virus signatures

[joey_365]

Hi

A question about virus signatures......................How many viruses does avast cover its users from ?  I see various comparisons with different av products, and all seem to have such a big difference with each other concerning virus signatures. Why is there such a big difference between the av vendors ?  Is that what separates the good av's from the bad ones ?  It seems strange with so many viruses out there, that one av product has over 100,000 virus signatures and another may have less than 30,000.

Regards.

[RejZoR]

It depends,and its hard to give exact number. Heuristic and generic code detection methods can cover multimple types of the same virus/worm (multiple variants like NetSky-B,C and D variant),so the overall number of all detectable parasites is noticebly lower. Detection capability is ofcourse the same.

[joey_365]

ok thanks for that, it seems that different vendors have there own ways of doing these things, but as long as detection is covered there shouldn't be a problem.

Regards