Antivirus software and firewalls:

Antivirus software, also known as antimalware, is software that provides protection against computer viruses and many other forms of malware. Antivirus software is used to prevent malware infection, detect new infections, and remove malware. Popular antivirus software includes Butdefender, Norton Antivirus, and AVG.

Antivirus software is typically used on desktop and laptop computers. Some websites and email providers such as Google and Yahoo, check for viruses on the server before providing a file for download. On the other hand, Smartphones and tablets have newer security oriented operating systems, and thus rarely contain antivirus software for example about 10 years ago apple disallowed most popular antivirus apps.

Antivirus software uses three major strategies to detect viruses and other malware in

suspicious files these include:

• Virus signature: sections of code that are known to be part of a virus or other malware. When new malware is discovered, virus signatures from the malware are added to a database uses by antivirus software

• Sandbox: is a protected environment where suspicious files can be run. The sandbox can be customized to mimic a specific user’s computer. If the suspicious file exhibits malicious behavior inside the sandbox, the file is identified as infected.

• Heuristic Analysis: Evaluates the context and behavior of suspicious files based on the behavior of known infected files. Heuristic analysis can detect malware whose signatures have not been added to virus databases.

Firewalls

A firewall is software or hardware that blocks unauthorized communication with a computer while allowing authorized communication over a network. A software firewall uses a set of rules to determine which network applications are authorized to communicate with a computer. These rules can be customized by the user. In addition, some network routers have hardware-based firewalls that block connections that do not initiate within the network.

Software firewalls tend to conflict with each other, so only one software firewall should be used at a time. In addition, firewalls cannot block all threats and are best used in conjunction with antivirus software.