DavidR
9
Do you really believe competing companies are going to share data, I think not.
The other problem is that there is no standard naming convention for virus naming so win32.Saburex.a could well be called something else by other AV companies, so a simple virus name search in a database isn’t going to confirm anything. It might not exist with that name but is detectable but called something else.
Like any zero day or undetected virus you can help by taking steps to limit the potential damage.
You might also consider proactive protection, in order to place files in the system folders and create registry entries you need permission. Prevention is much better and theoretically easier than cure.
Whilst browsing or collecting email, etc. if you get infected then the malware by default inherits the same permissions that you have for your user account. So if the user account has administrator rights, the malware has administrator rights and can reap havoc. With limited rights the malware can’t put files in the system folders, create registry entries, etc. This greatly reduces the potential harm that can be done by an undetected or first day virus, etc.
Check out the link to DropMyRights (in my signature below) - Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator. This obviously applies to those NT based OSes that have administrator settings, winNT, win2k, winXP.