Neither viruses nor trojans or other malware are easy to detect at first glance. This is the reason why many users seem to be so careless online. These attacks are often targeted, and the aim is to get hold of personal data that can then be used for malicious purposes such as accessing a bank account or a credit card. We are by no means talking about isolated cases here; unfortunately, a whole industry has formed around the field of hacking, cyber attacks, and trading of collected personal data. That is why an antivirus program is absolutely essential. But what exactly is an antivirus program? Usually, conventional antivirus solutions work with a blacklist that blocks unwanted programs. The problem with this, however, is that the antivirus must know about these in advance – until then, users are regularly left defenseless against new types of cyberthreats. To try and patch these holes, modern antivirus software attempts to use increasingly complicated methods like heuristics and sometimes even AI – and in a never-ending arms race, modern malware is often designed specifically to slip by these methods, succeeding with alarming regularity.
