What Keeps Symantec Antivirus Protection Current - Symantec 10551441 - AntiVirus Corporate Edition Client Manual

18 Introducing Symantec AntiVirus

What keeps Symantec AntiVirus protection current

What keeps Symantec AntiVirus protection current
Symantec AntiVirus provides these types of protection:
Auto-Protect: Constantly monitors activity on your computer by looking for
■
viruses and security risks when a file is executed or opened, and when
modifications have been made to a file, such as renaming, saving, moving,
or copying a file to and from folders.
Signature-based scanning: Searches for residual virus signatures in
■
infected files, and for the signatures of security risks in infected files and
system information. This search is called a scan. Depending on how your
computer is managed, you and your company's administrator can initiate
signature-based or pattern-based scans to systematically check the files on
your computer for viruses and security risks, such as adware or spyware.
Scans can be run on demand, scheduled to run unattended, or run
automatically at system startup.
Advanced heuristics: Analyzes a program's structure, its behavior, and
■
other attributes for virus-like characteristics. In many cases it can protect
against threats such as mass-mailing worms and macro viruses, if you
encounter them before updating your virus definitions. Advanced
heuristics looks for script-based threats in HTML, VBScript, and JavaScript
files.
Symantec engineers track reported outbreaks of computer viruses to identify
new viruses. They also track new security risks, such as adware and spyware.
After a virus or security risk is identified, a signature (information about the
virus or security risk) is stored in a definitions file, which contains the necessary
information to detect, eliminate, and repair the effects of the virus or security
risk. When Symantec AntiVirus scans for viruses and security risks, it is
searching for these types of signatures.
Symantec makes updated definitions available on an ongoing basis. Definitions
are updated daily on the Symantec Security Response Web site. New definitions
are made available at least weekly for delivery using LiveUpdate, and whenever
a destructive new virus appears.
When new viruses and security risks are so complex that issuing new definitions
files for them isn't sufficient, Symantec engineers can update the AntiVirus
Engine with the latest detection and repair components. When necessary,
AntiVirus Engine updates are included with the definitions files.