what is anti-malware / anti-virus software?

anti-malware is basically the idea of being against malware, it's creation, it's malicious dissemination, etc... anti-malware software, therefore, is software meant to stop, detect, or otherwise clean up after malware... it's an umbrella term that covers basically all technologies that can be used in the fight against malware...

the term anti-virus arose at a time when almost all malware was viral in nature (in fact at a time before there was even a need for an umbrella term like malware) and so anti-virus software was anti-malware software for the single type of malware that was an issue... over time malware has diversified into many different types and as that has occurred anti-virus software has branched out into dealing with those other types as well... further, the underlying concepts behind virtually all of today's anti-malware technology originally came from the anti-virus field... as such anti-virus is basically a synonym for anti-malware...

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