Number of virus signatures?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I know number of virus signatures always not show how is detection of AV but, anyway I am interesting how many virus signatures have Avast! ?

And why in VPS history page there is no indicated number of signatures?

For example:

11.5.2007 - 0739-3 (2 signatures)

Win32:Obfuscated-AQC [Trj], Win32:Obfuscated-AQD [Trj]

11.5.2007 - 0739-2 (1 signautres)

Win32:VB-DYC [Trj]

10.5.2007 - 0739-1 (17 signatures)

Win32:Agent-GUK [Trj], Win32:Agent-GUL [Trj], Win32:Agent-GUM [Trj], Win32:Agent-GUN [Trj], Win32:Banker-BSM [Trj], Win32:Banload-BMB [Trj], Win32:Dlena-BV [Trj], Win32:KillAV-CB [Trj], Win32:Nuwar-D [Wrm], Win32:Renos-AB [Adw], Win32:Small-EZF [Trj], Win32:Small-EZG [Trj], Win32:Zhelatin-XM [Wrm], Win32:Zhelatin-XN [Wrm], Win32:Zhelatin-XO [Wrm], Win32:Zhelatin-XP [Wrm], Win32:Zhelatin-XQ [Wrm]

http://avast.com/eng/vps_history.html

2

This has been discussed many times in the forums.
Because there is no standard way that signatures might be counted between different AV companies there is no direct comparison. There are many generic signatures that are designed to detect multiple different variants of a malware type ‘how do you put a number on that,’ you can’t. avast is primarily an anti-virus application but it does also detect some adware and spyware and there are now many more of this type of signatures being added.

The updates just show the new signatures added and not a cumulative total, it is VPS Update History, showing what signatures have been added and when.

You can check by opening the Simple User Interface, Menu, Virus Database and enter an * in the search box and that will return a number, artificial as it is.

3

Well other AV companys(Avira, Symantec, Kaspersky) can count their signatures number and here it is Nod32 signatures search engine( http://nod32sse.com/ ) where we can see number of malware types( or variants) added too… So i think it s possible and it s also interesting.

4

It might be possible, but it has not sense.
One signature in avast! might detect exactly the same as 100 signatures in Kaspersky (or vice versa - it was just an example) - so there’s no meaning in comparing these numbers. It’s just some random number.

5

This was discussed a lot in the past…

  1. There are a marketing issue involved. Companies estimate the number of viruses by high.
  2. There are different counts possible: variants, etc.
  3. There is not an international rule for virus naming, so same virus could be consider one or more by other company.
  4. Scanning settings are very important.
  5. Active viruses (ITW) are really more important then the whole number.
  6. Generic signatures and heuristic detections cannot be really counted as ‘virus detection’.

Well, etc. etc.
Trust avast!

6

No, it isn’t :slight_smile:

Just random numbers, as Igor said.

7

You can avoid threads you aren t interested…

And in these random numbers depends your Avast! detection, because Avast! very rarely detects viruses without signatures(random numbers)…

8

Not in case of generic signatures. You cannot estimate detection number of a generic signatures or heuristics.

9

Okey! Good to know! But I am interested in all threads in the forums! As avast! is my favourite program. So I read all threads and sometimes I send away a message…

And IMHO the number is not interested, and that’s why I posted that…! :wink: Some like numbers, some not!

Anyway, I will go to bed know…it’s midnight here in Sweden…have a nice night/day! ;D

10

BYE !!!