Viruses: Fighting viruses

Computer viruses are programs that spread through the system or the network. In order to do this, they need a 'host' that introduces them into a system before they infect other programs. Colloquially, they are often lumped together with 'worms' or 'Trojans', although these forms of malware have different modes of operation. Viruses' basically act 'passively' and require another program to be called in order to infect it. Worms, on the other hand, are programs that automatically search for gaps in the security architecture.

Antivirus programs always have a decisive disadvantage: they can only ever identify viruses that are already known. They are initially powerless against 'new developments'. The decisive factor for the quality of an antivirus program is therefore always its reaction time to new threats.