Antivirus program

Antivirus program is a software that protects and secures other programs in a system from harmful malware. National institute of standards and technology (NIST) defines Antivirus software in it's special publication of Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations as "A program that monitors a computer or network to identify all major types of malware and prevent or contain malware incidents". 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.