Tip of the Week: What is Antivirus Self-Defense

Among the wide variety of viruses that exist, there are some particularly tricky and sophisticated ones. Instead of heading directly for their targets, they first neutralize the protection of your

Among the wide variety of viruses that exist, there are some particularly tricky and sophisticated ones. Instead of heading directly for their targets, they first neutralize the protection of your computer by blocking your antivirus, then settle freely in your operating system. Does that mean your antivirus needs its own protection? Should this protection be permanent? We will answer these questions in today’s tip.

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The Self-Defense component of Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 blocks all attempts to change or remove antivirus files, memory processes and registry events.

By default, Self-Defense is enabled in Kaspersky Internet Security 2014.  However, there might be situations when you should disable this component. Let’s take a look at one of the most common cases.

You installed Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 and soon noticed a significant decrease of free disk space. Check the Kaspersky Lab folder:

  • ОС Windows XP:  C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Kaspersky Lab
  • ОС Windows Vista/7/8:  C:\Program Data\Kaspersky Lab.

If you see large text files or files with the *.log extension, then its likely tracing is enabled in the application (for detailed information on how to check if tracing is enabled and to disable it, see this article). If you try to remove these files with Self-Defense enabled, the component will consider your attempts unauthorized and will not allow you to do it. To remove trace files successfully, you should first temporarily disable Self-Defense. Do not forget to enable it again afterwards to ensure stable and secure work of your antivirus software.

To enable / disable the Self-Defense component, do the following:

1. Open Kaspersky Internet Security 2014. Click Settings in the lower right part of the window.

2. In the Settings window, select Additional and click Self-Defense.

3. If your application is password-protected, enter the password you specified before and click Continue.

4. Select or deselect the Enable Self-Defense checkbox.

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