Glossary Entry: False Positive

A false positive happens when an antivirus incorrectly identifies a harmless file as something dangerous. This tends to be more annoying than anything.

An antivirus, like any other program, is simply a series of instructions that the computer can understand. These instructions tell the program how to identify harmful files.

These instructions usually come in two types: definitions and heuristics. Definitions give the antivirus things to specifically look for, such as signs that malware has installed itself on the user's computer. Heuristics are sets of rules that can help the antivirus identify suspicious files. It's usually these heuristics that cause files to be misidentified as something harmful.