What is antivirus (AV)?

Antivirus is software that detects and removes known malware, traditionally by matching files against a database of signatures. It is effective against previously seen threats but struggles with novel or signature-less malware.

Because ransomware evolves rapidly and increasingly uses zero-day variants and living-off-the-land techniques, signature-based AV alone is insufficient. Elastio complements prevention tools by detecting ransomware through deep file inspection inside the data, catching corruption even when no signature exists.

Last updated May 27, 2026