What is antivirus and its types?

Today, different users do almost all their daily tasks through the internet and enter their important information into it. As a result, the security of this information should be considered due to its great importance, because there are lots of factors that cause users to be worried about losing their information. One of the steps that all users can take is installing the right antivirus  software  to help prevent viruses from infecting the system and eventually causing users to lose information.

Many software programs can be used, each of which has different features, and users must choose one of them according to the purpose of installing, which will be explained more in the following.

What is antivirus?

Antivirus  is a program that helps to secure various systems by scanning, detecting and removing viruses,  malware, computer worms, and so on. There are several free and paid antivirus  software  programs, all of which ultimately have the same goal, which is to protect systems and the information in them against the possibility of being infected by different types of viruses and destroy them immediately.

In the past, users were reluctant to use this because antivirus caused their systems to slow down, but these days, antivirus is very advanced. They do not slow down computer systems, and they also provide lots of abilities for users, these modern antivirus software programs  protect systems against malware, etc., and have no effect on speed.

Why should users update their software regularly?

Because profiteers tend to try new methods every day to infiltrate different systems as well as steal their information, this must become more powerful day by day to be able to scan and identify various threats more quickly, therefore, if you pay attention to this important point, you will be able to take advantage of new facilities that new versions of  antivirus software  programs are offering, because this new version has more features and power compared to the previous one.

Another reason why the users who are using antivirus should try to update it regularly is that if there is any problem in the previous version of it, it will be solved in the latest version; as a result, you can own a better program, just by updating your antivirus regularly, in addition, there is a section in this which is called the database where malware codes are stored, etc., and each time a database is updated, new malware code is added, which is done by every update, as we have mentioned so far, one of the factors that turn an antivirus into the best one is its regular updates.

There are many antivirus  software  programs, and the reason is that the number of viruses is increasing day by day, so we are going to mention different types of them in more detail below.

Different types of software:

- Cloud-Based Software:

This type of antivirus is very powerful and analyzes data in the cloud and finally sends the necessary command to the computer. This antivirus software has two parts: the client installed on the computer and the other is the web service, each of which has its tasks.

- Standalone Software:

This type of antivirus is designed to fight specific viruses because it is specialized. One of the features of this type of antivirus is that you can use it even in emergencies because it can also be installed on a USB and used to scan for viruses. This feature has caused many users to use this type of antivirus, some  antivirus software programs  in this type do not need to be installed, and you just need to simply download the complete file and do the scanning, but some of them need to be installed.

Many antivirus software programs are part of this type, including Emsisoft Anti-Malware, eScanAV Anti-Virus Toolkit MWAV, Metascan Client,  Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Dr.WEB CureIt, ClamWin Portable Free Antivirus, Avira PC Cleaner, Windows Defender Offline, etc., pointed out that each of these has its features that users should choose it according to their purpose.

- Security Software Suites:

This type can go far beyond anti-virus programs, and in addition to being able to scan all viruses, they have more capabilities that can greatly secure your system. One of the features of this type is that it has parental control programs, which causes many parents who are worried about their children to get help from this type.

In addition to the capabilities we have mentioned, this type has other capabilities such as site authentication, backup, etc. The best antivirus software programs part of this type are Bitdefender Total Security, Norton 360 Deluxe, Avast Ultimate,  McAfee Total Protection Multi-Device, Bullguard Premium Protection, Kaspersky Total Security, Trend Micro Maximum Security, Panda Dome Advanced, and so on.

As you know, to choose one of them, you have to think about your goal and try to choose the best one according to that, in general, we have defined antivirus so far and also introduced its types, now you may be wondering which type to choose and what points should be taken into consideration while choosing it, we are going to explain more about this issue in this regard.

How to choose this software for yourself?

As we have said so far, it is necessary to examine the features of each antivirus software and choose the best one among them. Still, it should be noted that all of these programs consider themselves the most powerful antivirus program. They assure you that they can quickly detect all the threats of your system and report them to you.

As a result, you need to be more careful. You pay more attention to their features, including the number of devices they can protect, the operating systems they support, the speed, and so on, all of which can affect the security of your system.

Another point that should be taken into consideration is that you should consider your budget while choosing an antivirus. You can use the paid types if you have enough budget to get an antivirus because they certainly have more features than free ones. Still, if you have a limited budget, you can look for the best type of  free antivirus programs  that has features which are somehow same as the paid ones.

When it comes to choosing the best antivirus for your system, you need to pay attention to the amount of time that these programs take to scan, detect and eliminate existing viruses and malware in your system if they can control your system only for a few hours, it is better not to select them and choose the ones that can monitor and control your system for many hours throughout the day.

How does this work?

Antivirus monitors all the changes that occur in the files, etc.. According to the suspicious cases, they notice the presence of threatening factors and send warning messages to the user, after which it starts working quickly and detects the threats and destroys them, antivirus may use one of the forms of virus detection to be able to detect a virus, such as Heuristic-based detection, Signature-based or virus dictionary detection, Behavior-based detection, Sandbox detection, Cloud antivirus detection and so on.

Last word:

All programs that can help  increase the security of the system and information  of different people, as well as different organizations, have many fans, among which one of the most important programs are antivirus programs for all users from beginners to professionals, they are needed for any kind of users because they should get help from them to maintain their security, so in this article, we tried to give a brief explanation about this and its types, so that you can get acquainted with them and choose the one which is more appropriate for your goal.

Because the most important factor that should be taken into consideration while choosing antivirus is that you have to choose according to your goal as well as your budget and so on, there are also lots of other factors that you should pay attention to while choosing the right its, so you need to act more carefully and choose the best one by paying attention to all mentioned points.