The fact is that firewalls and
virus scanners are not always sufficient on their own to guarantee all-around security for the network.
runs have indicated that every
virus scanner currently on the market immediately revealed up to several highly critical vulnerabilities.
Technical measures, such as
virus scanners and filters, are an essential part of the solution, but they are not the only one.
Making it even more nefarious, SIRCAM hides itself in the infected user's Recycle Bin, where most
virus scanners don't check.
Antivirus researchers recognized these patterns and optimized their
virus scanners accordingly.
But, paradoxically, these solutions themselves represent a high security risk: weak points that have been discovered in all known
virus scanners are smoothing the way for attackers trying to get into company networks and are making it possible to infiltrate these networks with malicious code.
Also, apart from failing to detect unknown Trojans,
virus scanners do not detect all known Trojans either--most virus vendors do not actively seek new Trojans, and research has shown that virus engines each detect a particular set of Trojans.
While it is true that some
virus scanners at the time claimed to detect viruses or mutations that they could not, contrary to Smith's suggestion the Rosenthal Virus Simulator was a fundamentally unsound way to pick the most reliable virus identification program.
Virus Scanners Clear Attackers a Path into the Network
The table below gives a closer view of the compression area (where
virus scanners tend to differ greatly in performance):
Traditional, reactive
virus scanners are no longer enough.
The second virus this year to bear romantic connotations, following the Love Bug last May, Romeo & Juliet is particularly dangerous because current
virus scanners cannot detect it.
