Difference Between Antivirus and Internet Security

The “Antivirus” and “Internet Security” are the software that protects the user from malicious programs by blocking and removing them. There are some similarities and dissimilarities between them. One of the major differences is that Antivirus protects the computer from viruses whereas, Internet Security provides protection from spyware, viruses, phishing, spam, and email attachments.

Internet security is considered as an umbrella term for the division of computer security that handles the internet-based threats. In contrast, the Anti-virus is just a part of Internet security which is limited to its features.

Content: Antivirus Vs Internet Security

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Similarities
5. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

Basis for Comparison	Antivirus	Internet Security
Meaning	Software that identifies and removes malicious programs from the system	Includes all the features of Antivirus and some additional features such as Firewalls, Antispyware, etc to provide complete protection to the user
Protection against	Viruses, Worms, and Trojan Horses	Phishing, Viruses, Spywares, Spam and email attachments
Firewall	Excluded	Included
Cost	Free or low-cost	Costlier than Antivirus
Parental Control	No	Yes

Definition Of Antivirus

An antivirus is a software that protects our computer from virus, worms, and Trojan horses. Antivirus software monitors the behaviour of files and checks whether it is a malicious program or not. It can be considered as a part of internet security.

Now, why the softwares like malware and viruses are harmful? Because these viruses and malware can easily steal the user sensitive information or use the user’s system for different purposes. Viruses and malware can potentially gain access to your system, make some modifications and hide themselves.

For example, e-mail, a web page visit could deliver any malicious file or document to the user, these websites are dodgy that does not look suspicious.

The auto-update feature present in the Antivirus software helps to protect the computer from the new viruses as soon as they are discovered, as the Anti-virus software providers research emerging threats in a consistent manner. It searches the hard-disk, and external media for virus and removes it if found.

If the document turns to be malicious, it is deleted or repaired. AVG, Avast, Norton, Kaspersky are some of the antivirus software that keeps our system safe.

Scareware

Scareware is the software which pretends to be an anti-virus but is a virus and spyware in actual. A free or commercial anti-virus can be scareware so make sure before installing any anti-virus for free.

Definition Of Internet Security

Internet Security provides protection and privacy against viruses, phishing, spyware, email attachments and spam. It deals with all the internet based threats and protects the system from cyber attacks. It includes firewall, antivirus, parental control and email protection to protect the system from online attacks.

At this point, we must know how does the internet works. Let’s understand the working of the internet with the help of an example of a postal network. If a person wants to communicate with his/her friend, he can send a postcard to his friend and post it to the closest mailbox.

Then the postcard travels through an extensive network to reach the destination. Though, the postcard is not encased by an envelope any postman on the way can easily read the message or change the content without letting know the involved sender and receiver.

In a similar way the internet works, such as when a user visits a website, the message is transmitted from the websites to the user (vice-versa) passes through other different devices. Information travels through the internet in an insecure manner. As a result, the users’ message can easily be eavesdropped or tampered with on every device.

However, to counter this the encryption is used, but encrypted data can also be decrypted. This is the reason we use “Internet Security”. It protects the data that is sent over the Internet, such as credit card number, passwords, online communication, financial details, photographs and bank account details.

Types of Encryption

There are two types of methods used for encrypting the data over the internet.

• End-to-End encryption – In this technique, the message is encrypted from the sending point to the receiving point (i.e., encrypting the whole way) so that only the receiver could read the message.
• Partial encryption – This method encrypts the message for a particular point after reaching that point the message would be open for all.

Similarities

1. Both Antivirus and Internet Security checks the hard disk and USB Drive for virus and removes any that are found.
2. They warn about unsafe sites that a user opens.
3. Both have an “Auto-update” feature.
4. They have the ability to block and remove Virus and Spyware from your computer.

Conclusion

Both Antivirus and Internet Security are fast and provides protection against malicious programs. Furthermore, Internet Security is more robust as it contains all the features of Antivirus as well as some additional features to protect the system. It warns about the unsafe sites and blocks the URL too.