RE: heuristics, on or off?

["Shawn Jackson" <sjackson () horizonusa com>]

        Heuristics are a 'best guess' system. Basically when you have
heuristics turned on the software will look for 'close matches' of
patterns and activity. Having heuristics on can lead to false positives
but can also ketch virii that haven't made it into the definitions
files. If I have the option I usually turn it on low, but it's up to
you.

Shawn Jackson
Systems Administrator
Horizon USA
1190 Trademark Dr #107
Reno NV 89521
www.horizonusa.com
 
Email: sjackson () horizonusa com
Phone: (775) 858-2338
       (800) 325-1199 x338

-----Original Message-----
From: . . [mailto:miklohnews () hotmail com] 
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 6:56 PM
To: security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: heuristics, on or off?

hi list

just a quick question about the often present heuristics option in 
anti-virus software: what is it good for? i believe it has to do with
the 
software trying to learn and work out itself how to detect new viruses.
am i 
right?

it seems most AV sw has the heuristics option un-ticked by default. how 
come? should i turn it on? if yes, what should i be aware of?

thank u!

/mike

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