Antivirus or anti-virus software also known as anti-malware software, is computer software used to prevent, detect and remove malicious software.
It was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, however, with the growth of other kinds of malware, antivirus software also provides protection from other computer threats e.g. malicious browser helper objects, browser hijackers, ransomware, keyloggers, backdoors, rootkits, trojan horses, worms, malicious LSPs, dialers, fraudtools, adware and spyware.