How to choose the right security tool (antivirus, antispyware, firewall or security suit)
If you decided to install a security tool to protect your computer you have several options. You can choose between firewall, antivirus, anti-spyware and a security suite which includes features of all the mentioned.
Antivirus software is computer program which detects, neutralizes or deletes malicious software. Originally this type of program was called that way because it was supposed to fight only computer viruses. Nowadays these programs combat various types of malwares, trojan horses, worms, adwares and other computer parasites.The very first antivirus program was created in 1988 by Dirty House productions.
Normaly antivirus program uses two different techniques to detect and then eleminate malwares. It can scan computer files to find viruses matching its virus definition database or try to identify suspicious behaviour from programs on your computer which might show an infection. Basically most modern antivirus application use both techniques to reach better results.
Antispyware is computer program that is designed to combat spywares and other malicious programs. There is no big difference between antivirus and antispyware application. The only one difference is that antispyware software is mainly focused on protecting against spywares and it is more advanced by its features than antivirus one. It uses the same techniques to detect malware that an antivirus program does. Also the program such as antivirus can have a real-time protection to prevent malwares from getting into your computer system.
Normally both types of security tool start their work with scanning of computer. The program scans the contents of the windows registry, all operating system files, and all the programs installed on your computer. After that it provides you with a list of threats found, offering you to choose what you want to do: delete, quarantine or ignore (if you want to keep it). If a program has real-time protection feature it highly recommented to keep it enable. This feature will block any spyware or other malware invasion. An avarage security tool also has malware defenition (or signature) database which is updated on a regular basis. If this database is regularly updated your computer will be protected from new emerging malwares.
It is pretty much better if your antivirus or antispyware program uses heuristic method for detecting threads. Heuristic method helps to find not only common parasites but also malwares with polymorphic code. Polymorphic viruses can modify its code that makes them undetectable for security program which has a signatures of every virus code.
Firewall is a next type of security tool. It is a program that prevents unauthorized access to or from a private network. There are computer users called hackers and crackers who try to gain illegal access to other users computers. Usually they have as their objects to install an application in targeted computer, steal confidential data files including such as banking and identity data or use a computer to hack another PC.
A common firewall program has a certain set of features. It hides the IP address of the computer, allows a user to permit or deny any internet access to the computer, any confidential information such as banking data, password etc can be send from the computer only with users permission, it blocks any pop-ups and other advertisements.
Besides, there are also security suits which contain all the above mentioned programs in one. This suit protects your computer from any hackers attacks (it is a firewall), scans your PC for viruses and any other malwares (antivirus and antispyware) and enable real-time protection so to detect any malware invasion.
The best way for a user to protect computer is to install a security suit. Although they can be quite expensive and sometimes it’s enough just to have a common antispyware or antivirus application.