Difference Between Antivirus and Internet Security

Antivirus vs Internet Security

Antivirus applications might be the oldest form of protection from malicious programs that most people can remember. At the beginning, it simply scanned for the signatures of any virus that it knows. It cannot prevent any virus that it does not recognize. Later on, more advanced features like heuristics were added. Heuristic is a method of monitoring the activities of a specific program and deciding whether it behaves like a virus. It would then alert the user and ask for the best course of action. Though, it might not be 100% accurate, it provides more security compared to the old method.

Internet Security software is not a single program, but is usually composed of more than one application that aims to provide total protection to its user. Still at its core is an antivirus program. But aside from an antivirus program, the other applications in the suite provide more security from the threats that arose along with the internet age. Another application that is essential in an internet security suite is a firewall. A firewall restricts other people on the internet from gaining access to your computer or network by refusing connection requests and any other communications from the outside and even from applications that are running on your computer. There are also applications that can protect you from spyware programs that can send your personal and other information to entities outside and other types of malware.

For most people who are not that adept at these things, Internet Security software is the best choice, as it combines everything you need into a neat single package, though a bit more expensive. But as we all know, some of the software in the package might be worse than what you can get from another. Because of this, more advanced users prefer the freedom of choosing each application separately. Some people might not also need everything in the Internet Security suite as they already have an alternative solution; a good example of which is the firewall. Having a firewall software would be redundant if you already have a hardware with built in firewall.

Summary:
1.Antivirus is a class of software that detects and cleans out virus infected files while Internet Security is a suite of applications that aims to protect users against threats from the internet
2.Internet Security suites usually include an antivirus application among other programs
3.Internet security suites commonly includes a firewall, anti malware, anti spyware, and email protection programs
4.Internet Security suites often cost more than stand-alone antivirus applications

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