Antivirus programs

Antivirus software protects the system against malware that infiltrates the system via data carriers or the network. It represents a blacklist of known malware. Antivirus software must always be kept up to date so that malware can be recognized. There are disadvantages to this.

Antivirus programs recognize already known malware ("blacklist") and attempt to prevent the execution of the malware code.

However, through the necessary updates of this blacklist ("malware pattern") the antivirus programs also increase the danger to a system.

If the same program is always run on a machine, the previously described whitelist method should be used. In every case, you must weigh up whether a blacklist method as in the case of antivirus programs is advantageous on the whole. Overall, the higher configuration effort of the whitelisting method must be compared to the constant updates of the antivirus programs.

Windows Defender has proven in the past to be reliable and compatible with TwinCAT. However, it must always be updated to the latest version in order to close current security holes.

In particular in connection with TwinCAT, the use of antivirus programs is to be precisely evaluated, as they set themselves up deep in the operating system and can thus impair the real-time integration of TwinCAT.

TwinCAT has its own description for compatibility with antivirus programs:

Compatibility of antivirus programs

For more information, see the Microsoft documentation: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4013263/windows-10-stay-protected-with-windows-security