- May 26, 2014
- 1,051
In the old ages, there was no viruses. Ever. When the computer was invented, there was practically no way to share viruses anyway as the internet didn't exist! Well, after the internet was created, it served as a great center for information, entertainment, and... well, viruses (or more by definition, malware).
Obviously, something had to be done to prevent all these viruses from taking over your computer as an extra "layer" of security. So, an antivirus was created! First, it was just these command programs without a GUI, and were more "tools" rather than "marketing software". These were basically free (yes, free!), ad-free, and non-performance tools that basically threw every file that you had and if it matched a known virus file, it threw it out! (Factoid: Bernd Fix, in 1987 is known for the first publicly documented removal of a virus)
Eventually, however some guy decided to make commercial antivirus products. That guy was Andreas Luning (with Kai Figge). They founded G-Data in 1987. Also in 1987, John McAfee founded McAfee and made VirusScan, and Peter Paško with Miroslav Trnka, created NOD32, a later ESET product.
However, their signatures were playing catch-up with virus developers (and we still do nowadays) so somebody decided to create heuristics.
AV was on the rise, and Avira, Avast, Norman, AhnLab, Sophos, and others started creating their own products (they weren't their actual names then as they adapted them afterwards).
In 1990, Panda Security and Trend Micro released their versions of antivirus software. In 1991, Symantec (producer of Norton AV) and AVG with F-Secure came along. 1996 came, and Eugene made an antivirus called Kaspersky.
Enough with the history. Nowadays AV software is a lot different then other products- with the pretty GUI, subscription model, and supposed scheming techniques.
With new Anti-Malware software proven to be much more effective than a classical AV, we ask do we need an AV anymore? After all AppGuard, Adblock Plus, Sandboxie, and Shadow Defender are so powerful nowadays that AVs are practically dirt compared to them. Plus, they are much cheaper to buy (or are even free in case of Adblock Plus and Sandboxie), are lighter on the system, and don't play "catch-up" like classical AVs do with signatures. For example, with Shadow Defender, restart and you're data is erased! Sandboxie, your data is erased!
Obviously, something had to be done to prevent all these viruses from taking over your computer as an extra "layer" of security. So, an antivirus was created! First, it was just these command programs without a GUI, and were more "tools" rather than "marketing software". These were basically free (yes, free!), ad-free, and non-performance tools that basically threw every file that you had and if it matched a known virus file, it threw it out! (Factoid: Bernd Fix, in 1987 is known for the first publicly documented removal of a virus)
Eventually, however some guy decided to make commercial antivirus products. That guy was Andreas Luning (with Kai Figge). They founded G-Data in 1987. Also in 1987, John McAfee founded McAfee and made VirusScan, and Peter Paško with Miroslav Trnka, created NOD32, a later ESET product.
However, their signatures were playing catch-up with virus developers (and we still do nowadays) so somebody decided to create heuristics.
AV was on the rise, and Avira, Avast, Norman, AhnLab, Sophos, and others started creating their own products (they weren't their actual names then as they adapted them afterwards).
In 1990, Panda Security and Trend Micro released their versions of antivirus software. In 1991, Symantec (producer of Norton AV) and AVG with F-Secure came along. 1996 came, and Eugene made an antivirus called Kaspersky.
Enough with the history. Nowadays AV software is a lot different then other products- with the pretty GUI, subscription model, and supposed scheming techniques.
With new Anti-Malware software proven to be much more effective than a classical AV, we ask do we need an AV anymore? After all AppGuard, Adblock Plus, Sandboxie, and Shadow Defender are so powerful nowadays that AVs are practically dirt compared to them. Plus, they are much cheaper to buy (or are even free in case of Adblock Plus and Sandboxie), are lighter on the system, and don't play "catch-up" like classical AVs do with signatures. For example, with Shadow Defender, restart and you're data is erased! Sandboxie, your data is erased!
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