False sense of security. Some people who do not fully understand how anti-virus software works, may become reliant on the software and be lulled into a false sense of security. They may believe they are completely protected when, in reality, they have not taken the proper steps to ensure the software is what they need or is running properly. Sometimes anti-virus software will report to the consumer detection of malware when in fact it is non-malicious. If these files are deleted by the software, the computer could face impairment.