Quarantine

What Does Quarantine Mean?

A quarantine is the process of isolating a file suspected of being infected with a virus to a specific area of a storage device in order to prevent it from contaminating other files. The quarantine process is used when anti-virus software detects a problem and is unable to eliminate it with its current protocols, or when it is unsure whether or not the file is a known virus. If the user suspects that a file is infected but the virus is not detected by the software, he or she can enable the quarantine manually.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Quarantine

Anti-virus software often resorts to using a quarantine when it is unable to clean an infected file. Once the virus or file has been quarantined, it cannot interact with the system. It is advisable to delete suspected quarantined files as soon as possible.

There are anti-virus programs that automatically send a sample of the quarantined file through the Internet to be analyzed. The center that analyzes the sample then sends back a report regarding the detected threat. If it is a new virus, the center also creates and sends out an updated virus definition setting in order to eliminate the threat to the user’s computer or personal device.

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…