Security is undoubtedly a very important factor on the Internet. There are many threats that exist on the net. Fortunately, there are also many tools we can use to protect ourselves. Today we are going to talk about that, and differentiate between two that are widely used. We will explain what are the differences between antivirus and antimalware software. We'll talk about how each option protects us and in what circumstances we have to use it.
When we choose to protect our systems, we can take advantage of different tools. An obvious example is antivirus and antimalware software. This is something that must be applied regardless of what kind of operating system we are using or what device we have.
However, we must bear in mind that no tool will always protect us for what we need. Basically we can compare it to medicines. All medicines heal us, just as vaccines prevent disease. But of course, no medicine is a cure-all. The same thing happens with antivirus and anti-malware programs and you need to know how to tell them apart.
To understand the differences, we first have to know what is a virus and what is malware. This way we will know what each tool really works for. These two terms sometimes confuse users. On the other hand, we have viruses, which are programs that are created to make the system not work properly. They can multiply, change their properties, hide ... On the other hand, we have malware, and they are all malware. It can have much more functions than viruses. For example, it can steal passwords, distribute spam, program it to steal information, and so on.
- How does antivirus and antimalware software work
If we start with an antivirus, we can say that its main function is to prevent viruses from entering. What it does is make it more difficult for these threats to enter. It's like giving our device a vaccine to prevent it from getting infected.
Instead, antimalware programs work more specifically with malware that's already inside. Scans for files and malware that shouldn't be there. If it detects something, it sends it to a quarantine area where it can't infect other functions and then deletes it.
It should be borne in mind that today we have security software that works in a mixed way. In other words, they can act as an antivirus that prevents this type of threat from entering, but also as an anti-malware.
In short, an antivirus has the main function of detecting viruses and preventing their entry. In principle, we can have tools of this type without being able to remove them. On the other hand, the main goal of anti-malware is to eliminate these threats.
Therefore, these differences must be considered when we want to properly protect our system. There are many kinds of threats on the Internet, but we also have many solutions to protect ourselves. There are free and paid antivirus and antimalware programs. It is a matter of choosing the software that best suits what interests us and keeping it always up to date.
