Viruses are to a computer as microorganisms are to a person. They take over the system and render the existing defenses useless. At a certain time, 40 percent of American households have problems concerning viruses. Forty-six million are plagued by malware; 24 million, spam; and 8 million, spyware. As much as 1 million households incur significant costs because of viruses in lost money and misused accounts. Only a computer antivirus stands in the way of your hardware’s destruction just as the person’s immune system does.
Antivirus Computer Software Troublemakers
The following are qualities your computer antivirus should have to effectively get rid of the cyber world’s number one troublemakers:
1) Automatic updates. Your antivirus should prompt you to get connected and download
2) Compressed and heuristic scanners. Compressed scanner is the process whereby a computer antivirus is able to detect a virus in a compressed file in a compressed file in a compressed file and so on. A heuristic scanner, on the other hand, is the process by which an antivirus uses data from existing viruses to release updates to detect new viruses. The latter is the primary method used to detect malicious links of malware and hackers.
3) Instant messaging and Webmail protection. Instant messages can serve as media for viruses to infect your computer. More sophisticated viruses also use Web e-mails especially spam, which constitutes as much as 85 percent of e-mail traffic, to send new threats. Your computer antivirus should have these avenues covered.
4) On demand, on access, and real time scanners. On demand scanning is the process by which the user chooses which sectors to scan. On access scanning refers to the ability of a computer virus to scan files being opened while real time scanning, data that enters your computer.
5) Scheduled scanning. Your antivirus should have a schedule in place when to do scans as most people tend to forget these. It should also give users the leeway to schedule the scans as often as they want.
6) Support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No matter how easy to operate a computer antivirus is, there are some things you will always need assistance with especially the technical aspect. Your antivirus vendor should attend to your questions and concerns via chat and phone (toll free).