Chapter 29 Anti-Virus

A host-based anti-virus (HAV) scanner is often software installed on computers and/or servers in the network. It inspects files for virus patterns as they are moved in and out of the hard drive. However, host-based anti-virus scanners cannot eliminate all viruses for a number of reasons:

•HAV scanners are slow in stopping virus threats through real-time traffic (such as from the Internet).

•HAV scanners may reduce computing performance as they also share the resources (such as CPU time) on the computer for file inspection.

•You have to update the virus signatures and/or perform virus scans on all computers in the network regularly.

A network-based anti-virus (NAV) scanner is often deployed as a dedicated security device (such as your ZyWALL) on the network edge. NAV scanners inspect real-time data traffic (such as E-mail messages or web) that tends to bypass HAV scanners. The following lists some of the benefits of NAV scanners.

•NAV scanners stops virus threats at the network edge before they enter or exit a network.

•NAV scanners reduce computing loading on computers as the read-time data traffic inspection is done on a dedicated security device.

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ZyWALL USG 50 User’s Guide