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.

Advertisements

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
Advertisements

Related Terms

Latest Cybersecurity Terms

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…