorton AntivirusNorton Internet gageNorton 360 here(predicate) is a full list of what Norton by Symantec offers for their product line. (Symantec)Core breastplateBlocks viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, worms, bots, and rootkitsDefends against hackers with repose two-way firewallPulse updates every(prenominal) 5 15 minutes for up-to-the minute protectionAdvanced ProtectionNorton Bootable Recovery Tool repairs, restores and boots severely infected, unbootable PCsLeverages cloud-based online intelligence for real-time detection of threatsDownload Insight proactively warns of potential dangers in newly downloaded files and applications before you install or run themGuards against Web attacks that exploit software vulnerabilitiesStops threats unacknowledged by traditional antivirus techniquesFilters unwanted email with professional-strength antispamHelps keep your kids safe online with parental controls (Microsoft Windows only)NetworkingHelps secure and monitor your home network automatically secures your PC when connecting to public wireless networksIdentity ProtectionBlock hackers from accessing your computerBlocks phishing websites and authenticates sure sitesSecures, stores, and manages login and personal informationPrevents hackers from eavesdropping and stealing information as you typeIdentifies unsafe Web sites in your search resultsBackup and RestoreAutomatically saves important files locally or to secured online storageRestores garbled files and foldersPC tune upOptimizes the hard drive to free up disk spaceOptimizes PC performance with disk cleansingProvides clear insight into recent PC activities to help prevent slowdownsOpti mizes application performance with one-clickSupportFree email, chat, or phone supportAutomatically finds and fixes common PC problemsThe following is a table of what exactly the three antivirus programs from Norton offer.Norton Internet SecurityNorton 360Norton AntivirusBlocks viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, worms, bots, and rootkitsYesYesYesDefends against hackers with a quiet two-way firewallYesYesNoPulse updates every 5-15 minutes for up-to-the minute protectionYesYesYesIntelligence-driven technology for faster, fewer, shorter scansYesYesYesNorton Bootable Recovery Tool repairs, restores and boots severely infected, unbootable PCsYesYesYesLeverages cloud-based online intelligence for real-time detection of threatsYesYesYesDownload Insight proactively warns of potential dangers in newly downloaded files and applications before you install or run themYesYesYesGuards against Web attacks that exploit software vulnerabilitiesYesYesYesStops threats unrecognized by traditional antiviru s techniquesYesYesYesFilters unwanted email with professional-strength antispamYesNoNoHelps keep your kids safe online with parental controls (Microsoft Windows only)YesYesNoHelps secure and monitor your home networkYesYesNoAutomatically secures your PC when connecting to public wireless networksYesYesNoBlock hackers from accessing your computerYesYesNoBlocks phishing websites and authenticates trusted sitesYesYesNoSecures, stores, and manages login and personal informationYesYesNoPrevents hackers from eavesdropping and stealing information as you typeYesYesNoIdentifies unsafe Web sites in your search resultsYesYesNoAutomatically saves important files locally or to secured online storageNoYesNoRestores lost files and foldersNoYesNoOptimizes the hard drive to free up disk spaceNoYesNoOptimizes PC performance with disk cleanupNoYesNoProvides clear insight into recent PC activities to help prevent slowdownsYesYesYesOptimizes application performance with one-clickYesYesYesFree email, ch at, or phone supportYesYesYesAutomatically finds and fixes common PC problemsYesYesYesBitdefenderBitdefenders product line for antivirus software isBitdefender AntivirusBitdefender Internet SecurityBitdefender Total SecurityHere is a list of what Bitdefender offers for there product line. (Bitdefender)ProtectionAntivirusProtects against viruses and other malware with industry-leading technologyMulti-layered proactive protection against new and unknown threatsAntispywareBlocks concealed programs that track your online activitiesAntiphishingBlocks web pages that attempt to steal your credit card dataAntispamStops unwanted e-mails from reaching your InboxFirewallAutomatically secures your Internet connection wherever you areHelps prevent outsiders form accessing your Wi-Fi network carrying into actionSpecial Operating ModesGame Mode reduces system load postpones scansLaptop Mode prolongs battery careerTune-upRemoves unnecessary files registry entries, for optimized performancePrivac yIM EncryptionKeeps your conversations private on Yahoo And MSN courierFile VaultLocks up confidential files in an encrypted vaultFile ShredderEnsures that no traces of deleted sensitive files remain on your PCControlParental ControlBlocks access to inappropriate websites and e-mailLimits kids access to the Internet, games, etc to specific timesHome NetworkManages the security of your entire network from a single location entropy BackupAutomatically backs up files and foldersThe following is a table of what exactly the three antivirus programs from Bitdefender offer.Bitdefender AntivirusBitdefender Internet SecurityBitdefender Total SecurityAntivirusYesYesYesAntispywareYesYesYesAntiphishingYesYesYesAntispamNoYesYesFirewallNoYesYesSpecial Operating ModesYesYesYesTune-upNoYesYesIM EncryptionNoYesYesFile VaultNoYesYesFile ShredderNoNoYesParental ControlsNoYesYesHome NetworkYesYesYesData BackupNoNoYesKasperskyKasperskys product line for antivirus software isKaspersky AntivirusKaspersky Internet SecurityHere is a list of what Kaspersky offers for there product line. (Kaspersky)Protection fromViruses and spyware septic websitesHacker attacksSpam and phishingIdentity theftFeatures ComparisonVirus and vulnerability scannerProactive protection against programs based on their behaviour prohibition of access to private data by suspicious programsApplication controlSafe run mode (sandbox) to test problematic programsNetwork ProtectionTwo-way personal firewallSecure wireless connections in public areasEmail Protectionreal time scanning of emailAnti-spam, Anti-phishingWeb ProtectionVirtual keyboard to safely enter sensitive dataRemoval of Internet activity (history, cookies, etc)Parental ControlKaspersky AntivirusKaspersky Internet SecurityViruses and spywareYesYesInfected WebsitesYesYesHacker attacksNoYesSpam and phishingNoYesIdentity theftNoYesVirus and vulnerability scannerYesYesProactive protection against programs based on their behaviorYesYesRestriction of access to private data by suspicious programsNoYesApplication controlNoYesSafe run mode (sandbox) to test questionable programsNoYesTwo-way personal firewallNoYesSecure wireless connections in public areasNoYesReal-time scanning of emailYesYesAnti-spam, Anti-phishingNoYesVirtual keyboard to safely enter sensitive dataYesYesRemoval of Internet activity (history, cookies, etc)YesYesParental ControlYesYesAs you can see from the previous lists, there is a inconsistency in what the manufacturers of these programs offer. They all offer virus and spyware on their basic applications. If you want more features/protection you are going to have to spend the extra money to obtain those features/protection.All of these versions of Antivirus software offer real-time protection and do regular scans. Kind of a behind the scenes scan. Which is a good feature to have, clear-sighted that most users just want it there to do its own thing, kind of like knowing it is defend you but dont want to have to deal wit h it.Norton and Kaspersky offer protection for one course of instruction. At the end of that year you have to spend more money before you can obtain more updates from them. The good thing about Bitdefender is that when you purchase a subscription from them you get it for 2 years. S