The rule sets are supplied by Avira databases. The ProActiv component uses rule sets developed by the Avira Malware Research Center to identify suspicious behavior. If the code being scanned exhibits these characteristic features it is reported as being suspicious, although not necessarily malware the user decides whether to act on or ignore the warning.

Heuristic virus detection involves extensive analysis and investigation of the affected codes for functions typical of malware. Advance heuristic Īvira products contain heuristics that proactively uncover unknown malware, before a special virus signature to combat the damaging element has been created and before a virus guard update has been sent. Its file-by-file scanning feature has jokingly been titled 'Luke Filewalker' by the developers, as a reference to the Star Wars media franchise character ' Luke Skywalker'. Nowadays there are 32 smaller definition files that are updated regularly in order to avoid peaks in the download of the updates. Avira responded by reducing the size of the individual update files, delivering less data in each update. A 15 MB database clean-out was made on 27 October 2008, causing problems to the users of the Free edition because of its large size and Avira's slow Free edition servers. Technology Virus definition Īvira periodically 'cleans out' its virus definition files, replacing specific signatures with generic ones for a general increase in performance and scanning speed. The company also has offices in the United States, China, Romania, and Japan.

Since 2021, Avira is owned by American software company NortonLifeLock (now Gen Digital), after being previously owned by investment firm Investcorp. Avira was founded in 2006, but the antivirus application has been under active development since 1986, through its predecessor company H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH.

Avira Operations GmbH is a German multinational computer security software company mainly known for their Avira Free Security antivirus software.

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