One of the most common questions we are asked is "Why do people write viruses?"

Our answer is normally "hmm...When did you last update your virus definition files?"

All we can do is try to stay ahead of them, whatever their reasons.

Total Viruses (Symantec a/a 07/23/2007) = 73601

A virus detection program is made up of 2 components. The first is the file-scanning engine which grabs a file, opens it up, and compares its contents to a list of viruses and what they look like. If the inside of the file does not look like a virus, it is closed, flagged as 'clean', and the next file is grabbed. This 'definition file' is the second component, and probably the most important. If it is out of date, the file scanner will not be accurate in flagging scanned files as uninfected.

On a regular basis, your file scanner needs to know what the latest viruses 'look like inside' or what their techniques of infection are. Normally this update process is handled automatically. Symantec posts their updated definition file to their website for manual download daily, or using LiveUpdate, weekly on a Wednesday.

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