Picking the correct anti-virus solution can be a difficult challenge for many businesses due to multiple factors. To help make this easier, this blog post will break down some of the jargon often associated with Anti-Virus software. 

AV: This is the traditional acronym for (A)nti-(V)irus software. It is commonly used by anti-virus software developers and customers. 

Anti-Malware: In order for anti-virus software to remain useful as a computer software, it has had to develop and improve, which has resulted in a new generation of software. This new software is now known as anti-malware because it protects computers from more than just virus’s. Other names it may also be known by include “Next Gen AV Software”. 

Cloud AV: Once again, this is a recent development. The anti-virus software developers have removed the complex workloads that an anti-virus program performs, away from the local computer, and shifted this to a cloud solution. This helps minimise the performance impact on the local computer, to prevent users from saying the classic “this is slowing down my computer”. 

Centralized Management: The old anti-virus solutions are clunky and take up lots of room on the computers they’re installed on and often require an IT person to visit each computer to fix the problem. With Centralized Management, all the computers report into a single location that IT will monitor. From this centralized location, IT can also manage the computers and any threats, making management easier and more efficient. 

EDR: is an acronym for (E)ndpoint (D)etection and (R)esponse which means the anti-virus product has the ability to detect and respond to threats that they’re seeing on endpoints (computers). This is similar to HIDS and HIPS, see below. 

HIDS:  (H)ostbased (I)ntrusion (D)etection (S)ystem, has become a common feature in anti-virus software over the last 5-10 years, and detects intrusion attempts on the host. To be clear this will only detect and alert the user/administrator, it will not prevent it. 

HIPS: (H)ostbased (I)ntrusion (P)revention (S)ystem, again this has become increasingly popular in recent anti-virus software, but unlike HIDS, this will detect and block the intrusion attempts and then alert the user/administrator. 

White-listing:  Within anti-virus software, there is often the ability to allow something which is against the anti-virus’s desire to block and delete. The process of doing this is known as “white listing”, which is a technical term for creating an exception. 

Hopefully the above information has now provided a clearer understanding of the terms being used to market anti-virus software. There are some great resources available for assisting in making the right choice, which include AV Comparatives, who test and break down the products on the market to make your choice easier. Have a look at https://www.av-comparatives.or... for further research.