What is a Vulnerability Scanner?

Each one of us dread a virus attack or any such issue which can harm our PC, as none of us wants to compromise our sensitive data and work. Who finds it acceptable to get interrupted in the middle of an important task or lose vital personal or professional data to an uncertainty? But, in order to avoid any such situation, we must ensure that our PC is secured against all risks. It is the hardware or software vulnerabilities and security loopholes in our computer system which make it prone to virus intrusions. A vulnerability scanner identifies these pitfalls and warn us about the same.

What are vulnerabilities and how are they harmful?

Vulnerability is any weakness in your computer which exposes it to intruders who may exploit it to their advantage. Your computer runs on some hardware and software resources. As we all know, hardware includes all the tangible entities of a computer system, while software is a collection of programs which in turn comprise of a set of instructions to govern their functioning. Software developers are dedicated to write codes which will serve as instructions for your computer and associated resources to perform a defined task. But, during this coding process some errors might creep in. These minor errors in the computer program, though might not affect its normal functioning, can be exploited by hackers at a later stage to compromise a particular machine.

These weaknesses or vulnerabilities can be in your network, PC, or any other program managing other system resources. A vulnerability scanner is a software which checks for system loopholes that can be exploited by hackers to infect a device. It analyses your system by stress testing to spot, identify and classify vulnerabilities in your network, computer and server. An ideal vulnerability scanner total security software performs such an assessment regularly, on the basis of its updated vulnerability database. Many of them also make appropriate recommendations based on the vulnerability scanning results.