When choosing a security software for your business or home it’s important to take into consideration more than just the detection rate in controlled tests. It is important to make sure that it is able to detect the latest viruses and malware. Researchers are constantly developing ways to thwart antivirus software. They create viruses in order to disable them, hide themselves from detection methods and even circumvent anti-virus software.

One of the early types of antivirus software worked by comparing the files that enter devices against their databases of known malware signatures. This type of signature detection works well for malware that is older. However, virus makers can create new signatures at any time for new malware types.

Modern versions of antivirus software utilize the heuristic method of detection to identify potential threats. Heuristics don’t look for exact matches but rather at the tendencies of incoming software and files to determine if it matches known malware. This technique has been augmented by a method known as behavior-based detection that examines how the program or file behaves in order to determine whether it is infected with malware.

Certain viruses attempt to thwart antivirus software by hiding, preventing access to an antivirus program’s updating system, or causing corruption to code or library files needed for a virus scanner to function. Some viruses are more sophisticated and can directly alter or disable the functions of the antivirus software. These viruses are becoming increasingly prevalent and include features like the worm component, which propagates from one computer another.

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