Best 2013 Top 10 Recommended Antivirus Software List

Does antivirus software work? I am pretty sure that this question is coming from users who is disappointed by their antivirus or antimalware software. In this article I would like to share with you how does an antivirus work and why does it (sometimes) fail detecting a malware threat.

How to Detect Viruses

Most of all antivirus software works on virus signature based detection technology. Each antivirus or antimalware software has their own database of virus signatures that they have collected from previous virus infections. Theantivirus software is using the list of virus signatures to recognize any virus threat in your computer.

Another method of detecting virus threat is by using behavior blocker feature. Unfortunately not all antivirus or antimalware software is armed with this feature. Behavior blocker is independent from virus signature database. It recognizes virus ormalware threat by monitoring any suspicious activity and access to some system process. When it recognizes any suspicious activity, it will block the source file until it is cleared whether or not the file is a malware.

Why Does Your Antivirus Fail to Protect Your Computer ?

1. Free Antivirus only offer scan and delete function.
   If you are using free antivirus software, most likely your antivirus only provide scan and delete feature. Most free antivirus software does not offer life or on-access protection. It will only recognize a threat when you told it to look for malware threat (on-demand scanning). It will not check for incoming malware.
2. Signature database not updated.
   If your antivirus or antimalware do offer life protection such as file guard, then most likely the virus signature database is not updated yet. It could be that you do not allow automatic update or it does not have automatic update feature.
3. New Malaware.
   Other possible reason is that you are infected by a new malware. This malware is not yet in the virus signature database. Your antivirus software did not recognize it as a threat when the virus is infecting your computer.

How to Prevent a Computer Virus

To prevent a computer virus from infecting your computer you have to have antimalware software installed in your computer. It must have life protection or on-access protection and automatic virus signature database update. Some antimalware software release several update in one day.

Even better, if your antimalware software has behavior blocker function. This function will prevent any virus or malware infection even when the malware is not in the virus signature database yet. This method is more effective to prevent new malware to infect your computer as addition to the signature based detection feature.