Antivirus program

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Antivirus program is a software present in a system, that detects and removes malware which attack files, programs and applications in a computer, thereby securing the system from malicious programs. Malware is used to refer to the variety of malicious programs such as computer viruses, worms, spyware or Trojan horse, that might affect software of a computer. National institute of standards and technology (NIST) defines Antivirus software in it's special publication of Guide to Malware Incident Prevention and Handling for Desktops and Laptops as "A program that monitors a computer or network to identify all major types of malware and prevent or contain malware incidents".[1] An antivirus program is designed to protect your computer from virus infections. Since most viruses are designed to run in the background, most users do not know when their computer is infected. Virus protection programs serve to search for, detect, and remove these viruses. Antivirus programs must be kept up-to-date in order for them to be able to detect new viruses. [2]

There are many antivirus programs available today such as McAfee antivirus, Bitdefender antivirus or Norton Security etc. According to NIST, antivirus programs must have the following recommended capabilities:[1]

  • Scanning critical host components such as startup files and boot records.
  • Watching real-time activities on hosts to check for suspicious activity.
  • Monitoring the behavior of common applications, such as email clients, web browsers, and instant messaging software.
  • Scanning files for known malware. Antivirus software on hosts should be configured to scan all hard drives regularly to identify any file system infections and, optionally, depending on organization security needs.
  • Identifying common types of malware as well as attacker tools.
  • Disinfecting files, which refers to removing malware from within a file, and quarantining files,

which means that files containing malware are stored in isolation for future disinfection or examination.


  1. 1.0 1.1 Guide to Malware Incident Prevention and Handling for Desktops and Laptops http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-83r1.pdf
  2. OIT Knowledge Base HelpDesk. https://help.utk.edu/kb/index2.php?func=show&e=182