Is the virus database SIZE of the antivirus imoprtant?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lucas Jr.
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Lucas Jr.

Should I take care about the number of viruses the AV siftware detects?

thanks,
Lucas.
 
Lucas said:
Should I take care about the number of viruses the AV siftware detects?
Click to expand...

No, unless it happens to be really low. Different AV companies count
viruses differently, so the number of viruses is really no indication of
a product's actual detection performance. Though you will find that most
products today claim to detect between 70,000 and 100,000 viruses. If
you find a number that is much lower than this, be careful, unless it
happens to be a special-purpose AV program.
 
Should I take care about the number of viruses the AV siftware detects?
Click to expand...

Only you can say what you care about :) Some people are happy to use a
fast realtime scanner that has limited detection capability as long as
it is updated often and handles ITW (In The Wild) malware. Others,
like myself, prefer scanners that detect all kinds of malware in many
different categories, and under many different conditions. It's not
just the number of malwares that's important either. There are many
aspects of detection quality and reliability as well. For example, are
you satisfied with scanners that often produce generic alerts rather
than pinpointing a specific variant? Are you satisfied with scanners
that have limited unpacking and container capablities when used
on-demand? Are you satisfied with scanners that are weak in Trojan and
virus dropper detection when used on-demand? How about weakness in
other categories such as macro detection, etc.?


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg
 
20.000 from clamav is a concern?
it is a open source av. so the amount of money they could spend in the
software is relatively small...
 
Lucas said:
20.000 from clamav is a concern?
Click to expand...

If I am correctly informed, and I believe I am, then Clamav is the
concern and not the number of signatures. ;-)

Seriously, Clamav's virus definitions are not particularly sophisticated
so no real comparison is possible.
 
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