IT Glossary
What is antivirus software?
The program that detects and blocks malicious software on company computers — the basic guard on the door, not the whole defence.
Think of antivirus as the guard posted at the entrance to each computer. It compares files and running programs against the signatures of known threats and watches for suspicious behaviour, so a Word document that suddenly starts encrypting files is stopped even if that particular variant has never been seen before. Modern business editions, usually sold as endpoint detection and response, do considerably more than scanning: they report the state of every workstation to one console, allow an infected machine to be isolated remotely, and keep the history an investigation needs afterwards. What every business owner should understand is the boundary. Antivirus is necessary, but it guards one door. It will not protect you from an employee typing their password into a phishing page, from a compromised email account, or from a vulnerable web application — which happen to be the three most common ways smaller companies actually get breached.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247
Why it matters for your business
Known threats blocked automatically
The millions of already-catalogued viruses, trojans and ransomware variants are stopped without any decision being asked of the employee at the keyboard.
Central visibility across the company
The business console shows at a glance which machines are protected, which are out of date and which are already compromised — impossible to track by hand across twenty desks.
Fast containment during an incident
A suspicious laptop is cut off from the network with one click, before the infection reaches the file server or the finance department.
Frequently asked questions
Is free antivirus good enough for company computers?
For a business, no. Free editions have no central administration, no support and no isolation features, and during an incident you discover that saving a few euro a month cost you days of trading.
If we have antivirus, can we still be hit by ransomware?
Yes. Ransomware frequently arrives through phishing, weak remote-access passwords or unpatched vulnerabilities rather than through infected files. Antivirus is one layer; tested backups and two-factor authentication are the others, and no single layer is sufficient alone.
Does antivirus slow employees' computers down?
Modern products have minimal impact during normal work, and full scans are scheduled outside peak hours. A machine visibly crippled by its antivirus is usually old or badly configured, which is an argument for fixing the configuration rather than removing the protection.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247