Computers are all around us. They assist us in play and work, supervise patients in hospitals, and monitor critical manufacturing processes. However, this convenience comes with a cost since more computers are targets for hackers.

Antivirus protection scans files and programs to identify threats and acts as a live shield against cyberattacks. It can identify infected files or applications by their distinctive signature – just a couple of lines of assembly code that modify the stack pointer for instance and compares them to a database of known malware. If the program matches the database, the antivirus program will stop it from running and send it to quarantine for thorough scan and analysis.

Unfortunately, the creators of malicious software continually create new programs that have more subtle and distinct signatures. Antivirus programs must upgrade their databases. Once a virus has been detected and added to the database of detection hackers will have a harder time to use the same signature on different computers.

Most reliable antivirus programs include several features to protect you from an array of malware threats. These include:

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