The first antivirus software agent was the Reaper virus which was launched in 1973. It was developed to hunt down and kill a harmless network virus called Creeper. Reaper was not antivirus software as we now know it, but it performed a similar function.
Modern antivirus software first made an appearance in the mid to late 1980s. Viruses had started to become an unpleasant threat by then and there were a number at loose. Famous examples are Elk Cloner which infected Apple systems, Brain and Vienna which infected PCs, and a host of others. Before the internet became ubiquitous viruses were spread mostly by floppy discs. The first virus to be tamed was the Vienna. The first company to market antivirus software was Certus which later became part of Symantec.
The first thing antivirus software must do is detect the presence of a virus. There are several methods, but the most common one is analogous to searching for a bit of DNA coding in a chromosome. Viruses generally attach themselves to existing code just as biological viruses attach themselves to chromosomes. The antivirus software seeks for this snippet of malicious code by examining the full string and comparing it with a database of known virus codes.
When a virus code is unknown, the software will monitor the activity of the computer looking for unusual events that could be related to a virus infection. Another way is to examine the functionality of a file to see if it codes for virus like activity.
Once the software has identified a virus, its second job is to heal the computer. Depending on the virus it is generally possible to choose from a number of actions. These are to delete, quarantine, or repair the file.
More sophisticated virus attempt to hide from antivirus software by using various disguises. To counter this antivirus software will only allow files to be executed once they have been proven to be clean. It is an ongoing war. At present it seems that the virus makers are a little ahead of the game, though that could easily change.
Modern antivirus software first made an appearance in the mid to late 1980s. Viruses had started to become an unpleasant threat by then and there were a number at loose. Famous examples are Elk Cloner which infected Apple systems, Brain and Vienna which infected PCs, and a host of others. Before the internet became ubiquitous viruses were spread mostly by floppy discs. The first virus to be tamed was the Vienna. The first company to market antivirus software was Certus which later became part of Symantec.
The first thing antivirus software must do is detect the presence of a virus. There are several methods, but the most common one is analogous to searching for a bit of DNA coding in a chromosome. Viruses generally attach themselves to existing code just as biological viruses attach themselves to chromosomes. The antivirus software seeks for this snippet of malicious code by examining the full string and comparing it with a database of known virus codes.
When a virus code is unknown, the software will monitor the activity of the computer looking for unusual events that could be related to a virus infection. Another way is to examine the functionality of a file to see if it codes for virus like activity.
Once the software has identified a virus, its second job is to heal the computer. Depending on the virus it is generally possible to choose from a number of actions. These are to delete, quarantine, or repair the file.
More sophisticated virus attempt to hide from antivirus software by using various disguises. To counter this antivirus software will only allow files to be executed once they have been proven to be clean. It is an ongoing war. At present it seems that the virus makers are a little ahead of the game, though that could easily change.
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The first antivirus software agent was the Reaper virus which was launched in 1973. It was developed to hunt down and kill a harmless network virus called Creeper. Reaper was not antivirus software as we now know it, but it performed a similar function.
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