Antivirus, explained one concept at a time
StrataSpace is a reference library about consumer security software, written for people in Australia who want to understand the category before they spend anything on it.
There are seven entries. Each one takes a single idea — how detection actually works, what the word “ransomware” covers, what your operating system already does for free — and explains it patiently, without assuming you have a background in computing. You can read them in any order.
- Published by
- FOKUSON STAV s.r.o., Praha, Czech Republic
- Written for
- Household and small-business readers in Australia
- How it is funded
- Affiliate commission on one product, described below and on its own page
- What it collects from you
- Nothing. No forms, no cookies, no analytics
How this library pays for itself
StrataSpace earns money from affiliate commission. One product covered here — Norton AntiVirus Plus — has a paid link. If you follow that link and later subscribe on the vendor’s own site, the vendor pays us a fee for having sent you.
Two things that fee does not do. It does not change what you pay: the price on the vendor’s checkout is the same whether you arrive through us, through a search engine, or by typing the address yourself. And it does not buy favourable coverage. The entry on that product is deliberately narrow, because the commercial arrangement gives us a link and nothing else — no product access, no technical detail, no test results we could honestly report. Where we cannot verify something, the entry says so instead of filling the gap.
The full arrangement, including what determines the order of coverage, is set out on the affiliate disclosure page.
Three layers, and where paid software sits
Most explanations of computer security start with products. That is the wrong end. It helps more to think about three layers that sit between a person and a bad outcome, because a product can only ever strengthen one of them.
The first layer is the platform: the operating system on your phone or computer, the app store it installs from, and the browser you read with. Modern platforms do a great deal here by default, and the entry on built-in protection goes through what each one actually includes.
The second layer is added software — the thing people mean when they say “antivirus”. It watches files and processes, compares what it sees against what it knows about malicious software, and intervenes. The entry on how detection works explains the three mechanisms behind that, and why each of them has a characteristic blind spot.
The third layer is the person. A great deal of present-day loss in Australia involves no software flaw at all: someone is talked into installing something, approving something, or transferring money. No scanner catches that, which is why the entry on fake alerts and support scams is as long as the technical ones.
Quick answers to the questions that bring people here
- Do I need to buy antivirus software?
- There is no legal requirement to, and your device is not unprotected without it. Whether paid software is worth it depends on which platform you use and how you use it — the platform entry is the place to start.
- Is free protection worse than paid?
- Not automatically, and the comparison is rarely free-versus-paid. It is usually built-in-versus-added, and the honest answer varies by platform.
- My screen says a virus was found. Is it real?
- A web page cannot scan your computer. A warning that appears inside a browser tab, with a phone number to ring, is a known scam pattern.
- I was charged for a renewal I forgot about.
- Automatic renewal of a subscription is common and lawful, but the way it is disclosed and the refund you may be owed are governed by Australian Consumer Law. See subscriptions and your rights.
The seven entries
- How antivirus software actually detects things
Signatures, heuristics and behavioural monitoring — what each one is good at, what each one misses, and why false positives happen.
- Types of malware, in plain terms
Virus, worm, trojan, ransomware, spyware, adware, potentially unwanted application. The categories overlap; the entry explains where and why.
- What Windows, macOS, Android and iOS already do
Each platform ships with defences. Knowing what they are is the only way to judge what an added product is contributing.
- Comparing security software without the marketing
A stated method: which questions to ask, which claims to discount, and where to find independent testing rather than vendor material.
- Fake alerts, fake scans and support scams
How the pattern works, why it is convincing, what to do if you have already given someone access, and where to report it in Australia.
- Norton AntiVirus Plus: our catalogue entry
What we can state about the product, what we cannot verify, and the checks to run on the vendor’s own site before subscribing. This entry carries a paid link.
- Subscriptions, renewals and your rights
Trial periods, automatic renewal, cancelling, chargebacks, and the consumer guarantees that apply to software bought in Australia.
That last entry is the only one carrying a commercial link, and the entry itself is the better starting point. To go straight to the vendor instead, the link is here.
Paid link: the vendor pays StrataSpace a commission if you subscribe after following it. Your price is unchanged, and the fee shaped nothing written here.
Visit the Norton AntiVirus Plus website
Four product shapes that get called “antivirus”
| Product shape | What it addresses | What it does not address |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in platform defences | Malicious files and apps, at the level the operating system controls | Choices you make deliberately, such as approving a remote-access session |
| Added antivirus software | Files, downloads and running processes, using the methods in the detection entry | Threats that never touch the device, such as a phone call asking for a code |
| Security suite | Antivirus plus extras bundled together, which vary by vendor and by tier | Nothing inherently more than its parts; the value depends on which parts you would otherwise buy |
| VPN | Who can observe your network traffic in transit | Malicious software, phishing pages, or anything already on the device |
Patterns worth distrusting in this category
- A page that appears to scan your device from inside a browser tab. It cannot; the animation is theatre.
- Manufactured urgency of any kind, such as a ticking clock or a seat count. A price is a commercial decision and never a deadline, and no security decision is improved by being rushed.
- A claim of total or guaranteed protection. No serious vendor makes it, because it cannot be delivered.
- A comparison table where the sponsoring product wins every row. Real products trade strengths off against each other.
- An unsolicited phone call or message about a problem with your device, however plausible the caller sounds.
Australian services worth knowing about
These are government bodies, not commercial services, and they are the better source when something has already gone wrong.
- Australian Cyber Security Centre — the Commonwealth’s cyber security agency, which publishes guidance for individuals and small business and takes cyber incident reports.
- Scamwatch — run by the National Anti-Scam Centre at the ACCC, for recognising and reporting scams.
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission — the regulator for Australian Consumer Law, including consumer guarantees on goods and services.
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner — privacy regulator, and the body you complain to about the handling of personal information.
- eSafety Commissioner — online safety regulator, with reporting schemes for image-based abuse, cyberbullying and adult cyber abuse.
What decides the coverage here
This library is written by the editorial team at FOKUSON STAV s.r.o. It covers one product in catalogue form, and that is the product we have a commercial relationship with. The remaining six entries describe the category itself and name no product at all, which is deliberate: a concept explained accurately keeps its value whether or not a link is attached to it.
The order of the entries follows the order the ideas depend on each other, not commercial value. The about page sets out the method in full, including why we would rather say “not verified” than publish a number we cannot stand behind.