Types of protection
The main means of your computer protection from viruses and various malware is antivirus software. Many people use this kind of protection even when they don't know how it operates. However, every user should know how the antivirus works, what principles it uses in its work and what additional types of protection can be used in order to secure the computer and system against unwanted intrusions.
Antivirus
Antivirus software, in its turn, will provide your computer with the following types of protection:
Scanning
Antivirus is sequentially scanning all the files in searching for the code of a known virus. This type of protection, however, can help to identify only viruses known by now, which codes are already defined. Thereby, the computer is not protected from intrusion of new and unknown before virus software.
Heuristic analysis
Helps to detect previously unknown virus. The principle of analysis is that the antivirus checks the information, trying to find there a code typical to a virus. Each up-to-date antivirus uses own methods of heuristic analysis. Having detected the infected file, the antivirus makes a record in its log and displays a warning on the screen. It can cure the infected file or delete it, and then it can restore it from backup (if any).
Antivirus monitors
This type of protection is also called a guard. It checks all the programs and files that are created, opened and saved by the user, as well as examines the documents received by the user via the Internet. If any of the used programs tries to run a possibly dangerous task, the antivirus monitor will immediately notify the user about that.
Protection built into the BIOS
The elementary means of protection can also be embedded into the computer system. They control each access to hard drive and to the sectors of removable disks. If any program tries to change their contents, the user receives a warning.
Protection of file servers
This type of protection is performed by antivirus monitors able to check automatically absolutely all files of server, to which they are trying to get the access. Such antiviruses are provided by all antivirus companies, so the user always has a choice.
Protection of mail servers
For this type of protection antivirus monitors are absolutely inefficient. Here we need special antivirus software, able to filter SMTP, POP3 and IMAP traffic.
Protection of documents flow servers
This type of protection is performed with the help of special programs, since ordinary files scanning won't bring here any results. These programs carry out checking online (or at request), perform scanning of all mail and enclosed files, and identify viruses and Trojan software by deleting all malware.
Apart from antiviruses your computer can be protected by special software intended for this purpose. However, all of them are more like applications to the antivirus; they only intensify its operation and increase the data security level. The additional types of protection are:
Firewall
Firewall is software that controls and filters the data according to set rules. With the help of firewall one can protect the network from unauthorized access. The firewall just won't pass to the computer or network the information that doesn't meet particular requirements.
Enciphering
Data enciphering is performed in order to ensure the data protection: the information is converted from open to close and becomes encoded. In order to get it you need a special key, available only for the user. Enciphering provides data transferring between parties A and B saving it from getting to a third party.
Anti-spy
Special software protecting the computer from intrusion of different spy programs (spyware, malware etc.) and from data leak. Anti-spy attacks such harmful software as parasite sites, Trojans, viruses, browser sniffers etc. The main advantage of the program is usability. Moreover, it doesn't take a lot of system resources of your computer.
Anti-Trojan
Speaking about this type of protection, we can compare it with anti-spy. But in this case the anti-Trojan activity is aimed at detection and removal, as well as blocking of a particular kind of virus software – Trojans. Anti-Trojan also scans your computer and controls all active programs deleting all unwanted ones (installed without the user's knowledge).