Video:Screencast: How Antivirus Software Works

Transcript:Screencast: How Antivirus Software Works

Hi I’m Greg Creech and I’m with Techedutainment Services. We’re filming today for About.com. I want to talk to you about what viruses and how antivirus packages and software work for you.

Antivirus is Reactionary Software

And so here’s what antivirus does: antivirus is reactionary. They’re like an antibiotic. When we’re sick, we don’t take the antibiotic until we’re sick. Same thing with viruses. Evil programmers and developers develop the virus and the malicious code and put it out there. And so antivirus developers and programmers are always going to be reactionary that they’ve got to develop the antivirus to attack the virus and clean it from your system. They buffer your computer.

Antivirus Software Looks for Inconsistencies

So between you and your application and your online information there is a buffer. It acts as a protection against malicious code. And so what the antivirus software does it looks for inconsistencies. They’re certifications and other items that must pass with windows and with Macintosh operating systems and others that’s out there and also websites. There’s certifications, there’s legitimate code. There’s also signatures that antivirus software is going to look for to find or not find them. It examines files including system registries, documents, websites, all kinds of files. So that’s the way antivirus packages works.

Thank you so much and for more information please see About.com.