Yes, I know this whole situation has been debated on several times on the forums, but that’s really all that’s been said, and after finding this thread on Wilders while searching for ways to help improve the detection of malware, I found this interesting post on the whole debate.
The initial idea starts here after the known information has been stated:
Actually, it does not completely lack.Although avast! Home/Pro has no heuristic (like NOD32, BitDefender) and it heavily relies on virus signature but avast! also has another proactive detections, it has generic detections in its on-demand/on-access scaner and also has so-called heuristic module in its e-mail scanner for detecting mass-mailing worms.
The reply then moves on to here:
Yes, I already understand that, sorry for the wording there. The main reason why I said "completely lack" is because although generic detections may seem great and unique for avast!, almost every good AV already has that already, and email scanning is not as important if you use a web-based email opposed to Outlook Express.I know this issue has already been brought up in the avast! forums, but not much has been said. I still find it awkward why they look at heuristics so negatively when it’s been proven to provide better detection rates compared to signatures alone, I mean it’s impossible to have every single signature for all viruses out there in the world. Heuristics have already shown its might with NOD32 and in all the past AV comparitive results, and the whole issue with false positives is something every company eventually endures. No offense, I like avast! and it’s support & staff a lot, but it seems like they’re a bit afraid to approach the task of expanding their heuristics from just their email scanner to their entire program. I know they’re great for providing high quality, free security software, but IMHO without the implementation of heuristics, it will not go too far in terms of detection and will require backup programs to aide users in their protection.
:blink: Whoa got a bit side-tracked there! Couldn’t help myself—it’s information I kept inside that jumped out from the opportunity. Anyway, my point is I really wish they’d add it in eventually, it just seems so odd to leave something so important out of the big picture. With just plainly decent heuristics, avast! would certainly improve in its detection.
edit: P.S Sorry if it sounded like flaming, I was just simply expressing my opinion.
I’m still happy with avast! and have no intention of changing so far.
If you’re wondering the thread’s original link was here, and the posts were near the middle of the thread: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=130254
Well I must say it’s an interesting post, and I just wonder what avast! will really do with this situation with heuristics.
