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By Terri Adkins
If
the antivirus software program on your PC identifies a file on your computer as
being infected with an unusual sounding virus, a virus with an unfamiliar name,
don't be alarmed. Chances are it is one of the latest virus threats hitting the
news, but with a different name. After all, with no real industry naming
convention, and dozens of antivirus software companies working independently to
find and identify new viruses in real-time, there is little chance that any two
companies will end up calling that virus the same thing.
Is there a standard
that all antivirus software companies can look to? Well, yes and no. There is a
very well accepted virus resource, The Wild List, at
http://www.thewildlist.org, that offers a comprehensive list of all currently
discovered viruses "in the wild," but even at that organization,
whose mission is to aid the end user, there is no standard regarding which
virus name is "correct." In reality, all the names are correct, and
what really matters is not what any antivirus software company might call a
virus, but that they detect, quarantine, or cure that virus.
So, how does the
end user, the consumer of antivirus software, know if they are infected with
the virus of the day, or some new variant of that virus just mounting its
attack? The first and most meaningful resource at the consumer's disposal, is
the antivirus software's website. Reputable antivirus software companies have a
virus support site, with a searchable database of the viruses detected and
protected against, by that antivirus software. StopSign, for instance, provides
a comprehensive database of viruses at StopSign's
Reference Center, or for a more technical description see StopSign's malware
Research site.
Even on StopSign's
reference and research sites, the virus name may not match the most common
virus names circulating in the news, but the reference site includes a very
complete list of virus aliases, what other antivirus software companies are
calling a particular virus, so that you can see if what the StopSign virus
scanner is finding, is the latest newsworthy virus.
Bear in mind, that
a computer virus, by any other name, is still a malicious piece of code that
does not belong on a consumer's computer. A consumer's best defenses are to
stay informed, keep whatever antivirus software is on his or her computer
up-to-date, and practice safe computing.
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