Many products (such as Protegent360 or McAfee) are advertised as “anti-virus” tools or packages, while others are advertised as “anti-virus software” (such as Malwarebytes) and even more as “anti-spyware” (Spybot S&D).
Are these terms just marketing gimmicks or are there technical differences between what each product does?
There is some difference between the terms, but this difference is not much more than the difference between different brands using the same term. (And note that there is another category of security software: "firewall". This is a little more distinctly different, but sometimes products will include features like firewall software and other categories.)
They are mostly synonymous as they represent different forms of malicious software (malware). "Malware" is broader, while "virus" and "spyware" are more detailed malware.
The virus is defined as "the defining characteristic of viruses is that they are self-replicating computer programs that are installed on their own without the user's consent".
Spyware is defined as " software that helps collect information about a person or organization without their knowledge and that can send such information to another person without the consumer's consent, or that takes control of a computer without the consumer's knowledge."
Malware is defined as “short for malicious software. It is software used to disrupt a computer, collect confidential information, or gain access to private computer systems. ”
Generally speaking, the main differences between antivirus manufacturers are that some actively listen and scan files when they are loaded into memory or visible in the watched folder (MSE, Avast, etc.), whereas AFAIK, others are inactive and work. to rid you of the baddies when you execute them (malicious bytes, most spyware).
If you are going to purchase any software, I would read reviews on how much resources they require and if you can limit that. I know MSE is free and you can limit the CPU usage, in my experience, it was pretty solid. At work, however, we have McAfee, and my computer barely works during the scan, and my domain policy limits my ability to restrict it in traditional ways.
It might be a good question (if it isn't already) to ask “How does someone choose good antivirus software” or something like that. If you're interested, please don't forget to search first!
In terms of function, they are basically the same; They all have a database of known targets that they look for in the usual way, such as monitoring file access, process memory, etc.
The difference is what they target. I cannot tell you exactly how these terms are respected, but I can tell you the definitions:
Malicious software: any malicious software. This term is mainly used as a general term to refer to viruses, Trojans, adware, spyware, worms, or any other software that can have a detrimental effect on the system.
Virus. Technically, viruses are types of malware that automatically replicate and infect new files on the system. However, more general use is to refer to clearly malicious software rather than simply “potentially unwanted” or software to gather information about behavior.
Spyware: Software that is used to collect information about you or the use of your computer. This can be anything from information about which sites you visit and when to banking information and personal information.
Antivirus and antivirus software will almost certainly be very similar in terms of what they target. Antispyware software is usually specifically designed for spyware and adware - a good example is Spybot Free, which (at least for the time being) focuses entirely on spyware and leaves the decision to install other antivirus software (like Windows Defender) for the user.
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