Antimalware Tools Should Handle All Threats
- Thursday, February 4, 2010, 9:20
- Threat Research
Yesterday's roundup article Lab Testing Antivirus Software triggered two interesting reactions. I got an e-mail message from IObit stating that "IObit Security 360 is an anti-malware application, not an anti-virus program, so it's unfair to compare it with other anti-virus products". And someone posted a comment to the article calling it "The worst and most unqualified reviews I've ever seen... IObit Security 360, Double Anti-Spy Professional are not antivirus programs, they are anti-spyware programs in fact. What a ridiculous test". These comments reveal some serious misunderstandings about the various types of malicious software. Time for a refresher course!In simplest terms, the word virus
refers to malicious code that spreads by modifying other programs.
Nothing happens until the user launches that infected program; at that
time the virus code seeks out and infects more programs. Spyware
refers to malicious code that steals your personal information. Right
away we have a problem with consistency - a virus is defined by how it spreads while a spyware threat is defined by what it does. It's completely possible for the same threat to match both descriptions.But wait, it gets worse.
A worm is similar to a virus, except that it spreads without needing a user to launch it. A (continue reading...)