How do anti-virus products identify suspicious behavior?

Anti-virus products primarily identify suspicious behavior by recognizing patterns and actions that may indicate malicious intent or infection. They achieve this by continuously monitoring the behavior of applications and processes running on a system. This approach involves analyzing how applications interact with the operating system and other programs, looking for deviations from normal behavior patterns that could signify a potential threat.

When an application attempts to perform actions that are typically associated with malware—such as altering files, communicating with unauthorized external sources, or modifying system settings—the anti-virus software flags this behavior as suspicious. This proactive method helps in detecting unknown or emerging threats that may not yet have a signature in the virus definitions.

The other options do not accurately reflect how anti-virus products operate. Tracking user activity does not inherently identify malicious behavior; rather, it might raise privacy concerns. Using firewalls focuses on controlling incoming and outgoing traffic but does not directly analyze the behavior of applications. Regular software updates are essential for keeping the system secure but are not a direct method used by anti-virus products to identify threats.