Question

Explain virus detection.

Discuss virus detection philosophy.

Answer 1

The primary goal of virus detection is to maintain system integrity through proactive prevention and real-time monitoring. This is achieved by utilising integrity checking, in which detection programs maintain a unique checksum for every binary file and periodically verify it to detect unauthorised modifications. Furthermore, detection tools reside in system memory to continuously monitor I/O operations and system calls, enabling them to detect suspicious activity based on behaviour rather than just known signatures. The core philosophy centres on a layered defence that balances the need to block new, unknown threats (Heuristic-based) with the need to minimise false positives to ensure smooth system performance.