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Virus Scan

What Does Virus Scan Mean?

A virus scan is the process of using anti-virus software to scan and identify viruses in a computing device.

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It is an information security process that aims to review and identify threatening viruses and programs. It is the core feature of anti-virus software.

Techopedia Explains Virus Scan

Virus scanning relies entirely on the strength of an anti-virus engine that uses a repository of descriptions of known viruses, malware and other malicious content. The anti-virus scanner primarily looks for a match between viruses from its virus database with the scanned data or files. Upon identification, the virus is sent to the anti-virus admin panel for automatic or user-approved deletion or removal.

Devices on which viruses can be scanned for include:

  • Computers
  • Laptops
  • Servers
  • Flash drives
  • External storage
  • Cloud infrastructure
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