Virus definitions is a word which I believe most people have already heard of, but some of you may not know what exactly is Virus Definition, Well, if you want to know what does it mean, this article is just the one you should read.
Virus definition – What is it?
Virus definitions is usually related to security software like antivirus or antimalware program, it is a type of virus database which consist of bits of code, and used by anti-virus program when running virus scan to detect virus inside the system. Technically speaking, virus definitions is the virus string made up by binary pattern.
After an anti-virus program been launched, usually it will start with a virus definitions update check up to verify whether the database is up to date, and following up it will start to scan over the data and components of the system such as RAM, hard drive and boot sectors. If any binary code pattern were found out to in line with the virus signatures in its database, antivirus program will soon classify it as threat and then inform the computer users to either isolate or remove it from the computer.
The importance of keeping virus definitions up to date
Since computer threats keep releasing daily, if the companies who developed antivirus program does not update their virus database, AKA virus definitions, it will leave the system vulnerable to malicious code as it is losing the ability to detect and remove the latest released virus and other computer threats thus. latest malicious virus code can be very complex and dangerous, once your computer is infected by these threat, all your personal information in the computer such as passwords, credit card number, banking information, etc will be exposed and stolen.
Luckily, as long as your computer is properly connected to the internet, most of the anti-virus program nowadays can run the virus definition update quietly in the computer background. If the virus program you installed does not has such function, we recommend you to create a schedule in the program and let it run the virus definition update automatically.
So, in a word, keeping the virus definitions of your antivirus program up-to-date is a very good practice to keep your computer away from the latest online threats.